Petrolhead276
Member
- Messages
- 15
- Location
- SE Essex
- Type of diabetes
- Don't have diabetes
- Treatment type
- I do not have diabetes
- Dislikes
- Beuracracy
Stress induces cortisol production and cortisol raises blood glucose so there is a physiological result of stress. A GP should never poo poo a patient under any circumstances but when the patient actually knows what is contributing to raised bg then he/she should take note and act accordingly. You did the right thing in making that doctor take notice of what you were saying, well done.
Diet, for me, has been the mainstay in my armoury. First thing I did was to give up sugar in my tea then all the starchy carbs already mentioned and then I looked further to reduce any carbs that I was unaware of that seemed inocuous like bananas, garden peas etc I bought a carb counting book although you can easily download an app or just google the carb count of foods and drinks. It is a real learning curve so don't expect an overnight change. I had a few wobbles but I've managed to lower my bg and lose weight but I'm still learning four months on from diagnosis.
It may be that high bg is causing your wife's thrush rather than medication so lowering the amount of carbs will help. It is a condition I have not suffered with since I started low carbing and I had been plagued by it before then.
Try to get used to looking at labels on the foods you buy, as a general rule aim for 10g of carbs or fewer for 100g of weight. Best of luck to you all and welcome to the forum.
I suffered constant thrush for a long period of time which I can link directly to when my diabetes was very much out of control due to a thyroid condition and its dramatic psychiatric side-effects.It may be that high bg is causing your wife's thrush rather than medication so lowering the amount of carbs will help. It is a condition I have not suffered with since I started low carbing and I had been plagued by it before then.
@Petrolhead276
Can you tell us what your wife eats and drinks in a typical day?
Is her asthma medication a steroid?
Hello and welcome.
Just a quick question. Has your wife had her thyroid levels checked recently?
And yes, stress will most definitely act on blood sugar levels.
Hi all.
My name is David age 61 (Oct).
we live in SE Essex between Southend & Basildon.
I am not diabetic but my wife is Type 2 diabetic and I am overweight enough (BMI 46) to be in the diabetes risk category, whenever I see my GP this is mentioned.
My wife's medication has just been changed from a second tablet, can't recall the name of it, to a VICTOZA 6mg/ml (prefixed Liraglutide) in addition to metformin at highest dose.
For a number of years she had no meter from our GP just a blood test every 3 months.
Personally I find that approach stupid and an NHS cost saving excercise, whilst I get that it's the 3 month rolling values that are important, waiting 3 months between each means one cannot manage ones bloods on a timely basis and a monthly test with the GP reviewing the changes over a 3 month rolling timeline would be more appropriate, especially for newly diagnosed patients to get on top of the changes required to their lifestyle.
Therefore I got one of the free meters from the manufacturers and bought the test strips & lancets ourselves.
Even with this she was unable to adequately control her blood sugar levels.
She now has a meter from our GP, and I have obtained the free cable from manufacturer to be able to offload the results to a PC for us to review.
My wife is also obese and has never really eaten a lot, personally I believe she has a very low metabolic rate and this is part of her problem, I am constantly reminding her that she needs to eat regularly but she says she is not hungry and so goes the vicious circle with her blood sugars and eating.
To top it all, we have a severely physically disabled son, whilst he no longer lives at home, he still requires our support for financial & health management and he himself underwent bariatric surgery and my wife has been visiting him 3 days a week for the last year, spending all day wife him and motivating him, but it takes its toll on her and she then cannot motivate herself to manage her diabetes.
She has told the Diabetes GP, who happens to be at the other practice surgery and only sees my wife for her diabetic reviews, that she has read that "stress" can influence blood sugar levels and that we have a disabled son.
He just poo pooed this, until her last appointment when a young Asian doctor trainee was also present and my wife mentioned the age of our son (34) and his conditions and the trainee said you have had a lot to deal with over a long period of time.
She also has had asthma since a child and the nurse has changed her medication for this (NHS cost saving?) and that isn't working for her, adding more stress.
I went along to support her at one of her reviews (18+ months ago) with the diabetic GP, he had his jaw resting on his hand whilst talking to her looking at his pc screen, totally impersonal.
So I left it for a few minutes listening to his questions and her answers, I then interjected with "the reason I am here today is that my wife tells me you don't listen to what she is saying", this got his attention and he took his jaw off his hand and looked at us both.
