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yorkylass

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Good morning everyone, my name is Diane and I live in South Yorkshire.
I have 3 children and a lovely husband and two not so lovely bald rats. :shifty:

I've suffered from Grave's disease in the past (over active thyroid) and I'm now hypothyroid taking levothyroxine daily.
During a routine blood test, I'm 44 and had an over 40's MOT, the only thing out of whack was my triglycerides, they came back at 3.04(0.45-1.88) I was asked by the nurse to return for a fasting blood test to retest this, my second result came back at 3.79.
Even though my GP had written no action needed I went to see him about this. He told me to buy some Omega 3.
I was unhappy at this so I changed my GP.

My new GP picked up on this and decided to test my glucose level. My result came back at 6.8, no ranges sorry.
So then I went in to do the Lucozade test. A fasting blood test, a bottle of Lucozade and 2 hours later more bloods taken.
When I got home I began to feel very unwell. I was weak, trembly, dizzy and had a little blurred vision.
My results came back and I was diagnosed with pre diabetes. My fasting bloods were 7.1 and 2 hours later 9.9.
My GP recommended exercise and to lose weight.

Previously, every time I've tried dieting I've had episodes or trembling, rapid heart rate after eating, weak arms and legs and headaches.
After a little research I decided that I would follow the GI diet, which I have been doing for several weeks now, I haven't lost a pound. :shock: I've also been doing exercise 4-5 times a week, mainly cardio DVD's for 30-45 minutes.
I was feeling slightly better than I was, I hadn't been suffering from my episodes for quite some time until recently.

My daughter has left for university, which I have found really hard. My youngest son, who is 6 yr old is awaiting a hospital appointment after a routine eye exam picked up a "brown fleck" behind his eye, which I'm very worried about as you can imagine.
I'm a moderator on a different forum, the only other moderator works full time, I've been sending messages, e-mails, Facebook messages to the site owner begging for help, but, my messages are sometimes getting read, sometimes not, but, no replies. I even tried her husband, but, he didn't reply either.

I've been running the forum on my own mostly for 8 months now and I've become extremely angry and upset that the site owner could treat me this way.

My husband says I should quit, but, I feel I can't. The members need to help, support and advice from that forum.

Anyway, symptoms are coming back, most nights, by 6-7pm my vision is becoming blurry and I get a horrific headache, I go weak and I'm in bed before 9pm every night.

Could stress be a factor here? Can stress affect glucose levels?

Sorry this is so long and thanks for reading if you managed to get through it all. X
 
Hi yorkylass and welcome to the forum. Stress definitely affects our blood glucose levels, one thing my diabetic doctor is always telling me is to relax but it is a really hard thing to do in todays world. Try and take some time out for you. You sound as if you have enough on your plate just now in your own family without taking on the responsibilities of others. If i was you i would try and contact the other moderator on your forum once more and if they dont respond just send a message to the forum saying that for health or family reasons you will have to step down for a while. You need to start taking care of you. Good luck and i hope when you are reading this you have your feet up and a nice cup of tea!:)

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Firstly, don't worry about your own diabetes. There's nothing there that cannot be got under control within a short period of time and with the correct actions. Many people here have BG levels that are in the teens or twenties. I can't comment about the other stuff but I can sympathise about your trigs. It happened to me for years. I was always in the high 4s and low 5s and every time I was asked, how much do you drink? Bloods too were always 6.0 - 6.5. No connection has ever been made by my GP but one day I was 5.5 trigs and 9.8 BG and packed off to the hospital for an HBA1c test. That put me somewhere around the high 80s.

10 weeks later, with diet and exercise, and eating fish too :-), I was down at 48 HBA1c which is much nearer the non diabetic range which is about 40 I think. Eight months on, my own early morning blood plasma readings are now in the high 4s and low 5s. GP is too stingy to order another HBA1c.

It's not clear from what you write if you are still eating lots of the wrong sort of carbs. I too followed a low GI diet, avoiding the obvious sugary stuff like chocolate bars and biscuits but also things like white bread. I did however also cut off excess fat on meats, bacon especially, and fry with a spray oil and was careful with portion sizes. I lost a lot of weight. It is quite easy to concentrate on low GI but forget that a lot of low GI foods still pack lots of calories.

I wouldn't get steamed up about Internet Forums. Remember, even your first GP let you down with your trig levels and he's a paid professional with a duty of care. Forum advice is little better than talking to the proverbial man down the pub and it depends who you talk to and what mood they are in. It is definitely not worth getting stressed about.

You are doing the right things, keep up with the exercise as it helps you in ways other than losing weight, learn more about foods and concentrate your efforts on trying to lose weight.

I too was in the dumps when my son went off to Uni and the same when my daughter went. I promise you, once you get used to it they'll sort of be in the way when they come back during vacations etc. and more so when they start bringing boyfriends or girlfriends back. You are perfectly entitled to feel stressed about that.
 
Hi Diane and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope it helps. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will draw on their experience to give you some advice.


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 well over 30,000 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 ... rains.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 blood glucose 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.
 
Thanks for the welcome!

I've cut down on a lot on bread and only eat malted wheat/granary now. I've switched from white rice to wholegrain basmati, I've cut down on potatoes and anything made with white flour. I also eat wholewheat pasta now, in much smaller amounts than I used to.

Obviously no sweets or cakes. I'm no angel and sometimes fancy chips, so, I make paprika wedges made with sweet potatoes.

I've also cut down on fruit, I used to eat quite a lot and eat unsalted nuts to nibble on, not too many. I use skimmed milk now.

I've increased my protein intake, I'm eating more meat, but, only lean meats, if I grill bacon I cut off the rind before I cook it.

I struggle with snacks and getting bored of the same things, mainly rough oatcakes with cottage cheese or humus and olives.

A few weeks ago, when I was feeling a little better, before all this stress started affecting me I took my own fasting glucose and it was 4.9. Nothing's changed apart from my stress levels. Now it's 5.8/5.9.

I might go and speak to my GP, but, I'm wary of him prescribing pills for it, I really don't want to have to start on more medication. He said they were actually cholesterol pills he will prescribe if I can't control it via diet and exercise.

Thanks again for your replies xxx
 
yorkylass said:
A few weeks ago, when I was feeling a little better, before all this stress started affecting me I took my own fasting glucose and it was 4.9. Nothing's changed apart from my stress levels. Now it's 5.8/5.9.

I might go and speak to my GP, but, I'm wary of him prescribing pills for it, I really don't want to have to start on more medication. He said they were actually cholesterol pills he will prescribe if I can't control it via diet and exercise.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are controlling it very well with diet and exercise.

And yuo don't have to take what he prescribes. It is still a free country :-)
 
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