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Dry mouth / catarrh

D

DeeAitch

Active Member
Messages
30
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hello I’d be very grateful to receive some advice on home remedies please, I was diagnosed about 3 years ago, but recently I’ve been suffering with a very dry mouth (so bad it’s affected my teeth & I’m having to have 4 taken out next week) does anyone have any recommendations on how to alleviate it - short of drinking enough water to float a battleship? the worse part is whilst my mouth is so dry I also have a sticky catarrh problem that I can’t spit out because I’ve no saliva to mix with it (sorry about being gross)
Thanks in advance
Dawn
 
Hi @DeeAitch , regarding your dry mouth, this can be a symptom of high blood sugars. Do you check your readings at home or have you had a recent HbA1c test done?
Can you also tell us, if you’re comfortable, what a typical day’s food is for you and any medication you are on for your diabetes?
 
Last time in July my HbA1c was 69mmol/L when I was diagnosed my doctor said not to do daily checks for Type 2 (but I did borrow a reader (sterilised & new needle) recently & my fasting readings were around 11mmolL over the couple of days I used it, 2hrs after eating, so not overly good
Food tends to be porridge for breakfast, sandwich for lunch & usually meat & 2 veg for dinner (husband cooks dinner so limited by his culinary skills)
 
Hi @DeeAitch Unfortunately all carbohydrates turn into glucose when digested - some start to form glucose while still in your mouth. Digested glucose raises our Blood Glucose and thus are problematic for Type 2 diabetics.

Thus the food choices you list are not good (especially if meat and 2 veg means potato or carrot).
It makes little difference if carbohydrates are white or brown or wholemeal or whether they are sugars or starches. Ultimately all digestible carbs turn into glucose. So bacon & or eggs (or even full fat greek yogurt with some nuts and a few berries) would be a much better breakfast than porridge. Once I saw on my Blood Glucose meter what a porridge breakfast did to my blood glucose readings, I immediately switched it to boiled eggs.

Naturally any sandwich is a poor choice - the filling may be fine, but unless the bread itself is low carb then as a whole it's a poor choice.

The best foods to base a low carb way of eating around are : meat, fish, tofu (if vegetarian), eggs, cheese, full fat cream , full fat yogurt, nuts, above ground veg, berries (the lowest carb fruits that we treat as fruits), avocado.
 
I think @DeeAitch you may have your answer to your dry mouth then. Your fasting test of 11 mmol/l is high as is your last HbA1c. Lowering your carb intake as @ianf0ster has suggested will help and also prevent you from getting diabetic complications in the future. Just be cautious of lowering your carbs too quickly if you are on any medication that could cause hypos. It would be useful to use your blood glucose meter more methodically and learn how different foods affect you. Most GPs say not to test if you’re type 2 but you will learn so much as many of us type 2s do here.
 

Ah so basically I’m my own worst enemy (thought I had thought porridge would be good) currently working with only 30 minutes lunch break I'm too anxious to sit in the canteen hence the sandwiches but am leaving mid January so will have more time to cook & eat better
 
Unfortunately most of us have been told that Oats and/or whole grains are healthy. well they may be OK for healthy people, but not for diabetic.
Since you are having a cold lunch anyway, consider having meat , cheese or hard boiled eggs for lunch. Wrap in lettuce leaf if you want something to hold like a sandwich. Some people order McDonalds burgers in lettuce leaf instead of the bread - they are much healthier for diabetics that way.
 
I buy a otc products called Biotene Mouth Spray from my pharmacist for a dry mouth.

As I m on a fluid restricted regime, of 1.5 - 2.0 ltrs of fluids a day, I needed something to help at night with a dry mouth.

A squirt on my tongue and roll it around my mouth, gums, etc keeps my mouth moist all night. I rinse and repeat as needed.

You can get it from Amazon UK, I can't see a price listed as I am logged into my Australian account. I think I payed around $15.00 for my last bottle.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Biotene-Mouth-Spray-Size-1-5z/dp/B00KOC9U96
 
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