Is it possible I may just be prediabetic?

Enquiring Mind said:

Hello All,

I recently had a Hb1Ac test done and It came back as 56. I was then contacted and asked to come in for a fasting blood test. The test came back with a level of 7.9, with a comment from a doctor saying I had diabetes.

However I am very overweight at the moment and I have started a diet previously for my Hb1Ac test (which as far as I know measures the last 3 months of your glucose levels), I had been hitting the sugary food a little too much, more than I usually ever do.

Is it possible now that I have come off sugar and have started a healthy diet, that I may just be prediabetic and due to an overdoing of sugar over the last 6 months say, might have skewed my results?

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Hi and welcome to the forums.

T2 diagnosis doesn't really work like that. In the UK you will be diagnosed as T2 diabetic with a confirmed HbA1c of 48 and over. The HbA1c test counts the number of glycated haemoglobin molecules of a particular type (that means ones that have had a glucose molecule attached to them, and damage them) and gives an estimate of how much glucose there has been in your system the last three months or so, with a big skew towards the most recent month.


In your case you've had two of those readings, one of which is well over 48 and outside the usual acceptable error range. The tests can be wrong, but that's less likely if you've had two. And once diagnosed, you're always diagnosed. I was diagnosed five years ago with two readings of 50 and 49 in December and January. Those are the only "diabetic" level HbA1cs I've ever had, I've been 'in remission' for years, but I'm always going to be T2 diabetic.


The good news is that there are ways to reduce your blood glucose fairly quickly and effectively. Many of us, and I'm one, have had huge success with a low carb way of eating. That involves reducing or eliminating not just sugars but also starches (both get digested to glucose) from your diet. For me that meant and means no bread, cereals, pasta, most fruit, pastry, potatoes, etc. Different things seems to work differently for people, and it's worth looking at a range of experiences. The other thing is, if you really want to understand what's going on with the food you eat, is to get hold of a glucometer and test before and at +2 hrs after eating. That will show you very clearly the impact of the food carbs on your BG.

I'd recommend having a read around on the forums and especially the "Success Stories" section - you'll see what has worked for people. Best of luck. You are encouraged to ask as many questions as you want.

Enquiring Mind said:

Hello Kenny,

and thank you for the quick reply. I understand what you mean now. I was under the impression that my current blood test was a reflection of my past eating habits/lifestyle and that I wasn't diabetic yet, but on the cusp and if I turned things around and stopped eating sugar, carbs etc, I would be back to being non-diabetic.

I am going to stick to a healthy diet anyway now and just see how things go.

Kind Regards

Steve

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Well, it is closely linked to what you were previously doing. But there isn't any "true picture" underlying that. The result is the result, and there's no provision to be re-diagnosed "non-diabetic".

I'd strongly recommend trying to forget everything you think you know, or that the media tell you, about what a "healthy diet" is. Greatly reducing carbs, and concentrating on fresh, quality, natural food, with plenty of fats, has benefits for almost everyone. Some willpower needed and exact results may vary, of course. I also recommend getting a glucose meter and monitoring your glucose levels before you eat (as a baseline) and at the +2 hours mark. That should show you very clearly how well you dealt with the carb in what you ate. You're looking for the second reading to be returning to within 2mmol/l of your starting point and not be above 8.0.

If you don't see those sorts of figures, there was too much carb in the meal for you to cope with.

Best of luck

Enquiring Mind said:

Good morning Kenny, Good morning Chris,

Thank you for the advice Kenny, I will get hold of a glucose meter and start doing what you advised me to do, I guess it's going to be a new learning experience when it comes to food. I have started eating healthy food, but as you said, I need to find out what food is right for me and my body and what might spike my sugar levels etc.

Chris, thank you for the emphatic post. It has come as a shock; it does not seem real at this point. I will look to turn things around and reverse my high blood sugars, who knows it might end up being a blessing in disguise.

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Stop thinking about "spikes". A rise in blood glucose is perfectly natural and to be expected after eating some carb. That's what you have to manage. And your blood glucose will also go up and down in response to stress, illness, and a host of other things. You have only limited control over it in the short term - your liver is actually in charge, and livers are slow learners.

