Is being diagnosed T2 serious?

[DumfriesDik]

My wife has recently been diagnosed as T2, she was told to take Metformin and build up the dosage. She was not given a blood meter. I find this so very frustrating and I don't know how we are supposed to manage something we can not see? It's like we are told it is very serious, yet we are not given the tools to help ourselves. Is it serious or not? That's rhetorical btw, I know it is.

We got a Glucorx mini ultra meter for my wife. And with a shift in her diet she has gone from 25 to 6 in two months. This is by adopting a low carb diet. 'Lucky' for us, I have been doing this for a good few months (years) now.

Have you seen the NHS website recently? Here is what they say about diet:

You can eat many types of foods

There's nothing you cannot eat if you have type 2 diabetes, but you'll have to limit certain foods.


You should:

• eat a wide range of foods – including fruit, vegetables and some starchy foods like pasta
• keep sugar, fat and salt to a minimum
• eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day – do not skip meals

I find it more than a little frustrating to read that. I would suggest that a newly diagnosed person reading that info would think that what they are doing is just that. It just smacks of flimsy advice for a condition that is not very serious.

Right then, I'm off for a bowl of pasta and ragu with a side of chips . . .

 

[ziggy_w]

Thanks for posting, @DumfriesDik. I guess this is why they call it a chronic progressive disease.

 

[DCUKMod]

My wife has recently been diagnosed as T2, she was told to take Metformin and build up the dosage. She was not given a blood meter. I find this so very frustrating and I don't know how we are supposed to manage something we can not see? It's like we are told it is very serious, yet we are not given the tools to help ourselves. Is it serious or not? That's rhetorical btw, I know it is.

We got a Glucorx mini ultra meter for my wife. And with a shift in her diet she has gone from 25 to 6 in two months. This is by adopting a low carb diet. 'Lucky' for us, I have been doing this for a good few months (years) now.

Have you seen the NHS website recently? Here is what they say about diet:

You can eat many types of foods

There's nothing you cannot eat if you have type 2 diabetes, but you'll have to limit certain foods.


You should:

• eat a wide range of foods – including fruit, vegetables and some starchy foods like pasta
• keep sugar, fat and salt to a minimum
• eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day – do not skip meals

I find it more than a little frustrating to read that. I would suggest that a newly diagnosed person reading that info would think that what they are doing is just that. It just smacks of flimsy advice for a condition that is not very serious.

Right then, I'm off for a bowl of pasta and ragu with a side of chips . . .

Dik - When I was diagnosed, I had that sort of advice, and, like your wife, not given a meter - instead the nurse told me, "we'll look after the test results".

My reaction was along the lies of "OK, so you tell me I have this serious condition, but it's not serious enough to monitor. Go away and eat what got me into this mess, and come back in 3 months, when we'll tell you how badly you've done."

Not on your Nelly!

On the day, I thought the nurse was lucky to get out of the "consultation" alive.

The rest is history.

 

[Jaylee]

Hi,

It's well documented on here that my Dad was T2. (Past tense, sadly no longer with us.)

I joined here not long after his demise. He was prescribed metformin.
However, he was also prescribed a meter. (Flashier than mine back then too.)

Until I joined up here, I didn't realise how lucky he actually was.
At the time we both shared the same GP. We would have dealt with the same team of DSNs too.

Now the dietary advice regarding type 2. To my mind isn't dissimilar to what is recomended for the insulin dependant diabetic.
Lol, some have an old school approach that insulin "only" works in the presence of digested carbs.
(Just trying to understand the mindset of the average HCP dealing with this subject?)
Even that "3 square meals" thing looks like really old directions aimed at fixed dosage of insulin use?
(As I understand it, some tablet forms of treatment should be taken with food?)

Now, my father developed vascular demetia the last 8 years of his life. My mum was his primary carer & she was giving him a diet not dissimilar to what I was eating as a young T1.
There was a misunderstanding regarding what certain starches & fructose was doing. (The usual suspects.)
After a diet review (basically asking my mum what she was feeding him.) When I spotted some dodgy BG trends regarding my dad during the daily visits keeping an eye on them both at the time to & from work.
For my dad a reduction at about 60%? Of the carb intake was enough to set him free of at least the metformin he was prescribed for years..

