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Glucose Intolerant - newly diagnosed but not convinced

T

Tinytoez

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Kent
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Diabetes!! People who dont understand. Being overweight and hungry.
Please move this thread if it is in the wrong place as I dont know if it is the same as Pre-Diabetic.

I was told I am Glucose Intolerant on friday but I would like some help, so I will try and be as brief as I can with my story.
I am 31 years old, 5ft2 and 14stone 4, I have a club foot which means I am not very mobile making exercise almost impossible, I also have an underactive thyroid.

I have had 3 UTIs in 3 months, all being treated by antibiotics, but samples have come back clear other than a small bit of protein and a trace of blood in the first one, the last water infection I had happened on 9th February, I was at work (I am a check out clerk), I started feeling strange like I was watching someone else working, my head felt odd, and I came over really hot and dizzy, and I immediatly came over really sore and had to go to the toilet, it got worse and I went to the toilet again then felt unable to work as I couldnt concerntrate and felt really ill and sick, I knew I needed to eat something before I could drive home so I sat in my car and ate a sandwich, within about 20 minutes I felt ok and drove home.

I went to see the nurse at my GP surgery the next day and was given some more antibiotics, (this is the protocol for UTIs at my surgery), I went to see her primarily about the water infection and took a sample with me, which came back clear, but I mentioned how I had been feeling that that I had been drinking litres of fluid a day but was still getting UTIs, which she said shouldnt be happening, so she took a finger prick and 2 hours after eating porridge it came back at (11.9), I was booked in for a fasting test on the Monday and was asked to get tests at a GUM to rule anything else out.

The fasting test came back at 7.5 for both my sugar and my cholesterol after 12 hours of fasting.
The initial GUM tests have come back clear.

I ended up going back to see the nurse this friday because I was still suffering UTI symptoms, but the nurse wouldnt let me have any more antibiotics and this was when she told me the results came back that I was Glucose Intolerant, I was given a sheet of what to eat and asked to see her again in 2 weeks time.

Every day I start to feel dizzy and shakey when I get up, I am also drinking and weeing more than normal, getting up at around 2am and 5am as I am woken up needing to go, I then have a drink and a pack of Belvita Biscuits and feel better, because I then go back to sleep.

I ended up going to A&E this Saturday because I was having pains in my stomach and I was weeing blood, I was kept in for 8 hours, not allowed to eat but was constantly drinking, but still felt thirsty and when I was checked I was told I looked dehydrated too, after tests to see if I have a kidney stone, I was let out with strong antibiotics for an acute UTI, and told to see my GP when I had finished them, the blood test came back as 10, again 2 hours after eating porridge.

The reason I am not convinced I am just Glucose Intolerant is because everywhere I have read, it has said people dont get any symptoms, but I am feeling ill and tired all the time. I am also going to get a monitor as soon as I can because I want to be able to relate how I feel to what my sugar is actually doing.

Thanks for reading my essay, any help will be appreciated.

Tammy
 
Welcome to the forum,

If your still having symptoms you should go back to your doctor and ask for further tests like an oral glucose tolerance test, infact your fasting results may suggest a diabetic diagnosis,rather than impaired glucose tolerance. You stated your Fasting result was 7.5 the diagnosis range stated by W.H.O is
The World Health Organization has said that someone may have diabetes if they have:

•A fasting blood glucose of 7 mmol/L or more, OR
•A blood glucose 11.1 mmol/L or more after a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (GTT)

Im NOT medically trained and as such cant offer medical advice, just advice based on my own personal experience, but I would definatly suggest going back to your doctor and asking for a glucose tolerance test.

if you have any questions feel free to ask.
 
Thanks Louise.
Its good to know that I am not the only one who thinks the nurse may have been slightly wrong.
I am still feeling ill, and eating does make me feel better, but I have heard that just because I feel hungry I may not "need" to eat, which is why I want to start monitoring, as eating when I dont need to will make things worse.
Im a bit miffed with the lack of information I have been given, but I have had a read on here and have noticed that isnt unusual, especially when it comes to type II, which is what Ive read this can lead to.
My aunt (mums sister) is diabetic and has been for 10 or more years, but she is under control using pills and diet and hardly ever does prick tests now, and her daughter (my cousin) is diabetic, but has only been for about 3 years, the difference being she is on injections, so I know there is a close family history.