I then explained the issues she had with his approach and why I had sought a private appointment with a consultant arranged by our usual GP and that he had best start listening to what my wife says as putting her on medication that gives her constant thrush is unacceptable regardless of whether it brings the BG levels down, as it's an unacceptable form of medication for my wife's needs.
She won't join a local diabetes group to talk with people who have been through this either, she hates opening up to strangers.
Hence this post to see what other options exist for me to try with her to provide support.
@daisy1 seems like you are the fountain of all knowledge on here from some of the posts I have read
If you are finding it hard to persuade your life to make the change, could you help her by taking over the food for a bit? there re lots of delicious Low carb recips here and on diet doctor.com. They are lovely for all, diabetic or not.
Once she got some of the good stuff inside her, you may find its easier to persuade her not to need the bad stuff, simply because her hunger pangs will start to go down. It does start to happen very quickly - so how about a whole renewed interest in cooking coming from you?
It's not a matter of good stuff v bad stuff, it's a desire not to eat that is the bigger issue.
She is an extremely good cook, managed our sons dietary needs including counting calories, GI balance etc.
Yes i could take over meal preparation, especially as i am short,y going to retire, which will give me more time for this.
But answer this, how if someone just losses interest in eating food in general does one turn it around? I try to face things in life head on, whereas she would rather avoid confrontational situations.
Like it or not tackling ones food intake to manage diabetes is a major confrontational issue, unfortunately it is a personal one.
Whilst People can help, be supportive etc etc, the ultimate choices are made by the individual with diabetes, at least anyone not under a mental health section.
The son of a friend of my wife had Type 1 and due to his emotions & relationships (girlfriend/others) ended up in a diabetic coma and suffered irreversible organ failure and the inevitable consequences of that.
Sorry for my rants, I am just concerned and can't say these things directly to her without things escalating in the wrong direction.
I am sure she is still in the denial stage of the change curve (aka grief curve) even though she was diagnosed in 2012.
It's not a rant ! - that is why the site exists, to try and provide some support and hopefully help people regain their health.
You mention that your wife is obese with lots of cravings , yet she doesn't eat a lot ? is that a fair summary?
That describes many of us in the early days, we feel so guilty about being fat, we try so hard to not be interested in food, so every day becomes a battle to try not to give into our cravings ( which we often fail at) and then not even getting any good nutrients, so we slowly starve ourselves into ill health with the best of intentions.
Obviously no one can put themselves in your wives shoes,so it would be very good if she could be persuaded to join here herself, she can be totally anonymous - its one of the lovely things about being able to speak to strangers on the internet.
If she can't be persuaded , then if you could educate yourself about a healthy diet for diabetics- which is often a very low carb but high fat diet - think of example - bacon and eggs sauteed in butter , just without the bread . it may be that you could prepare it, without mentioning anything about it in terms of a diet, and gradually allow her to actually fill up on the nutrients she needs but is possibly missing right now. You will probably find yourself very surprised at the wide range of foods that are recommended. For now your wife doesn't need to be on an actual diet, she simply needs to get the nutrients that are missing and gradually bring down her blood sugars - the weight loss will come after that especially if you try to steer her away from carb. heavy processed foods.
It is so hard when someone we love is in pain and we can't figure out how to help them. I hope you find a way.
Cherryaa
Yes your first sentence is a fair summary. Thanks for the rest too.
However, with one crucial exception - It's not just since she became diabetic that she eats less, She has always eaten like a mouse, yet gained weight.
As a child (many years before I met her) she was even put on a diet after her mother who had taken her to the doctor about her weight, if I recall correctly it was salad after salad, strangely she still enjoys a salad now, but not for every meal (who would - rhetorical).
There is a rationale that I have heard many times:
whereby our bodies store fat from the good times for use in the lean times (caveman biology) and if one does not eat regularly then when foods does enter the body the body sends it straight to its energy store (FAT), so in reality eating too little can be equally as bad as eating too much.
One of our sons consultants summed up his weght gain very well.
"Stuart, you have to look at it like this, your body is very efficient and doesn't need much in terms of food (aka calories) to keep it going each day".
And my orthopaedic consultant who performed the surgery on the cam impingemt of my left hip was concerned about my weight (IMHO more that it might ruin his spotless reputation for no breaks of the femur post surgery), however, he said to me "you just need to stop eating"; and he wasn't joking either.
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