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Newly Diagnosed Confused Diabetic

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chillywilliams

Newbie
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3
Hi all,

New here but I'm rather confused with all the blood sugar count thing what is high what is low what should be where and when.

I'm taking one 500mg Metformin a day and been told to lose 2 stone by my doc and watch what i eat! Was diagnosed after having 2 slightly elevated blood tests and one glucose tolerance test.

My blood sugars have averaged out this week at 6.7mmol. Peaking at 10.5 after eating a pack of Polos in my car but this dropped to 4.9 within 2 hours.
My morning bloods have ranged from 5.5 to 7.2 with my lunchtime bloods around 6-7 dropping down to 4.5 - 5.7 pre dinner and 6.5-8mmol 1.5-2 hours post dinner (normally about 7mmol by bedtime)

Are my bloods high ? Just started exercising again as the nights have started to get lighter I can ride my bike about 20 miles some nights and will lose the 2 stone in about 2 months will my bloods improve or get worse?I've stopped the takeaways and stopped the chocolates I've been eating constantly since Xmas cut out sugar in my coffee and started eating pasta which I love.

I drink once a week to excess mind and it's Magners am I ok to still have a good tipple or not?

Any help appreciated thanks in advance !!
 
Hi chillywilliams and welcome to the forum :) Here is some information which will help you to manage your diabetes. The answers to some of your questions can be found in here. In particular you will see that your BG levels fall mostly within the recommended guidelines. These levels should improve with exercise and weight loss too.

You say that you have started eating pasta - you will see in this advice that pasta is not recommended for good BG levels. If you have any you will have to make it a tiny portion I am afraid. Even wholemeal pasta is not much better. It is important to test regularly particularly after meals to see how certain foods affect your levels.

Drinking to excess is also not advisable. Taking Metformin and alcohol is contraindicated. I'm afraid life is hard... :( A very little red wine or whisky could be tolerated occasionally and can even lower your levels. I'm afraid I don't know how Magners will affect you - you will have to test and see. Here is the advice. If you have any questions ask away and someone will come up with the answer.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS.
Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed diabetics. We hope that these few ideas gained through experience help you to gain control and give you some understanding of Diabetes. 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.

This is NOT a low carb diet suggestion, just a reduction in your intake of carbohydrate. You have to decide yourself how much of a reduction will keep your blood glucose levels in control.

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.

If you are on Insulin you may find that reducing the carb intake also means that you can reduce your dose of insulin. This can help you to keep weight gain down as Insulin tends to make you put on weight and eventually cause insulin resistance. This should be done slowly so as not to cause hypos.

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 effect 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!!

If you are an Insulin user in theory you should have no problem getting test strips.

The latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l........(Type 1 & 2)
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

2hrs after meals....... no more than 9 mmol/l ......(Type 1)

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.

The above is just general advice and it is recommended that you discuss with your HCP before making any changes. You can also ask questions on the forum on anything that is not clear.

Sue/Ken.
Click to expand...
 
Many thanks for your reply, I still am a little confused can't understand where my blood sugars should be though for example today.

6.8mmol in the morning, 4.6mmol 90 mins after brunch ( muesli and salmon sandwich an hour later) and a walk to the paper shop. Dinner was traditional Lamb with boiled potatoes roast potatoes cabbage and Yorkshire pudding. Low fat Yoghurt. 90 mins after this 5.7mmol.

Is this good bad or indifferent? Confused!!
 
As a Type 2 the levels that you should try to achieve are what Daisy posted, the NICE guidelines.

Fasting (waking and before meals) should be between 4 - 7 mmol/l. No idea why you are testing after 90 mins ? The recommendation is to test 2 hrs after meals and that should be no more than 8.5 mmol/l. However, lower is better. You should aim never to go below 4 mmol/l which is the start of hypo levels although you should have some warning signs prior to that.

That is when you should be testing as the levels then should be almost back to pre-meal levels.

Your dinner would have been fairly high in carbs and also fat. This might mean that after 90 mins and even 2 hrs the levels could have been on the way up.

Hope that helps......
 
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