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Newly diagnosed type 2

D

ddni0001

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Good afternoon all,

I as recently as Friday was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

The locum at the my local medical centre was on hand to provide the news...

I hadn't been the doctors for over 5 years and only went in a few weeks ago just to have an MOT, so you can imagine the surprise when I was told that it seems like it's been there for quite some time.

Now I'm completely new to this and am actually glad for a place of support such as this. I'm not a defeatist so I wont let the illness get the better of me but need the experiences of you as fellow sufferers to help me get a grounding


I'm 5 foot 9 and weighing in at 15 stone which I put down to becoming a father 2 years ago... now im gracing the dad bod :)

The doctor gave me 3 months to lower my cholesterol by way of dieting, exercise, quit smoking and just generally changing bad habits before assessing if I require tablets.

Now my question is.... what do I do? What's the do's and don'ts of eating? I want to try a lifestyle changes as oppose to some crash low/no carb diet and be able to manage this in a natural manageable way. Can anyone provide me with decent literature or advise... I have been tempted by the "newcastle diet" but this would just be a short term solution which I want to avoid. Or is the Newcastle diet a good way to start lowering my cholesterol and weight within the 3 months I have before reassessment. I want to show that I can do this without the need for a lifetime of medication which scares me to be honest. :(

Look forward to hearing from you all.
 
Hi @ddni0001 and welcome to the forum. It's usually a shock when you get that diagnosis and takes a bit of time to get your head round it all. The good news is that T2 diabetes can be controlled. a lot of us on here including me have found that a Low Carbohydrate High Fat approach to eating has lowered our blood sugar levels and weight.
Sugary sweet stuff obviously need to be avoided, but also starchy carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, rice and pasta which turn to sugars in our bodies. We increase our consumption of healthy fats like dairy products (butter and cheese), oily fish, avocadoes and nuts to replace the energy we got from carbs.
Exercise helps too, gym, swimming or running are good, though walking is usually the easiest to get into. The NHS guidance is to exercise for at least 30 minutes, five times a week.

Have a read round the threads and ask anything you want to, the people on here are friendly and supportive.
Do you know what your blood sugar test reading (HbA1c) was? If not you should find out from your gp practice so you know where you are starting from.
 
ddni0001 said:
The doctor gave me 3 months to lower my cholesterol by way of dieting, exercise, quit smoking and just generally changing bad habits before assessing if I require tablets.

Now my question is.... what do I do? What's the do's and don'ts of eating? I want to try a lifestyle changes as oppose to some crash low/no carb diet and be able to manage this in a natural manageable way. Can anyone provide me with decent literature or advise... I have been tempted by the "newcastle diet" but this would just be a short term solution which I want to avoid. Or is the Newcastle diet a good way to start lowering my cholesterol and weight within the 3 months I have before reassessment. I want to show that I can do this without the need for a lifetime of medication which scares me to be honest. :(

Look forward to hearing from you all.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome,

I take it you mean lowering your blood sugar levels rather than cholesterol?

I will tag @daisy1 as she has an excellent post for newcomers. Have a good read and take note of the role of carbohydrates, which do need to be reduced, and some need to be eliminated altogether.

Your best bet is to buy a glucose meter as this will help you discover which foods are OK and which are not OK for your body to cope with. There really is no other way of doing this. Testing before and after meals will tell you how that meal has affected your blood sugar levels.

You may find these useful:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-new-low-carb-guide-for-beginners.68695/

http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/60-seconds

and there is also a Low Carb Programme on this website that you can join.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/lowcarb/?utm_source=hp&utm_medium=dd&utm_campaign=lcp
 
ddni0001 said:
Or is the Newcastle diet a good way to start lowering my cholesterol and weight within the 3 months I have before reassessment. I want to show that I can do this without the need for a lifetime of medication which scares me to be honest. :(

Look forward to hearing from you all.
Click to expand...

Hi @ddni0001,

Wishing you the best of luck with your twin tasks of losing weight and giving up smoking.

You seem to be aware of the Newcastle Diet, so you may have seen http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/documents/Diabetes-Reversaloftype2studyJune15.pdf .