The GP retired 8 years ago.. My own experience as a T1 these days has brought me to the conclusion, they don't seem to make them like they used to...

 

[Daibell]

Hi. T2 is serious if you follow NHS/PHE diet advice. Many of us have known for years that it's dangerous rubbish and can be traced back to Food Industry funded research advice. Low-carb is the way to go as you have found and doing that with some medication if necessary plus exercise should hopefully enable you to lead a normal life. It's essential to have a glucose meter and fund the test strips if needed - a small price to pay.

 

[Andydragon]

My dad ate pretty much all the wrong stuff and have extremely serious side effects of prolonged high bloods. I wish I had found this information sooner myself, all the advice I have been given for the last 10+ years was to lower sugar and eat healthy, I.e. lots of fruit and veg, low sugar cereals blah blah

trouble is I think my hba1c were generally really good. But I was also dosed up on multiple diabetic meds to do that. Luckily i don’t have issues with any drugs I take

so there was I eating bananas and apples thinking I was being good. Yup, not so much

In the month or so since dropping my carbs to aim < 130 and getting an exercise bike, my bloods are hovering around 5 - 6 and I have so far lost 2.5kg. I am not perfect but I can get better

I am staggered that the NHS continues to push conflicting advice. I know they are talking low carb as they have courses and my nurse asked me about dropping carbs and luckily it’s not too late as I don’t have any side effects. But it could have been so different

 

[Tophat1900]

I find it just unbelievable that this rubbish still passes as advice given the horrific outcomes and epic failure that has accompanied it over the decades. And yet it is still there. It just defies all commonsense, but hey, when you have dietitian associations being funded by junk food manufactures, what does anyone expect I guess.

Money trumps people's health all to often and the medical world just seems to look the other way. It's the same advice in the US and Australia... copy n paste you could call it and stick your head in the sand approach.

The "you don't need to test your levels" really frustrates me.... how can you possibly manage a condition without measuring?

 

[Daibell]

A contributor to the problem is society's love affair with Calories which were a wartime approach to making sure people had enough food during rationing. Calories have now effectively become a food group pushing Carbs down into almost irrelevance. We see the NHS and many others talking about the 800 Calorie 'diet' which although it helps it takes the focus off the real culprit - the Carbs. If you 'follow the science' (now where have I heard that recently?) you find that fats have twice the Calories of Carbs and hence following the 800 Calorie approach will lead to the wrong food group (fats) being reduced to stay within the 800 number - all rather silly and yet we have Newcastle University and the NHS going down that route. Why?

 

[andromache]

My wife has recently been diagnosed as T2, she was told to take Metformin and build up the dosage. She was not given a blood meter. I find this so very frustrating and I don't know how we are supposed to manage something we can not see? It's like we are told it is very serious, yet we are not given the tools to help ourselves. Is it serious or not? That's rhetorical btw, I know it is.

We got a Glucorx mini ultra meter for my wife. And with a shift in her diet she has gone from 25 to 6 in two months. This is by adopting a low carb diet. 'Lucky' for us, I have been doing this for a good few months (years) now.

Have you seen the NHS website recently? Here is what they say about diet:

You can eat many types of foods

There's nothing you cannot eat if you have type 2 diabetes, but you'll have to limit certain foods.


You should:

• eat a wide range of foods – including fruit, vegetables and some starchy foods like pasta
• keep sugar, fat and salt to a minimum
• eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day – do not skip meals

I find it more than a little frustrating to read that. I would suggest that a newly diagnosed person reading that info would think that what they are doing is just that. It just smacks of flimsy advice for a condition that is not very serious.

Right then, I'm off for a bowl of pasta and ragu with a side of chips . . .

It’s beyond frustrating, it’s scandalous. I am glad hat your wife is doing well, No thanks to the NHS web site!