Newly diagnosed prediabetic

Hello x

Hi @ajshroff .. and welcome
I have tagged @daisy1 for you and she will soon be contacting you with valuable information .. a nice bit of reading to get your teeth into .. but well worth it

Hi Ajay and welcome to the forum

Hello @ajshroff and Welcome to the Forum .

@ajshroff

Hello Ajay and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful and it helps you to get started on your diabetes care. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.


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 147,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

Hey ajshroff,

You must know that diabetes is a lifestyle disease and could be very much controlled. my parents are diabetic and i have high chances of getting diabetes in future, but i maintain a healthy lifestyle and follow diet plan to control my disease.

I hope you are very well able to control and curb your diabetes. All the best.

welcome here Ajay/ ajshroff

tanulalbalpal said:

Hey ajshroff,

You must know that diabetes is a lifestyle disease and could be very much controlled. my parents are diabetic and i have high chances of getting diabetes in future, but i maintain a healthy lifestyle and follow diet plan to control my disease.

I hope you are very well able to control and curb your diabetes. All the best.

Click to expand...

You're a medical professional and you're saying diabetes is a lifestyle disease? Are you being serious??
Im assuming you're talking about type 2, where lifestyle is usually - and often incorrectly - blamed for diabetes.
Type 1 is never caused by "lifestyle".

tanulalbalpal said:

Hey ajshroff,

You must know that diabetes is a lifestyle disease and could be very much controlled. my parents are diabetic and i have high chances of getting diabetes in future, but i maintain a healthy lifestyle and follow diet plan to control my disease.

Click to expand...

I think you are going to find some disagreement about that.

I spent most of my life listening to the 'you need to eat low fat' etcetera and ate 'healthily' for the most part. Not into Gym membership but always did some walking or physical work at home. Always overweight. On diagnosis I was told I had to change my lifestyle. Told to change to low fat spread (I already used it). Told to cut out sugar (not had it in tea and coffee for thirty years, nor on cereals which were always 'healthy' ones, bags of sugar last for ten years in our house). Told to eat more fruit (what the stuff that has sugar in it?).

And so on.

I'm now on what officially would be an unhealthy lifestyle. Cut out carbohydrates, replaced it with good fats. Lost 12kg in four months. BG down from dangerous levels.

Luckily one of my HCPs has seen this work for a number of people where the received 'eat healthily' and 'it's a lifestyle disease' have seriously failed them. If I'd know this thirty years ago I probably would never have got into this situation. I hope your healthy lifestyle does indeed turn out to keep you healthy, but it may not depending on what you call healthy, and what actually works for your circumstances.

Welcome to the forum @ajshroff and well done for taking action before you become fully diabetic.! Have a read round the threads and you will see a lot of us have controlled our blood sugar levels by adopting a Low Carbohydrate High Fat (LCHF) approach to eating. Ask any questions you want to, the people on here are friendly and you will get a lot of good advice.

ladybird64 said:

You're a medical professional and you're saying diabetes is a lifestyle disease? Are you being serious??
Im assuming you're talking about type 2, where lifestyle is usually - and often incorrectly - blamed for diabetes.
Type 1 is never caused by "lifestyle".

Click to expand...

Yeah I meant Type-2 only, when I say it is a lifestyle disease, I mean it can be cured by following a good diet. I've worked with patients and have seen many of them reverse Type-2 diabetes (reduce HbA1c by 2-3%) in about 3 months by following rigorous diet plans. I've even seen patients pass Glucose shock tests and remove dependency on medicine. I know it can be a very different perception from your side about diabetes but I honestly feel and have seen that it is manageable with better lifestyle changes.

We can agree to disagree here.

tanulalbalpal said:

Yeah I meant Type-2 only, when I say it is a lifestyle disease, I mean it can be cured by following a good diet. I've worked with patients and have seen many of them reverse Type-2 diabetes (reduce HbA1c by 2-3%) in about 3 months by following rigorous diet plans. I've even seen patients pass Glucose shock tests and remove dependency on medicine. I know it can be a very different perception from your side about diabetes but I honestly feel and have seen that it is manageable with better lifestyle changes.

