Interesting conversation with the nurse

[Jessielouiseb]

Thanks for everyone’s input....

Personally in my opinion if someone ends up with a normal hba1c, and can keep it like that I would say they don’t have diabetes anymore....as diabetes is high blood sugar - you won’t have high blood sugar if you got your levels normal.
I know the risks are there if I went back to eating the way I did which was a lot of processed foods like crisps chocolate, ready meals, I no longer eat like that and follow a balanced diet where I have everything in moderation which has worked for me wonderfully

 

[Resurgam]

Diabetes is the inability to deal with carbohydrates - as an undiagnosed type two I always had the possibility of low blood glucose, just not very often.
In my present state, I have low blood glucose more frequently, I can deal with a higher input of carbs (by stashing it as fat) but I still could eat myself back to high Hba1c numbers in a few weeks.
I see that I was never officially diabetic, as I did not have two Hba1c tests to diagnose - but that seems pretty normal for my GP surgery.

 

[Cocosilk]

The way I understand it is nobody wants to have a stigmatized label whacked on them for life so if controlling your blood sugars through diet allows someone to have normal readings, then they can be free of the label, so long as it is of benefit to them to be so.
For others, keeping the label might make more sense if it means access to subsidised strips or future tests (why be out of pocket if you don’t have to.) It also makes sense to keep the label if your love affair with carbs has not ended so you can remind yourself that carbs could hurt you if you overindulge.
For me, even without a diagnosis of diabetes, I think it's wise to understand the metabolic dysfunction that is insulin resistance and see the spectrum of diabetes (at least T2) for what it is. We don't really reside in an isolated box that is diabetes or not (except that budgets probably force goverments to make cut offs hence the blood sugar levels and targets - which differ depending which country you live in). We are all on the ladder and some of us have just climbed a little higher than others and got burned a little harder in the process. We can all try to climb back down provided we understand how we got there in the first place. Some of us will always carry the scars. Others will never show any evidence of having been there, although if you look into insulin resistance and the health problems associated with that, you may find more links to your other health problems than you realised. They may or may not be as serious as diabetic complications but they can still compromise our quality of life in different ways.
Any clue that our blood glucose levels are even slightly elevated I would take as a gift and a chance to make things better rather than worrying about whether you have been stigmatised or not.

 

[Member496333]

Diabetes is the inability to deal with carbohydrates

That is IGT. Impaired glucose tolerance. T2DM is glycemic dysregulation. They are not the same thing. It’s possible to have IGT without having diabetes.

In my opinion.

 

[Brunneria]

That is IGT. Impaired glucose tolerance. T2DM is glycemic dysregulation. They are not the same thing. It’s possible to have IGT without having diabetes.

In my opinion.

Yup. My opinion too
People can have other forms glucose dysregulation/ IGT without having T2.
Reactive hypoglycaemia being just one example.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. A few points. An HBA1C of 6.9% still places you in the diabetic range. Hopefully it will come down further but you aren't quite there yet. Before your next review make sure you have your bloods done before the review so you can discuss the results with nurse - perhaps you already do this. Ask your surgery to give you online access to your test results. It enables you to see the full results before your review so you can quickly get down to discussing actions rather than wasting time and having info given to you verbally by the nurse.

 

[Resurgam]

Well - yes, obviously there can be unfortunate reactions to carbohydrate which are not diabetes - type two diabetes results in a non reaction to carbohydrates once they are digested - they remain in the blood rather than being dealt with normally, hence my description.

 

[kitedoc]

The way I understand it is nobody wants to have a stigmatized label whacked on them for life so if controlling your blood sugars through diet allows someone to have normal readings, then they can be free of the label, so long as it is of benefit to them to be so.
For others, keeping the label might make more sense if it means access to subsidised strips or future tests (why be out of pocket if you don’t have to.) It also makes sense to keep the label if your love affair with carbs has not ended so you can remind yourself that carbs could hurt you if you overindulge.
For me, even without a diagnosis of diabetes, I think it's wise to understand the metabolic dysfunction that is insulin resistance and see the spectrum of diabetes (at least T2) for what it is. We don't really reside in an isolated box that is diabetes or not (except that budgets probably force goverments to make cut offs hence the blood sugar levels and targets - which differ depending which country you live in). We are all on the ladder and some of us have just climbed a little higher than others and got burned a little harder in the process. We can all try to climb back down provided we understand how we got there in the first place. Some of us will always carry the scars. Others will never show any evidence of having been there, although if you look into insulin resistance and the health problems associated with that, you may find more links to your other health problems than you realised. They may or may not be as serious as diabetic complications but they can still compromise our quality of life in different ways.
Any clue that our blood glucose levels are even slightly elevated I would take as a gift and a chance to make things better rather than worrying about whether you have been stigmatised or not.

I love the description @Cocosilk, diabetes is a bit like snakes and ladders !!