Help with type 2 - any hints and tips

Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
Hi all. This is my first post on here but thought I’d try to get some words of wisdom from others who have type 2 diabetes. I am really struggling - I take 4 metformin a day and 1 Jardiance- I never monitor my levels (as thought I didn’t need to if type 2) but I know I am going over my carbs and sugar intake but am not sure what amount of carbs or sugar I should be having, if I did monitor what is a good level to be at and what can I do if I have spiked (as don’t use insulin) - I would be grateful for any tips if anyone has any? Thanks
 

Rachox

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Messages
16,983
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi @Kezza21 and welcome to the forum. You’ve taken an important step by joining this forum. Loads of us type 2s here have put our results back into the non diabetic range. Personally I eat low carb and monitor my sugar levels. Have a read of this blog written by one of the members here:
Come back with any questions you have.
 

mariavontrapp

Well-Known Member
Messages
281
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
A finger prick monitor is reasonably affordable and will help you to monitor your levels.Try testing when you wake up, then test before a meal and 2-3 hours afterwards. But don't feel you have to test every day. Your nurse will probably tell you that you don't need one (this advice is inexplicable to most diabetics!).
If you can afford it, a CGM like Libre 2, is really useful. But 50 quid for a 2 week monitor, ie, £100 a month!
 
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Art Of Flowers

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,299
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Statins
What to do?
  1. Get a glucose meter and check which foods spike your blood sugar.
  2. Cut out sugar and high carb foods such as breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, fruit juice and fruit such as bananas and grapes.
See https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb for some advice what is good to eat on a low carb diet.
 
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KennyA

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Messages
3,634
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all. This is my first post on here but thought I’d try to get some words of wisdom from others who have type 2 diabetes. I am really struggling - I take 4 metformin a day and 1 Jardiance- I never monitor my levels (as thought I didn’t need to if type 2) but I know I am going over my carbs and sugar intake but am not sure what amount of carbs or sugar I should be having, if I did monitor what is a good level to be at and what can I do if I have spiked (as don’t use insulin) - I would be grateful for any tips if anyone has any? Thanks
The thing about trying to control your blood sugar levels is that you first need to know what your blood sugar level is, and what makes it the way it is. Testing is the only way to do this. The NHS doesn't advise T2s testing, because if it did, there might well would be an expensive obligation to provide the meters and test strips. There's also some hangover from a very outdated idea that claimed it was useless T2s testing as nobody could ever achieve control anyway.

I use a method I learnt on this forum: test immediately before eating, and then two hours later. Test one establishes a baseline. Test two shows you how well your system handled the carbs in whatever you ate. You are not testing to see "how high you go". The high point will probably be somewhere in the first hour, but that's normal. The T2 problem is quickly and effectively clearing the glucose into muscle, fat cells, or into the liver as glycogen. If your second reading is a) within 2mmol/l of the first one and b) under 8.5 then your system did the job as it should. If not, there were too many carbs (and therefore too much glucose) for your system to handle at present.

This bit of reseach shows "normal" levels in non-diabetic people established by using constant glucose monitors. If you're aiming for "normal" than this gives you some idea what "normal" looks like. Unfortunately it's from the USA and all figures are given in mg/dl - as a quick reference 80mg/dl = 4.4 mmol/l; 100mg/dl = 5.6; 120 = 6.7; 140 = 7.8; 160 = 8.9.


Eating food with carbs in it will raise your blood sugar - that happens to just about everybody. I don't call an expected rise like this a "spike" - I think it's misleading. To my mind a spike is a rise in blood glucose that's both unexpected and sharp - and usually comes down just as quickly. Perhaps increasing use of CGMs by non-diabetic people has led a lot of them to talk about "spiking" when all that's happening is a normal and short-term rise in BG after eating.

Personally I don't bother doing anything in response. What seems to do the most damage in terms of micro and macrovascular harm is elevated blood glucose for long periods of time, so having a higher level for 20 or 30 minutes or so doesn't bother me.
 
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Melgar

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Messages
1,305
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Welcome to the forum @Kezza21 , just being on here you are on your way to lowering your blood sugars. You will learn a lot from folks who have had T2 diabetes for years. Many of them have driven down their blood sugars and have come off their blood lowering meds, through diet adjustments, exercise and weight loss.

Your Dr may or may not have told you that you don’t need to test we will take care of your blood sugars, smile and say thank you, go home and do your own testing with a blood sugar meter or CGM. Only you know how high your blood sugars are. It’s your body, your health and managing your blood sugars is very important if you want to avoid diabetic complications. Diabetes is a serious chronic condition, but it most definitely can be managed, you can even put it in remission with the right diet and stop the meds.

Forget all the social media nonsense you hear on-line stating it’s your fault you have eaten all the wrong things, too many sweets , crisps, deserts and pastas that is not why you have T2 diabetes. What the Drs don‘t tell you is it’s genetic In most cases. They will tell you to change your diet, give you some blood lowering meds like Metformin and send you on your way see you whenever in so many words. Don’t be fooled by this,T2 Diabetes is serious.

Why do you have Diabetes?

