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Newbie looking for advice

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freddieboy

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Hi

Newbie here looking for advice if I may.

I was given as an early christmas present a blood glucose monitor, a good one, BG Star, so happy that it's pretty reliable!

The last 4 mornings on waking at 7, after having last eaten at 5 the previous evening, my glucose levels have been 6.4 or 6.5 mmol.

According to many sites I may have Impaired Fasting Glycemia.

Looking at the symptoms on some sites, I have had a sort of blurred vision for a while now, have to sort of keep refocusing my eyes if that makes sense. Also I do pee a lot, have high cholesterol and have a fair number of what feel like chest infections coming on, but they dont seem to ever come to much.

I have been low carb for around 3 years now, currently I'm around 100-150g per day, mainly sweet potatoes and fruit. Lots of good fats, butter, coconut milk, avocadoes, EVOO, macadamia nuts, fair amout of fish, with beef and lamb once or twice a week.

I exercise around 5 times a week, a mixture of running, cycling and weights, with brisk walks with the dog some days too.

Any advice for this? I do intend to get a hospital blood test soon.
Has anyone else had this, and if so what strategies are good to lower the fasting glucose numbers?

Most sites I've read advocate lots of fruit and veg, low fat and lots of grains and fibre!

Many thanks
 
Well done with the exercises and the good control that you have achieved. I think your high morning readings could be that you are having the Dawn Phenomenon, where the liver dumps glucose into your blood stream to get your body started for the day. There is not a huge amount you can do to control this but I would suggest trying to have an evening low carb snack, like some cheese or a handful of nuts, or if you don't want to eat you can make a soya or almond milk hot chocolate. It could be that your body is objecting to having such a long break from 5pm and is therefore thinking you are starving yourself and providing what it sees as a helpful liver dump.

You might want to experiment with lower carbs than your current level, I have about 50g of carbs a day and can really control my BGs at that level. I use 'myfitnesspal' to measure my levels and record all of my food and exercise. Hope this helps ... :)
 
Hi freddieboy and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information we give to new members which I think you will find helpful. Carry on asking questions as there is always someone here to help.



BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 30,000 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

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

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.
 
Fraddycat said:
Well done with the exercises and the good control that you have achieved. I think your high morning readings could be that you are having the Dawn Phenomenon, where the liver dumps glucose into your blood stream to get your body started for the day. There is not a huge amount you can do to control this but I would suggest trying to have an evening low carb snack, like some cheese or a handful of nuts, or if you don't want to eat you can make a soya or almond milk hot chocolate. It could be that your body is objecting to having such a long break from 5pm and is therefore thinking you are starving yourself and providing what it sees as a helpful liver dump.

You might want to experiment with lower carbs than your current level, I have about 50g of carbs a day and can really control my BGs at that level. I use 'myfitnesspal' to measure my levels and record all of my food and exercise. Hope this helps ... :)
Click to expand...

Hi Fraddycat,

Many thanks for your reply, I do the 5pm to 8-9am most days now, feel good doing that, I tend to do most of my training fasted before breakfast.
I thought fasting was a good way to lower blood glucose levels, maybe not?!?!

I have been lower carb prevoisly this year, but in the last few weeks have upped the carbs, maybe that has caused the high readings. I will lower the carbs again, and only have sweet potatoes after weight training or higher intensity training.

Thnaks again.
 
freddieboy said:
I thought fasting was a good way to lower blood glucose levels, maybe not?!?!

I have been lower carb prevoisly this year, but in the last few weeks have upped the carbs, maybe that has caused the high readings. I will lower the carbs again, and only have sweet potatoes after weight training or higher intensity training.

Thnaks again.
Click to expand...

Hello again Freddieboy, fasting can be good but it depends on the body's reaction, I am just suggesting you experiment to rule that in or out. I have definitely found that my levels respond well to lower carbs. I do fairly high intensity exercise (spinning) twice a week and find its much better to fast before it, but I am pretty hungry afterwards! I don't need carbs to give me energy to train, just protein and fat.
 
Fraddycat said:
freddieboy said:
I thought fasting was a good way to lower blood glucose levels, maybe not?!?!

I have been lower carb prevoisly this year, but in the last few weeks have upped the carbs, maybe that has caused the high readings. I will lower the carbs again, and only have sweet potatoes after weight training or higher intensity training.

Thnaks again.
Click to expand...

Hello again Freddieboy, fasting can be good but it depends on the body's reaction, I am just suggesting you experiment to rule that in or out. I have definitely found that my levels respond well to lower carbs. I do fairly high intensity exercise (spinning) twice a week and find its much better to fast before it, but I am pretty hungry afterwards! I don't need carbs to give me energy to train, just protein and fat.
Click to expand...

I had a fairly low(50-60g) carb day yesterday, with a 35min aerobic run, this morning my reading is 6.1, so an improvement.
Will spend some more time today looking at the info on the site.

Many thanks.
 
Help! my lab measures glucose in blood in mg/dl. How do I convert to mmol/l? I am lost without this conversion
 
To convert from mg/dl to mmol/l you divide by 18. Hope this helps.
 
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