Diet v medication?

Hippocrates — 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food'
He is mutch forgotten amongst HPCs

What sort of nurse was she? The practice nurse - the one who does the baby injections and the asthma clinic? In my experience they know very little. This is a discussion you should be having with your GP.

Your HbA1c is still quite high 58 is 7.5% in old money, I wouldn't want mine to be that high. What readings are you getting from your meter? You may need more help than just diet in your diabetes journey. Metformin isn't a terrible thing to have to take, and if you have stomach problems with it there is the SR version which is kinder.

The problem with Type 2 is that you don't know how long you had it before being diagnosed and how much damage you have done to your pancreas.

Yes, just keep doing what you are doing.

I was diagnosed in January 2013 based on a test taken on Christmas Eve. I was something like 86. My DN was hopeless and I had a couple of arguments with her because she wanted to 'fine tune my medication'. I told her on both occasions that I wasn't on any. She got very stroppy when I asked her why she didn't bother to read the notes. I was given another HBA1c at 9 weeks rather than the usual 12 and she was sneering when it turned out to be 48. Anyway, to cut a long story short, she has been exiled to the wrong part of town and the head GP has been forced to resign. My HBA1c is down to 36 after 12 months.

Her opinion is just that, an opinion. If you feel you can do it on diet and exercise, just say no. If you have got down from 82 to 58 since Christmas and have lost 24 lbs, you are doing well. From where I am standing, it looks like you just need more time. An HBA1c in Feb is too early anyway because it takes 12 weeks to re-cycle your haemoglobin and you still ahve many red blood cells with glycogen still bound to it from Christmas. They should wait at least 12 weeks and preferably 16 weeks from first diagnosis because it might take a bit of time for you to start. You've only had about 7 weeks.

It looks very much as if she is trying to bounce you onto medication

I don't know about the medication but I applaud you, you are doing a fantastic job with the dieting, keep it up, well done!

I have nothing against metformin, I take it myself, but it seems to me you are making very good progress and that as long as your meter is telling you your levels are good just continue doing what your doing.

All the best

Pavlos


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

With hindsight I might have done as you did but in fact I took the medication. It is now my opinion that it did nothing to help and gave me some side effects that I could have done without. Since I did not wish to alienate the nurse in case I needed her later I took the pills until she stopped them due to complications.

Since then I find that I have a much more significant effect on my Hba1c etc. with diet and exercise. When I say significant I mean that on pills my Hba1c was 68 and the pills did not affect it. Without pills ...........well read my signature.

HI. well done getting the weight down. The DN was following NICE guidelines and the advice to prescribe Metformin was sensible. However, it's your choice and if your weight continues to fall you may well have an HBa1C below 7%. Metformin is very safe and does help with insulin resistance and does slow glycogen output from the liver; every little helps as they say.

Well done with your results!

I found (and still find) Metformin very useful for smoothing out bg spike. I would recommend it especially in the initial months after diagnosis. Metformin also has some beneficial action against heart disease and is an appetite suppressant so will help you lose weight. It does not stimulate insulin production so it won't put your pancreas under any more pressure.

A purely selfish advantage of accepting Metformin is that you will then be eligible for free prescriptions on all medications you may need.

hi your doing great


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Syd said:

I've only had the one blood test which gave a HbA1C reading of 82. The DN said that this was over 58 and she advised Metformin

Click to expand...

So you had a test before Christmas, modified your diet, lost lots of weight and were then prescribed Metformin on the basis of the pre-Christmas test without any subsequent test to see if anything had improved? That doesn't sound like good practice to me. In your position I'd carry on with diet only until at least three months after your original test, then ask to have your HbA1C tested again. I think if you put it like that to the nurse or doctor they'll be happy to hold off on the Metformin while you see whether diet alone works.

Kate

Well done you have taken control of your DB and that is the main thing .Keep testing and then you will know how your body is dealing with the glucose and you can find good advice on here and some good recipes also
CAROL

I support your choice. On diagnosis, I had no intention of taking medication until it was proved I couldn't control my BG levels by eating the right foods in the right quantities and adding exercise. As things stand, I'm convinced I made the right decision and I hope you have too.

Hi,

I've taken the same choice as you. I was only diagnosed in January and saw my nurse almost immediately. I told her I wanted to try diet and exercise first then see what happens. She was quite happy with that, but my diagnosis level wasn't that drastic - HbA1c of 53. I've taken myself in hand, have lost half a stone in 3 weeks and added more exercise - 2 brisk walks daily instead of 1 amble, and 1 session of aqua-aerobics weekly. I am hoping against hope this works. One good thing that has already happened is my BP has dropped to the 120's/70's from the 140's/80's.

Good luck!

Quite pleased indeed!

That's brilliant Syd, well done and justifies sticking to your guns at the beginning.

I'm trying to do much the same, will have to wait until July for my next HbA1c though!

It certainly is brilliant Syd. Well done!