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Hi from Canada

SpyGuy101

SpyGuy101

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Good day from Canada, eh!
Just found your site. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in June of last year. Quite the shock. Hadn't manifested any symptoms at that time but my A1C levels were at 16. My weight was also high: I'm 5'10" and was around 200 pounds. Been as high as 215 but managed to bring it down partially by last June.
Saw the diabetes clinic folks a couple of days later: this was after spending some time scaring myself silly checking the disease out online. Didn't have a great first go with the clinic staff: they kept insisting I should have realized I had the disease and I kept insisting that I hadn't seen any symptoms.
Eating habits weren't horrible, just erratic at times. Snacking after 9pm, too much bread and not enough greens.
I've changed things around fairly dramatically, at least for me. Dropped down to 175 pounds and have kept the weight off. Exercising again, mainly as a result of an excellent physio guy who'se helped me deal with a back injury that left me unable to exercise to my usual level for 5 years. Changed my diet and cut back on bread, portions and incorporated more salads and fish. It's working so far. Even discovered the joy of sugar-free ice cream on occasion.
I should mention I'm a soldier, so am now on a permanent medical category because of diabetes. Good news is that it doesn't really have a significant impact. Medication-wise, I'm on Metformin (1450 mg) and it's been helping. And I've been lucky in that I've had none of the usual side effects from what I've read. Slight loss of appetite but nothing else.
 
Hello @SpyGuy101 and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find this useful. You are certainly managing very well. Not all of this information will apply in Canada though. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
 
Hi soldier, and welcome to the forum.

Great you have found us! We are all diabetics of one sort or another with a wealth of experience between us. Have a good read round and ask questions. You seem to be managing very well. Do you have a meter and test out your meals to make sure you are eating a suitable diet? What sort of levels of BS do you see now?
 
Hi and welcome. Sounds like you are already doing the right things diet-wise and the Metformin will help a bit. Do get hold of a meter if you haven't got one so you can measure how you are doing
 
Thanks for the welcome!
I do have a meter and am testing a couple of times a day typically. I did baseline testing for the first few weeks to figure out what was happening pre- and post-meals, and to get an idea on what new foods were doing to me. My BS levels pre-meals typically are in the 5-7 range and post (2 hours) are running in the high 8s. I do spike into the high-9s and low 10s if I combine alcohol, but not a big drinker anyway (1-2 beers per week max) so hasn't been an issue.
My A1C level just recently (early Jan) had declined to 6 (down from 6.5 in Sep of last year) so I think I'm moving in the right direction.
Anyway, again, thanks for the welcome!
 
You could get those pre and post meal levels down if you tweaked your diet a bit more by going back to using your meter and reducing your carbs a bit more. 2hours after eating, levels in the high 8's aren't that good. Your A1c does show you are moving in the right direction though.
 
Welcome! I'm in Canada as well and a former reservist (The Black Watch). I have the opposite issue re symptoms. I have peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage) in my feet and the doctors and nurses all insist that my blood glucose levels weren't high enough to cause it. However, the symptoms have vastly improved since I got my blood glucose levels under control, so I'm pretty sure it was caused by the diabetes.

It may not be something that your interested in or that it would necessarily work for you, but I have found being on a ketogenic diet (less than 50 g carbs a day) has actually reversed all my metabolic symptoms. I'm only a couple of years younger than you, but the diet change didn't just fix my blood glucose problems - I feel much better in general. I joined a gym a month ago and now workout 2 hours 6 days a week (running 5 - 10km per workout on an indoor track and lifting weights). If you knew me you would not believe I would have made a change like that in my life. I am now in the best physical shape in my life - that's no exaggeration. All those middle-aged issues with running and working out seem to have disappeared. No tendon pain, no joint pain, no muscle pain, and I'm fully recovered in less than a day for the next work out.

The diet is based on the simple concept that for optimal health and body function we should eat a diet similar to what our predecessors ate during most of our evolution. It's all explained here: http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

I highly recommend ordering his book. You can get it from Amazon. The best part of the diet is you don't need to weigh your food or count the calories, just follow a few simple rules. A small downside is the diet is nothing like the official low fat high carb healthy plate diet and is met with scepticism by most health care professionals. To get around that I don't discuss what I eat with my diabetes nurse until after we have gone over my latest test results. It's really hard for anyone to suggest I change my diet when it is working so well. In fact, last time we met she said I was one of a rare few that she has seen reverse type 2 diabetes through diet alone. I suspect that's because most people try to follow the low fat high carb diet that's recommended.
 
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