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New to this forum but not type 2

K

Kaza7

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Hi all my name is Karen. I was diagnosed with type 2 about 6 years ago. I have managed to control my blood sugar with diet and exercise. Unfortunately the last year or so my Hba1c has maintained at 59 so our Diabetes Nurse at the surgery insisted I take some kind of medication. I went and paid a Private Consultant who said that despite my healthy BMI of 22 , my diet was excellent { tried low carb as well} and exercise 4 times a week, I probably couldn’t do anymore! I am very anti medication and don’t do tablets. I still work full time and it was therefore extremely important that if I was to take any drug , it was one with little or no side effects. This weekend I have started to take 6.25 mg of Vipedia , an Alogliptin. My kidneys are just in the stage 2 , were 3 and at the moment no liver issues. Cholesterol slightly high, but not taking any statins.
Just wondering if anyone on the Alogliptin? Would be nice to hear from anyone on these.
 
Please outline to us what you eat/drink over a normal week.
 
Although I've read a lot on the forum that is a medication I've not come across.
I am lucky in that I don't need tablets to stay fairly close to normal - so not really interesting to my doctor.
Welcome to the forum, and do let us know how you get on - even if there is no one else on the same medication now one could turn up anytime - numbers are growing steadily, it seems.
 
Never used it, sorry. Looked it up and did see quite a few side effects, sorry.... But no guarantee you'll get any of those. But what do you usually eat? There's quite a few people who think they're low carbing and then eat apples all day long, for instance. (Which is a load of sugar right there). Maybe we can help you tweak the diet?
 

Thanks didn’t want to go down any medication, but I’ve tried diet and exercise a lot ( swimming x2 weekly , 2 strenuous gym sessions, including running, cycling and weights). Also have active job and walk a great deal.Just have satsuma mid morning, sorry porridge for breakfast, ham sandwich, corn beef, chicken grain bread x2 slices, sometime just hard boiled eggs with rye cracker type things. Summer lots of salad, winter more veg. Evening cooked fish in breadcrumbs, loads of veg , if naughty a couple of new potatoes or small amount of mash.love meaty stews so have enough for 3 days. My downfall is a nice bit of whole meal French stick. I did loose 2 stone, but really can’t afford to loose any weight. I do have the odd apple. I love rice, but again limit this to whole grain, but not much or often. I have tried for 6 years and it is no longer working.
 
It's no longer working because well... i hate to say it, but your diet is absolutely loaded with carbs. The varieties of bread, fruit, porridge, crackers, rice... All of that will make your bloodsugars go up. I'm sorry. On the other hand, that does mean there's a LOT still to be gained by changing your diet. If you eat 3 meals a day and have 3 snacks a day you shouldn't lose weight, so don't go for intermittent fasting, but you certainly can drop a whole lot of carbs. Have a read here: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html and after that you might want to hit Dietdoctor.com as well as dr. Jason Fung's The Diabetes Code.

There's ground to win here, honest.
Good luck,
Jo
 
Hello Karen @Kaza7
While exercise is a good thing, it's often said that you can't out run a bad diet. (Dr Aseem Malhotra states this frequently). Your diet is really not good for a type 2 diabetic. It's not just sugar, as in the stuff in the sugar bowl, that puts up your blood sugar levels, but all the hidden sugars and the starches that break down into sugars. Your list of foods includes satsumas (little sugar bombs), porridge, sandwiches, grain breads, rye crackers, breadcrumbs, new potatoes and mash, plus French stick and the odd apple. It doesn't matter how brown, wholemeal or natural the carbs appear to be, they all break down into sugars once you digest them.
Sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but if you cut out all, or at least most of these foods, your blood sugar levels will drop and you may not need medication. If you are hungry and are trying to avoid weight loss, eat more fats, these have no effect on sugar levels.
Sally
 
Hi, I'm on a similar medication, mine is called sitagliptin,, it is in the Gliptin class of diabetes drugs.
The reason I suspect that you have been put on the drug is because you are probably insulin resistance and have no effect on the glucose derived from the amount of carbs listed on your second post. The drug works by creating more insulin initially to counter the glucose.
Your list of food is probably not low carb enough, even though it is considered healthy carbs, the amount of carbs is too much for you!
 