There are a couple of things you should be aware of:
You will hear about Insulin Resistance or IR. In most cases Insulin Resistance is the driver of T2 diabetes. As a T2 diabetic you will have Insulin Resistance. What is Insulin Resistance ? Insulin Resistance Is your body’s inability to utilize your insulin effectively. Insulin is a hormone secreted from your pancreas. The cells in pancreas (Beta cells) are extremely sensitive to the food you eat. The Beta cells in your pancreas regulate your blood sugars by secreting insulin when you eat carbs. Unfortunately, with Insulin Resistance, for reasons that are not fully understood, your insulin cannot unlock the cells in your body and allow the carbs (all carbs are converted into sugars /glucose) you eat to enter your cells and be converted into energy. Insulin has the key to allow sugars/glucose into your cells. So what happens to the sugars that cannot enter your cells? Your muscles use 70% of all carbs you consume. So these ‘homeless’ blood sugars float around in your blood stream with nowhere to go. Too much blood sugar is toxic to your body, so your body has to get these sugars out of your blood. What does your body do? It converts the blood sugar into fat and distributes it around your body as fat, but some of this excess blood sugar stays in your blood stream.

The other contributor to Type 2 diabetes is your pancreas. Your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to cope with the carbs you consume and overcome the Insulin Resistance. None diabetics’ pancreas’ can produce an abundance of insulin. They can eat pasta, potatoes, sweet deserts, crisps , in short they can eat whatever they want because their pancreas‘ can produce enough insulin regardless of the amount of carbs, which means their blood sugars stay within a healthy range. Your pancreas cannot. It’s limited In how much insulin it can produce.

So you have Insulin Resistance AND your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to bring your blood sugars down. Your blood sugars gradually keep rising, you put on weight. And on and on it goes.

This is why you can have two obese individuals, one has diabetes the other doesn’t. It’s because the none diabetic‘s pancreas can produce an abundance of insulin, even when they to have Insulin Resistance. Their pancreas can churn out massive amounts of insulin to force the blood sugars into their muscle cells, and as a result their blood sugars remains perfectly normal. As a diabetic your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to counter the Insulin Resistance and the carbs you are consuming.

This is why you have to reduce the carbs you consume so that your pancreas can cope. How many carbs your pancreas can handle varies from individual to individual.

I have boiled this right down to two basic components, Insulin Resistance and your pancreas that cannot produce enough insulin. D2 is a complex disease and there is much more to it, but, hopefully this simple explanation makes some sense. So whenever you read on social media that it’s to do with over eating and the consumption of too much junk food, know that is utter nonsense
. You have a pancreas that cannot produce enough insulin.

I went on a bit and if you got to the end, well done you!
 
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Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
Welcome to the forum @Kezza21 , just being on here you are on your way to lowering your blood sugars. You will learn a lot from folks who have had T2 diabetes for years. Many of them have driven down their blood sugars and have come off their blood lowering meds, through diet adjustments, exercise and weight loss.

Your Dr may or may not have told you that you don’t need to test we will take care of your blood sugars, smile and say thank you, go home and do your own testing with a blood sugar meter or CGM. Only you know how high your blood sugars are. It’s your body, your health and managing your blood sugars is very important if you want to avoid diabetic complications. Diabetes is a serious chronic condition, but it most definitely can be managed, you can even put it in remission with the right diet and stop the meds.

Forget all the social media nonsense you hear on-line stating it’s your fault you have eaten all the wrong things, too many sweets , crisps, deserts and pastas that is not why you have T2 diabetes. What the Drs don‘t tell you is it’s genetic In most cases. They will tell you to change your diet, give you some blood lowering meds like Metformin and send you on your way see you whenever in so many words. Don’t be fooled by this,T2 Diabetes is serious.

Why do you have Diabetes?

There are a couple of things you should be aware of:
You will hear about Insulin Resistance or IR. In most cases Insulin Resistance is the driver of T2 diabetes. As a T2 diabetic you will have Insulin Resistance. What is Insulin Resistance ? Insulin Resistance Is your body’s inability to utilize your insulin effectively. Insulin is a hormone secreted from your pancreas. The cells in pancreas (Beta cells) are extremely sensitive to the food you eat. The Beta cells in your pancreas regulate your blood sugars by secreting insulin when you eat carbs. Unfortunately, with Insulin Resistance, for reasons that are not fully understood, your insulin cannot unlock the cells in your body and allow the carbs (all carbs are converted into sugars /glucose) you eat to enter your cells and be converted into energy. Insulin has the key to allow sugars/glucose into your cells. So what happens to the sugars that cannot enter your cells? Your muscles use 70% of all carbs you consume. So these ‘homeless’ blood sugars float around in your blood stream with nowhere to go. Too much blood sugar is toxic to your body, so your body has to get these sugars out of your blood. What does your body do? It converts the blood sugar into fat and distributes it around your body as fat, but some of this excess blood sugar stays in your blood stream.

The other contributor to Type 2 diabetes is your pancreas. Your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to cope with the carbs you consume and overcome the Insulin Resistance. None diabetics’ pancreas’ can produce an abundance of insulin. They can eat pasta, potatoes, sweet deserts, crisps , in short they can eat whatever they want because their pancreas‘ can produce enough insulin regardless of the amount of carbs, which means their blood sugars stay within a healthy range. Your pancreas cannot. It’s limited In how much insulin it can produce.

