- Messages
- 166
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
- Dislikes
- Folks who "know it all" (but don't)
A bit of background .........
I am now 63 years old. I was diagnosed as Type 2 in November 2005, after I borrowed someone else's box of Diastix and later bought an Abbott Freestyle Mini monitor. My GP asked me to record fasting BG for a couple of weeks and then see him again. The readings were all very high - the lowest being about 12-13 mmol/l and the highest around 25 mmol/l (from memory). After that, I had a blood test and Type 2 diabetes was confirmed as the diagnosis when it came back at some high level (cannot remember exactly what it was). I was put on 2x500mm metformin tablets per day at first, but this was soon increased to 4x500mg per day. Dietary advice was of the typical NHS kind - i.e. balanced diet with lots of portions of carbohydrate.
I must admit up front that I hadn't discovered the forums here and relied upon the medication to keep my blood glucose under control rather than diet. In the year after diagnosis, my weight was around 19 stones (I'm about 6ft 1 ins - and all my family are "big"). Over the next few years, I gradually put on weight and despite the early improvement due to the medication, my HBA1C also floated upwards. At some stage glimepiride (a sulphonylurea) was added to the medication mix, then later sitagliptin. At my annual review in July 2011, I weighed nearly 20 stones, my HBA1C was 8.9% and my GP increased the glimepiride to 6mg per day which he said was the maximum "safe" dosage. He also gave me a bit of a (well deserved) wigging and asked me how I felt about the prospect of injecting insulin, as that would be the inevitable consequence if I didn't lose some weight and get more exercise.
My GP had consistently told me that Type 2 diabetes was a permanent and inevitably progressive disease, so I was quite surprised when I happened across the diabetes.co.uk website & forum and discovered the recently published paper by Professor Roy Taylor's team at Newcastle which suggested that Type 2 diabetes might be reversible for folks who had recently developed the condition. I read every word of the paper and to my surprise, understood quite a bit of it. The statistics, I'd previously used professionally using the same tools (earlier version of SPSS) but not in a medical context. The report seemed very positive and held out quite a bit of hope. I did ponder though, about whether the reduction in the pancreatic and hepatic fats that underlie the condition might not equally (or more) effectively be reduced using a low carbohydrate diet (Atkins) rather than by the much more difficult (I thought at the time) hypo-caloric "Newcastle" diet.
As we were shortly to go on holiday in August 2011, I decided to kick off on a low carb diet after reading about the Dukan Diet (low carb, low fat, high protein). I lost the best part of a stone quite quickly and from the little BG testing I did, discovered that my blood glucose fell substantially too. In fact, they dropped to near normal very quickly - but at that time, I was still on all the medication listed above. In September 2011, I did a bit more research, bought one of the Atkins books and decided to have a serious attempt at a low carb diet using the Atkins approach. This was really quite effective but before the end of September I was starting to get one or two hypos (2.5-3.5 mmol/l) so I dropped both the glimepiride and sitagliptin - but continued with the 4xmetformins for the time being. At my next blood test, towards the end of October, I discussed the situation with the diabetic nurse who was very supportive of the dieting. At the time, my HBA1C had fallen to 6.7% and my weight to about 17.5 stones. So far so good ..........
By the time Christmas arrived, my weight seemed to have plateaued at about 16.5 stones. A fall of around 3.5 stones. Christmas, though, being Christmas rather got in the way of dieting. I gained about four or five pounds and it took quite a while to shift those in the New Year to get back to where I was pre-Christmas. After a rather frustrating period of eating too much cheese, losing no weight and seeing little change in my blood sugars, I was gradually migrating towards the notion that I might have to try this Newcastle diet. Before doing that, though, I was determined to see if I could reduce or eliminate the metformins that I was taking by restarting the Atkins induction phase. This did work to a large degree but there was some rise in my fasting blood glucose levels, after I dropped the last of the medication on April Fool's day this year. I discovered quite quickly that my (Dawn Phenomennon affected) fasting levels rose a bit to 7.5 mmol/l from the fairly steady 6.5 mmol/l it had been whilst I was still taking 2x500mg metformins per day. I had discussed doing reducing the metformins with the diabetic nurse when I saw her in early March this year (HBA1C disappointingly pretty much the same at 6.8%) and also the prospect of trying a Newcastle style diet. Her reaction was very supportive - but she advised that I take care and continue with the testing (she also offered a prescription for test strips to help in the process).
I decided that the Atkins diet had contributed about as much as it could do, at the moment, especially as I seem to have a cheese addiction which rather spoils things a bit - and that I would start a Newcastle style diet on Saturday 21st April 2012. After looking at the options, the Tesco diet meal replacement shakes seem as good as any and are actually cheaper than eating (£4 /tin - 12 meals). The banana, vanilla and strawberry shakes all taste great too when made with Lactolite milk (fewer carbs than skimmed).
My main reasons for creating this thread are as a motivational tool for me - but also because it's quite some time since I was diagnosed now and I have a considerable dose of Dawn Phenomenon, which might both make it a bit more difficult for me to be as successful with the diet as several other forum users obviously have been. I really hope that this works and that I can kick the medication for good. Time will tell ........
