How long does it take to get blood sugars down by change in diet?

Welcome @Jacfburcham
You are making great progress. I will tag @daisy1 who will post her really helpful information but it does sound as if what you are doing is working well. It took me months to get down to the levels you have already achieved.

Hi and welcome. You are doing great and you've been given good information about target levels. With a low-carb diet you should continue to go down in weight and blood sugar until your BMI is in the good region when things should stabilise. Looks like you may not need any meds.

As with all things diabetes it is different for everyone. For me 3 days after diagnosis my sight went blurry and then 3 weeks later it returned to normal. In the time in between I used a pair of cheap reading glasses from Poundland which certainly helped not only with being able to read normal print but also allowed me to destress a little.

As a Diabetic you will have your eye tested yearly at your local Diabetic Centre , yes stick with low carbing

Jacfburcham said:

Thanks for support, the main frustration at moment is blurry vision, I did wear glasses for reading with low prescription of 0.75, I woke up two weeks ago and could not see anything clearly, I looked at this site and saw that eyes can be affected, I have had it checked out by optician who confirmed back of eye healthy, he said this can occur as a temp effect of high blood sugar. How longs does it take to get back to normal, I am wearing temp glasses +4 and need to use magnifying sheet to read small print, my family are reading labels foe me.

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The blurry vision is quite common when your blood sugar starts to come down, I'm afraid mine lasted around 6 weeks. Poundland reading glasses were my saviour!

Well done on your progress so far!

Like others already replied, my eyes went really blurred about 3 days after diagnosis and start of diet and metformin. My BG came down to acceptable levels after 10 days, and shortly after (within a week) my eyes were back as good as ever. I am now 3 months down the road, have had all the tests and everything is fine and under control. Stay on it, things get better quite quickly if you look after yourself...

Jac, count yourself lucky, I ordered some new glasses just before I was diagnosed and guess what? They were no good after medication started! €500 of lenses which are no good and have had to be remade to a new prescription.

Hope your eyes are back to normal soon. My vision was blurry but mine was due to cataracts which I had removed last year then no more blurry.

Jacfburcham said:

I can see this forum is going to be a life saver.

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You got that right

Osterley said:

Jac, count yourself lucky, I ordered some new glasses just before I was diagnosed and guess what? They were no good after medication started! €500 of lenses which are no good and have had to be remade to a new prescription.

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Hi I have the problem every time I have

Dizz said:

The blurry vision is quite common when your blood sugar starts to come down, I'm afraid mine lasted around 6 weeks. Poundland reading glasses were my saviour!

Well done on your progress so far!

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Mick1952 said:

Like others already replied, my eyes went really blurred about 3 days after diagnosis and start of diet and metformin. My BG came down to acceptable levels after 10 days, and shortly after (within a week) my eyes were back as good as ever. I am now 3 months down the road, have had all the tests and everything is fine and under control. Stay on it, things get better quite quickly if you look after yourself...

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Hi I lost connection just wanted to say every time I visit the optiistains they never get my prescriptions right because it depends on my blood sugar levels!

You are doing great and your levels should continue to drop, hopefully your eyes will come right sooner rather than later.

@Jacfburcham

Hello and welcome to the forum You are doing well so far and to help you further, here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will be able to help.

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 over 150,000 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-and-whole-grains.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

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


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 bloodglucose 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.

Jacfburcham said:

I was diagnosed type 2 three weeks ago I have changed by diet to low carb, have lost 8kg already and blood down from 19.4 to 8. Will it continue to go down, I understand I need to get it down to below 7.5 in the morning and 8 two hours after meals. I am not taking any medication doctor wanted to give me a month and see diabetic nurse

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Hi, I have just been diagnosed today and to be honest I'm a little worried as have such a long way to go. Your story sounds very similar to mine and I have been told my level is nearly 16. Can I please ask did you go back to doctors to get your levels re checked going down to 8 is amazing and really want to acheive what you have done. kind regards, Jo#

Jacfburcham said:

Hi Jo, I know how you feel its all two much for the first few weeks, Straight away I went on the diabeties.co.uk website and read all about what diabeties type 2 is and how it could be managed, I my case this is what is working for me:

Breakfast - high protein, eggs, bacon, with muchrooms and tomtoes (combinations) I am luck I cure my own bacon and salmon so can control the salt and fat levels as well as sugar for curing.

Lunch - Veg soup (Carrots and parsnips and other roots ) no potatoes. Have used wheat free noodles (no carbs) these are great. also work great with stir frys for evening meals.

Dinner - Meat and Veg no potatoes. Had a small amount of brown basmatie rice and also wheat free pasta from ASDA.

Coffee - minimal moved over to Green Tea with lemon and water.

No fruit juice, no bread, rice, cake, biscuits, crakers, sweets, chocolate.

PS - Go myself a monitor so I can track what my blood is doing, measure it first thing in the morning, before lunch so 3 hours after breakfast. Before dinner and last thing at night.

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So do you have any good ideas where I can find out if certain food is ok i.e peppers, onions and apples. Where did you get your monitor from ? Just trying to plan my first week and went to M&S and came out a bit blinded. Was even questioning the packed of stir fry veg and geting very confused. Thanks Jo