I know this is not a diagnosis forum but please read i will try to not ask for dags

[madusmacus]

Hi Back Again,

I had a stroke 4 years ago and recovered well
I was put on statins 20mg pravastatin
My Glucose has gone bonkers 15mmol as we speak
glucose and creatinine on dip stick quite high but no ketones

I cycle 10 miles a day, i eat 2 capsules of berberine a day none of this seems to do anything,diets not great recently
i have just stopped statins in a random attempt to change something

My Q is... Does anyone know any ways to drop this number? guessing no magic
Im starting to panic now in this no NHS help days :¬(

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

I think it's been said many times on this forum that low carb seems to work for many. It certainly does for me, but I had to go very low carb (<25g a day), watch my protein intake, do intermitrent fasting (18:6) and as I have come off most of my diabetes meds to supplement this with alternate-day fasting to stabilise. Exercise, good sleep hygene, and stress management also help, but nutrition has had the most impact. As you already suspected, no magic.

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

While statins can mess with blood glucose levels, I haven't seen any massive impact by reducing my Atorvastatin from 40mg a day to 10mg, but then again this was alongside going from 850mg Metformin 3 times daily to 850mg just once a day. Maybe reduction in Metformin offset any benefit from reducing statins. I have to say, though, that I'm changing my treatment working with my GP and have regular blood tests to see how my body reacts. Wearing CGM helps for insight as well as motivation, if only it wasn't so expensive.

 

[Lainie71]

Hi Back Again,

I had a stroke 4 years ago and recovered well
I was put on statins 20mg pravastatin
My Glucose has gone bonkers 15mmol as we speak
glucose and creatinine on dip stick quite high but no ketones

I cycle 10 miles a day, i eat 2 capsules of berberine a day none of this seems to do anything,diets not great recently
i have just stopped statins in a random attempt to change something

My Q is... Does anyone know any ways to drop this number? guessing no magic
Im starting to panic now in this no NHS help days :¬(

Firstly try not to panic, it will send your BG levels up. Stress is a big factor for me. Low carb as said, can and has worked for many. From what I have read statins increase blood glucose. You could get a meter or a Freestyle Libre for a trial and it would give insight, or drive you mad like it did for me! You only get a meter free if on meds but you can get them cheap enough its just the testing strips that are expensive. The nhs guidelines for a healthy diet are archaic and do more harm than good and I am convinced that's what contributed to my diagnosis. Just my take on it but you have nothing to lose also by nosing around the threads on here and making your own informed choice

 

[AndBreathe]

Hi Back Again,

I had a stroke 4 years ago and recovered well
I was put on statins 20mg pravastatin
My Glucose has gone bonkers 15mmol as we speak
glucose and creatinine on dip stick quite high but no ketones

I cycle 10 miles a day, i eat 2 capsules of berberine a day none of this seems to do anything,diets not great recently
i have just stopped statins in a random attempt to change something

My Q is... Does anyone know any ways to drop this number? guessing no magic
Im starting to panic now in this no NHS help days :¬(

Over what period have your glucose numbers gone high? Is it over some weeks/months, or has it been a sudden onset event?

Whilst I am no fan of statins, I would urge caution, bearing in mind you have already suffered a stroke. If you are not keen on the statin you have been taking, you could ask your Doc for a change?

 

[madusmacus]

Hi Back Again,

I had a stroke 4 years ago and recovered well
I was put on statins 20mg pravastatin
My Glucose has gone bonkers 15mmol as we speak
glucose and creatinine on dip stick quite high but no ketones

I cycle 10 miles a day, i eat 2 capsules of berberine a day none of this seems to do anything,diets not great recently
i have just stopped statins in a random attempt to change something

My Q is... Does anyone know any ways to drop this number? guessing no magic
Im starting to panic now in this no NHS help days :¬(

Thanks all for your comments appreciate them all :¬)

i have been Hba1c 5.6-6.2 for years (a1cNow)
I got convinced by health people not to monitor or give a hoot about it all
I am the end result of this with today hba1c 8.1

I was amazed to get telephone doctor consultation today
the DR was only interested in diagnosing me Diabetic
ordered a blood test to check hba1c etc he was in denial i can do this at home

I was told to pause my cycling its pushing my creatine way up

blood test is in 5 weeks great
and diabetic nurse in 7 weeks

i have finaly got the BG down to 9.5 just now
14.7 down to 9.5 only took 20 hours of only drinking water
walking didnt move the numbers down at all

Oh well

 

[madusmacus]

Over what period have your glucose numbers gone high? Is it over some weeks/months, or has it been a sudden onset event?

