New type 2

Oh my heart aches for u sweetie. I was diagnosed in Feb and also got “bad” advice from my nurse. Then I read this forum and other sites and my brain was bamboozled by all the conflicting advice. I know you want to believe your nurse but she is only a human and just like mine, she told you wrong. Mine told me to eat 300g of carbs a day- good lord is it any wonder there is a diabetic crisis- (I am a short woman with lots of weight to lose and the diabetes uk website says that an average man with no weight to lose needs this much) try to get a glucose monitor- I insisted and got a free one from her, if you cannot get one from her you can get a free one online very quickly- it’s called Tee2 - you may have to buy strips but honestly it’s a vital and good investment. You may be able to get them prescribed for a while. You will only know what is happening by testing. I tested 7 or 8 times a day at the start and still test 4 to 6 times. I have lowered my blood glucose to the normal of between 4 and 7. I have lowered my hba1c from 78 to 66 in 2 months ( had an early test) I achieved this with LCHF low carb high fat. Look this up. Try to get on an X PERT course as soon as you can from your Dr. It invaluable info. If you are cutting carbs to very small amounts you MUST replace it with something- fats is the best choice. I am losing weight steadily- without trying - as a by product of lowering bg with lchf. It’s confusing and stressful all the information but you will get there. The people on this site are AWESOME and helpful. You can always double check their advice. I changed my nurse. Even my second one still follows the nhs line but is more flexible now I know more of what I’m talking about.

Your nurse was thoroughly irresponsible... I assume she knew about your mental health issues, but went into horror stories and bad advice to boot. I'm so sorry. I'm a borderliner with a clinical depression, on meds that stick the weight on. I was lucky, I guess; everyone was on holiday when I was diagnosed, so I read up on low carb high fat eating before I saw anyone. Three months later, my HbA1c was in the non-diabetic range (I'll always be a diabetic, but no complications as long as my bloodsugars are good), and I could quit the diabetes meds and the statins. I eat enough to not be hungry, basically veggies, meats, eggs etc. No bread, rice, potatoes, cereals and such. It's perfectly doable, honest. Check dietdoctor.com for recipies. But really... It's the carbs we can't process. If you got a meter, you could see yourself what certain foods do to your bloodglucoselevels... I hope you manage to get one. I've had mental and physical issues all my life before becoming diabetic, I know where you're coming from. But you've not been given a deathsentence. You're not about to lose your legs or eyesight. It's not all a given, nothing's set in stone. You can do this.

flexi06 said:

try to get a glucose monitor- I insisted and got a free one from her, if you cannot get one from her you can get a free one online very quickly- it’s called Tee2 - you may have to buy strips but honestly it’s a vital and good investment. You may be able to get them prescribed for a while.

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In case you can't get a free meter and strips from your doctor, here is some info. on ones you can get yourself:

These two are the meters many of us on this Forum who self-fund use. They have probably the cheapest strips.

(1) The TEE2 meter is free, but alas not the strips to use with it, which cost £7.75 for 50 ex VAT.

With your free meter you get a useful little carrying case, 10 free strips, 10 free lancets (which will last for ages if, like me, you re-use them) a free lancet gun and free bottles of testing fluid. Customer service is fantastic. You can speak directly to a REAL PERSON 24/7 on a freephone line (0800 881 542 whenever you have a question or if you prefer not to order online. Your order arrives pretty much by return of post. You can have a replacement gun, more batteries and more testing fluid all free. The meter works fast and it only requires a small drop of blood. It supposedly will transfer readings to an app by bluetooth, but only some phones and tablets are suitable. Mine aren't.

http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-plus-blood-glucose-meter/

Alternatively you can buy a CodeFree meter starter kit for £12.89 here:

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/

The advantage of the Codefree meter is that the strips work out slightly cheaper than for the TEE2 if you buy 50 (£7.69), but much cheaper if you buy in bulk. (To do this you have to put in a special code, available here on the Forum.) One disadvantage is that the Codefree customer service is way inferior to that of the TEE2 and only available during working hours Monday to Friday. This is particularly important if one is new to testing, as it means with the TEE2 one can get advice at any time of the day or night. One's Codefree order arrives much more slowly than the TEE2. So if, like me, you have a tendency to forget to order until you are about to run out, the TEE2 is better. With the Codefree not only do you have to pay for the meter, you also pay for any replacement batteries or testing fluid you may need later.

