Is this something for concern?

[PatM41]

Good morning all,

Thank you for taking the time to read my query/intro.

I am a 41 year old male and wondering if I am heading in the direction of type 2. I have not yet sought medical advice as I'm hesitant to jump in that direction yet, and aside from Google have nowhere else to turn as I don't want to alarm the family/wife yet.

History - I am 6'2, currently 19st 12lb. Last autumn I hit 21st 6lb after 18 months of WFH and suffering from new weight-related joint pain I decided to get off my backside and fix things. Started working out end of September and I got down to 19st 12lb by Christmas. Christmas took me back up to 20st 4lb, and since then I have just this week got back down to 19st 12lb. I am not a drinker, don't smoke or do drugs. I am a stress eater though, and the last year or two has seen a lot of stress.

Family history - both parents have Type 2. Dad diagnosed about 18 years ago, Mum last year.

The thing that started me wondering if something was wrong though, is that pre-Christmas I had to work very hard to lose that weight. I was working out 6 days a week, hard workouts, and cutting calories a lot to go with the exercise. I have Narcolepsy which greatly effects my metabolism in a negative way, so I have always had to burn more calories than a "normal" person would to lose weight. Since Christmas though, I've lost 6lb over the last few weeks with 0 effort at all. I've never once in my life been able to lose weight without considerable effort due to my metabolic quirks, so this was an instant flag.

Around 3 weeks ago I also started being woken up in the night, usually around the 4-4.30am mark with the need to go to the toilet and a very dry mouth. A quick Google search obviously pointed me in the direction of Type 2 diabetes, especially when combined with the weight loss.

Earlier this week I ordered a blood sugar testing gizmo from Amazon, and across the days of the week I have been keeping a log of things. Trouble is I really don't know whether the numbers are cause for concern or not, as Google searching finds me all kinds of conflicting information.

I've uploaded an image of the log I've been keeping. I'm just hoping for some help to make sense of it. Yesterday for example I didn't need to get up in the night for a wee and started the day on a 5.5 reading. This morning though I didn't need a wee in the night again but I was at 7.9! I panicked a bit and tested twice more and got 7.2 then 7.0, then 15 minutes later was down to 6.6.

Am I in the red zone? Should I be heading to my GP? Or am I convincing myself of something that isn't there?

 

[jaywak]

I started reading your query and was thinking everything is pointing towards diabetes , but then I got to the end and thought them blood sugar result aren't that bad and I would have expected them to be a lot higher if you had type 2 , maybe a visit to your doctors to get a long term blood sugar test would put your mind at rest .

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Those readings are pretty good so don't panic. Test 2 hours after a meal for the most useful figures. Do keep trying to get your weight into a good range for you height etc. Don't think Calories as they are largely irrelevant but think Carbs for weight reduction. Fats and Proteins can be eaten fairly freely in conjunction with lower Carbs.

 

[Ronancastled]

I see you ran out of test strips & opened a new batch the morning of your last high fasting reading.
Some of us have observed a huge difference across batches so don't beat yourself up over that.

Better to test before a meal, at 1 hour then again at 2 hours to really sense what your BG is doing.
I know you'll burn through strips but the info is invaluable early days.
You've seen a few 8s but so do non-diabetics so don't sweat that.

Only cause for concern that I see is that your fasting readings are in the pre-diabetic zone.
I ask the doctors surgery to do an official lab draw to check your Fasting & HbA1c.

 

[PatM41]

Thank you for the replies everyone, very grateful..

I did another test pre-eating this morning at 8.30, reading 6.6. The food was only a protein bar (Nature Valley, Peanut and Chocolate, 9.2g carbs of which 6.2g sugar). Tested again 2 hours later and was at 7.0, so not quite down to the original level.

I guess from the comments I should speak to my GP about it and the morning numbers.

 

[Member496333]

You do seem to have elevated fasting glucose but the diagnostic criteria is almost always HbA1c, which happens to be the last thing to go out of range. If you do get an A1c blood draw and the doctor says it’s fine despite your slightly raised fasting glucose, you may want to investigate avenues to have your insulin levels tested. They can often be extremely high whilst trying to keep glucose in check, and this doesn’t register at all in HbA1c.

If you’re genuinely concerned then for sure you should see your doctor. Let us know how you get on. Even if you are on the road to diabetes, there is no finer place to get support than here. Between us all, we know our onions. Probably way more than most GPs.

 

[sweetsweetsugarblues]

I think I'm in the same boat. Well, different risk factors (PCOS not obesity) but similar pattern. I seem to get high-ish readings in the morning even when I haven't eaten. But a more 'normal' pattern during day (with rare exceptions e.g. in 7s & 8s two hrs after a heavy meal). And weight loss was unusually easy in recent months (but I did reduce my carb intake a fair bit, not as far as 'low-carb', but much lower than before).

I also experienced the dry mouth and going to toilet more often. But I was suffering from an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, and anxiety causes dry mouth. So I drank more water to solve the dry mouth, hence going to toilet a lot! And of course anxiety affects sleep...

I can't know for sure but suspect I have some insulin resistance, just not enough to send me into pre-diabetes diagnostic ranges. The morning readings could be explained by Dawn Phenomenon of glucose release into bloodstream by the liver, and perhaps my insulin wasn't quite doing the job of getting it back down. But I checked with GP HbA1C was surprisingly low.

So I'd wonder if you might be somewhere between 'healthy' and pre-diabetic? I'd strongly recommend asking your GP for an HbA1C to check. And meanwhile they can rule out other possible issues that could be affecting you & causing your other symptoms.

In the meantime it can't hurt to assume you have the very common problem of insulin resistance. There are many ideas about what is 'healthy' in this case but keeping carbs 'low-glycaemic/low GI' with portions on the smaller side, having some protein, fat & veg at each meal, and increasing your physical activity can't hurt, prediabetes or not

 

[finzi1966]

Obviously we can’t do diagnosis here, but I’m sure you appreciate that and were just asking for thoughts. So, mine are: I think at “worst” you might be what’s called “pre-diabetic”, ie some of your fasting blood sugars are a bit higher than ideal, but not to the level that would give you a diabetes diagnosis. And I think an important thing is that there is *nothing* in those figures that would cause weight loss (which only really happens in T2D when things have really got quite far advanced and blood sugars are way out of control) or even, to be honest, weeing in the night, which would usually suggest blood sugars of 10mmol or more (that’s the “renal threshold” for glucose, at which point the kidneys start working overtime to pee out excess sugar. So unless you are missing some major major spikes, your blood sugars aren’t anything like that level.)

It might be worthwhile to “focus” your testing a bit more, if you’re wanting to test. Eg your two highest figures are both quite soon after eating (45 minutes and 1.5 hours). Its quite normal to have raised sugars 30-90 minutes after eating. The important figure is whether its returned to normal at 2 hours after first bite. In your case, because your blood sugars are essentially normal or not far off, I probably wouldn’t even bother doing a pre-meal test. Its clear that between meals, your sugars are between 5 and 7 for the most part. So I would focus the testing on 2 hours after starting a meal, and as long as its returned to roughly that level, you’re good.

 

[RosemaryJackson]

This is going to sound a ridiculous question but when you talk about a dry mouth, do you mean your tongue is stuck to the roof of your mouth and lips stuck together and find it difficult to swallow? TIA