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LloydyB · Nov 30, 2022

Hi my name is Lloyd I'm 62 and type 2 Diabetic. I have been Diabetic for just about a year or so. I had been a chocolate monster for as long as I can remember.
I had been very fit I taught martial arts and represented UK. Became ill after suffering a heart attack. Then found I had Diabetes as well as having COPD and awaiting results to find out if I have Parkinsons. Ha can't get any worse, CAN IT !
I try so desperately hard to watch what I eat.
Anyway, I take Metformin and Atorvastatin as well a co-beneldopa for the Parkinsons.
I use the finger prick system ha, old school, I do this four times a day, should I ?
My sugars have been okay up untill today this evening they shot up to 14mmol/l prior to this I managed to keep it to just below 6.3mmol.
Don't understand what's happened. Help !

Resurgam · Dec 1, 2022

Was this 2 hours after starting to eat a meal?
If so - what did you eat?
I would only see such high numbers after eating something quite high in carbs.

catinahat · Dec 1, 2022

LloydyB said:
I use the finger prick system ha, old school, I do this four times a day, should I ?

Yes you definitely should, but
4 times a day gives you no useful information, it just tells you what your blood sugar is at that particular time, it does not tell you why it's at that level.
Immediately before you eat check your blood and note down the reading, then around 2hr after your meal do another test.
Its the difference between the first and second tests that tells you how your body handled that meal. People without diabetes, depending on their meal would normally see that their blood sugar had returned to the starting level at the 2hr mark.
Our aim is to do the same, although most of us allow ourselves a little margin of 2 mmol.
So if your level after 2hrs is within 2mmol of your pre meal test, then you know that the meal and the carbs in that meal have not caused you any problems.
However if your second test is more than 2mmol, then that meal contained too many carbs for your body to handle. You can then decide if you can cut some carbs out of that meal to make it more acceptable or maybe strike it off the menu altogether.
As you can see the actual number tells you nothing, it's the difference between the two numbers that gives you the knowledge you need to make a difference.
If you really want to know what damage a certain thing is doing to your levels, your beloved chocolate for example. You can use the same technique, by testing just before and again at say 30min intervals. It will give you a complete understanding of your response to whatever it is you're testing. You will know how quickly your blood sugar rises, how high it gets and how long it takes to come back down.
It's a lot of finger stabbing and almost certainly means sore fingers for a while, but I found that seeing the evidence with my own eyes to be a great motivator.

Melgar · Dec 1, 2022

@LloydyB I still can't get my head around why athletes get type 2. I was a competitive long distance runner and my body one day decided it could not cope with carbs, go figure! I purchase the Freestyle Libre sensors. Pricy yes, but I know what my sugars are doing throughout the day. It maybe worth purchasing one and seeing how your body responds to carbs for a couple of weeks. It will give you some incite.

LloydyB · Dec 1, 2022

catinahat said:
Yes you definitely should, but
4 times a day gives you no useful information, it just tells you what your blood sugar is at that particular time, it does not tell you why it's at that level.
Immediately before you eat check your blood and note down the reading, then around 2hr after your meal do another test.
Its the difference between the first and second tests that tells you how your body handled that meal. People without diabetes, depending on their meal would normally see that their blood sugar had returned to the starting level at the 2hr mark.
Our aim is to do the same, although most of us allow ourselves a little margin of 2 mmol.
So if your level after 2hrs is within 2mmol of your pre meal test, then you know that the meal and the carbs in that meal have not caused you any problems.
However if your second test is more than 2mmol, then that meal contained too many carbs for your body to handle. You can then decide if you can cut some carbs out of that meal to make it more acceptable or maybe strike it off the menu altogether.
As you can see the actual number tells you nothing, it's the difference between the two numbers that gives you the knowledge you need to make a difference.
If you really want to know what damage a certain thing is doing to your levels, your beloved chocolate for example. You can use the same technique, by testing just before and again at say 30min intervals. It will give you a complete understanding of your response to whatever it is you're testing. You will know how quickly your blood sugar rises, how high it gets and how long it takes to come back down.
It's a lot of finger stabbing and almost certainly means sore fingers for a while, but I found that seeing the evidence with my own eyes to be a great motivator.

Well thank you so much for your reply, it was full of very useful advice and guidance of wich I will make good use of.
Thank you so very very much. Will get back to you with redults when I have followed your kind advice.

LloydyB · Dec 1, 2022

Melgar said:
@LloydyB I still can't get my head around why athletes get type 2. I was a competitive long distance runner and my body one day decided it could not cope with carbs, go figure! I purchase the Freestyle Libre sensors. Pricy yes, but I know what my sugars are doing throughout the day. It maybe worth purchasing one and seeing how your body responds to carbs for a couple of weeks. It will give you some incite.

Thanks for your input I will consider your suggestion and let you know how I get on.

LloydyB · Dec 1, 2022

Resurgam said:
Was this 2 hours after starting to eat a meal?
If so - what did you eat?
I would only see such high numbers after eating something quite high in carbs.

Hi, yes 2 hours after a meal and Yess too many carbs and a rice pudding for afters obviously didn't help. I'll be more careful from now on for sure.
Thank you.

Resurgam · Dec 1, 2022

LloydyB said:
Hi, yes 2 hours after a meal and Yess too many carbs and a rice pudding for afters obviously didn't help. I'll be more careful from now on for sure.
Thank you.

I'm afraid that eating high carb foods is always going to cause a spike. Rice is 2/3rds carb by weight, and not something I'd choose to eat put on the menu.

Resurgam · Dec 1, 2022

Melgar said:
@LloydyB I still can't get my head around why athletes get type 2. I was a competitive long distance runner and my body one day decided it could not cope with carbs, go figure! I purchase the Freestyle Libre sensors. Pricy yes, but I know what my sugars are doing throughout the day. It maybe worth purchasing one and seeing how your body responds to carbs for a couple of weeks. It will give you some incite.

Ah - it is only because people who don't have any understanding of what carb intolerance is tell us that exercise will cure it (because we are gluttonous idle slobs to their way of thinking) and then don't accept what anyone with type 2 insulin resistance tells them.
The older I get the less willing I am to put up with such arrogance, plus it can be dangerous with so many people damaged in lungs and hearts by Covid or the vaccines. I live it an area which was full of elderly people, now it is all empty shops, houses for sale and early morning ambulances,

Outlier · Dec 2, 2022

Resurgam said:
Ah - it is only because people who don't have any understanding of what carb intolerance is tell us that exercise will cure it (because we are gluttonous idle slobs to their way of thinking) and then don't accept what anyone with type 2 insulin resistance tells them.

I so agree with this.

bulkbiker · Dec 2, 2022

Melgar said:
I still can't get my head around why athletes get type 2.

Because through their careers many are told to eat lots of carbs for "energy" and after some years the body cannot tolerate them any more. Carb overload.

Also once they stop being as active as they were then the glucose doesn't get used so often gets pumped into organs and turns to body fat.

Melgar · Dec 2, 2022

bulkbiker said:
Because through their careers many are told to eat lots of carbs for "energy" and after some years the body cannot tolerate them any more. Carb overload.

Also once they stop being as active as they were then the glucose doesn't get used so often gets pumped into organs and turns to body fat.

Thanks @bulkbiker I guess that's me too then, as I would load up the carbs for running. It was a struggle keeping the weight on.

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