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GipsyMama

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Type of diabetes
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Could anyone describe to me how it feels to have blood sugar levels of between 9 and 11? I am trying to understand my elderly father who is T2, but not very articulate when it comes to how he feels. He is generally slightly more irritable than he used to be, and short-term forgetful - sometimes very forgetful and indignant. And he and his wife often bicker in a way that they did not used to. I have recently got for him a glucose monitor and realised that his blood sugars often go over 9 or 10, though the measurement done by his doctor, which I assume is his HbA1c, is OK, he tells me. What I'm interested in is how blood sugars effect your mood and your memory and your personality. (He's had a brain scan and he''s not got dementia.) How does the tiredness of high blood sugars feel? Sometimes his eyes close and flutter when I'm talking to him - but its only the middle of the morning. He's 81 years old, he's taking the metformin drug, and eats what I would call an old-fashioned, but healthy, high-carb diet.
 
Hi and welcome,

Do you know what his HbA1c was last time? It may help to find out.

Part of the problem with blood sugars and moodiness isn't just high levels, say after meals, but the big swings from high to low and back to high. This isn't a good thing at all. The flatter the levels the better, and this can only be accomplished by a low carb diet. No high carb diet is healthy, for anyone never mind diabetics.

It would be an idea to test him before a main meal, and then test him again an hour later and then again at 2 hours. Have a look at the rises. If they are swinging upwards, there were too many carbs in that meal. The worst carbs are the starchy ones such as potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, cereals and flour.
 
Hi @GipsyMama

I suppose it can be different for different people, but generally if my sugars are high I might feel tired and sick. Sometimes headaches come along too. Blood sugar levels can make diabetics snappy or irritable sometimes too, which I suppose is sort of understandable when it is directly affecting your energy levels. I suppose sometimes high sugars can just really drain you out, especially if it continues for a long period of time.

I notice you say he's on a high carb diet. You may have read/heard that lowering carb intake can help reduce blood sugar levels, so maybe that's something for him to consider? I know it's all easier said than done though!

Melissa
 
GipsyMama said:
Could anyone describe to me how it feels to have blood sugar levels of between 9 and 11?
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Currently it's making me feel nauseated and a bit out of it. Curling up for a nap sounds like a good idea. I can understand how he'd be annoyed with conversation when feeling a bit sick.
GipsyMama said:
... and eats what I would call an old-fashioned, but healthy, high-carb diet.
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There's nothing healthy about a high-carb diet in diabetics To see the specific impact, he can test before meals and then 90 minutes after. Moderately low-carb with healthy fats is much better at stabilizing blood sugar, and a lot more satisfying.
 
OK, thank you Bluetit. The swings. I will help him with more testing. Thanks.
 
Thank you MelissaC. I've suggested a lower carb diet and given him lots of information so he can understand the importance of diet better, but he says he just wants something simple..Can you recommend a 7 day diet plan which is just on 2 pieces of paper? He says I don't want a whole book to read, can't concentrate.
 

Have a loook at this. It may help

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/60-seconds
 
I felt totally exhausted all the time when my BG was high - I just wanted to curl up in to a ball in a dark room and sleep and sleep and sleep. I actually fell asleep on a five minute bus ride once. When it was very high (higher than your father's) I could hardly hold a conversation as I could forget from one moment to the next what the conversation was about and being forced to do things or even think about things made me very irritable and feel like crying all the time - like a small child when they are tired. Also, with high BG, there are other physical side affects that made you feel depressed - like thrush or blurred vision. These can all disappear when you eat a low carb diet as they did with me. About the arguments... that is very normal.
 
@GipsyMama I think there is a low carb plan somewhere on this website! If you search you should be able to find some ideas, I'm pretty sure there was a 7 day plan off the top of my head.
 
Dear Chook, thank you for your reply. This rings true for him 'like a small child when they are over-tired.' He doesn't cry though because he is quite stoic in many ways, but I think it comes out as unreasonable irritableness. Also, he does like to take exercise, which I suspect keeps his average readings down at the doctor's, but then he comes home and drinks orange juice, and then mashed potato and icecream with dijestive biscuits, and that probably makes him swing up and down, as Bluetit was suggesting. He did once have an episode of blurred vision - it co-incided with a disagreement he'd had with someone over a computer. People thought he was going mad or had a stroke, but do you think that that may have been high blood sugars? Do you find that emotional upset will significantly send your blood sugars up? Like a misunderstanding making you feel angry? Or, feeling guilty about a cross word, that kind of upset?
I'm beginning to think that I have been really ignorant about this, and have left him struggling on his own for way too long. His GP never recommended a glucose monitor, I just thought it might be worth a try.
I will do more reading on this website. Thank you so much.
 
Oh dear - orange juice, mashed potato and ice cream are some of the carbiest foods - and I used to love all of them. If you have a look at the dietdoctor.com website there are ideas and recipes there for low carb foods and meals. There is also lots of information on this website and forum that can help give you ideas of what sort of foods/meals he ought to think about eating. Without knowing his preferences it would be difficult for us to make recommendations - also you will need to get on-side whoever does the cooking for him.

It would help if he tested just before eating and then an hour after, then two hours after - just to see how what he is eating is really affecting him. I must admit that it was seeing the results when I started regular testing that shocked me so much that I decided, whatever it took, I needed to control my diabetes.

I've not heard of brief episodes of blurred vision - mine came on slowly during a one day long written exam I had to attend - by the end of the day I could hardly see and it stayed that way - and maybe got a little worse when I was tired. When I finally lowered my BG with eating very few carbs my vision slowly stopped being blurry and finally cleared. It actually is one of the first warning signs for me that my BG is elevated.

Oh being emotional can definitely affect your blood glucose - as can having any kind of illness, even something as minor as a cold can make it go up. Your BG is basically your barometer to how your body is coping - with food, illness and, to a lesser degree, with emotions - which is why its important to test it regularly.

Don't blame yourself for not noticing - these symptoms we get creep up on us very slowly and very often the diabetic themselves doesn't realise themselves how bad things have got until something happens to make them take notice.

Unfortunately GPs rarely recommend a glucose monitor because if they did then they would have to supply one and prescribe the test strips, which are expensive. There are guidelines that they should supply a monitor but most don't unless the patient is on certain kinds of meds that could cause a hypo (very low blood sugar).
 
GipsyMama said:
drinks orange juice, and then mashed potato and icecream with dijestive biscuits,
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I'm agreing with Chook: those are really problematic foods, due the high glycemic index and carb levels.

Even on a suggested "eatwell-like" diet ice cream is a treat so are biscuits, they're to be eaten in small quantities.
Potatoes are to be eat instead of other starchy foods end mashed and fried potatoes are anyway to be avoided. Especially for the added fats.
Industrial orange juice is for me to be classified as like a fizzy dring for the added sugars and addictives.
 
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