High BS the Dentist and Retinopathy

Can your dentist prescribe the test strips you need before the treatment?

There is plenty of advice on this forum about diet, with many of us reporting the benefits of a low carb, increased fat diet.

I'm sure my need of the dentist is significantly less due to low carb. Also early retinopathy was noted 10 years ago, & this has improved, NOT progressed, with the change of diet.

I've never heard about any dangers of looking down during exercise. I go to the Ealing Hospital gym, the class mainly comprising heart patients.

Hope you get on OK with your dentist visit.

milliejane said:

About a year ago i had a filling and after i had the injection in my mouth i went all shaky and trembling slightly. however, this passed very quickly and they progressed with the filling.
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Are you sure that this was related to blood sugar?
Did you test before and after and notice a big difference?

I would have thought the symptoms matched those of fright - rush of adrenaline and shakes because you didn't like the needle.
Once the initial fright was over and you realised that you were O.K. then you calmed down.

It seems to me that the symptoms cleared up too quickly to be BS related.

I used to have a similar reaction to dental injections (long before I was diabetic) but I guess as I have more injections I get more used to it.

I can manage blood tests now with only minor concentration on not worrying.
First blood test I had (as a teenager) I fainted.

So unless you have additional information about what made you think this was related to your BS levels then I would put it down to nervousness around needles.
Dentist these days are usually very good with injections and there are also dentists who specialise in treating nervous patients.

Hope this helps.

LGC

milliejane said:

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Question 2 is while at the gym the other day i was told if my BS is too high then i cannot do certain exercises, they also told me not to look down too much as that can cause retinopathy. they are fully qualified as there are a lot of GP referrals at our gym. Has anyone heard of this before please?

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I have been unable to find any reference to looking down causing retinopathy - in fact I cannot think of any reason why it should.

There are warnings about exercises which raise the blood pressure such as strenuous weight lifting and high impact exercises such as kick boxing if you already have retinopathy.

Again, if you have retinopathy or high blood pressure it can be unwise to spend too much time bent over with your head below your waist as this increases the blood pressure to the head and eyes.

So have you misunderstood?
Or have they perhaps misunderstood a training briefing, and the real message is that if you already have high blood pressure and/or retinopathy you should beware not of looking down, but of putting your head down.

I would also be interested about which exercises you should avoid if you have high BS - the general message I am finding via Google is that all moderate exercise is good for blood sugar levels.
As exercise normally lowers your BS level I can't see a major problem.
Again, could someone have become confused over high and low blood sugar levels?
Or confused BS with BP?

As this doubt has been raised, I would ask your GP to confirm what exercises, if any, you should avoid.
Also why.

I would also not place too much trust in gym attendants when they start to talk about specialist subjects such as diabetes.
Their main training will have been about supervising safe exercise.
They will also have had a list of warnings about conditions which may carry an additional risk, but could very easily confuse different conditions, and differences within a condition.
There aren't all that many non-diabetics who are fully conversant on the difference between T1 and T2, who takes insulin, what the differences are between hyper and hypo etc.

Cheers

LGC

Hi
My blood sugar always rises if I start exercising on an already high level ( for me 9 or above)
I don't think this is uncommon so if I am high to start with I will do insulin before running - however I hve experimented and found this to be right for me after numerous occasions on leaving the gym with levels 20+
I understand the reason behind this is that it is insulin that allows the muscles to use sugar etc that is in your body - hence why if you do not have enough insulin you go high! It was explained to me that sometimes if u are high an lacking insulin there is no sugar or energy going to your muscles therefor to create energy your muscles make their own sugar this is what raises your levels ( as u can probably tell I am not very scientific but I am sure you get the drift )


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With regard to the shaking feeling at the dentists. I am now and always have been nervous about dentists. Despite taking 4 injections daily for many years I HATE having anyone near me with a needle. On my last 3 trips to dentist I experienced shakes all over my body. Dentist put it down to nervousness (2 visits). I didn't buy this, why would I suddenly start experience shaking from fear. That has never happened to me in my life anywhere. My last visit was at a different dentists and he explained that there is adrenaline in the shot they give. The more they give the worse the shaking. It doesn't happen to everyone but can happen in someone who has never experienced it before. There is nothing to be done about it apparantly but I feel much better knowing what it is.

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Millijane
I rarely need actual treatment at my dentist, but if I do, I need to have the local anaesthetric WIHOUT added adrenaline [which they usually add to speed the clearing away of the stuff by the body] If I have adrenaline, I get the symptoms you describe.
Your problem may be the "local" not your diabetes.
Hana