We can agree to disagree here.

Click to expand...

it can´t always be cured unfortunately... . some when they find out have a far too damaged pancreas and so high insuline resistance that they can´t cure it by just changing food style, when it comes to exercise that isn´t even always enough , not even when doing a weekly marathon... so maybe you should learn a little more of the disease before judging all type 2 patients ...remember a lot also get the disease because they are ill from other conditions that keep them from being able to move a lot and thereby having a sedentary lifestyle that is not doing much good for lowering insuline resistance ...

lowedb said:

I think you are going to find some disagreement about that.

I spent most of my life listening to the 'you need to eat low fat' etcetera and ate 'healthily' for the most part. Not into Gym membership but always did some walking or physical work at home. Always overweight. On diagnosis I was told I had to change my lifestyle. Told to change to low fat spread (I already used it). Told to cut out sugar (not had it in tea and coffee for thirty years, nor on cereals which were always 'healthy' ones, bags of sugar last for ten years in our house). Told to eat more fruit (what the stuff that has sugar in it?).

And so on.

I'm now on what officially would be an unhealthy lifestyle. Cut out carbohydrates, replaced it with good fats. Lost 12kg in four months. BG down from dangerous levels.

Luckily one of my HCPs has seen this work for a number of people where the received 'eat healthily' and 'it's a lifestyle disease' have seriously failed them. If I'd know this thirty years ago I probably would never have got into this situation. I hope your healthy lifestyle does indeed turn out to keep you healthy, but it may not depending on what you call healthy, and what actually works for your circumstances.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your experience. I still feel it can be controlled with diet. I've been working with some Indian patients (where diabetes is very prominent) and have seen good changes where sugar levels were controlled and medicine dependencies were reduced. It's not just eat "low fat" but a whole lot of changes in diet. About exercise, I don't have much experience but most of my patients were above 50 years of age so it was anyway difficult for them to move much.

*Edited by a moderator to remove web link promoting website.

Freema said:

it can´t always be cured unfortunately... . some when they find out have a far too damaged pancreas and so high insuline resistance that they can´t cure it by just changing food style, when it comes to exercise that isn´t even always enough , not even when doing a weekly marathon... so maybe you should learn a little more of the disease before judging all type 2 patients ...remember a lot also get the disease because they are ill from other conditions that keep them from being able to move a lot and thereby having a sedentary lifestyle that is not doing much good for lowering insuline resistance ...

Click to expand...

Point taken, and I agree it can't be cured for everyone, but this post was about a newly diagnosed pre-diabetic and I assume he can change/control with lifestyle before developing irreversible complications.

tanulalbalpal said:

Point taken, and I agree it can't be cured for everyone, but this post was about a newly diagnosed pre-diabetic and I assume he can change/control with lifestyle before developing irreversible complications.

Click to expand...

Hello @tanulalbalpal - I see that you are not diabetic yourself, can you confirm what your interest is in diabetes ?

tanulalbalpal said:

Point taken, and I agree it can't be cured for everyone, but this post was about a newly diagnosed pre-diabetic and I assume he can change/control with lifestyle before developing irreversible complications.

Click to expand...

you can´t know how long a person has had diabetes and pre-diabetes before diagnosis, some have a rather progressed diabetes at time of diagnosis, and besides that it is also individual how fast the progress is in the disease and all the adding diseases and conditions. In some cases it is actually also genetically influensed.(like in many people of pakistani ethnic origin genetically.where these groups of people seem to get diabetes more easily than the average rate.). and some get a lot of damage already in the prediabetic area, some can live incredibly many years with very high blood glucose without getting all the other adding diseases and conditions.. maybe also because of genes.

Juicyj said:

Hello @tanulalbalpal - I see that you are not diabetic yourself, can you confirm what your interest is in diabetes ?

Click to expand...

My parents are diabetic, I work with many diabetic patients a lot and I understand communities are best way to learn. I look forward to learn from patients and their experiences and journey at different stages of diabetes. we have offline community of diabetes in Bangalore. I'm trying to get them to be a part of this community as well.