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aLATHEA

Member
Messages
13
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi guys,

I am a 42 year old woman, diagnosed nearly 2 years ago with type 2 diabetes. For the past 2 years I've been like a toddler who's thrown their dummy out the pram!! I have been on a 1000mg three times a day of metformin and simvastatin. I decided a couple of weeks ago that enough was enough and that if possible I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on meds. My Hbac1 has been less than 6 on meds but to be honest my diet was still pretty apalling! I am 14.5 stone in weight at 5' 5" so pretty overweight. I spoke with my diabetic team and am now on a trial without any meds to see if I can control my sugars and lose weight.

This is the first time I've accessed the forum and I'm not usually very good at this kind of thing but I think I may need a lot of support and advice to make this work. So far so good, in the last 2 weeks my pre meal sugars have been below seven but my morning sugar is always just over 7.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better.

Jen
 
Hi Alathea.
Welcome.

Diet only and wanting to take control. Has your HC team given you a diet plan to follow ?
There are many people on here who use Diet only and have good control over their Bg numbers.
I am sure they will help.

Just take your time to have a good look around and ask questions when you need.

Ken.
 
hya and welcome,
have a good look around and ask as many questions as u need to :D
 
Thanks for the welcome guys,

I have not been given a diet plan as such to follow as I just spoke with my team on the phone to say I wanted to have a trial on diet only. This was 2 weeks ago. Their only advice was to go for it and they'll check Hbac1 in August at next appt.

To be honest I have done quite a bit of reading and ended up a little confused by all the advice, low carb, high carb, low GI, low protein etc

I am currently trying a low GI diet plan with three meals and two snacks a day. Having a whole grain carb with each meal. My pre meal sugars are between 5.5-6.6 but post meal at 2 hours is between 6-10. I spoke with the team about that and they advised me to stop checking post meal sugars as having come off large dose metformin (1G x3/day), it was usual for post meal sugars to run a little higher initially?

Anyway looking forward to asking many more questions and hopefully having something to contribute too.

Thanks again for welcome.

Jen
 
Hi Jen and welcome to the forum.

As you will effectively be experimenting with your diet over the coming weeks, it is more important than ever to test your blood sugars before and after a meal. If you don't test at 2 hours after then you won't know what affect what you have eaten has had on your BS, and you could go on eating something that your system is not able to tolerate without realising what damage it is doing!

As far as diet type is concerned, the diet recommended by the medical authorities is a high carb one. It is now widely believed that this so-called "healthy" high carb diet is responsible for the alarmingly high rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the western world. The only way that you will be able to keep your BS in check is by a reduced carb or low GI diet. It is carbohydrate that creates blood sugar and the simple truth is less carbs = less blood sugar, more carbs = more blood sugar. The low GI diet is one where the carbs eaten are limited to those that convert to blood sugar more slowly and therefore don't cause sudden spikes in your BS. Some of us manage on a low GI diet, some on a reduced carb diet, and some on a low-carb diet (i.e. below 50g carbs per day). Which route you take is entirely up to you, but there has never been a recorded case of a type 2 diabetic being able to reduce and control blood sugar on a high carb diet.
 
Welcome Jen, though obviously we'd rather you didn't need to join our club. My experience is that a reduced carb diet improves every aspect of health. When I check carb content of my diet, the recommended diabetes diet amounted to 3-400 g carbs per day. My health improved when I reduced it to around 100g per day.

I was diagnosed 9 years ago, (at 61) in good general health, physically active, BMI 27, so only slightly overweight. Dr told me EVERYTHING that would go wrong, that it was a progressive disease, & helpfully calculated my probability of a heart attack as 25%. She advised a day training session at the local hospital. There I learned about the diet based on complex carbs.

I was shocked, & afraid not to follow the advice. Over a year ago, the complications started - slight retinopathy, & crippling muscle pain. (NOT due to statins.) The Dr was happy with my diabetes control. (HbA1c=6.7)

A reduced carb diet has restored my active life.

For nearly 8 years I followed the standard medical & Diabetes UK advice regarding diet - a diet based on complex carbohydrates. As predicted my diabetes progressed to the point where I was taking increased metformin & suffering complications. I joined the discussion forum http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum where I read of people's experience in improving control by reducing the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, to the extent of serious disagreement with standard medical advice.



