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Hb1ac is 10 and I am sleeping around the clock.

Joe Condron

Joe Condron

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello,

My hb1ac is 10 and I am sleeping around the clock,
what do I need to do, during this corona outbreak,
to help myself???

Thank you for reading,

Warmest regards
Joe Condron.
 
Laconic said:
Lower the HB1AC the better ideally below 40, never heard of anyone having as low as 10 though
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I'm suspecting its 10% (as in the older DCCT percentage value) - which equates to 85.8 (give or take - depending which conversion tool you use) in the mmol/mol range
 
Yes, my apologies
Rokaab said:
I'm suspecting its 10% (as in the older DCCT percentage value) - which equates to 85.8 (give or take - depending which conversion tool you use) in the mmol/mol range
Click to expand...

Yes, my Apologies, you are right with 10%.
 
Joe Condron said:
Hello,

My hb1ac is 10 and I am sleeping around the clock,
what do I need to do, during this corona outbreak,
to help myself???

Thank you for reading,

Warmest regards
Joe Condron.
Click to expand...


Assuming that is 10%, then the only thing you can do (other than heavier medication) is drastically reduce your carbs. Many T2s with hba1cs higher than yours recuce their levels to normal without medication by going on a low carb diet.

Good luck.
 
Joe Condron said:
Yes, my apologies


Yes, my Apologies, you are right with 10%.
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I forgot to ask about your current medication. There is a (small, given your current levels) chance that a very low carb diet could make your blood sugar go too low (hypo).
 
I will reduce my carbs then,
Should I increase my insulin myself?

Thank you.
 
At the moment I have found that no matter how much insulin I take if I eat normally and sit on my **** and do nothing my sugars will drop but when my insulin wears off it bounces right back up..

What I find helps other than the obvious reducing bad carby foods is exercise. It doesn’t need to be heavy exercise for example I took a 20 minute walk this morning and I used a far bit of that excess glucose running through my system.

Some days I use the exercise bike for 5 minutes a couple of times a day.. if you choose not to leave the house there are options like walking up and down the stairs a few times. Jogging on the spot.

But the worst thing after poor diet will be to just lie down and sleep all day..

I also suspect that doing something is also better for your mental health


Edited by moderator in line with forum policy on acceptable language
 
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searley said:
At the moment I have found that no matter how much insulin I take if I eat normally and sit on my **** and do nothing my sugars will drop but when my insulin wears off it bounces right back up..

What I find helps other than the obvious reducing bad carby foods is exercise. It doesn’t need to be heavy exercise for example I took a 20 minute walk this morning and I used a far bit of that excess glucose running through my system.

Some days I use the exercise bike for 5 minutes a couple of times a day.. if you choose not to leave the house there are options like walking up and down the stairs a few times. Jogging on the spot.

But the worst thing after poor diet will be to just lie down and sleep all day..

I also suspect that doing something is also better for your mental health
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Do please keep in mind that a lot of T2's, before diagnosis, suffer from continuous high blood sugars for months, sometimes years, and this can cause extreme fatigue and drowsiness. @Joe Condron is in all likelyhood, experiencing the same thing. I know I slept holes in the day, had crushing fatigue, and when I tried to get off my "****”, so to speak, my legs would fail me and I'd hit the ground hard. Even just when trying to walk around our own little flat. So please, don't imply laziness here. This person may indeed be unable to keep their eyes open no matter what they do. And still be exhausted when they do leave the bed.

You can't outrun a bad diet. I know I couldn't do a thing until I got my blood sugars under control. Then I could finally build up muscle mass again and walk fair distances. Trying to do it the other way around may be putting the cart before the horse, if the same is the case here.



Post edited by moderator in line with forum policy on acceptable language
 
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I'd agree with JoKalsheek that addressing diet is the most important thing but that once a good dietary pattern is established along with less syrupy blood sugars, exercise is a great tool for blood glucose lowering.
If there's no support available from the GP or DN then the OP could refer to Dr Joanne McCormack's guidance on meds on a low carb diet
http://www.fatismyfriend.co.uk/
She is a UK low carb GP running courses similar to Dr Unwin's.
 