With regards to a diet, where do I start, other than looking at the hand written sheet I was given, with regards to "restricted" foods?

I dont "want" to be diagnosed diabetic, but I would much rather be diagnosed if I am, rather than trying to cope on my own with an incorrect diagnosis of Glucose Intolerance.
 
Even if you are not diabetic and just glucose intolerance, I would advise to change your diet now and eat as if you were diabetic to try to delay or maybe even stop the progression to diabetes.

If you do get a diagnosis of diabetes dont stress about its not the end of the world and you will find alot of good info and support here on this forum.

The best advice I can give you with regard to diet is to control the amount of carbs you eat especially simple carbs like white bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. Also if you can get yourself a meter and test and see what foods affect you.
 
forgot to add test strips for meters can be very expensive, there is a new blood monitor that can be purchased on amazon and ebay, SD codefree monitor, with test strips as little as £4.99 for 50.

Have a read through the thread for newly diagnosed diabetics it has some very useful information.
 
Hello Tammy and welcome to the forum.

If you are diagnosed diabetic then a good place to start is to cut down on carbohydrates especially the starchy ones rice, pasta, potatoes, bread and pastry. Cutting drastically or better still stopping completely anything sweet with a high sugar content is taken for granted. Sugar is just a refined form of carbohydrate.

You may find the advice I've given you will conflict with later advice you may get from your NHS dietitian but you will have to believe that the vast majority of people on this forum believe that cutting carbohydrates is the key. If you were Swedish or in one of the more enlightened countries this advice would be told to you on diagnosis however the NHS still relies on diet info that is now nearly 40 years old and is very out of date.

Try halving all of the starchy carbohydrates you currently eat. That's bound to make you hungry so replace what you drop with meat, cheese, eggs, fish and especially vegetables. Try to eat vegetables that grow above ground rather than below although many of us find carrots to be ok. If you like fruit then a small amounts are fine and the ones ending with "berry" are the best. Things like yoghurt should be fine in moderation as well.

On the half you have left try the following

Change white rice to brown basmati rice
Change white bread to wholemeal or better Burgen soya bread
Change white pasta to brown or green or the tri colour stuff

Never eat mashed potatoes it's the one form of potatoes that nearly all diabetic have real problems with. Believe it or not the best potatoes for diabetics are roast ones.

I was diagnosed just 10 weeks ago with extremely high blood sugar levels and by following the great advice I found on this forum I now have my blood sugar levels back to nearly being in a non diabetic range at all times of the day. Cutting carbohydrates is not a cure but will allow you to get control of things and will certainly make you feel a lot better. I no longer have to get up in the night to pee!

I must be truthful and say doing this has been hard work but it gets easier everyday. Also I must be truthful and warn you that cutting your carbs by half may not be enough as many of us on here have found. I still get to eat some of the things I've warned you about but in no where near the quantities I used to. Saying that 10 weeks down the line I hardly miss them now.

As louiseb says testing is VERY important. Its a complete post code lottery as to whether your practice will prescribe you test strips and some practices will even tell you that testing is pointless. It's not. The minimum you should test is before and then two hours after your main meal. If you can test before and at 2 hours after every meal to begin with all the better. Testing will instantly tell you want you can and can't eat and will let you adjust your diet over time so that you can get to understand how different foods effect YOU. Remember at all times it is what is good and safe for YOU to eat that's important not what anyone else tells you. That's why testing is so important early on.

Good Luck, take care and keep asking questions if you need to and let us all know how you are getting on.
 
