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Introducing Myself

Safi

Safi

Well-Known Member
Messages
515
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello All :) My name is Safi & I was recently diagnosed pre-diabetic. I originally went to the Dr with a skin infection/sebaceous cyst & discovered that I had a fasting level of 6.3. I was hoping it was caused by the infection so got some antibiotics but was given a referral for an OGTT nonetheless. In the 3 weeks I waited for the infection to totally clear I found this clever community & decided to go very low carb. On the morning of the OGTT I had a fasting of 5.1 but my 2 hr reading was 7.9 so according to the Dr most definitely pre-diabetic :( Was told to go away, watch my weight (I'm not actually overweight) & come back in 12 months. That was it!!

Now from what I had read on this site a low carb diet can skew the results of an OGTT & as I was not happy to just wait 12 months & see what happens I sought a second opinion. The new Dr found it all a bit odd as I am neither over or under weight (5 ft 4/120 pounds), I'm pretty active, I have absolutely no family history & I eat a healthy (& I've since discovered moderate carb) diet. All my other blood tests were good - LDL 2.5 (not great/not terrible), HDL 1.65, Trigs .45. Anyhooooo, he did an HBA1C which came back at 5.1 which he said suggested good blood sugar control & I should keep doing what I'm doing - better than the first Dr's advice I guess.

So here I am in limbo (in Australia actually) waiting for my blood glucose monitor to arrive & feeling exceedingly grateful to have found you all.

My apologies for the rambling post - will try to keep them shorter in future :)
 
Welcome Safi.
Can't be of much help as I don't quite understand this pre stuff.
Stick with us.
This place has taught me everything I know about my disease.
It's untaught me the rubbish the so called experts filled my head with while they were slowly killing me.
All the best on your journey.
 
JACKTHELAD said:
Welcome Safi.
Can't be of much help as I don't quite understand this pre stuff.
Stick with us.
This place has taught me everything I know about my disease.
It's untaught me the rubbish the so called experts filled my head with while they were slowly killing me.
All the best on your journey.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for the welcome JACKTHELAD - I'm already finding this place much more informative than the doctors were!
 
Good afternoon [ Au time] Safi and welcome to the forum, the best there is I think. There is loads of information here and a great deal of wisdom and knowledge available from the members.
Best wishes for controlling the BG devil.
 
@Safi

Hello Safi and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Following some of this information could stop you becoming fully diabetic. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will 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 130,000 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

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.
 
Thank you Pasha, daisy1, sanguine & Bluetit1802 for the welcome :)

I'm very much looking forward to the arrival of my monitor so I can finally vary my diet a bit - getting rather bored with the flax/nuts/cheese/avocado/salad combo! I'm more than happy to give fruit a miss (forced myself to eat it because 'they' said it was so good for us!) but desperately hoping I don't have major issues with coffee, legumes or sweet potato.

Am pretty new to this forum stuff so will wander about some & better acquaint myself with the ins & outs/wheres & whys.

Back soon with some (hopefully not too bad) numbers :)

Thanks again
 
Safi said:
Hello All :) My name is Safi & I was recently diagnosed pre-diabetic. I originally went to the Dr with a skin infection/sebaceous cyst & discovered that I had a fasting level of 6.3. I was hoping it was caused by the infection so got some antibiotics but was given a referral for an OGTT nonetheless. In the 3 weeks I waited for the infection to totally clear I found this clever community & decided to go very low carb. On the morning of the OGTT I had a fasting of 5.1 but my 2 hr reading was 7.9 so according to the Dr most definitely pre-diabetic :( Was told to go away, watch my weight (I'm not actually overweight) & come back in 12 months. That was it!!

Now from what I had read on this site a low carb diet can skew the results of an OGTT & as I was not happy to just wait 12 months & see what happens I sought a second opinion. The new Dr found it all a bit odd as I am neither over or under weight (5 ft 4/120 pounds), I'm pretty active, I have absolutely no family history & I eat a healthy (& I've since discovered moderate carb) diet. All my other blood tests were good - LDL 2.5 (not great/not terrible), HDL 1.65, Trigs .45. Anyhooooo, he did an HBA1C which came back at 5.1 which he said suggested good blood sugar control & I should keep doing what I'm doing - better than the first Dr's advice I guess.

So here I am in limbo (in Australia actually) waiting for my blood glucose monitor to arrive & feeling exceedingly grateful to have found you all.

My apologies for the rambling post - will try to keep them shorter in future :)
Click to expand...

Hello and welcome to the forum Safi, we have some other Aussie's here, and a great lot too :)

RRB :)
 
Thanks for the welcome anna29 & Robinredbreast :)

I think I'm getting the hang of forums but still waiting for the monitor to arrive (weirdly looking forward to it!)
 
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