Type 2 newly diagnosed - fatty liver?

Hi and welcome. Fatty liver isn't the result of the diabetes but something to do with your lifestyle of which diet is a major influencer. We have all been told over the years that saturated fat is a big problem and has to be kept down. The experts until recently have kept quiet about carbs and even now only talk about sugar. The body will store carbs in excess in the liver and fructose is the worst of all. Metformin helps reduce insulin resistance i.e. deposited fat to some extent. To gradually reduced stored fat and weight you need to have a low carb diet. You need to make up with protein and fat (yes, fat!) to keep you feeling full. Sadly many GPs, nurses and dieticians haven't a clue in these areas and that's why this forum amongst others can help.

Fatty liver appears to be one part of the whole metabolic syndrome that comes along with Type 2. Many people report being diagnosed at or around the same time as their diabetes diagnosis. A low carb diet is particularly good at reducing fatty liver - I think @Southport GP has done a study about this and it is mentioned elsewhere on the forum.

I found the following link on fatty liver very helpful:
http://hopefulgeranium.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/fatty-liver-and-its-treatment.html

Quite a few of us have reported elevated liver enzymes that have returned to normal since following a low carb diet.

A link to Southport GP's topic about his study:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/at-last-in-the-british-medical-journal.81487/

Raised GGT levels and NASH are discussed in the paper:
http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4023.full?ijkey=AN2nBwW6h3wuQJK&keytype=ref

Welcome to the forum, etchy. I will tag @daisy1 who has some newbie info she can post here for you.

Your current symptoms could be due to diabetes, but it's hard to know without knowing what your HbA1c blood test result was. You can ask for a printout of your blood test results from the doctor. It can be very handy to refer to.

It is also possible to test your own blood sugar levels at home with a cheap meter and test strips. If your sugar levels are high, this could explain your symptoms. Getting the levels down by reducing carbs should relieve the symptoms. Unless there is something else going on medically.

It might be a good idea to see your doctor or nurse and have more blood tests in 3 months rather than 6 months, too.

etchy said:

Thanks for the reply my hbA1c blood test was 58.Ive been to the nurse twice now with these symptoms and im still getting them her response was your only type 2 and your blood level wasnt high its when its in the 90s that we worry .I had my breakfast this morning at 9am and took my metformin with it 2 hrs later i had a dry mouth ,sweating and not felt good all day I now have sores on my tongue which are really painful because of the flippent attitude of the nurse its making me not want to go back

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How long have you had the symptoms? Your HbA1c is what I would call moderately high, rather than very high. It covers the last 2 months. So it is possible that your high BGs have only been for a few weeks, which could explain why your HbA1c is not higher. T2 comes on gradually but T1 comes on more suddenly, so without knowing your fasting BG, it's possible your HbA1c has only picked up on very recent high BGs.

I think you really need to test your BG at home. You can buy a meter and test strips at a pharmacy if you want them sooner than buying them online. Online is cheaper. The SD Codefree has the cheapest test strips, which is the main ongoing cost of testing.

I would not be surprised if the blood tests your doctor/nurse ordered were only for HbA1c and not fasting BG. In the past they only tested FBG. This has switched to mainly HbA1c instead. But there is a problem with doing it this way because some people's diabetes is unusual and if you don't know the FBG you can miss that. Rather than try and get further help from them, at this stage I think it would be more fruitful to test your FBG yourself, plus the info from frequent testing will be valuable in itself as you learn how to manage your diabetes.

The sores on your tongue could be mouth ulcers brought on by stress, or could be oral thrush, or an infection (which can also cause some of the other symptoms). When we are run down, we tend to get sores like these more readily. I think you should get a doctor to look at your tongue. You could go back to your existing doctor and just focus on getting the sores diagnosed (he should be able to handle that), or you could find a new medical practice who are going to do their job properly with regard to diabetes. It's hard to know beforehand how good they are, though.

If you start feeling even more unwell before you can see a doctor, you should call NHS Direct on 111 for advice or go to a walk in centre or A&E, because we really don't know what is going on and it could be more serious.

Sucking on an ice cube might relieve pain in your mouth. Paracetamol would help too.

I checked the listed side effects of metformin and they include muscle pain, tiredness, headache, sweating, fever and "flu like symptoms". I didn't see dry mouth or mouth sores there, but these could be related to high BGs or something else.
http://www.drugs.com/metformin.html

In summary, I think you should see a doctor about these symptoms, which could be caused by high BGs, metformin, a virus or something else.

etchy said:

thanks for replying I feel so much better having someone to talk too, this is very helpful..my hbA1c test of 58 was a fasting test .I have taken your advice and got myself a blood glucose monitor to check it myself .when is the best time to test.Ive tested it today just before lunch and before tea .

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HbA1c and FBG are different tests... HbA1c tells you what your sugars were like over 2 months, and FBG tells you what your sugar is like at that moment. If the doctor/nurse only requested HbA1c, then it is not known what your FBG is, until you get a meter.

The best time to test is when you first wake up, and then just before a meal and 2 hours after the meal.