Wow thanks for that.
Here is the list that the nurse wrote out for me, some of it includes what to reduce for Cholesterol too. My other problem is I have IBS, which I am on medication for, so I have modified what I can eat to control that, so I will be starting from scratch again.
Was told to cut out sweet things where possible
Cereal - Porridge/Shredded Wheat/Wheatabix/Special K
Bread - Wholewheat, max 4 slices a day
Pasta/Rice, brown if poss - 3-4oz portion (cooked) a day
Potatoes - 3-4 egg sized/Medium Jacket a day
Bananas - 3 per week
Milk(semi-skimmed) - max 3/4 pint a day
Cheese, low fat - not restricted
Cheese, hard - 2oz a day
Eggs - 3 a week
Yoghurts(low fat) - one a day
Meat - white/lean/cook healthy (red not good)
Fish - very good
Prawns - avoid all
Some Shelfish - avoid most
Veg - no problems
Fruit - 2 portions a day
Drinks - low sugar
Oils/Marg - High in Poly or Mon Unsaturates

And thats all I was given.
 

I did say your dietitian would recommend starchy carbs! For a comparison here's how much of those I eat on average. I'm not saying you should only eat the same amounts as you may find you can eat more or less of any of them.

Cereal - Porridge/Shredded Wheat/Wheatabix/Special K

NONE - Some people get away with porridge and others small amounts of what you've listed but they all do me in a treat.
For breakfast I eat a combo of plain greek yoghurt (25g), strawberry yoghurt (25g) and mix in 30g of fruit with berry's at the end. I admit this is minimilist but I came into this never eating breakfast but you should eat something to "start" your metabolism going as your blood sugars maybe high when you first wake up because of something called the dawn phenomenon
(read elsewhere on the site about this its a real pain in the a...). Some days I will push the boat out have sardines on a round of burgen soya bread toast

Bread - Wholewheat, max 4 slices a day.

Dream on! - mostly none but some days I will have at most 1 slice of burgen a day.

Pasta/Rice, brown if poss - 3-4oz portion (cooked) a day

Brown Basmati Rice around 25g or 1oz (uncooked weight) a day
Brown Pasta 25g uncooked weight

Potatoes - 3-4 egg sized/Medium Jacket a day

At most 2 or 3 small boiled new potatoes. Potatoes are weird as the amount you can eat varies depending on how they are cooked

I'll let others join in on the rest of the list as everyone will have different opinions but none of the things are particularly bad imo. Don't see why red meet in moderation is bad and that's quite a lot of milk and I eat more cheese cos I like it.

With all of this what you can or can't eat should be driven by what YOUR body tells you is safe not some list which is why testing is so important.

On blood sugar levels here's some useful info.

Never exceed 7.8 REGULARLY on your 2 hour after meal reading. 7.8 is the level that in most people will start to cause damage, specifically its the level that been shown will begin to attack the blood vessels in the backs of your eyes so not good.

19 out of 20 non diabetics return to under 6.5 two hours after eating

3 out of 4 non diabetics return to under 5.5 two hours after eating.

Don't let anyone tell you those ranges aren't achievable. I achieve them on my diet and just a bit of Metformin which is the safest diabetic drug to take as it doesn't stress your pancreas any more than it currently is. Some people achieve those levels on diet alone and some achieve those levels with more drugs to help. The important thing is to try!

My current targets that I meet at least 95% of the time are the return to 6.5 after 2 hours.
 
xyzzy, this is actually starting to make sense now, thanks
I guess it will be a case of trial and error, and close monitoring, but Im determined to work it out.
I think I need to go shopping and get a load of healthy foods in tomorow, and see if I can get a monitor too.
This forum is going to be so helpful, a friend of mine is diabetic and has been trying to help me, but she also isnt in control of hers very well, so I am reluctant to take her advise.
 
I'm a bit confused why she said no prawns. They can be a bit salty but if you don't have high blood pressure then they are ok, they are also low carb and low calorie.

Which sort of IBS do you have? I had IBS-D until I cut out wheat (tested negative for coeliacs), it also helps me eat less carbs as I don't replace bread and pasta with anything else.
 

