• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Newbie

K

K1ltman

Member
Messages
6
Hi all
I only got my diagnosis last Friday and am still reeling a bit as there was no warning either from my health or my G.P. I will need all the help I can get from you guys so here goes. I am in early fifties and overweight, smoke and like the odd tipple so you can begin to see the lifestyle changes I have to make. My reading were 7.4 and my practice nurse has said that once I start taking the metformin of four tabs daily there is no going back. my question is "if I can make changes to my weight, smoking and drinking can I delay the start of tablet taking", the other thing I was told was I would have to lose a significant amount of weight to make this possible.
I was also told I would have to inform DVLA but looking at their website info this is not the case. My wife who is a hypnotherapist is quite happy to join me in all my efforts with regard to diet and exercise and she is also quite good at the research bit.
I have to go to the surgery tomorrow and pick up my prescription but am going to ask to see the G.P. who deals with diabetes related issues as I feel I have not been given enough info to make an informed decision which is where this forum comes in so prepare for a barrage of questions. :crazy:
Thanks in anticipation.
 
Hi K1ltman and welcome to the forum :)

Members will be along soon to share their personal experiences with you to answer your questions. In the meantime, here is the information we give to new members and I think you will find it helpful.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

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.
 
If your treatment is diet, exercise and metformin only, no need to inform DVLA as no risk of hypo's.
Certainly weight loss, exercise and reducing carbs will be a big help to reducing your blood glucose levels. Whether or not this will delay medication, I have no clue. Worth a try though. If only for general health and well being. As for smoking, you don't need to be told what to do about that. The odd tipple won't hurt. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.
Lastly, ask many questions and read, read, read ;-)


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Of the list of actions you offer I believe that giving up smoking will be the highest priority. The reason is that diabetes seems to damage organs and the ones at the extremities seem to cop it most. There is a circulation factor involved which means that feet and organs with very fine capillaries are damaged most. Sadly there is a circulation problem associated with smoking also. The red blood cells are happy to combine with carbon monoxide instead of oxygen which is of no use to your cells. So having diabetes and smoking is a double whammy.

Weight loss has just got to be beneficial to every overweight person but it may not do much for your diabetes since you already have it.

The NHS drink guidlines for people without diabetes are the same for people with diabetes but you may like to be aware that one symptom of a hangover is low blood sugar and this applies to everyone. I thought this was helpful but my nurse didn't laugh. If you take any medication to lower your sugar you might like to be aware of this.

I too informed the DVLA but they changed the rules and it now seems that you don't need to if you are type 2. You should also notify your car insurer. It didn't alter the premium in my case but you don't want them to have an excuse for wriggling out of anything because you didn't tell them.

We all hoped we could get out of taking our pills but gave up in the end. Don't be slow in contacting your nurse if you detect side effects. Some people seem scared of doing this but my nurse said that she isn't here to make things worse and she and I normally come to an agreement on what I take.
 
Thanks for the prompt reply and to add more to first post, I live in Essex and travel to Surrey to my office so a couple of days a week have a two hour commute, I leave home at 6:30 am and don't get back until about 7:30pm, traffic permitting. Part of my job involves staying away from home and involving having to stay at Premier Inns, the food is not great plus sometimes I have to do a night shift as part of my stayaways. I am involved in computerized systems for warehousing and have to be on site to iron out any difficulties as they occur. Trying to get my head round the new diet is going to be difficult enough with the travel involved too so any advice there is very welcome. :crazy:
 
It will be helpful to you if the first part of the exercise is to look at your personal diet and identify which parts of it cause you to have high blood sugar. Just about everyone on this site recommends that you take readings using a meter. The NHS is very reluctant to supply meters and if they do they usually ration the test strips without which the meter will not work. You are likely to find that your problem areas could be with sugar (maybe in sugary drinks), flour, rice and potatoes although there will be no need stop eating these things. Just cut down on them until a meter tells you which affect you most.

You could take a container with you on some days with a salad in it. (Other foods are available). In your lifestyle I would reduce the bread rolls or don't have any at all and never have fizzy drinks. Don't buy convenience foods unless they have bones in. For example Original Recipe KFC is very low in carbs but the fries need watching. Never eat anything that sounds like Dippers or Nuggets and Goujon etc since they have a high flour content and you might just as well be eating bread rolls.

Do not have extended periods of not eating at all.