Don't forget that as a diabetic you don't have to pay VAT on your meter or strips. You can sign up for this on the order forms.

Rifkah said:

The weight loss was before the nurse gave me this new diet...I was eating a sandwich for lunch and fruit and something done in the slow cooker for dinner with four veg......some carbs, often rice cooked on the hob top when I got home.
I'd eat out on a Wednesday when my aid was off, often a tomatoe based curry and rice at a local Indian or a chicken and mushroom risotto at a local Italian.

Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought I ate pretty healthy, that's how I'd been running things for around three years.

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Lots of things can cause weight loss. Before diagnosis it's not unusual to present with weight loss. I was like this myself. I didn't know that I was a diabetic but it was weight loss, peeing a lot and changes to my prescription glasses that caused me to see the doctor.

It is perfectly logical in some cases. Our bodies are unable to process large doses of carbohydrate because our insulin system no longer performs as it should. The glucose from the carbohydrates cannot entirely find its way into our cells and so it builds up in the blood. Our kidneys need to work overtime to pee it out. This is why undiagnosed diabetics are often thirsty as every available drop of water in the body is used by our kidneys to pee the sugar out. Remember, someone of your weight requires about 9300 kJ of energy just to function and maintain weight. We cannot obtain enough energy from carbs so if the diet is full of carbs there isn't much fuel left. We then begin to break down our fat and protein reserves to make up the shortfall. Hence the weight loss. That may not be what happened to you but it shows that there are many reasons. I see that your pre diagnosis diet is high in carbs.

This is the primary reason that all of us here have cut back on carbohydrates and is also why fats are not necessarily the enemy as they get used up. I think this all gets back to what was said before. I implore you to seek professional help from qualified medical doctors in this area. The local nurse is simply not enough. It can't be easy managing your other conditions as well as diabetes. Despite the handicaps you seem to be giving it a red hot go. Good luck and stick around.

By the way, was 146 your HbA1c or just a spot glucose test. I'm only asking because 146 is unusually high. Not impossible but high just the same.

Your brain and nervous system are made of loads of fats - the myelin sheath is a fat, your brain is kept neat and tidy by sheets of fat molecules - we need fats for healthy brains - there is even Lorenzo's oil to prevent a degenerative disease, and many people find that their cholesterol numbers go down and ratios improve when eating high fat, not low. Dealing with stress can also improve - I find I can deal with people much better when eating low carb - my brain feels turbocharge compared with the times I have had a 'healthy carb' meal.
Although a forum is no place to get medical advice - the people on here have had to deal with diabetes for what amounts to centuries of experience, and we all seem to be agreed that the nurse has given you some seriously flawed advice, and I personally think that perhaps the best medication for you is some roast chicken and a big salad - few people feel worse after sitting down to a plate of that.

Rifkah said:

Yes we do need fats but the liver can make them out of any carbon source going really. So there are very few essential fatty acids that we must ingest.

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Do you mean glucose/carbs

Rifkah said:

Yes we do need fats but the liver can make them out of any carbon source going really. So there are very few essential fatty acids that we must ingest.

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So how will you get the two essential fatty acids that the body can’t synthesize if you don’t eat any fat at all as your nurse commands?

I think that people on here can be very knowledgeable about diet and T2

There are two essential nutrients... fats and protein that you should eat.

Interested in the papers you are talking about

Rifkah said:

Cool do you have access to science direct?

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I can find it on the net

Rifkah said:

Yes we do need fats but the liver can make them out of any carbon source going really. So there are very few essential fatty acids that we must ingest.

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What’s that process called

Woooo no way lol

Rifkah said:

medical advice is that I need no fat no carb diet

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Have I understood correctly - you want to eat a diet that is entirely made up of protein, without any fat or carbohydrate?