Glucose in my Urine

[Johnjoe13]

Chri

Christmas is a hard time to start. Most of us allow ourselves a few extra carbs at Christmas to enjoy time with our families. As said above though Turkey is good for you, salad is great. Non starchy vegetables, eggs, and cheese are all good. I personally have problems with cookies and allow myself one or two but reduce other carbs so I can have them.

Thank you, I am going to need to think about how I handle xmas

 

[Johnjoe13]

First thing I would do is get a Glucose meter as I understand that glucose will only start to show in your urine at concentrations greater than 10(180), by that time it's too high.

With a glucose meter you can tightly control your blood glucose thoughout the day, and monitor how exercise and dietary changes (what's good or bad for you) over the weeks and months have helped.

For a start, I would recommend testing fasting(when you wake up) and before and after meals(2 hours after) so you can get a picture of what's happening, then as you understand what works for you, you can just do spot checks after some meals to ensure all is fine.

Also just add with regards to high blood pressure, you may find that if you're able that cardio exercise will help in that area. It will aid with weight control too, in which will also help lower blood pressure.

Thank you, I'm certainly getting all the information i need and taking notes here. I think my first thing will be to change my early morning diet as clearly even the meager choice of a medium banana and porridge seems to have the effect of putting glucose in my urine, I dread to think what that's doing to my blood

 

[Salvia]

Hi @Johnjoe13, you seem to have come a long way in a very short time - well done you for all your efforts. There's a heck of a lot of information that you're having to take on board just now, so perhaps take it a bit slowly and try out only one or two things at a time. Particularly with Christmas coming up, maybe cut yourself some slack till into the New Year, and learn as much as you can in the meantime, practice testing different food and how your blood sugars respond at various times, as mentioned in other posts above. Then perhaps get down to brass tacks in earnest & work at finding the right foods for you that result in reducing your blood sugars. Don't forget about all the info in daisy1's post - including the low carb programme, coz that could help you a lot, and you won't have to think much about "what foods shall I try". You could also take a look here: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

As for breakfast, sorry about the banana and porridge not being a good option for your blood sugar levels. How about good old bacon & eggs in true Brit style; add some grilled toms and mushrooms - will likely fill you up for the rest of the day

 

[Johnjoe13]

Hi @Johnjoe13, you seem to have come a long way in a very short time - well done you for all your efforts. There's a heck of a lot of information that you're having to take on board just now, so perhaps take it a bit slowly and try out only one or two things at a time. Particularly with Christmas coming up, maybe cut yourself some slack till into the New Year, and learn as much as you can in the meantime, practice testing different food and how your blood sugars respond at various times, as mentioned in other posts above. Then perhaps get down to brass tacks in earnest & work at finding the right foods for you that result in reducing your blood sugars. Don't forget about all the info in daisy1's post - including the low carb programme, coz that could help you a lot, and you won't have to think much about "what foods shall I try". You could also take a look here: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

As for breakfast, sorry about the banana and porridge not being a good option for your blood sugar levels. How about good old bacon & eggs in true Brit style; add some grilled toms and mushrooms - will likely fill you up for the rest of the day

Thank you and yes i'm going to take it one step at a time. The main thing is i'm trying to understand/remember what has changed in my diet and lifestyle over recent weeks that caused this glucose increase in my urine. hell i'm down from 20 units of booze a week to 10 and less so I can't see whats wrong there. Stopped smoking a month now too!

Anyways for dinner tonight I had a three egg omelette with grated cheese, two medium slices of wholemeal bread and butter, did the urine test and there was hardly a trace of glucose in it compared to yesterday and the evening before. Going to have my banana in the morning as usual but skip the porridge later and maybe have poached egg and something, maybe see what that does

 

[Salvia]

hell i'm down from 20 units of booze a week to 10 and less so I can't see whats wrong there. Stopped smoking a month now too!