So you have Insulin Resistance AND your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to bring your blood sugars down. Your blood sugars gradually keep rising, you put on weight. And on and on it goes.

This is why you can have two obese individuals, one has diabetes the other doesn’t. It’s because the none diabetic‘s pancreas can produce an abundance of insulin, even when they to have Insulin Resistance. Their pancreas can churn out massive amounts of insulin to force the blood sugars into their muscle cells, and as a result their blood sugars remains perfectly normal. As a diabetic your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to counter the Insulin Resistance and the carbs you are consuming.

This is why you have to reduce the carbs you consume so that your pancreas can cope. How many carbs your pancreas can handle varies from individual to individual.

I have boiled this right down to two basic components, Insulin Resistance and your pancreas that cannot produce enough insulin. D2 is a complex disease and there is much more to it, but, hopefully this simple explanation makes some sense. So whenever you read on social media that it’s to do with over eating and the consumption of too much junk food, know that is utter nonsense
. You have a pancreas that cannot produce enough insulin.

I went on a bit and if you got to the end, well done you!
Melgar, thank you so much for taking the time to explain that for me. It does make sense the way you have explained it so thank you for that. My dr experience was very much as you said - blood sugars are high, take these tablets and we’ll see you in 6 months time. So I think I will take your advice and get a blood sugar meter so I have a bit more control. Thank you so much for your advice. X
 

Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
Hi @Kezza21 and welcome to the forum. You’ve taken an important step by joining this forum. Loads of us type 2s here have put our results back into the non diabetic range. Personally I eat low carb and monitor my sugar levels. Have a read of this blog written by one of the members here:
Thank you so much, I will have a read and come back if any queries.
 
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Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
A finger prick monitor is reasonably affordable and will help you to monitor your levels.Try testing when you wake up, then test before a meal and 2-3 hours afterwards. But don't feel you have to test every day. Your nurse will probably tell you that you don't need one (this advice is inexplicable to most diabetics!).
If you can afford it, a CGM like Libre 2, is really useful. But 50 quid for a 2 week monitor, ie, £100 a month!
Thank you so much for your advice. I think I will get a monitor to give myself some control to help me manage what I eat. X
 
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Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
What to do?
  1. Get a glucose meter and check which foods spike your blood sugar.
  2. Cut out sugar and high carb foods such as breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, fruit juice and fruit such as bananas and
Thank you so much the dietdoctor website is great with lots of info. Thanks x
 

Kezza21

Member
Messages
6
The thing about trying to control your blood sugar levels is that you first need to know what your blood sugar level is, and what makes it the way it is. Testing is the only way to do this. The NHS doesn't advise T2s testing, because if it did, there might well would be an expensive obligation to provide the meters and test strips. There's also some hangover from a very outdated idea that claimed it was useless T2s testing as nobody could ever achieve control anyway.

I use a method I learnt on this forum: test immediately before eating, and then two hours later. Test one establishes a baseline. Test two shows you how well your system handled the carbs in whatever you ate. You are not testing to see "how high you go". The high point will probably be somewhere in the first hour, but that's normal. The T2 problem is quickly and effectively clearing the glucose into muscle, fat cells, or into the liver as glycogen. If your second reading is a) within 2mmol/l of the first one and b) under 8.5 then your system did the job as it should. If not, there were too many carbs (and therefore too much glucose) for your system to handle at present.

This bit of reseach shows "normal" levels in non-diabetic people established by using constant glucose monitors. If you're aiming for "normal" than this gives you some idea what "normal" looks like. Unfortunately it's from the USA and all figures are given in mg/dl - as a quick reference 80mg/dl = 4.4 mmol/l; 100mg/dl = 5.6; 120 = 6.7; 140 = 7.8; 160 = 8.9.


Eating food with carbs in it will raise your blood sugar - that happens to just about everybody. I don't call an expected rise like this a "spike" - I think it's misleading. To my mind a spike is a rise in blood glucose that's both unexpected and sharp - and usually comes down just as quickly. Perhaps increasing use of CGMs by non-diabetic people has led a lot of them to talk about "spiking" when all that's happening is a normal and short-term rise in BG after eating.

Personally I don't bother doing anything in response. What seems to do the most damage in terms of micro and macrovascular harm is elevated blood glucose for long periods of time, so having a higher level for 20 or 30 minutes or so doesn't bother me.
Thank you so much KennyA for taking the time to respond and for all the advice it was so informative. I am going to order a finger prick tester to start me off to help manage my levels and understand how different types of foods affect me, thanks for the advice.
 
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OrsonKartt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,388
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
over selling.... oh so many things are enthusiastically oversold
Thank you so much KennyA for taking the time to respond and for all the advice it was so informative. I am going to order a finger prick tester to start me off to help manage my levels and understand how different types of foods affect me, thanks for the advice.

Getting a meter is the best step


Personally I find recording my levels and recording what I have eaten also helps.


But just doing one thing at a time is a very good policy
 
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