Hi
Thank you very much. I have looked at Metformin which is the usual first line of attack. I didn’t fancy and can not afford to spend time in the toilet! I know this is not for me. Believe me I don’t eat too much carbs! I am tiny 5 ft 3 and weigh 8 stone 10 . As you say it’s too many for me! So far only 3 days, no side effects. It will be interesting to see the affect on my next Hba1c in 3 months time.
How long and what amount do you take? Do you or did you have any problems with sitagliptin?
Kind regards
Karen
 
Kaza7 said:
Believe me I don’t eat too much carbs! I am tiny 5 ft 3 and weigh 8 stone 10
Click to expand...
What you listed are too many carbs for most type 2.
Carb control is not about weight its about blood sugar control.
For those with excess weight, low carb sometimes has a side effect of weight loss.
 
Yes have one and use it . Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as that. I have tried for 6 years but now there’s no shift my Hba1c , it’s all the Surgery are interested in. I was diagnosed at 54 in 2013. I managed with weight loss and diet and exercise to get it to 48 for around 4 years but the last 3 have all been 59. Believe me I’ve worked hard but now have started on 6.25 mg vipidia Alogliptin tablet. I really hope this will sort out my insulin resistance?
 
Kaza7 said:
I have tried for 6 years but now there’s no shift my Hba1c ,
Click to expand...
There’s no shift because you eat more carbs than your type 2 body can handle. You list an awful lot more than most of us in here can eat.
The medication will make you produce more insulin in an attempt to clear the excess glucose from your blood. Short term that helps the glucose levels. But the extra insulin actually makes you more resistant. That is why a medication based approach for type 2 to control symptoms rather than a diet based approach to control causes is historically a slow decline into worsening condition and possibly complications.
You eat what is typically advised as “healthy” but for a type 2 it simply isn’t. Some doctors and nurses are up to date with this, many aren’t.

It seems you have given up on diet control which I think is a great shame as there’s still a lot you could do with diet and avoid the medication you don’t want.

as a first step when eating all those foods identified by others as too high in carbs test them. Test before eating them and 2 hrs later. Do your levels go up by more than 2mmol? Too many carbs if so. Try it and see. You might just be convinced.
 
I second all the comments about lowering carbs further being an option if you want to avoid tablets. I did have a little eyebrow raise at the 'low' carb food that you list. All of those would be too much for me and my metformin and if I had all of that in one day my body would definitely complain.

I have been testing more regularly again recently and have once again been surprised how little things spike me. Had a handful of seeds, pumpkin,sunflower etc and bs rose by 3 pts.
 
Note that the Gliptin family of drugs only reduce BS spikes by allowing insulin production to continue for longer after a meal. They don't have much effect overall. I was on Sitagliptin for a few years. Did you try Slow Release Metformin which is much kinder than the vanilla variety?
 

No side effects and I've been taking it since 2014!
I take 100mg every morning.

If I was in your place, I would drastically avoid most of the carbs that you are having until you start having success with blood sugar levels and the meds. A food diary will help with your monitor to give you the knowledge of what carbs actually cause keeping your blood sugar levels up so high.
I would also look at other ways of helping you get good control of your blood sugar levels. Such as intermittent fasting, perhaps, portion size and walking, swimming more than the excessive gym work.
Have a look around the forum, there is some great information and knowledge about successfully controlled diabetes.
 
You still seem to think this is about weight. It's not. 10% of T2's never were overweight to begin with. You are eating carbohydrates. Those turn to glucose (sugar) once ingested. That is starches, fructose etc.... And you're eating a LOT of that. I can't even eat one slice of bread without my bloodsugars being affected. (Also, one slice of bread is more carbs than i eat in a day.) Those will drive your bloodsugars up. Try going without all those starches for a day or two, and see what your meter tells you. Check your bloods before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite, and see what an amazing difference it can make.

Weight does not cause diabetes and weight loss will not miraculously cure it. Not putting something into your body which it turns into sugar, does make for a well-controlled T2. I've been in the normal range for as long as i've been low carbing. And you, my dear, are not low carbing. Like i said, you can still make one heck of a difference just by changing what you eat. You have a chance here to not need medication at all.
 
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I'm another who agrees that you are eating a lot of carbs. How do you know if you are eating too many carbs? well the answer is to test- but another answer is the need for more medication.

I agree that medication may be needed in the short term, but ultimately the best answer is to start with diet. The best answer is to try to reduce your carbs so that you reach a level your body can cope with. For some that may still need medication but for many it can reduce or eliminate the need for medication.

If all the medication is doing is increasing your insulin, this may lead to more insulin resistance.

Lower carbs does not have to lead to weight loss if that concerns you- up the protein and particularly the fats- cheese- most have low or no carbs, meat, double cream- there is a lot out there.

Welcome and good luck.
 
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