At least that's a place to start.
 
K1ltman,
contrary to what was said above. Weight loss is massively important and has been shown to be capable of reversing T2 diabetes. This has been documented elsewhere on this site. My memory of the evidence was that weight losses of 20kgs have been shown to reverse T2 diabetes in 40% of cases. 10kg weight loss has reversed T2 diabetes in more than 10% of cases.

It would be good to look at the low-carb forums on here to see what dietary changes can do for lowering blood glucose levels.

I have avoided tablets for the last 10 years by weight loss (10-12kg) diet (not very good) and exercise (lots). Only now am I starting to realise that if I want to continue to avoid medication then I have to ignore the NHS advice of making sure I base meals around starchy food and try to cut carbs to a minimum.

Good luck!
 
Hi. If you are overweight, you are almost certainly insulin resistant and losing weight will make a big difference to the resistance and hence your blood sugar. Metformin will help reduce your blood sugar and insulin resistance. You may be able to achieve good blood sugar levels without the Metformin. It's your choice to try without for a few months to take the Metformin as it's a good, safe drug and you can always stop it. To achieve weight loss you will need to control meal portion sizes with respect to carbs, go low-GI carbs and set yourself a daily carb limit. Perhaps start with 150gm/day and move it up or down as you monitor your weight. As you start to look at food packaging you may well be horrified by the junk we are offered. Watch-out for unnecessary added sugar, highly refined carbs such as most white bakery products and even plain fruit juices are high-GI. The good news is you don't have to worry too much about fats; just be sensible and alcohol is OK again in sensible quantities. 85% dark chocolate is also OK!
 
It seems my choices are
1. hold off on the tablets for a few months and change my lifestyle BIG TIME.
2. Start tabs and change lifestyle
I was told by the diabetes nurse that starting the tablets was a one way street and once I was on them that was it. Can anyone suggest a good low-carb cookery book because I have such a limited diet anyway, don't like salad, fruit( only the odd apple), fish, known in my local dinner time haunt as "a no BGS(bloody green stuff) man. HEEEELLLLPPPP :?
 
K1ltman
there are lots of ideas on here and I do feel for you about being faced with a diet change.

I love bread and pasta but I now realise, however good I was in cutting out biscuits and desserts, they have been killing me.

I've been going low carb for only a few days but it hasn't been too bad. I'm trying to get my HBA1c down from 6.5% (48mmol) and avoid Metaformin.
I'm keeping town to 80-90gs of carb per day without too much effort. I read the labels on the food and I weigh everything on some digital kitchen scales. I'm eating more eggs and mushrooms (no carbs!). I hate boring salad but I find if I put a dollop of Humus on it and swill it around then its amazing, low-carb and I can't get enough of it. I had cauliflower cheese last night (home made) the first time for years, delicious and only 5g carbs.
I'm also eating more meat and nuts.

The biggest problem is keeping the rest of the family on board. It is almost impossible to do this if the rest are continuing to eat high carb food and you have to eat something different.
The only useful thing my first dietician told me was ' if one person in a family is diabetic then the rest may as well be'. I wish I'd understood and paid attention.
 
Re:low carbthanks for that

thanks for that, the rest of the family us not a problem for me as my wife is the driving force here, she has been trying to healthy tise me for years :roll: now i wish I had listened. We start the first round of back to the GP tomorrow to find out a bit more and see how long I will have to wait to see the dietitian. My wife has a PT who is also a chef so low carb here we come. :clap:
 
Hi Kitman,

Try searching for my posts. Either lrw60 or Lee should find them. You will see that I used to take meds, now I don't. I too was told I was on them for life. Diet and exercise helped me.
Lee
 
Hi. Whilst some NHS dieticians are excellent, many push out dated standard mantra about avoiding fats and salt like the plague and having starchy carbs with every meal. If you are confronted with this when you finally see the dietician , smile politely and be prepared to study this forum and other web sources plus your family and make up your own mind! Diabetics can't have the same carb rich diet as 'normal' folk can.
 
Don't think it's really sunk in yet, but I'm on the ball just need lots of info about what to eat and not what to eat. A dietitian is supposed to be contacting me soon. How you doing?


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
As of first thing this morning dazed, confused and overloaded with info but as the day has gone on with all the help from the forum posts things have become much clearer , thank goodness!
 
Back
Top