Whilst I am no fan of statins, I would urge caution, bearing in mind you have already suffered a stroke. If you are not keen on the statin you have been taking, you could ask your Doc for a change?

hba1c was 6.0 now 8.0 so i guess its been ramping up over the 3 months ive not been monitoring
guess i cant have carbs at all now - no loss really just annoying

 

[madusmacus]

While statins can mess with blood glucose levels, I haven't seen any massive impact by reducing my Atorvastatin from 40mg a day to 10mg, but then again this was alongside going from 850mg Metformin 3 times daily to 850mg just once a day. Maybe reduction in Metformin offset any benefit from reducing statins. I have to say, though, that I'm changing my treatment working with my GP and have regular blood tests to see how my body reacts. Wearing CGM helps for insight as well as motivation, if only it wasn't so expensive.

yep i used to use libre but they anoyed me by not letting me have the BT version
im on Pravastatin and from my research it seems it shouldn't mess with BG levels but
its strange this high glucose coincides with the 3 months they put it up to 20mg
ty for chatting
ill be back on metformin i guess in 6 weeks time when the blood test is done - im ok with that but i hope ive not slipped into insulkin land
time will tell ty :¬)

 

[madusmacus]

Firstly try not to panic, it will send your BG levels up. Stress is a big factor for me. Low carb as said, can and has worked for many. From what I have read statins increase blood glucose. You could get a meter or a Freestyle Libre for a trial and it would give insight, or drive you mad like it did for me! You only get a meter free if on meds but you can get them cheap enough its just the testing strips that are expensive. The nhs guidelines for a healthy diet are archaic and do more harm than good and I am convinced that's what contributed to my diagnosis. Just my take on it but you have nothing to lose also by nosing around the threads on here and making your own informed choice

Yep ty :¬)
I used to use libre but seems diabetes isn't just for xmas
I have definitely let the carbs back in over the last few months
Never again

 

[madusmacus]

I think it's been said many times on this forum that low carb seems to work for many. It certainly does for me, but I had to go very low carb (<25g a day), watch my protein intake, do intermitrent fasting (18:6) and as I have come off most of my diabetes meds to supplement this with alternate-day fasting to stabilise. Exercise, good sleep hygene, and stress management also help, but nutrition has had the most impact. As you already suspected, no magic.

Yep ive slipped a bit and its cause me issues, and i wont slip again
strangely enough last 3 months my SP02 sleeping has gone up from 80% to 90%
What ever that meant :¬)

 

[ianf0ster]

While the food that a Type 2 diabetic eats is the main contributor to high Blood Glucose, it is a long way from being the only one. Sleep, stress, statins, steroids, exercise, the weather, illness, injury time of day , etc.

It's almost impossible to reduce dietary carbs to zero, and may cause other problems despite carbs being the non-essential macro nutrient!

When you fast, BG doesn't always come down - it may even go up if your liver 'decides' you need an energy boost. Your body is quite capable of manufacturing glucose from fat and protein - it needs to be able to do that because part of the brain functions absolutely require glucose to fuel them ( while the majority can be happily fueled by ketones).

 

[Lainie71]

Yep ive slipped a bit and its cause me issues, and i wont slip again
strangely enough last 3 months my SP02 sleeping has gone up from 80% to 90%
What ever that meant :¬)

Oxygen saturation I believe, but not sure what it should or shouldn't be.

 

[madusmacus]

Oxygen saturation I believe, but not sure what it should or shouldn't be.

yep my watch tracks this but the oxygen saturation is always 95% for me not the mythical 100%
its nice to see my sleeping oxygen going up but who know why :~):~)
im ok now not panicking - ty all

 

[ajbod]

Sats should be 95% +. most people never get beyond 98%.

 

[Hopeful34]

most people never get beyond 98%.

Is this published anywhere @ajbod

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

This is what my Fitbit app says about it. My levels are generally around 95%.

 

[ironman81]

I didn’t realise statins affect bs, I take 20mg avorastatin daily x

 

[Jasmin2000]

I didn’t realise statins affect bs, I take 20mg avorastatin daily x

They affect some people that take statins, and that's not just diabetics. They can cause large and unpredictable increases in BG (I speak from experience!). But the majority of diabetics don't have any noticeable changes, so if you've been taking them for a while then either you've had no increase or you've accommodated it in your routine so no worries.