My low seems to be 5.8

Hi @Bogie ,
Welcome, I don't believe that you are in control of your blood glucose levels, that is why, when you reach your 5s, as you say, lows, that I believe is a false hypo, that is why you feel awful.
Your body now is use to the higher levels. Probably because you have been eating too many carbs and sugars. And probably eating too much, with a couple of beers?
The way to get around this is to gradually lower your carbs and eat a bit more full fat things like cream, butter, stay away from low fat as they are full of sugar.

I've tagged @daisy1 to give you the newcomers information.

Have a read of the success stories and read the low carb forum, this will give you plenty of ideas and recipes.

HI, are you seeing the 5.8 figure being quoted as a fasting level? If so I think you'll find that the people concerned have very good control over their levels (or are non-diabetics) and won't be going anywhere near as high as your 12. So it's possible that if your body is used your higher levels then it could think that 5.8 is far too low for it to be happy with and you might be experiencing what's known as a "false hypo".

Solution - improve your diet - reduce all high carbohydrate food (in spite of what your doctor, etc may tell you otherwise) , and your readings should improve. Aim for these figures as a guideline, and you should start to feel much better and clearer headed.

Robbity

@Bogie

Hello and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you find it useful and in particular on diet and carbs which will help you control your levels better. Ask more questions and someone will be able to help.


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 There
there are lots of delicious alternatives that are low carb instead of bread-- my favourites include using cauliflower instead of potato and courgette instead of pasta -- check out the low carb section of the forum for a lot of great recipes
and welcome to the forum !!

Bogie said:

Thanks for the prompt replies and the wisdom of experience! The 5.8 reading was an end of day reading after doing some physical work. Morning, after night time 12 hr fasting, levels are usually about 6.8 to 7.5. Makes sense about being used to high levels. Hard to change diet, but been doing my best and have reduced a lot of the bad stuff. Don't drink beer, or any alcohol. No tea, coffee, or caffeine laden drinks. Heavy water drinker (kidney stones about 13 yrs ago created that drastic change in what I drink), no diet pop (no use trading the evil sugars for the equally evil Aspartame), and only have small meals. Any "shouldn't have" treats and snacks are "no sugar added" with zero or very low sugars and use Sucralose as sweetener. Use salt-free Becel instead of butter. Have been cutting back as much as I can from breads and buns, and look for lowest carb varieties. Diabetic dietician recommended going on Metformin now instead of waiting for any symptoms to show that would require it. Will get that next doctor visit. Canadian, so no charge medical and my age provides many prescriptions at little or no cost. Test strips for the meter are no cost .... glad there is something good about getting older.

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Can you tell us when you test your blood glucose levels?
To get your tests to give you an idea of what food is doing to your blood, we recommend testing before eating and two hours after first bite. This will also give you a baseline of what's going on.
If your levels are 2mmols above your before eating test after 2hours, then either the combination of food or a certain food is causing your bloods to be higher than they should be. I would stop eating that food.

By what you write, you seem to be eating really well and you should be getting better results than the 12mmols.
Exercise, has an unusual effect on your blood glucose levels. Strenuous exercise rises your blood while gentle walking usually brings it down.

Weird ain't it?

Just a quick question when my blood sugar goes low my eye sight gets all distorted does anyone else get this ?

Here are my "good" foods: bacon, butter, eggs, full fat yogurt, beef (especially ribeye), berries, and cheese. I don't consider that the official Canadian dietary guidelines are a healthy way to eat. I think the healthiest way to eat is to cut out all factory processed food and eat minimally processed real food i.e. the stuff without any added chemicals. To deal with my type 2 diabetes I cut out all sugar, rice, grains, and starchy veg. I also cut out all grain/veg oil (stuff like canola and margarine), which are highly processed, chemically produced fats. I also eat lots of fresh nonstarchy veg. It sounds a bit drastic, but I reversed my diabetes with the diet change and have never felt healthier. Once you cut out all the carbs, you don't miss them (it takes a week or two going cold turkey).

This web site provides a good guide that is pretty much what I follow: http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Unfortunately in Canada, like most places, the official medical advice is to eat to the official government low fat/high carb "healthy" diet and as your diabetes gets worse and worse to increase the meds until finally you are on insulin. I don't think this is an optimal approach. It sure wasn't what I wanted, so I did something else.

Bogie said:

Well, 12.4 is the highest I have had. Usually after eating (2 hrs) it will be between 8 and 10. Before meals is usually in the 6 range.

I do a fair amount of walking because we have 2 Greyhounds and they do like their walks We also live in a 3 floor townhouse and I work at home. So frequently using the stairs .. sort of like a built-in stairmaster.

My son, 42, has a normal reading about 3.8. He was born with a disaccharide intolerance and has avoided sugars as much as possible all his life. He is in good health and physically fit. Have tested him whenever he visits and always in the 3s. So, my low is "high", while his is what most would find dangerously low.

Going to document my readings on a strict schedule, and what I do eat, to see what I should avoid and what works best. I guess the hardest part of selecting the best diet is that I don't like a lot of the "good" foods

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My normal used to be around 4, 3.8-4.2 and on the occasions I could test after a meal below 5 soI'd say your son has a perfectly normal glucose metabolism.

As Nosher says, cut out starchy carbs and frankefoods like margarine and go for fatty cuts, butter and above ground vegs although I find celeriac and turnips are fine too. LCHF is the way I use to keep my bg normal and it works very well for me.