Wow! Well done. What an achievement! Good on you for getting to grips with so much all at once. I really hope you succeed with this, you certainly deserve to.

 

[Jay-Marc]

It is a shame for you that you appear to have received so little support and information from your doctor (and associated practice) after the diagnosis six months ago beyond the occasional HbA1c. It is almost as if they have written you off. You seem to be proving them wrong in any such assessment by your actions and wanting to do the right things and making your own efforts to find them. Sometimes it feels as if you are rolling a heavy bolder up a long steep hill but you will get to the top.

 

[Bluetit1802]

When you get your head round all this, and read all about the role of carbohydrates, you will see that the main culprits are bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals and all grains, anything containing flour, milk, certain vegetables, and most fruits. When you get your meter you will be able to measure your reaction to all these foods and learn how to either reduce the portion size or eliminate certain things. Fats are fine - we should never be afraid of fats (apart from trans fats), so you can have a good old fry up if you want. For fruit you could try a few berries (a few!) with double cream of full fat plain yogurt if that floats your boat.

Have a look at this video, which you may find useful when starting a low carb approach. This is for a very low carb diet (ketogenic). You don't need to go as low as this but it gives you a good idea of the type of foods to eat and to avoid.

 

[SWUSA_]

Keep up the good work and keep asking questions if you do not understand something!

 

[Johnjoe13]

Well here is just a bit of an update on this for anyone. Still getting high amounts of glucose in my urine, the higher being after my evening meal. Funny thing is I had a plate of chips Thursday night with a stew that I did, mainly because I was late getting in from taking the dog to the Vet and passed the chippy on way back and could not resist, besides I was not in the mood to mess about deciding what to have with a stew that only had carrots,onions and herbs in it, plus I was starving. I would have done more with this stew but was I a rush before a put it on and went out. Anyhow to cut a long story short I tested urine after 2 hrs and quite a low reading, which is strange because last week when I had fish and chips it was very very high so were these chips last week a super high carb version the chippy had put on specially for me? Bizar!! In terms of the rest of my diet i've cut out my banana and my porridge for breakfast together with the Belvita biscuits and my urine 1.5 hours later is fine so success there.

Generally I do think though that only small amounts of carbs have the effect of shooting up the glucose level, I had a low carb ready meal curry last night with some naan bread, and the lowest cal/carb one at that and my urine glucose shot very high again. I can see this whole thing is trial and error. Found it very hard shopping today when near any sweet stuff saw a nice looking caramel cheesecake thingy in marks & sparks, small it was too but reading the back No! No! No!

Not received the Codefree meter and stuff from Home Health Uk, It's now Saturday and I paid the extra for first class post which they said should be next day. Sent them a message yesterday as they confirmed to me by email on Wednesday!! afternoon that my order was complete. So much for paying next day, and they did not reply. I'm thinking I should have gone to Amazon they have never disappointed me on delivery and the stuff is not all that much more expensive. If my stuff does not arrive Monday then Amazon for my future supplies it is, as least when you pay them extra for early delivery you actually get it so i'm not impressed Home Health UK people

 

[Jay-Marc]

In December with all the Christmas-related mail I personally would never trust ordinary first class post from anyone to be delivered reliably the next day (second can though come as quickly as first!). Amazon struggles sometime too, even with their in-house system. Hopefully though it will turn up.

Incidentally regular naan bread is typically around 50% carb.

 

[Johnjoe13]

In December with all the Christmas-related mail I personally would never trust ordinary first class post from anyone to be delivered reliably the next day (second can though come as quickly as first!). Amazon struggles sometime too, even with their in-house system. Hopefully though it will turn up.

Incidentally regular naan bread is typically around 50% carb.

