Hello there...

[Diabootic]

Hello there

I'm a 48yo female who was diagnosed T2 in hospital after a heart attack, everyone was understandably more interested in dealing with those issues and getting a triple bypass. A diabetes nurse did a fly by five minute pep talk on eating healthy and gave me a Spirit Tee 2+ monitor and that was the last I heard from anyone on the subject.

Three months or so post-bypass and I'm trying to research a bit more than what I've been doing, a sort of 'cut out the obvious rubbish' diet where I gave up sweets, sugar, pastry, pasta and rice and cut down on bread and potatoes by a lot. Turns out that's working a bit but everything I enjoy is full of surprise carbs, even the fruit and 'healthy' no fat no sugar yoghurts, low calorie soups etc.

Decided after reading here to try a true low carb diet, bit worried in case it clashes with the right diet for my arteries and getting the fats right. Also because I'm on Gliclazide not Metformin and hypos are a possibility if I go too far the other way. There's no record of my hga1c from the hospital and nurses who would have liked to advise me on my blood glucose just sort of handwave the whole thing away as they haven't had any blood test results yet.

I do have an upcoming appt with a practice nurse to hopefully talk about a blood test result, but a) not sure what the blood test was for, and b) don't know if it could be tested as they only managed to get a tiny amount to send off.

Aside from that, I'm on Gliclazide 80 twice a day and seven or so meds for my heart and associated issues. Ideally I'd like to be able to get to a place where I can control things with food and exercise instead but I'm not sure how realistic this is. I do love walking but get really bad calf pain so am walking 2.5 miles a day but very slowly and definitely not to the point of hard breathing, so not sure it counts really. My readings in the mornings before food are consistently 6.3-7.8 but I can't seem to remember to test it in the evenings, have set an alarm for it now. No idea what my target numbers should be.

Thanks for reading, any advice would be very gratefully received!

 

[Antje77]

Hi @Diabootic , I just wanted to say welcome, as I'm about to be off

I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice shortly, mainly on using the meter to test before and after foods to see how that particular food affects you.

Ideally I'd like to be able to get to a place where I can control things with food and exercise instead but I'm not sure how realistic this is.

With morning readings between 6 and 8 this early in the game I think it's not an unrealistic goal at all, and I hope you'll be able to! However, if you find you do need to keep using some medication in the long run, that's fine too.

First little bit of advice: Being on gliclazide and seeing close to normal fasting numbers already, please always keep your meter and something to treat a hypo on you whenever you leave the house, hypo's tend to hit when you least expect them!

Good luck!

 

[Diabootic]

Thanks for the encouraging words, Antje77 it's all a lot confusing right now but I'm sure everyone gets the hang of it eventually

 

[muzza3]

Hi and Welcome @Diabootic

Great start that you are testing and limiting your carbs. Definitely chase down your test results or have it redone. When you get them post on here and you will get some great feedback

 

[Diabootic]

Thanks, Muzza3. I've only recently read about carbs on here and it was a revelation to say the least, I had no idea! Will definitely ask about the tests as it seems to e an important part of a lot of advice people get here.

 

[TooSweetForMe]

Hello, and welcome to the forums!

I'm from the US, so I can't offer specific advice to the UK. I can be a listening post if you need to vent and can offer up a hearty congrats on a job well done.

 

[cheesedream]

Hi @Diabootic
I was diagnosed in a similar way to you. In A&E having a heart attack they found my blood glucose was 29, and my HbA1c was 109. Like you, I had a 5 min chat with a Diabetes Nurse in hospital, but they did recommend a low carb diet which led me to the support that I found on this forum. I went low carb straight away, and in 6 months got my HbA1c down to 45. I can see that eating low carb is working for me, but it is hard to get out of the fat is going to give me another heart attack mind set. And I am only taking metformin, so no risk of hypos. Your mind must be all over the place at the moment trying to see the right thing to do for you. For me, I feel that eating to control my diabetes is supporting my general health. I do hope you find a path that works for you.

 

[Diabootic]

but it is hard to get out of the fat is going to give me another heart attack mind set. And I am only taking metformin, so no risk of hypos. Your mind must be all over the place at the moment trying to see the right thing to do for you. For me, I feel that eating to control my diabetes is supporting my general health. I do hope you find a path that works for you.

Thanks so much for this, it's really what has been bothering me the most and it's very reassuring that you've been there and this route has still worked out for you. Appreciate that.

 

[cheesedream]

I know that I feel better and that is down to getting my diabetes under control. I don't know if you have any weight to lose, but I also lost around around 4 stone with a low carb way of eating, which can only help my heart. My blood pressure used to be a scary number and these days its well in the green zone. When you get your appointment it might be an idea to ask about Metformin, as it has an association with cardiac health. The downside is that it can be hard on the digestive system, but for me the slow release version is fine.
Is sound like you are doing a great job already at getting your numbers down.

 

[VashtiB]

Hello and welcome,

What a scary time for you. You must feel v very overwhelmed with all that has happened.

Yes- I know about this 'surprise' carbs. I'm also gluten intolerant (no longer a problem now I'm very low carb) and there are lots of 'surprise gluten' foods too.

So taking your readings regularly is very important. While I am a big low carb fan my best advice is eat to your meter. As you are on gliclazide you will need to be careful. We certainly don't want you in hospital with a hypo.

