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HELLO - HIGH CHOLESTEROL

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SILVER88

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Hello to everyone, I have joined this site on behalf of my partner who is severely sight impaired. She is type 1 diabetic. Without going into too many details we have just found out that her diabetic nurse has not been looking after her properly for the past 2 years. We have been doing our part of monitoring blood glucose, diet etc but a lot of symptoms including diarrhoea, nausea, joint pain, severe swelling of knee have been happening and after ultrasound x 2 and MRI we returned to see GP last week and he said all of these problems are actually connected to the diabetes as her levels have been high and not addressed at the relevant check up. She has a cholesterol reading of 4.9 at the moment and is on a statin. I am concerned and looking for any advice that can help me help her to get this reading down.
 
I would say controlling her high blood sugar is more important than cholesterol. What has she been eating?
Statins can cause joint pain etc. Is she counting carbs?
It does sound as though you have been let down by the system.
 
Thank you for answering.

The readings are ranging between 7.8 upto 13.4 at the moment just working on keeping her in these levels at the moment. We have never been told about counting carbs. What would be your advice as the best way to start doing this?

I am beginning to think that there are alot of things that we have not been told about and the best way to find out things.
 
Has she no been asked to go on a DAFNE? Obviously not. It sounds like extreme neglect. Ring the GP and ask about it, its a course to eat and adjust insulin dose.
Also get Dr Bernsteins 'Diabetes Solution' from Amazon.
There will be more Type 1's on soon, I'd check back in to see what they have to say. They will be really helpful.
If they don't answer I will bump this up so they can see it.
 
Thanks again for that I shall have a look on Amazon this evening and probably get that book. It is so nice to talk to someone who understands.

Mary wanted me to put on what would be the reason for blood sugar going up 3 units after just having a cup of herb tea and morning medication. We did her fasting blood reading as normal when she woke up but after that it went up.
 
Anyone else got any advise?
 
There are several different types of insulin and patterns of taking them. People can't really give any suggestions without this info and also info on the sort of meal pattern and blood glucose levels she has . Most people do find the DAFNE course excellent but it is only applicable to one sort of insulin regime.
I'd hold off buying that book, it has a very specific but somewhat controversial viewpoint . There are many other books that may be more useful but a lot depends on her regime.
High glucose levels aren't good for anyone but I would disagree with Dawn over the importance of good cholesterol levels. I think that they are very important, for example high cholesterol is a risk factor for both retinopathy (diabetic eye disease) and diabetic kidney disease.
However, reducing glucose levels, if they have been very high, may also help reduce cholesterol, the statin will certainly do this.
Mainstream advice on the type of foods that may help lower cholesterol is here and on the same site you can find a sheet about the Portfolio diet which a trial suggested worked well to reduce cholesterol but a lot of people dropped out of the study suggestion that they may have found it difficult to stick to.
http://heartuk.org.uk/cholesterol-healt ... erol-foods
 
SILVER88 said:
We have never been told about counting carbs. What would be your advice as the best way to start doing this?
Click to expand...

The following is an on-line carb counting course which you should find useful:

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

Get your partner to ask her diabetes care team to put her name down for the next DAFNE course, it covers carb counting and many other issues related to living with type 1 diabetes.
 
I wouldn't have thought 4.9 was particularly high, but there you go.
 
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