Help Please confused and do not know what to do?

[Morag]

I am somewhat confused and need some help. I had an HB1AC of 9.1 at the end of August last year and concentrated on my diet and my recent test last week showed an improvement on the HB1AC test to 8.0 and the nurse said that I should so on the tablets two a day Metophormin.

My view is that its quite an improvement and if I continue and get it down to 7.0 in the next three months then I do not want tablets and dependence on them any views? Is is possible to get it down just
by diet and exercise?

Also I have read about the stem cell treatment in Germany which can also help and avoid the need for tablets has anyone come across this treatment?

I just got ten minutes with the Nurse which really is not enough so any help or guidance would be very appreciated.

 

[sugarless sue]

Welcome to the forum,
It is possible to control type 2 with diet and exercise. However it is a good idea to reduce your blood glucose levels with the Metformin first then tailor a diet to suit yourself by reducing carbohydrate and then try and control it with just the diet.

Some members do this very successfully. Here is the advice we give for new type 2 members:

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!