So test your levels while logging your food. I think it is always good to know your starting point whatever strategy you intend to use. Once you know your carb intake then you can think about very gradually reducing them while still testing your levels. It will feel like a lot of testing at first but it will get better. My strips have 50 in a packet and I was going through them so quickly when first diagnosed that my husband was thinking of buying shares in the company I would stuff up tests and test so many times. Now I test about 3 times a day just because I'm a bit (okay a lot) obsessive. My levels have all been in the normal range for over 18 months.

So take it slowly. Your overall health is important. You will need to discuss any changes to your medication with your medical team. If you are regularly testing and your levels are dropping you can see what their response is to dropping the
gliclazide and putting you on metformin.

But keep reading around and posting. People here are very willing to help and support you.

Welcome

 

[Resurgam]

I ate low fat for almost 2 years and did not see any alteration in cholesterol numbers.
I was diagnosed diabetic, began to eat low carb with the natural tat, and my numbers went down.
The nurse claimed it was a delayed reaction, but I can't give advice on eating low fat foods for lowering cholesterol as it didn't work for me.
There is the added complication that lowering cholesterol doesn't seem to reduce heart problems.

 

[Lin Harper]

Yoga is the best way to keep in check for blood sugar

 

[Diabootic]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance about the fat. I do have weight to lose and don't know the reason behind the Gliclazide, they did say in the hospital but I forgot. I weigh about 83 kilos, did weigh 89 but six disappeared with frusemide. Been doing low fat low calories ever since but haven't lost a single kilo even though I've been a lot more active than before and gone down a clothes size.

I think there's good news this morning, tried a test two hours after the first bite of a spinach omelette and two peperami and it went from 6.8 this morning to... 6.8 again. That was 8.5 carbs.

I was accidentally on a very high carb diet up to now and my breakfasts could be 70 carbs no problem, two bananas, muesli, no fat yoghurt. I'll ask tomorrow why I'm not on metformin, thanks again everyone.

 

[Lakeslover]

Yoga is the best way to keep in check for blood sugar

do you have any studies that prove this sweeping statement?

I do yoga 5 times a week at varying intensities. For me it raises my blood sugar while I am doing it, although it drops to the original level an hour or so afterwards. It has never reduced it. But we are all different of course.

if you can post a link to any studies (on a different thread to avoid derailing this one ) I would be really interested in reading them.

 

[Diabootic]

Had an appt with a practice nurse yesterday, was recommended the eatwell plate and to check blood glucose three times a week. She was likely right that getting too interested in numbers could be unhelpful, but I want some sort of idea what's going on first.

Nothing else really, just watch cheese and salt and try to maintain a stable weight. The heart failure literature says otherwise and fat me apparently has heart attacks, so I'd rather try to lose weight sensibly. A lot of these appointments seem to be trying hard not to fat shame or something, but I'm aware of how I spent lockdown and it's okay to say over-eating couch potato is not a good look for me.

Blood test last Friday gave an Hba1c of 51 so I need to find out what that means.

 

[Foodandexercise1133]

Hi @Diabootic , I just wanted to say welcome, as I'm about to be off

I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice shortly, mainly on using the meter to test before and after foods to see how that particular food affects you.

With morning readings between 6 and 8 this early in the game I think it's not an unrealistic goal at all, and I hope you'll be able to! However, if you find you do need to keep using some medication in the long run, that's fine too.

First little bit of advice: Being on gliclazide and seeing close to normal fasting numbers already, please always keep your meter and something to treat a hypo on you whenever you leave the house, hypo's tend to hit when you least expect them!

Good luck!

Fantastic feedback!

 

[KennyA]

Had an appt with a practice nurse yesterday, was recommended the eatwell plate and to check blood glucose three times a week. She was likely right that getting too interested in numbers could be unhelpful, but I want some sort of idea what's going on first.

Nothing else really, just watch cheese and salt and try to maintain a stable weight. The heart failure literature says otherwise and fat me apparently has heart attacks, so I'd rather try to lose weight sensibly. A lot of these appointments seem to be trying hard not to fat shame or something, but I'm aware of how I spent lockdown and it's okay to say over-eating couch potato is not a good look for me.

Blood test last Friday gave an Hba1c of 51 so I need to find out what that means.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/kennya.517579/

51 is just above the HbA1c level where the medics will diagnose diabetes. Mine was 50 at diagnosis. You might of course have had diabetic symptoms for years before formal diagnosis - many of us have. I'd been having diabetic symptoms for ten years. I eat about 20g carbs/day and live off fat and protein. My A1c is normal (took four months), trigs have improved, +20kg weight loss...all good. Symptoms have gone or greatly improved. Technically "in remission".

The big thing (if you decide to follow a low-carb lifestyle) is to put away all the ideas fed to us for years about what is healthy and what isn't, particularly the Eatwell plate. Following that resulted - for me - in weight gain, illness, and diabetes. I eat mainly dairy - particularly cheese - and meat, for example, and have needed to up my salt intake slightly as I'm not eating things like bread or processed foods that have quite a bit of salt to begin with. At the beginning I tested my blood before every meal and once at least two hours after. I've been able to scale this back with more experience of what food does what. So despite what your nurse says, in your position I'd be testing a lot more often. It's how you establish what the carbs you take in do to your system. Some of us can tolerate some types of carbs, some can't. We're all different.

Best of luck.

 

[Resurgam]

I found an interesting article in the last few days comparing taking Simvastatin to altering the fats eaten, done with people after a myocardial infarction.
Reducing omega 6 and increasing Omega 3 and 9 was found to be far better at preventing a second event, 70 % as compared to 30% in the statin group eating the advised diet.