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New diabetic

K

KJMN

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi, I'm 3 weeks in to being diagnosed as type 2 but waiting for bloods results for type 1. My levels were 17-25 but now with tablets & diet 5-12. What I wanted to ask people is how long it took to feel better, I still feel faint & light headed, metformin upsetting tummy on & off & some days the desperate for a wee all the time thing. Seeing dietitian next week. Any feedback would be great. Thanks
 
Hi @KJMN .. and welcome
You should find that the side effects of your Metformin will soon wear off .. if not, ask for a change to the Slow Release version. Not sure about the "trips to the loo" though .. that seems to be different for everybody

Other that that, however, you have made a good move coming here. Since joining this forum the folks here have given me so much info, advice and support that I am now much more confident about the journey ahead. So ask your questions and be assured that you will receive the answers that you need .. in my experience, it gets easier .. very quickly.

Managing and controlling your diabetes through exercise, diet and testing your Blood Glucose seems to be the best way forward for many people. For me, committing to an LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) lifestyle and testing 3-5 times a day seems to be working and you'll find that there is a wealth of info, relevant advice and positive support about LCHF on the forum ..

I have tagged @daisy1 for you and I would suggest that you read up on the Low Carb Program in the information that she will soon be sending you. You might also find the discussion on the Low Carb Diet forum helpful .. and the following Diet Doctor websites ...
Low Carb Intro and Information
Low Carbs in 60 Seconds

I strongly recommend that you get yourself a meter for testing .. I suggest that you try the website at: https://homehealth-uk.com/product-category/blood-glucose/
https://homehealth-uk.com/product-category/blood-glucose/
for the SD Codefree meter, which costs £12.98 (you don't pay VAT) or:
http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-blood-glucose-meter/
who distribute the TEE 2 meter, which is free.
I have both for comparative purposes and I have never found any significant difference between them. Unless you are prescribed test strips by your doctor (unlikely), the costs of testing comes down to the ongoing charges for test strips and lancets. I'm testing 3-4 times a day which works out at around £10 to £12 per month for either of the two packages above but, more importantly, I now know what my BG levels are .. and I can now manage them
Hope this helps
 
Thanks for your quick reply. I have all the test things on prescription and was testing 3 times a day now only 2 to keep an eye as on tablets to lower & slow release metformin. Will check out sites you've suggested.
 
Hello and welcome. You are at an early stage and not yet making big changes to your lifestyle, and therefore not yet feeling any big difference. I am relatively new to this, being diagnosed early March. I can only relate what has happened to me, and hopefully that will give you some clues. Reading on this site what others have done, you will find that diet is a huge factor. I took the bull by the horns and drastically changed my diet. Read up about LCHF eating (low carb high or higher fat) before you see the dietician. It is likely they will give you guidelines which many on here find less than effective. Be armed with knowledge, and read and ask around here. To find out how diet affects you will require testing your blood glucose levels, again much information is to be found here. I do not take medications, so I will leave that to others to comment on. By changing diet, exercising more and learning all the time, I felt much better in a few weeks. Many of the problems I had vanished and some of those symptoms were very subtle and I had not realised they were happening. In short soak up information, listen to your medical advisors, but be prepared to look here and make informed decisions. Check for yourself what is going on and change what does not work and you will soon feel the benefits. For me that has meant losing 3 stones in weight by adopting LCHF, and my blood glucose numbers have dropped to near normal. It took work and many changes, but the results are stunning. Your work is just beginning, but we are all here to help, we are fighting the same battle!
 
Lampman said:
Hello and welcome. You are at an early stage and not yet making big changes to your lifestyle, and therefore not yet feeling any big difference. I am relatively new to this, being diagnosed early March. I can only relate what has happened to me, and hopefully that will give you some clues. Reading on this site what others have done, you will find that diet is a huge factor. I took the bull by the horns and drastically changed my diet. Read up about LCHF eating (low carb high or higher fat) before you see the dietician. It is likely they will give you guidelines which many on here find less than effective. Be armed with knowledge, and read and ask around here. To find out how diet affects you will require testing your blood glucose levels, again much information is to be found here. I do not take medications, so I will leave that to others to comment on. By changing diet, exercising more and learning all the time, I felt much better in a few weeks. Many of the problems I had vanished and some of those symptoms were very subtle and I had not realised they were happening. In short soak up information, listen to your medical advisors, but be prepared to look here and make informed decisions. Check for yourself what is going on and change what does not work and you will soon feel the benefits. For me that has meant losing 3 stones in weight by adopting LCHF, and my blood glucose numbers have dropped to near normal. It took work and many changes, but the results are stunning. Your work is just beginning, but we are all here to help, we are fighting the same battle!
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. Yes diet totally changed, at the moment just eating the 3 meals all low sugar from what the packs say. I have been told I'm a thin diabetic so don't need weight loss just got to eat better really. Well done you and good luck with your future.
 
KJMN said:
Hi, I'm 3 weeks in to being diagnosed as type 2 but waiting for bloods results for type 1. My levels were 17-25 but now with tablets & diet 5-12. What I wanted to ask people is how long it took to feel better, I still feel faint & light headed, metformin upsetting tummy on & off & some days the desperate for a wee all the time thing. Seeing dietitian next week. Any feedback would be great. Thanks
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum, a good step in the right direction. Have you had a c-peptide test? Mind you, if oral medication has already helped bring BG down, it sounds like your pancreas may be producing some insulin.

You mention diet, a lot of forum members (not all) benefit from keeping an eye on their carb intake, an area where the medical profession seem to have divided opinions. Keeping my carbs down to about 40gms a day (no pasta/bread/potato/rice) seemed to work OK for me, despite my GP's initial skepticism, she's even supporting my efforts to try the Newcastle diet at the moment, still work in progress though.

As for passing water, if you drink more then you pee more.

Metformin, hopefully the side effects lessen although mine never did. No slow release in my early days but it helps. I found lowering carb intake has helped me tolerate Metformin and it's been 20 years now, including a disastrous break when I was put on Rosiglitazone.
 
You mention low sugar, but that is not the same as low carb - particularly if you are going by the traffic lights on the packet.
You need to look at the total amount of carbohydrates, both starch and sugar, in the nutritional information on the side or back of the pack, or buy fresh or frozen veges you know are low carb.
 
When I was diagnosed with type 2 I looked at the ingredients of the foods I was eating and stopped eating the ones with a high percentage of added sugar. My blood glucose levels dropped from 13 to 10 in about 5 weeks. However, 10 is still very high and it wasn't until I stopped eating foods high in carbohydrates such as breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, that my blood sugars reduced down to about 6 a few weeks later. I also stopped eating fruit juice as it is high in sugar and from eating fruit such as bananas and grapes which have lots of carbs. See https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb
 
@KJMN

Hello and welcome to the Forum :) Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

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 well over 235,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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 blood glucose 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.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.
  • Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  • Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
 
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