In the dark

[dweeb]

My husband is very secretive about his health. After 18 months of promises he finally went to a doctor today to have his diabetes checked. He found out he was diabetic 5 years ago while spending a week in the hospital. This was before I came into his life 2 years ago. He told me his level today was 320 (17.7 mmol/l). Everything I see shows blood sugar levels above 120 (6.6 mmol/l) are dangerous. Is there another "level" I am missing? I don't know what this means or where to even start. Please send me suggestions.

 

[daisy1]

Hi dweeb and welcome to the forum So that you can help your husband I am sending you some basic information written by the Forum Monitors for new members. In the UK we measure our blood levels in mmol/l. To get MG/dl you multiply mmol/l readings by 18 so you can understand the information on recommended BG levels. Here is a link to a converter to make things easier for you:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-sugar-converter.html

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed diabetics. We hope that these few ideas gained through experience help you to gain control and give you some understanding of Diabetes. This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

This is NOT a low carb diet suggestion, just a reduction in your intake of carbohydrate. You have to decide yourself how much of a reduction will keep your blood glucose levels in control.

The main carbs to avoid OR reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

If you are on Insulin you may find that reducing the carb intake also means that you can reduce your dose of insulin. This can help you to keep weight gain down as Insulin tends to make you put on weight and eventually cause insulin resistance. This should be done slowly so as not to cause hypos.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating, then two hours after eating, you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the effect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.


As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try!!

If you are an Insulin user in theory you should have no problem getting test strips.

The latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l........(Type 1 & 2)
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

2hrs after meals....... no more than 9 mmol/l ......(Type 1)

If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

The above is just general advice and it is recommended that you discuss with your HCP before making any changes. You can also ask questions on the forum on anything that is not clear.

Sue/Ken.

 

[Snodger]

He told me his level today was 320 (17.7 mmol/l). Everything I see shows blood sugar levels above 120 (6.6 mmol/l) are dangerous.

Hi dweeb,

there's no exact cut off point where blood sugar levels suddenly become dangerous. What happens is that the higher they creep up, and the longer they stay there, the more you put yourself at risk of complications.
NICE guidelines say aim to get an average of 7.5. The big studies of diabetes over time (eg the DCCT trial) suggest that complications are significantly reduced if you can get average blood sugar down to around this level.

I think everyone would agree though that 17.7 is too high, if he is consistently at that sort of level. Not only for long-term complications but for how ill he feels right now - is he very thirsty, tired etc? The good news is that he has agreed to see a doctor. Getting blood sugar levels down will lower his risk of complications and make him feel better. Good luck with it - it's scary to watch someone you love struggle with coming to terms with this kind of thing.