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How important is counting carbs and diet control?

Charry118

Charry118

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
Hi all!
My fiance was diagnosed with type 1 this time last year... He was sent to "diabetes classes" to learn about his new way of life and how to manage his diabetes.
I never had the opportunity to go with him, so I only had my own research to learn from...
Anyway, I read that diabetics need to count carbs and basically maintain a strict healthy diet!
Although I understand everyone, whether diabetic or not, should maintain a healthy diet, I wondered how important counting cards for a diabetic actually is?
My fiance does not count carbs and if I am honest, does not have a very good diet.
He works nights, and tends not to eat whilst he's on these shifts. He will eat with myself on an evening and have breakfast when he gets home from work in a morning. Neither of us really knows how to cook well, so we do not have a varied diet and we eat a lot of take outs.
He tells me that he can eat what ever he wants, because he can compensate for it when he takes his insulin... but I am worried this lack of understanding / caring about his diet could have a long term effect on his health and be detrimental to his health when he is older (he is currently 28).
Before he was diagnosed, he had all the normal symptoms... thirsty, craving sugary foods for energy... he even had a few absesses. I've noticed that now, even a year on, he is still extremely thirsty all the time and he always wants chocolate and he recently had another small absess on his finger (of all places!)
Could his poor diet affect him in the long term or is he right about his insulin compensating? What should we do differently (other than cut out take outs which I am already aware we need to do! For both of our healths)? Any advice for someone who does not fully understand how diet can effect diabetes?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Here’s the best way to explain it:
What’s 50/10? 5….pretty easy
What’s ?/?.....you can guess, but you’re almost for sure going to be wrong.

TECHNICALLY, you don’t have to count carbs, but most of us do because it then becomes a math problem rather than a guessing game.
If my carb-to-insulin ratio is 10:1 and the meal I’m eating has 200g of carbs, I’d know that I need 20 units of insulin….pretty easy, right?

If I don’t know those numbers, I might get lucky and guess 20 units or……

1.) I could guess too little and give myself 5 units….my blood sugar would skyrocket and over time, this would cause irreparable damage. Thirst, increased hunger, frequent urination, etc are all signs of extremely high blood sugar.

2.) I could guess too much and give myself 40 units….my blood sugar would drop like a stone, and without the proper care….I don’t need to say it, but you can probably guess what can happen.

To answer your questions:
-Poor diet can affect ANYONE in the long-term. Diabetic or not.
-TECHNICALLY, he is right that he can compensate with insulin, but that's only with respect to his blood sugar, and it doesn't sound like he's properly using his insulin either.
-We aren’t doctors so we can’t give advice. However, I chose to get my sh** together real quick because it would be awfully selfish not to. Some people are in denial, some people are depressed, but there are also some people that seem to think they’re invincible. It’s not our place to say which one he might be, but one way or another, it sounds like he needs some help.
Side note: I was diagnosed this year at 27 years old.
 
His older brother is also diabetic and was diagnosed when he was 4 so is pretty good for advice if my fiance needs someone to talk too...

How often do you test your bloods? He rarely tests his and I keep encouraging him to do it before he eats, etc. He doesn't even take his monitor to work anymore...

Since you mentioned that thirst, hunger and frequent urination are all signs of high blood sugar, I've realised that whenever I see him test his bloods they are always high... He then uses his insulin, but I don't actually know how he calculates it...

Thanks for your response. Just out of curiosity, who can recommend his carb ratio? Or is 10:1 generally standard?
 
There definitely isn't a standard. Every person is different. There are some people with severe insulin resistance that may need more than 1 unit of insulin per 1g carbs, or there are people like me (newly diagnosed) who have a ratio of 40-50g carbs per 1 unit of insulin.

I'll put it this way: taking 10units of insulin at once would put me in the hospital (if not kill me), but for others that might not be enough to eat even a salad.

That's how important this is for him to understand how to manage his own condition. You can help and support him but he ultimately has to want to put on he effort.
 
Hi Cherry :)

@TorqPenderloin is right about people's insulin to carb ratios varying. Could your fiancé speak to his diabetes team about his ratio?

You ask how often people test. I test anywhere between 6 to 12 times a day on normal days.

And carb counting is crucial, in my opinion! Diabetes isn't like a medical condition where a doctor prescribes a dose of meds and you just take that same dose every day and all's ok. It's a condition that requires a lot of work to manage properly - testing, calculating appropriate insulin doses, etc.
 
Oh yea, I forgot to say that I test about 295 times a day. 288 of those are from the monitor (dexcom) attached to my stomach that automatically reads every 5 minutes, and the other 7 or so are regular finger prick tests.
 
The sooner he can become knowledgable about type 1 and talk to his brother about managing it the better.

It won't go away and not testing or learning as much as possible is not going to do him any favours, Torq is right about how people respond to being diagnosed, we all react differently. If he's not testing how does he know he much insulin to inject ? He needs to keep his blood glucose within the range prescribed by his healthcare team, this means watching what you eat and administering the right amount of insulin.

It sounds like he is in denial and avoiding the issue, if this is the case he needs support from his healthcare team which he will only get if he asks, I hope he faces up to this soon as the potential for complications will affect his quality of life. Good luck you are an amazing person to be so concerned about him ;)
 
Thanks for all your responses...

I don't think he is in denial, he's just extrenely laid back about it all... I am the kind of person who will research the hell out of something and he is the kind of person who will just go with the flow and see how things turn out

His mum is a nurse too. I think I might speak to her and ask her to talk to him... She might be able to explain it to him in a way that makes him understand!
 
@Charry118, the abscesses and thirst are signs that his diabetes isn't well controlled, you should try and encourage him to see his diabetes team and discuss getting help and support, there's courses he can go on to teach him about carb counting and getting the insulin doses right, one is called DAFNE and is taught over 5 days.

However there's an on-line carb counting course available which would teach him the basic skills, here's a link to the website:

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
 
If your partner drives he must by law test his glucose before driving and it has to be at an acceptably high enough level. He should test when he wake up and before he goes to bed at the very least and should never take insulin without testing his sugar beforehand. A test before each meal should be normal . Most would also test before they eat any snacks too. An average is 6-8 tests a day though many do more.
 
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