I quote
"It is also very important to emphasise that sustainability of weight loss is the most important thing to ensure that diabetes stays away after the initial weight loss. Previous research has shown that steady weight loss over a 5 – 6 month period is more likely to be successful in keeping weight down in the long term. For this reason, ordinary steady weight loss may be preferable. However, if you are not able to lose around 2½ stone over, say, six months by this approach, then the very low calorie diet may be best for you. The standard approach would involve: a) Decreasing total food (and alcohol) intake by about one half b) Using smaller plates c) Eating more slowly d) Recognising that the sensation of hunger is sign of success, not a signal to eat e) Enjoy that hunger. Celebrate with a glass of water; maybe fizzy water.

However, if a person finds this difficult, the liquid meal approach could be used."
 
Hello, welcome to the forum. It is all rather confusing and scarey at first but don't worry you have come to the right place! Ask as many questions as you need to and have a good look at the forums. Good luck :)
 
@ddni0001 - Hello and Welcome to the Forum :). Ask away any questions you may have no matter how trivial you think they may be. There will always be someone to answer.
 
@ddni0001

Hello and welcome to the forum :) Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. It contains advice about carbohydrates, levels, and a link to the Low Carb Program. 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 over 150,000 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-and-whole-grains.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

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


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 bloodglucose 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.
 
Thank you guys for being so welcoming. I'll take a good read through the links and come back with a few questions.

The doctor didn't really have all the time in the world to sit and discuss so im glad for the knowledge you all can impart.


She basically displayed some measurements on the screen and said good, bad, good, bad etc etc.

There was a measure (hbA1c) which was 48 mmol/mol and she said that I should be way under 47. I recall the bad
cholesterol was high but my good cholesterol was 0.9 and I believe it should have been greater than 1. All I took away from the 5 minutes with the doctor was quit one of my vices or take up this thing called exercise :) to show control over the ailment.

So thank you for your input.
 
ddni0001 said:
Thank you guys for being so welcoming. I'll take a good read through the links and come back with a few questions.

The doctor didn't really have all the time in the world to sit and discuss so im glad for the knowledge you all can impart.


She basically displayed some measurements on the screen and said good, bad, good, bad etc etc.

There was a measure (hbA1c) which was 48 mmol/mol and she said that I should be way under 47. I recall the bad
cholesterol was high but my good cholesterol was 0.9 and I believe it should have been greater than 1. All I took away from the 5 minutes with the doctor was quit one of my vices or take up this thing called exercise :) to show control over the ailment.

So thank you for your input.
Click to expand...

Please never accept "good", "bad", "fine" from doctors and nurses. They are too fond of doing this. Ask for a print out of the results so you can examine them at leisure and decide for yourself whether they are good or bad. If you ring the receptionist and ask for a print out, you should be given one. They are more than useful for comparisons down the line as you will be having many more blood tests in the future, and in my opinion necessary. What all the figures mean are all over the internet if you Google, or you can ask on here.
 
Hi and welcome

The tendency at first is to try to put everything right at once. My advice, tackle one thing at a time. It has taken a while for you to gain the weight, your body and skin needs some time to get used to the slimmer you as you lose weight. By avoiding some foods that tended to raise my BG levels, those containing grains in my case, and finding a form of gentle exercise that I could do in 5 minutes without a change of clothes or special footwear I discovered that I was losing weight and keeping the skin toned. 1/2kg or 1 lb a week between New Year and May has led to a new summer wardrobe, Dr agreeing that I had control, envious colleagues at work and skin that fits. Success

I was not a smoker so will not give advice on quitting but perhaps if you ask at the surgery they may be able to help with a programme. If you put the money you save from smoking towards the new wardrobe or a special treat at Christmas that will keep you on track.

Good luck
 
Hi and welcome. Your HBa1C is still quite good so no hurry to make changes but there is a need to start. The Newcastle diet is good but it is a bit hung up on calories which I don't think are really relevant. As fat has twice the calories than carbs you can reduce the calories in your diet by reducing fats but still have too many carbs and these are the villain for fat storage and blood sugar rise. As fats don't make you fat (unless is real excess), do focus on carb reduction and increase proteins and fats to make you feel full. A LC diet should help get the LDL, HDL and Trig ratios better.
 
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