I would imagine the reason for the restriction on prawns is because of the high cholesterol content. The food list given needs revising because unless cholesterol is sky high and you have been advised against it you can eat more than 3 eggs per week too.
 
Hi there, just wondering if you are actually suffering from Low blood sugar when you say you are feeling ill and dizzy and felt you had to eat something before driving home. Your best bet is to buy a glucose monitor, you will know exactly what is going on with your blood sugar then, if you monitor very regularly for say, a week, it will give you a good picture of what is going on with you and tell you what foods are raising your sugar,hope your feeling better soon x
 
Hi Tammy

Go on to the 'Sticky Thread' section of the Board Index and have a look at Viv's Modified Atkins Diet. This is extremely low in carbohydrate (about 20g - 25g) which may be much too low for you. It's a good basic list of low-carb foods, however,and you can add in carbs to a level you find comfortable, using a Carb Counter book and going for the ones with the lowest Glycaemic Index.

The only warning I would give you with this is that it is very high in protein, which if you have kidney problems is a no-no. Worth checking with your doctor. Say you want to control your carbohydrate intake rather than mention Atkins - some HCPs take the name as a red rag to a bull :shock: .

This is the basic diet I use, and it not only reduces my blood glucose but also my blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It gives me energy and makes me feel in control. I would suggest that you aim for about 100 - 150g carb to start with - you can always go lower later if you want.

The more carbs you eat, the less fat you should have. And daily exercise - even a 20 minute walk - is highly recommended.

Viv 8)
 

The cheapest meter with the cheapest ongoing running costs at the moment is an SD Codefree one. Many of us are buying them off eBay at the moment. They come from health.co.uk who sell on eBay. Test strips are 4.99 per 50 which is far cheaper than everyone else. I just ordered another for my sister-in-law and got the meter, case, finger spikey thing, 10 strips + an extra 300 strips for £39.95 + £2.00 P&P. Make sure you order the mmol/L model and not the US style mg/dl.

If you get the meter cut the carbs I sure you'll soon be telling your friend how to do it!
 
I have just got an expensive Freestyle lite monitor purely because I want to start monitoring before I go back to work tomorow, but I will be getting one of the ones suggested, as 50 test strips were £30 and thats more than the meter!!
Ive just done my first test and it came back at 9.8, 2 hours after eating a bowl of Alpen porridge with a spoon of apricot jam.

Thanks for the info all, its a great start and I will be reading everything, as soon as I get on my laptop.

On speaking to the pharmacist to get my monitor, he thinks I am more likely to be diabetic than Glucose Intolerant, he also mentioned a low GI diet too.
 
Now 4 hours after eating its 4.3 - Im confused?
Is that good or bad?
 
Very Good

Non diabetic range is between around 4.0 to 5.5 in most people, wish I could get 4.3 that easily, normally have to run around madly! Mine are usually between about 4.5 to 5.8 most of the day then may rise to 6.5 tops at my +2 hr main meal.
 
Tinytoez said:
Now 4 hours after eating its 4.3 - Im confused?
Is that good or bad?
Click to expand...

Tinytoez..

If you regularly get readings of 7.8 mmol/l or higher at +2 hours post meal (on a standard amount of carbohydrates) then it certainly would suggest diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance. You 4.3 @ +4 hour suggests that your 2nd phase insulin response is still pretty strong this is good..

To just explain that!
In a healthy individual the body has two phases of insulin response... the first phase responds quickly and aggressively to stop blood glucose rising much above on average 6.0 mmol/l in a healthy adult.. the 2nd phase response then kicks and and brings the blood glucose down to a fasting level of somewhere between 3.5 mmol/l - 5.5 mmol/l. Type II diabetic generally lack a strong first phase response.. this means that the blood glucose rises above the 6 mmol/l and cases the 2nd phase to take a lot longer to bring them back to an acceptable level.
 
Thanks Pneu, this really helps.
I think testing before and after every meal is the way to go for now to see if I really do have a problem, once Ive done this for a week and been able to see what it does I will be in a much better position to understand whats going on.
 
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