• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Does testing cause anxiety?

OrsonKartt said:
I wish I had done this earlier , much earlier!! There is a definite prejudice in this area about people taking care of themselves!!
Click to expand...
This seems to be common experience from people who have been suffering high blood sugars for years following poor diet advice from their GPs. It does appear that most people with type 2 can get their blood glucose down to non-diabetic levels within 6-9 months on a LCHF diet and lose a lot of excess weight as a bonus. Those who are really enthusiastic can do it in as little as three months if they go very low carb and do intermittent fasting.

It may be possible to get to non-diabetic levels using other methods, but you don't see many examples of this in the Success Stories and Testimonials Section. Most success seems via LCHF.

Testing only causes anxiety if your treatment of diabetes isn't working properly. Unfortunately most people who just take pills to treat type 2 diabetes wont see much of an improvement and measuring blood sugars for them may make them anxious and depressed. The answer, of course, is to change your diet to lower blood glucose and having a glucose meter can help verify this and help fine tune your diet to best effect.
 
The company that did this research also did the DVLA guidance advice and limits. It was Trend.
 
I am lucky in that my GP fully supports me in SMBG, including strips on scrip. Yesterday I had my annual review, and he is very pleased at my consistent results. I have been able to drop my Gliclazide from 4x80 mg /day to one, and now we agreed to dropping to 1x40 mg. I am also halving my Metformin and reducing one of my BP meds My GP did say as I left the consultation that he had never seen a T2D achieve such steady readings over a prolonged period, So I iterated LCHF as my secret, and I think the penny is slowly falling into the collection tin, He cannot recommend this diet until NICE and PHE change the rules, but his advice to me is to keep on doing whatever it is I am doing, since it seems to work,
 

As I said we all have to find out the best way for us personally be that to test or not it is not up to us to tell people how to treat their diabetes because we are all different. For some the thought of having to test their blood before and after food is very scary and thinking they had to do it would cause a lot of stress and anxiety so they should not be made to think they have to do it. I know my own granddaughter would freak out is she was told she had to do that. She has such a needle phobia she literally passes out when she has had to have a blood test and inoculations when she travelled abroad
 

Totally agree!

Testing and having rapidly improving glucose number is most motivating...

 
Last edited:
Pinkorchid said:
it is not up to us to tell people how to treat their diabetes because we are all different
Click to expand...

On the contrary I would say it is exactly up to those who have had success with blood sugar control to share how we have had that success.. It is then up to the other party if they choose to follow it. People come to the forum for assistance and advice they can then either follow it or ignore it but.. without being given the benefit of our combined experiences then they will be stuck with whatever their HCP tells them.. which is often, as we all know, not the best advice. How else will the word of what we do get spread around?
 
Not as much as my doctor does. I'm alarmed by his lack of knowledge.
 
There is a lot of difference between sharing our experiences and what works for us than telling someone they have to do something. The OP's original post was asking if testing can cause anxiety and I think for a lot of people it does so therefore we should not be telling them they have to do it but only suggest they try it if they are comfortable with doing it if they are not then that is ok a good diet is more important
 
kokhongw said:
Unfortunately, without testing...most never ever figured out what is truly a good diet for them. Hence the scale and burden of this global T2D epidemic...
Click to expand...
But a good diet will not stop people getting diabetes only help them manage it when they have it
 
Pinkorchid said:
But a good diet will not stop people getting diabetes only help them manage it when they have it
Click to expand...

For Type 1 perhaps.

But for most obesity related type 2...

Given that glaring carbs/insulin information has been available for decades, especially to any informed thinking health professionals and public policies makers, I am not at all surprise that most continue to believe in the medical illusion and misdirection, that excessive glucose and not insulin, is the key driver,
http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1979/A1979HZ23700001.pdf

That is just how the food and pharma industry have remained so successful and continued to profit from an essentially patent free medication, "insulin", and that it is our God given fundamental right to enjoy "food" (especially "healthy" grain based), at all cost.
 
Last edited:
Pinkorchid said:
But a good diet will not stop people getting diabetes only help them manage it when they have it
Click to expand...

I don't agree with your statement at all. Those of us lucky enough to be caught early and diagnosed with prediabetes can prevent the condition progressing by testing, changing our diets and loosing weight.

The information and support from the people on this forum means that 6 years on I don't have diabetes and I am 6 stone lighter. I don't understand why you would disregard that or the reason why medical professionals have created a prediabetes category of around 6 million people in the UK.
 
The daft thing is that we are not given a choice. The NHS could say that there is an option to test and that many people have been successful at lowering their blood sugar/medications/reversing their diabetes through regular testing and cutting out the foods that spike their blood sugar. Then people who feel that is too much trouble or it will make them anxious (though i really can't see why it would) can opt out.
Trouble is the testing shows up the uselessness of the NHS guidelines and their Eatwell plate and the 'starchy carbs with every meal 'advice they dish out along with the metformin and the statins. So the real reason they don't promote it is because it shows their advice is wrong and has been wrong for decades. If you try testing and it actually does make you feel anxious then that's fine just stop doing it but don't deny the rest of us the chance to improve our own health.
After a couple of months of regular testing I learnt what caused spikes and so I can cut down on the testing now. And if i do find i have eaten something that spikes it gives me an opportunity to do something about it so then i don't have to worry as through testing i have found that a 20 minute walk invariably brings it down and so i don't have to worry about high blood sugars.
obviously if someone has a needle phobia they might not want to test but again just because a few people might have that is not a reason to tell everyone that testing makes you anxious. it makes me and i imagine most of us on here feel empowered and in control of our health and our lives.

Of course if you are following the NHS food advice then testing may well make you feel anxious as their advice is to eat the starchy carbs and then testing will indeed show you high blood sugars all the time after meals. That would be depressing to anyone. They tell you it's progressive and irreversible - what they don't tell you is that is the case only if you follow their advice. Studies on whether it makes patients anxious were presumably done on people following the NHS guidelines and therefore testing would have just shown them how bad it was for them without them having any information to correct it.
 
Last edited:
Being on insulin, I have no choice but to test. I remember the first time I had to test, it was an anxious moment. I feel for those who are newly diagnosed.
 
Pinkorchid said:
But a good diet will not stop people getting diabetes only help them manage it when they have it
Click to expand...

I disagree, a good diet WILL stop most people developing diabetes and a good diet will most probably reverse the diseases in t entirety for many.
 
Just my opinion, but I think some people are genetically programmed to get diabetes and good diet can prevent it from developing. Once it has developed then a good diet is important to manage it.

This T2 diabetes epidemic has only happened in the last 40 years - before that people might have had the gene carrying it but it didn't develop because people back then didn't eat the quantities and types of food that people do nowadays.
 
Three months is an awfully long time. Falling off the LCHF diet, infections, stress through bereavement and even the heat can affect bg. I recently learned that Amitriptyline can raise bg so I have decided to try to wean myself onto a lower dose, no doubt I will see through testing over the next few weeks whether the drug has indeed made a difference to my numbers. I find that the gradual fall in my numbers sustains my drive to stay on the diet/lifestyle. Having joined this group has been a lifesaver for me, I thought I knew about carbs, Pah! I now know more and can fight my corner. So thank you all for educating me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…