New member Type 2

Tilly-Jake said:

Hi After being diagnosed with diabetes early on in the year I have managed to control it by a very low carb diet. But found my cholesterol has risen from 5.60 to 6.30. As I have had a lot of stress this last 6 months just wondered if that could be a contribution.

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Have you increased your fat intake whilst using the low carb approach? And if so, what types of food having you been getting your extra fats from?

@Tilly-Jake - Hello and Welcome to the Forum . I will tag @daisy1 who will provide you with some basic information that all new members receive. Have a read around the Forum threads and ask as questions .

welcome here Tilly-Jake

yes maybe telling what you eat can help a lot...

my cholestrol went down to 4.3 from 5.5 from changing my diet to a low fat diet and a lot fewer carbs the first 3 month and by loosing a lot of weight , the first 14 days though my triglycerides went extremely up, which I think was because of starting to eat my own fat first time in a long time, and a lot of fat was released into my bloods...
now I am in the low carb higher fat diet (ca. 65%fat of my calories) and I am looking forward to see if it has lowered my cholesterols more or not ... I have some month to go before getting to know that...

there is a few with inherited tendense to getting higher cholesterols that have to think of taking statins... but most get lower cholesterol from quitting the carbs..

my private theory is that the level of cholesterol is a Picture of how much repair is needed in our blood wessels and cells in our body, and that too many carbs and sugars do damage the body more than when not eating all those carbs of different kinds...especially those in the pure forms not packed with fibres and other kinds of nutrients..fats and proteins...but thats my private theory.

but if one change to eating extremely many whole eggs and egg yolks like 10-15 a week it can in some people raise the levels of blood cholesterol ... and after all is is also an expression of a very narrow choice of foods ...

but maybe you do not have any of these reasons for having gotten higher cholesterols .... and is it worrying ...then you have to do something about it

@Tilly-Jake

Hello and welcome to the forum Here is the basic information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Keeping the carbs down and not restricting the fats will help you as other members have said. In here is the link to the Low Carb Program which you might like to try. Ask more questions when you need to and someone will 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 210,000 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.

Hi @Tilly-Jake! My total cholesterol went up from 4.7 to 6.1 after adopting a Low Carbohydrate High(er) Fat approach to eating. But the total chlolesterol figure doesn't mean much. What is more important are the HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol), and triglycerides figures, and their ratios to each other. My HDL and triglycerides figures got better, and though my LDL got worse, the ratos are better overall.
If you know your HDL and LDL figures you can work out your ratios using this converter:
http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php

if you want a bit of reassurance about cholesterol, take a look at the work of this guy..

especially look from five minutes in - where basically it shows that as you get older the higher cholesterol the better ( ie above 7.5 ). It also shows that the biggest risk of heart attack is diabetes so if you control that first then that is the prime thing and that is what you are doing!

so well done!

Hi Tilly-jake, and welcome to the forum. I had a TIA a week past Saturday. Can I ask how long you took to get back to normal ie.. doing some chores

I have had type2 for about eight years. This is my first visit to the forum. I have been using metformin one a day, but now my blood sugar has gone from average 16.0 in the morning to 20.0 after supper. What is the best way to get it down? I eat a low carb diet and don't drink alcohol.

Hi @quilljar and welcome to the forum! A lot of us on this forum have found that adopting A Low Carbohydrate High Fat (LCHF) approach to eating has reduced our blood sugars. Have a read round the threads to see how that works and ask anything you want.
Apart from LCHF, fasting, portion control and exercise can also help in reducing bs levels.

quilljar said:

I have had type2 for about eight years. This is my first visit to the forum. I have been using metformin one a day, but now my blood sugar has gone from average 16.0 in the morning to 20.0 after supper. What is the best way to get it down? I eat a low carb diet and don't drink alcohol.

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Can I just ask how low carb your low carb diet is? Readings like that would be quite (very) high for a Type 2 who is low carbing? Maybe some meal examples?
Oh yes and welcome to the forum.. Please read Daisy1's intro above.

Tilly-Jake said:

Hi Not very good with computers struggling to find my way around.
I had a TIA in Jan and found out that I had high blood pressure and diabetes. I was not given any figures but told by my Doctor that it was well up in the red and not borderline. Didn't have the medication offered but went on a no carb reasonably high fat diet.
Latest test reads HbA1c 45 total cholesterol 6.30 HDL 2.68 LDL3.17 TRIG 0.99
Your calculator put my total at high risk.
My blood pressure is fine now.

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Hi @Tilly-Jake Those figures are great. The total cholesterol doesn't mean much. If you look at the information under the total readings it shows that your HDL of 2.68 is OPTIMAL, your LDL of 3.17 is NEAR OPTIMAL, and your Triglycerides of 0.99 is NORMAL.
More importantly your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is 2.35 - IDEAL
Your HDL/LDL ratio is 0.848 - IDEAL
Your Triglycerides/HDL ratio is 0.854 - IDEAL.

So you shouldn't worry about your total cholesterol level. The ratios are all IDEAL. I wish mine were that good.