Thank you Jay-Marc
Yes maybe I should have been more realistic in terms of postage this time of year, i'm just very stressed out atm with a few things on my mind, but very anxious to get started with this meter and get some more accurate reading around my levels as well as what i'm eating. These urine test strips are now showing 4 ++++'s to start with after 30 seconds, where as before they started at 3 after this amount of time. Yes I know they are naff in the big scheme of things and not accurate to what is in the blood but they do show there are 2000( 110) mg/dl (mmol/l) of glucose in me and that's just the last reading there is on the chart.

Also do you know anything about this Metformin? I thought this stuff was supposed to help me from having high glucose even with the slow release 500mg a day i'm on. You know what is weird? my mum who is still with us at 78 was diagnosed with this at 58. She's had regular Hba1C test every 6 month ever since then and has never had a problem, never tested herself and never had any health issues synonymous with T2. She's always eaten normally and this includes biscuits, cakes and a litre of cola a day habit. I've taken her to see the nurse now for the past 3 years, that's about 6 times and every time I take her back for the results he says 'all's good you are doing fine'. Now I dont know what her numbers are as he doesn't discuss anything with me but I think the next time i'm going to ask about them and tell him about her eating habits see what he says (if he's tell me)

 

[AndBreathe]

Thank you Jay-Marc
Yes maybe I should have been more realistic in terms of postage this time of year, i'm just very stressed out atm with a few things on my mind, but very anxious to get started with this meter and get some more accurate reading around my levels as well as what i'm eating. These urine test strips are now showing 4 ++++'s to start with after 30 seconds, where as before they started at 3 after this amount of time. Yes I know they are naff in the big scheme of things and not accurate to what is in the blood but they do show there are 2000( 110) mg/dl (mmol/l) of glucose in me and that's just the last reading there is on the chart.

Also do you know anything about this Metformin? I thought this stuff was supposed to help me from having high glucose even with the slow release 500mg a day i'm on. You know what is weird? my mum who is still with us at 78 was diagnosed with this at 58. She's had regular Hba1C test every 6 month ever since then and has never had a problem, never tested herself and never had any health issues synonymous with T2. She's always eaten normally and this includes biscuits, cakes and a litre of cola a day habit. I've taken her to see the nurse now for the past 3 years, that's about 6 times and every time I take her back for the results he says 'all's good you are doing fine'. Now I dont know what her numbers are as he doesn't discuss anything with me but I think the next time i'm going to ask about them and tell him about her eating habits see what he says (if he's tell me)

Hello there JohnJoe.

One thing I haven't noticed mentioned, although I have read your thread pretty swiftly, is that nobody has mentioned that it is unlikely your urine would show glucose in your urine within the 30 minutes or so you have mentioned here. If we think about it, the food has to be in your system a bit longer to get through into your wee.

For now, I would say to try to put your findings largely to one side until you receive your meter and strips. That's so much more an accurate form of feedback. Urine strips can really only tell you your numbers are too high; with no real detail on how extreme they might be.

For many people, if they have been running high for while, it takes a little while, after trimming back on diet, for their blood numbers to moderate accordingly. Most people have some surprises about what they can eat, but also some less welcome "surprises" with what's not helping.

Please be patient, and keep asking questions. You seem to have the motivation to make a difference to your health, all you lack to make the next big steps are the quality tools you deserve.

Good luck with it all.

 

[Jay-Marc]

Firstly sorry if I came over bit preachy in the my last message - written in haste between other things. You are clearly frustrated with not having the testing kit and the associated stress probably isn't doing you much good either.

Metformin works mainly by acting on the liver to curb the production of glucose. It has secondary effects in the small intestine and muscles. Its effectiveness varies from individual to individual.

 

[bigjim19]

Try using the Argos collection it's better than Royal Mail and it's free

 

[Resurgam]

I suspect that all those high carb foods you are eating on the advice of your doctor are what is causing the problem.
From my tests I have to eat low carb or see double figures in my blood glucose.
The 'healthy carbs' concept is so ingrained, but bread, high carb fruits and veges all become sugar when digested, and that is just a disaster for diabetics.