JoKalsbeek said:
Lowering carbs will lower your blood glucose. If you're on insulin, odds are you'll hypo, and not just a little either. Please be extremely careful!

https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html might help you get a grip on this, but I wouldn't recoomend mixing the diet with insulin use, not without medical help.
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Totally agree medical help is recommended. Also agree very careful monitoring is needed to avoid hypos. But please take care not to make it sound like low carb and insulin use together are incompatible. It might unnecessarily put people off trying to improve their diet this way. It is not a forgone conclusion people will hypo. Yes it’s a possibility if not done carefully with guidance and it is right that people are made aware of this to ensure they do it carefully.

If someone has an hb1ac of 85mmol it suggests continuously high bgl. Even whilst on insulin a gradual and carefully monitored lowering of carbs will bring these numbers down to a safer and more desirable level. Some drs will remove insulin/swap it for other meds quicker than others hence need to discuss it first unless the person is confident with self adjusting doses as normal part of their insulin treatment.
 
HSSS said:
Totally agree medical help is recommended. Also agree very careful monitoring is needed to avoid hypos. But please take care not to make it sound like low carb and insulin use together are incompatible. It might unnecessarily put people off trying to improve their diet this way. It is not a forgone conclusion people will hypo. Yes it’s a possibility if not done carefully with guidance and it is right that people are made aware of this to ensure they do it carefully.

If someone has an hb1ac of 85mmol it suggests continuously high bgl. Even whilst on insulin a gradual and carefully monitored lowering of carbs will bring these numbers down to a safer and more desirable level. Some drs will remove insulin/swap it for other meds quicker than others hence need to discuss it first unless the person is confident with self adjusting doses as normal part of their insulin treatment.
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Duly noted. I'm just afraid my Nutritional Thingy'll harm someone, you know? <3
 
JoKalsbeek said:
Duly noted. I'm just afraid my Nutritional Thingy'll harm someone, you know? <3
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I realise that and agree entirely with your caution and stating the potential risks and advising medical guidance but it just sounds a little overstated to me and made it sound like a definitely dangerous thing to try and off putting as a result.
 
JoKalsbeek said:
Lowering carbs will lower your blood glucose. If you're on insulin, odds are you'll hypo, and not just a little either. Please be extremely careful!

https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html might help you get a grip on this, but I wouldn't recoomend mixing the diet with insulin use, not without medical help.
Click to expand...

I think your advice was spot on and not off putting at all to me. I sometimes think the 'lower your carbs' advice when on insulin is given out very casually. The fact is the odds ARE that you will hypo (even very experienced people hypo regularly), no matter how well controlled. It's good advice to say please be extremely careful too, a hypo is a serious condition and in the extreme could cause death or a fall into the road, etc. I do agree that a low carb diet can work in tandem with insulin (I follow one myself) but only because I have researched massively, tested massively and so on. Thanks for your post, all of yours are very useful. x
 
KK123 said:
I think your advice was spot on and not off putting at all to me. I sometimes think the 'lower your carbs' advice when on insulin is given out very casually. The fact is the odds ARE that you will hypo (even very experienced people hypo regularly), no matter how well controlled. It's good advice to say please be extremely careful too, a hypo is a serious condition and in the extreme could cause death or a fall into the road, etc. I do agree that a low carb diet can work in tandem with insulin (I follow one myself) but only because I have researched massively, tested massively and so on. Thanks for your post, all of yours are very useful. x
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@JoKalsbeek does do a wonderful job and I wasn’t trying to criticise that at all (sorry if it sounded that way), nor dismiss the risks of insulin use. Just don’t want type 2 people to not even try low carb at all because they are on glucose lowering meds, when potentially they have the most to gain by controlling bgl, reducing amounts and maybe, possibly coming off it eventually.
 
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