high sugar levels

Hi. Welcome to the forum. I’ll tag @daisy1 for her new members info. Do you know your hb1ac level? 25 is a scary high number to me and I guess to you too. Both medications you’ve had are to lower blood glucose so it’s good that you are testing. Your infection will almost certainly be bumping your numbers up. What are they normally?

What sort of diet are you eating? Have you been told or read about the benefits or low carb eating? Ideally with your medications you should do it with support from the diabetic team as when you lower carbs the blood sugars come down, sometimes fairly quickly and the medications need to be adjusted to avoid going too low and having a hypo. Again I would hope you re aware of these and know what to do because of the medications.

It’s fundementally cutting out things like bread (all types), pasta, rice, potatoes, grains including flour cereal and oils. It sounds drastic but at the same time you increase fats (yes I know we’ve been told it’s bad but it really isn’t and science is currently proving this). These extra fats give you the energy you’ll no longer get from carb (glucose) without the blood sugar rises. If you’re carrying extra weight it’ll come off far easier too and if not you increase the fats a bit to help keep weight stable.

As your numbers are really quite high, a day or two just dipping your toe in the water and cutting a bit out should show in your post meal readings enough to demonstrate how well it works. Please don’t go whole hog in one go without watching and adjusting meds accordingly due to the risk of hypo though.

suegrae2004 said:

Thanks for your reply . My HB1 level has been rising to 52. I eat a lot of vegetables and chicken but with rice and pasta ,BUT NOT EXCESSIVE. I have never been so drained of energy since January. I plan to go to my GP tomorrow again as I cant keep this going with my levels.
Many thanks Graeme

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It's not about excesses... It's about having a metabolic condition where we are physically unable to process carbs. Someone who's allergic to peanuts gets an instant reaction of their throat swelling shut. Boom, they're dead, sometimes in a matter of seconds. For T2's it's more insidious, slower, but... In the end, carbohydrates damage us. All over. When I was first diagnosed, a perfectly normal, non-excessive lunch of two small non-sweet rolls would spike me to 18. It's about what our bodies can handle. And ours can't handle carbs. (As practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested). So your rice and pasta are harming you, even if they are normal or even modest amounts. And depending on the type of vegetable -starchy ones like root veg and beans- wouldn't help your glucose levels either. Above ground's usually fine, as are leafy greens... Just try it sometime: test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite. If it's gone up more than 2.0 mmol/l, it contained more carbs than you could process. Don't take my word for it, take your meter's.

If your blood glucose is high all the time it drains you of energy, and between the infection and what you're eating, I'm not surprised you're severely fatigued. Good luck at the doc's, I sincerely hope they'll be able to help you out. When I was first diagnosed I was so weak my knees would give out regularly, and I could hardly lift a fork, let alone cut my food with a knife. So I know how bad it can get, and I feel for you deeply.

Wishing you well,
Jo

suegrae2004 said:

Thanks for your reply . My HB1 level has been rising to 52. I eat a lot of vegetables and chicken but with rice and pasta ,BUT NOT EXCESSIVE. I have never been so drained of energy since January. I plan to go to my GP tomorrow again as I cant keep this going with my levels.
Many thanks Graeme

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It’s always possible it’s nothing to do with your bgl, and more about the infection you have. But I’d still be bringing the carb levels down, if you’ve been getting a lot of readings in the teens and higher the next hb1ac could have risen again depending on when the last one was and next one of course. But don’t forget for energy you will need more fats to compensate. If you try and do without both you’ll feel rubbish in all likelihood

@suegrae2004
Hello Graeme and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it interesting and useful.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 235,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.