(Sorry about the length of the post - a gold star to anyone who actually reads it all)
Andrew
I am now 63 years old. I was diagnosed as Type 2 in November 2005, after I borrowed someone else's box of Diastix and later bought an Abbott Freestyle Mini monitor. My GP asked me to record fasting BG for a couple of weeks and then see him again. The readings were all very high - the lowest being about 12-13 mmol/l and the highest around 25 mmol/l (from memory). After that, I had a blood test and Type 2 diabetes was confirmed as the diagnosis when it came back at some high level (cannot remember exactly what it was). I was put on 2x500mm metformin tablets per day at first, but this was soon increased to 4x500mg per day. Dietary advice was of the typical NHS kind - i.e. balanced diet with lots of portions of carbohydrate.
I must admit up front that I hadn't discovered the forums here and relied upon the medication to keep my blood glucose under control rather than diet. In the year after diagnosis, my weight was around 19 stones (I'm about 6ft 1 ins - and all my family are "big"). Over the next few years, I gradually put on weight and despite the early improvement due to the medication, my HBA1C also floated upwards. At some stage glimepiride (a sulphonylurea) was added to the medication mix, then later sitagliptin. At my annual review in July 2011, I weighed nearly 20 stones, my HBA1C was 8.9% and my GP increased the glimepiride to 6mg per day which he said was the maximum "safe" dosage. He also gave me a bit of a (well deserved) wigging and asked me how I felt about the prospect of injecting insulin, as that would be the inevitable consequence if I didn't lose some weight and get more exercise.
My GP had consistently told me that Type 2 diabetes was a permanent and inevitably progressive disease, so I was quite surprised when I happened across the diabetes.co.uk website & forum and discovered the recently published paper by Professor Roy Taylor's team at Newcastle which suggested that Type 2 diabetes might be reversible for folks who had recently developed the condition. I read every word of the paper and to my surprise, understood quite a bit of it. The statistics, I'd previously used professionally using the same tools (earlier version of SPSS) but not in a medical context. The report seemed very positive and held out quite a bit of hope. I did ponder though, about whether the reduction in the pancreatic and hepatic fats that underlie the condition might not equally (or more) effectively be reduced using a low carbohydrate diet (Atkins) rather than by the much more difficult (I thought at the time) hypo-caloric "Newcastle" diet.
As we were shortly to go on holiday in August 2011, I decided to kick off on a low carb diet after reading about the Dukan Diet (low carb, low fat, high protein). I lost the best part of a stone quite quickly and from the little BG testing I did, discovered that my blood glucose fell substantially too. In fact, they dropped to near normal very quickly - but at that time, I was still on all the medication listed above. In September 2011, I did a bit more research, bought one of the Atkins books and decided to have a serious attempt at a low carb diet using the Atkins approach. This was really quite effective but before the end of September I was starting to get one or two hypos (2.5-3.5 mmol/l) so I dropped both the glimepiride and sitagliptin - but continued with the 4xmetformins for the time being. At my next blood test, towards the end of October, I discussed the situation with the diabetic nurse who was very supportive of the dieting. At the time, my HBA1C had fallen to 6.7% and my weight to about 17.5 stones. So far so good ..........
By the time Christmas arrived, my weight seemed to have plateaued at about 16.5 stones. A fall of around 3.5 stones. Christmas, though, being Christmas rather got in the way of dieting. I gained about four or five pounds and it took quite a while to shift those in the New Year to get back to where I was pre-Christmas. After a rather frustrating period of eating too much cheese, losing no weight and seeing little change in my blood sugars, I was gradually migrating towards the notion that I might have to try this Newcastle diet. Before doing that, though, I was determined to see if I could reduce or eliminate the metformins that I was taking by restarting the Atkins induction phase. This did work to a large degree but there was some rise in my fasting blood glucose levels, after I dropped the last of the medication on April Fool's day this year. I discovered quite quickly that my (Dawn Phenomennon affected) fasting levels rose a bit to 7.5 mmol/l from the fairly steady 6.5 mmol/l it had been whilst I was still taking 2x500mg metformins per day. I had discussed doing reducing the metformins with the diabetic nurse when I saw her in early March this year (HBA1C disappointingly pretty much the same at 6.8%) and also the prospect of trying a Newcastle style diet. Her reaction was very supportive - but she advised that I take care and continue with the testing (she also offered a prescription for test strips to help in the process).
I decided that the Atkins diet had contributed about as much as it could do, at the moment, especially as I seem to have a cheese addiction which rather spoils things a bit - and that I would start a Newcastle style diet on Saturday 21st April 2012. After looking at the options, the Tesco diet meal replacement shakes seem as good as any and are actually cheaper than eating (£4 /tin - 12 meals). The banana, vanilla and strawberry shakes all taste great too when made with Lactolite milk (fewer carbs than skimmed).
My main reasons for creating this thread are as a motivational tool for me - but also because it's quite some time since I was diagnosed now and I have a considerable dose of Dawn Phenomenon, which might both make it a bit more difficult for me to be as successful with the diet as several other forum users obviously have been. I really hope that this works and that I can kick the medication for good. Time will tell ........
(Sorry about the length of the post - a gold star to anyone who actually reads it all)
Andrew