What you are aiming for is control in the longer term. That means an overall reduction in BG levels, so that your +2hr reading is returning closer and closer to the baseline reading, and the baseline reading itself is reducing. I often give this example - one small latte (thanks to the lactose in the milk) took (and will take) me from 5.1 to 9.6 in 30 minutes (CGM readings) and I was back to 5.2 or so by 60 minutes. The 9.6 isn't actually an issue for me - the peak lasted only a few minutes as my system dealt with the incoming glucose efficiently. There's very little I can do further to affect that - apart from not having the latte.


When you say "healthy food" - what do you mean by that?

Enquiring Mind said:

When I say healthy food I mean, Fish (trout, tuna, mackerel, prawns, sardines etc.) Chicken, Pork, Beef, Lamb. Broccoli, Carrots, Onions, mushrooms etc. Avocados, I know I need to be careful with too much fruit now. Cottage cheese and high-fibre crackers are something I don't mind. Black beans, kidney beans, butter beans, lentils etc. I love pasta, but that will have to take a backseat for now at least. I am going to adopt a high protein, low card diet.

I see you're a mine of information Kenny, and I am sure others here are too, so I am in good hands.

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Pretty good!

I'd recommend testing around some of these things, just to be sure. Carbs sometimes seem to have different impacts depending on source and recipient. . I stayed off beans for years because of their carb content which looked like being too much - turned out at the point I tried them again I could manage them fairly well. Carrots are something I am careful with, and crackers are right out.

I'd also suggest that you look to add natural fat alongside the protein. You might get enough via the meat but I tend to use strong cheese (I find cottage cheese insipid) butter and cream as standard additions.

Enquiring Mind said:

Thanks, Kenny, it's a shame I did not stick to this healthy diet earlier on, but it what it is. I think you, Chris, and Rach, give me hope seeing as you were able to reverse your diabetes and live normal healthy lives.

I will take your advice and test a few things and see what my body can and can't handle. I do like hard cheese, and while I feel you on cottage cheese I tend to eat it because it is high in protein and it's meant to be pretty good for you. I sometimes add pineapple with it to add flavour, but I might have to be careful with that. I will see how crackers affect me.

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Lowering blood glucose is certainly achievable. I'm not sure I'd describe it as a "normal, healthy life" though. Yes, I feel so much better than I did. However carb avoidance isn't "normal" as far as most people are concerned and all I'm doing is mitigating the worst effects of my metabolic problem, which hasn't gone away.

I found that the way that worked for me was - starting out - to eliminate starch and sugar, rather than build some in. Maybe a quarter to a half of the days in my first year were zero-carb. The obvious first step was to cut the high-carb items. For me anything flour-based or sweet (eg pineapple) was not and still is not an option. Fingerprick testing is your best friend for that.

Enquiring Mind said:

Good evening Rach,

Sorry for the late reply, I somehow missed your post. Yes, I will get a glucose monitor and start checking my levels, to see what does and doesn't affect me. I am surprised that lentils raise your blood sugar levels, I always considered them healthy.

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I wish someone had told me, when I was starting out, to forget everything I thought I knew about what a "healthy diet" is. Sure, lentils are lower in carbs than some things which are very high in carb, but lentils are still high carb items of themselves, and when eaten, we tend to eat them in some quantity. Probably OK for many people but not for those of us with a metabolic syndrome issue.

One of the things you need to unpick is that certain foods have been given a "healthy" (or "unhealthy") aura, largely by the media printing press handouts, and it simply usually doesn't get questioned.

Friends of mine were horrified that I was eating butter, red meat, cooking with lard, and not eating bread, oatmeal, fruit, etc. and were sure I would become very sick indeed. Bit sheepish now. I had a discussion with a family member (recently) who has just been told he has high blood glucose - he claims to have forgotten what the actual figure is. Despite seeing me normalise my BG levels and lose more than six stone in the last five years, he will not accept that what he eats is anything to do with his problem. He's determined to go on eating what he's told is "healthy food", full of carbs.