Newbie

[gfrears1]

Hi all
My name is Graeme ,New to the forum and to Diabetes,im type 2

Had my first set of Bloods donein Nov bs 10.7 and second in Feb 8.6. Had some more done last week and getting the results Thursday.fingers crossed
Presently trying to control with diet and did all the checking of labels in supermarkets for sugar levels over the last few months,had some surprises there!!!!
Liked a tipple of Cider in the past but obviously cant have too many of those now and stumbled across the site looking for sugar levels in various drinks.

Hopefully I will be able to find the answers to some questions and after looking over the site im sure I will so in saying that

Hello!

 

[leather_ferret]

Hi Graeme,

Welcome on board mate.

Folks here will sort out any questions you may have, and were extremely helpful and supportive when I was diagnose 4 months back, and remain so. It is comforting to know that there is support here for thos out-of-hours panics :lol:

Hope your test come back good. You seem to be taking things seriously and making the necessary changes so you deserve to get better figures

be good and be lucky

Dave

ps I miss my beer and cider - havn't been allowed a single drop these last 4 years (other med problems)

 

[sugarless sue]

Presently trying to control with diet and did all the checking of labels in supermarkets for sugar levels over the last few months,had some surprises there!!!!

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the affect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

Sue/Ken.

 

[gfrears1]

Cheers Sue,good advice there I intend storing in the old brain.
Got my latest bloods they are down to 7 from 8.6 and although my cholesterol was slightgly up from 4.7 to 5.3 they didnt tell me to fast before the test so that was probably why,the next test will be fasting in Sept.
Did the pulse check too no problems there and lost over 5kg so hopefully keeping it under control,just need to do more excersise as most of us do.