Is controlling your blood glucose level enough?enough

First of all can I say well done for all you have achieved so far.

It's a difficult question to give a definitive answer. As I understand it no one can be certain of avoiding complications but good control at those levels should, at worst, help in delaying them for some time.

Keeping your weight and BG levels down as well as regular exercise are the best controls I know.


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I hope so.
I've got my weight down, and my bg is regularly between 5 and 6, My cholesterol is better than it used to be, so if anything I'm a lot healthier than I used to be pre diagnosis.
The complications seem to be directly related to the effects of the glucose circulating around, so if you can keep this to a "normal" level, I hope you won't see any problems.
I suppose the big question is do the short term spikes cause major damage?
I test my un diabetic wife occasionally, and she has been in the 7's after eating, so I'm assuming the normal body copes with as least that, so avoiding anything over that short term seems to be a good strategy.
Whether you low carb, low GL, or any other way, eating to your meter seems the thing to do to avoid complications.
Exercise, healthy diet, and watching the weight should generally improve your chances of staying healthier as well.

sugarme said:

Hi I am a type two diabetic. I have lost three stones since being diagnosed two and a half years ago. My question is even if you keep your blood glucose levels steady between 5 and 6 regularly and your weight under control, can you still get the nasty complications being a Diabetic brings? If so what else can one do to help prevent it? Thank you any advice would be appreciated.

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You are doing all you can by the sounds of it and, at worst, should keep any possible complications to a minimum and a long way off. Nobody knows for sure which is good motivation to stay focused. Well done !
Mo

Well done! I agree with the others nothing is certain but you must be minimising the chances of progression by keeping under excellent control. In addition to BGs make sure your blood pressure is ok as high BP is bad regardless of if you are diabetic or not.

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Firstly,well done on what you've achieved.

As others have said-nothing is ever certain BUT the way I see it is that if you consistently keep your BG's the same as a non diabetic then technically you should have no more risks of complications than a non diabetic...(Well,that's my theory)

What we do know for certain is that if we do not control our sugar levels the risks of complications increase. So I guess the best we can do is try to control our levels the best we can. The rest is out of our control so not worth worrying about as there is not much we can do about it!


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sugarme said:

Hi I am a type two diabetic. I have lost three stones since being diagnosed two and a half years ago. My question is even if you keep your blood glucose levels steady between 5 and 6 regularly and your weight under control, can you still get the nasty complications being a Diabetic brings? If so what else can one do to help prevent it? Thank you any advice would be appreciated.

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Congratulations on your results so far! In keeping BG as close to non-diabetic levels as possible, you are minimising risk. The risk is still there, but greatly reduced. There are no certainties unfortunately, but high BGs make complications a very significant risk. Each point you reduce your BG decreases the risk substantially. These are the only facts we have at the moment, so we have to make our minds up what level of risk (and in the case of insulin users which risks) we are prepared to run.

Smidge

To some extent ithe risk of complications is linked to the length of time You have had diabetes. T2s may have remained undiagnosed for some ime and his may have created certain weaknesses which could flare up in the future although not apparent at diagnosis..
T1s who generally have the condiion for longer have different risks and different ossible outcomes to T2s . coplications can be harder to treat in T2s as hey may have gone undeteced for longer. Aparently hospitals are now becoming very aware of this.
That said it can never do any harm to keep bgs low and stable.
I do believe that spikes can be damaging as they can put pressure on veins which may have been weakebned by diabetes. I also believe troughs can be damaging

Nuts are low carb but they're high in calories which isn't so good.

sugarme said:

Thank you for your comments and advice. I will continue to keep my BG under control, but it's a struggle with the diet! What's your favourite low sugar low Carb snack?

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Congratulations on your great progress. The others have already given lots of advice so I will tell you about my snacks. I'm a Low Carber which means I don't get hungry and rarely feel the need to snack However, if I get the need to munch I do it on almonds, brazils, walnuts, various seeds, olives, celery which you might like, I don't but it's carb free! cheese, cheese lol, bits of chicken, ham, raw cauli and broccoli .... Oh and don't forget chocolate! 70% and over is ok, but keep it to 2squares a day. There's loads to choose from Good luck