In my experience, this diet change has resulted in a very rapid improvement in general health & reversal of diabetic complications that were ruining my life.


I joined the forum in April this year, when I began to experience intense muscle pain that threatened my mobility & even my driving. I felt that my active life was over, especially as I have been playing tennis at club standard. The pain was particularly intense when I was getting out of bed. My doctor prescribed quinine for cramp, but this had no effect. I think he hoped it wasn't diabetic neuropathy & would go away. I also had the beginning of retinopathy.


I needed to do something, or accept that the progressive nature of diabetes was taking its toll. The doctor considered that my diabetes was adequately controlled with HbA1c of 6.7. My diet was then the recommended low GI, complex carbohydrate diet as recommended by the NHS & Diabetes UK. My wife, as a heart patient, was recommended to follow the same diet.


In May I started a reduction in my carbohydrate consumption, simply reducing them to a small portion – about 1/3 of my previous amount, while increasing my vegetable consumption & to a lesser extent, protein. I ceased to have a supper cereal (Weetabix or Shredded Wheat.) I eat nuts & cheese as snacks.


Immediately my overnight fasting sugars dropped from around 6.7 to around 5.7, my muscle pain started to improve & my weight began to drop. In three months I was fully active again. The pain has gone & my tennis is up to the standard of much younger players. Driving now presents no problems.


Over those three months, my weight dropped from 182 to 168 pounds, my chronic tiredness greatly reduced. Blood tests in August showed a reduction in cholesterol from 5.4 in January to 4.3 & improvements in the lipids profile. My cholesterol at diagnosis was 7.6, so diet alone has reduced the total by 40%. Surprisingly the HBA stayed at 6.8, but that may be early days, with my body using the lost weight to replenish the blood cells. [3 months later HBA=6.4.] My blood pressure dropped from 135/75 to 125/75. I take no medication for cholesterol nor blood pressure. I have reduced the metformin from 3x500 to 2.


There is an internet forum where this is discussed & both scientific considerations & experience are reported. Health professionals make their contributions. There is wide agreement on the forum that the standard advice from Diabetes UK & the NHS is in fact wrong in recommending a diet based on complex carbohydrates.
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Many thanks for the replies!

I have spent the day perusing this site and doing some research of my own and the evidence seems to be that reducing carbs is the way to go. I am going to give it a go and see how I get on. Can anyone recommend a good credible site for either calculating carbs or giving advice on what the lower carb options are? It really is a complete shift in thinking which I'm sure will take a while to accept. I have been so conditioned by the low fat way of thinking for years which obviously hasn't done me any good whatsoever as I am still in the obese category!

Having buried my head in the sand for the past 2 years, it's now time to take control for my health back. I used to be very fit and loved sport but in the last few years that has declined along with my self esteem as I put on weight. Enough is enough, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! I am really glad I logged onto the forum and hope to take advantage of the very obvious expertise I have already seen.

Many thanks again for the support.

Jen
 
Hi Jen.

I low carb combined with low GI.
Here is a link to a site which has a list of Carbohydrate values alongside the GI levels. Print it off as quick reference guide.

http://www.glycaemicindex.com/

Treat yourself to a copy of the Collins Gem Carb Counter or Calorie Counter book/s from your local W H Smith. they are usually stocked on the shelves. Cost is around £4 each. Well worth it as they fit in the pocket.

Ken.
 
Jen, when I started reduced carb:

b'fast - porridge made with ground almonds, wheat germ, oat bran but NOT oats, and with Tesco or Asda soya milk which is low sugar & the same price as cow; eggs/bacon, but not toast

other meals very little potato/rice/pasta/bread & increased veg, meat & cheese

grab'n'go standby: a pretend soda bread. That is a meal in itself, & has so little carb, that its very handy for packed lunches & snacks.

Brazil & other nuts are handy for grazing, as well as not too much fruit.

I go to the hospital gym with my wife for heart rehab class (not my heart) & play tennis at club standard. I also sing with choirs.

Hope that helps.

I have got that carb counting book, & a scale that analyses food, but once you know what's in the food, you don't need to keep counting.
 
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