Hi newly diagnosed and confused

[Josieiow]

Hi my name is jo I am 61 and diagnosed type 2 10 weeks ago.
I self test as I refused the meds as want to try and do this by diet alone.
I have lost 20lb in last 10 weeks. My glucose has gone from between 8-8.8 to 6.8- 7.8 . Though sometimes it does go lower and sometimes higher.
I find that sometimes it is lower after eating. I have eaten and a little later felt lightheaded, shaky and thirsty/hungry again. Tested and been at 4.5-5.2.
I have also had days where I am at 6.8 on fasting and stayed at 6.4-6.8 all day even after eating.
This weekend I ate as normal, a low carb diet and I was at 7.8-8 all day.
I'm totally confused.
I was told years ago I was hypoglycemic and now I'm told I'm type 2 but my glucose all over the place.
I am lactose, dairy, gluten and wheat intolerant and allergic to eggs. So eating mostly meat, fish and veg. With soya yoghurts and different berries each morning.
Any thoughts or usueful suggestions please. Am i doing this wrong or are my readings all over the place for a reason.
Thanks

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi my name is jo I am 61 and diagnosed type 2 10 weeks ago.
I self test as I refused the meds as want to try and do this by diet alone.
I have lost 20lb in last 10 weeks. My glucose has gone from between 8-8.8 to 6.8- 7.8 . Though sometimes it does go lower and sometimes higher.
I find that sometimes it is lower after eating. I have eaten and a little later felt lightheaded, shaky and thirsty/hungry again. Tested and been at 4.5-5.2.
I have also had days where I am at 6.8 on fasting and stayed at 6.4-6.8 all day even after eating.
This weekend I ate as normal, a low carb diet and I was at 7.8-8 all day.
I'm totally confused.
I was told years ago I was hypoglycemic and now I'm told I'm type 2 but my glucose all over the place.
I am lactose, dairy, gluten and wheat intolerant and allergic to eggs. So eating mostly meat, fish and veg. With soya yoghurts and different berries each morning.
Any thoughts or usueful suggestions please. Am i doing this wrong or are my readings all over the place for a reason.
Thanks

Hi Jo, Jo here

First off, you're doing an amazing job and controlling your numbers. Just so you know. Breathe, you're on the right track and doing exceptionally well.
That said, I'm going to hazard a few guesses based on my own experience. There is such a thing as reactive hypoglycemia. I didn't know I ever had it until I came here and learned that that was what I'd had for years, before becoming a T2. It's when you produce too much insulin, more than you need, and you have a hypoglycemic episode after eating something carby. When you put out large amounts of insulin for a long period of time, you can become insensitive to it. And that develops into type 2: Plenty of insulin around, but it doesn't do what it should anymore, which is help you burn off glucose. I don't know if RH is per definition a precursor to T2, but it was for me. So that MIGHT explain what happened to you.

I don't know when you're testing exactly, but if you test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite, you don't want to see a rise of more than 2.0 mmol/l. Sometimes, you're higher before a meal because your liver dumps glucose to help you when it thinks you're low, and stops dumping when you eat, so yeah, that can happen. Or you were active after the meal (went for a walk maybe?) something like that. Blood glucose works in mysterious ways. Really, a bad night's sleep, a touch of the cold, stress, anything can run your numbers up, so if you eat the same thing two days in a row, your numbers might still differ. With the food restrictions you're dealing with, going low carb -as all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, not just sugars, but starches too- shouldn't be that big a step, and is hopefully sustainable in the long run. Just sorry about the dairy and eggs, as they give for some variation, but what you're doing now seems to be working, and working well.

So to answer your last two questions: You seem to be doing this quite right. And your numbers aren't all over the place. They're consistently in the normal range right now. If they were bouncing around you'd be seeing double digits. So basically... You've got this.
This might help, but I feel like you're pretty much on your way. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/

Good luck, and welcome!
Jo

 

[Resurgam]

You seem to be doing very well.
The only thing I can think of which might help is to have the yoghurt and berries later in the day and see what happens.
I would only eat that as a dessert in the evenings as I am more resistant in the mornings.
I eat protein and fat and salad stuff first thing, as a rule.

 

[Lamont D]

Hi my name is jo I am 61 and diagnosed type 2 10 weeks ago.
I self test as I refused the meds as want to try and do this by diet alone.
I have lost 20lb in last 10 weeks. My glucose has gone from between 8-8.8 to 6.8- 7.8 . Though sometimes it does go lower and sometimes higher.
I find that sometimes it is lower after eating. I have eaten and a little later felt lightheaded, shaky and thirsty/hungry again. Tested and been at 4.5-5.2.
I have also had days where I am at 6.8 on fasting and stayed at 6.4-6.8 all day even after eating.
This weekend I ate as normal, a low carb diet and I was at 7.8-8 all day.
I'm totally confused.
I was told years ago I was hypoglycemic and now I'm told I'm type 2 but my glucose all over the place.
I am lactose, dairy, gluten and wheat intolerant and allergic to eggs. So eating mostly meat, fish and veg. With soya yoghurts and different berries each morning.
Any thoughts or usueful suggestions please. Am i doing this wrong or are my readings all over the place for a reason.
Thanks

Hi, and welcome to the forum, I have reactive hypoglycaemia.
From my experience, you are doing everything you can do to gain control of what is happening to you.
Reactive Hypoglycaemia is a condition that is food orientated, typically the way your body copes with food that you are intolerant to.
So like me, I'm lactose, wheat, grain, starch and sugar intolerant, I also have aversion to other foods that effect me. It is not an eating disorder or a diabetic condition. But as others have found, because of the reaction over time can and will lead to T2.
Symptoms are very similar and the treatment is similar, but we have to be really careful of carbs and sugars that are lurking around the food we eat especially factory produced foods that are full of hidden sugars and ingredients that are not right for the condition. I only found out that after diagnosis that cooking with vegetable oils have an effect on my body!
If you are not certain or your health care providers have not told you. Hypoglycaemia is triggered by food, that causes a quick spike followed by a overshoot of insulin, which drives down your blood sugar levels. Because of consistent overproduction of insulin, (hyperinsulinaemia) the imbalance in your blood will always cause symptoms.
When you put high insulin, high glucose and other hormonal responses from the trigger or reaction, this is why you get differing results from your glucometer.
A food diary was a must, recording everything, from combination of food in a meal to individual food items and not forgetting portion size and frequency of eating.
What surprised me was potatoes and the effects of eating spuds either way, porridge a so called super food, healthy foods that were not healthy for me. Even whole grains, what foods I was told to eat regularly, especially the so called healthy complex carbs, were making me really ill!
I believe I am totally carb intolerant, similar to an allergy because of the symptomatic effects on my body.
Having had really great control, energy and little or no symptoms, no hypos, really good health because I kept my blood sugar levels in or just above normal blood sugar levels, which is between 3.5 and 6mmols. Anything below the 3.5 mark is considered Hypoglycaemia, but you can and will get the symptoms as you describe, as your blood sugar levels drop down quickly. We all have different hypo levels, different triggers, different symptoms, different foods do different things individually.
What will work for you, might not work for me. What I would advise is keep testing before and after meals, keep to those foods that don't trigger the symptoms, avoiding all those that do, the longer you stay around normal levels, the better you will feel.
I eat a Keto diet, nil carbs as much as possible.
I would also read our forum on Reactive Hypoglycaemia, there is some good advice on how we get the control and get the right balance of protein and fats, to help with getting your health back.
I had a long journey, a battle to get where I am now.
You can get control. I did!

If you're not sure about anything, keep asking.