Max Blood Glycose for Type 2?

tpaz said:

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping I can get some advice, as my next doctor's appt is a couple of months away.

I was diagnosed with T2 10 years ago at age 20. I managed to keep it under control, until 1 1/2 months ago. I gained about 30 pounds rather quickly, and was feeling very queasy. I went to my doctor and after tests was put on Metformin 1000mg daily.

I have definitely been more responsible with my diet for the last 1 1/2 months. I'm no longer binge eating, I'm eating low carb, and I've started to exercise.

However, it seems no matter what I do, my blood glucose levels will not go down. For example, today I only ate lunch, just do to being busy and at 10pm my reading was 8.9. Lunch was only curried tofu and chickpeas. Maybe 1 cup of each. Two nights ago, I went out to eat with friends, I had a toasted veggie sandwich with goat cheese and a side salad. My reading 2 hrs after was 16.9!

I'm worried that my readings should never be that high as type 2. Even with 12 hrs of fasting, I'm always 7.5+

My liver function is also extremely elevated - twice the normal amount it should be. I'm not sure if that's related to my glucose, but I am not an alcohol drinker.

Does anyone have experience with this/can offer any advice?

Thank you!

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Hi tpaz and welcome to the forum. @daisy1 will be along shortly with your welcome pack.

Well done for the changes you are making. Your fasting blood glucose (BG) at 7.5 is higher than it should be, but it's not off the chart. I'm confident you can get it and your overall BGs down over time through low carbing, but you will need to be fairly strict about your carbs. There's lots of info on the forums about low carbing so have a look around and feel free to ask anything you need to. If for some reason low carbing doesn't start shifting your BG levels by the time you see your doctor, you may want to ask for your medication to be reviewed. If you have excess weight, low carbing can help you lose it, and that in turn helps with keeping BGs under control.

There is a condition called non alcoholic fatty liver disease, and there is info about this on the forum if you do a search. Others who know more about will probably post here and give you some info. Elevated LFTs can be a sign of this but are not diagnostic for it. Further tests would be needed. When your doctor got the test result did they say anything about it? If not, you might want to phone the surgery for more info, so that you don't worry unnecessarily (or if a referral for an ultrasound scan is needed, that can get underway). Maybe it would be a good idea for your doctor to repeat the test to check that it's accurate and see if the level changed between tests?

tpaz said:

Hi CatLady

Thanks for the response . Yes, I definitely have weight to lose, but my sugars being so high, it's been really difficult to lose. I think my main concern is now possibly being type 1 or 1.5. As I've never hit the 16.9 reading, in the past 10 years, until this year.

As for my liver, yes, I've had numerous tests done. After testing the liver levels, I was even tested for hepatitis, just in case. I've been referred to an Internal Medicine doctor for that, but won't see him until November.

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I will tag @Daibell as she knows about T1.5/LADA.

@tpaz

Hello and welcome to the forum Hoping this will help you, here is the information we give to new members. This will give you a lot of information on carbs/diet which should help you to get your levels down. I hope you will get some more answers to your post soon. Ask questions and someone will be able to advise you.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 150,000 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.

Hi. Yes, it could be T1.5 (Late onset T1) as 20 is a very low age to be T2 even with some excess weight. Obviously you may have some other medical condition. I would ask the GP to test for T1.5 or at least start you on relevant tablets such as Gliclazide to try to control the blood sugar.

You can read it here http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/normal-blood-sugar-levels-chart-adults