newly diagonosed - concerned

[ArnoldH]

Hi, my husband was diagonosed 2 weeks before xmas. He felt his life had come to an end as he had 2 weeks earlier just taken the cold turkey route re giving up fags and now his favourite nibbles are now a no no.
We struggled through xmas and have now attended 2 sessions of a 4 session course.
He has not been given any tablets. When diagnonsed but his sugar level when fasting was 16 and when done on the spot was in the low 20's.

I am proud of him as the family bar of choc is no longer being eaten. The whole packet of biscuits has been cut to 2 biscuits. The Mr Kipling slices have also gone and the cans of coke have been swapped to no sugar added squash and the occasional Coke Zero. Sweetners in Tea have take the place of sugar.

HOWEVER I am cncerned as he is continually grazing. Not long after dinner, he will eat some fruit, then 30 min to an hour later he is raiding the cupboards for something be it a tin of tuna, a no added sugar jelly, a couple of slices of toast, this is then normally followed by another trip to the kitchen. He tells me he is hungry - but I cant see how.

Am I being paroinoid or do I need to send him bac to his doctors

Helen

 

[cugila]

Hi Helen.
Welcome to the Forum.

Get him to read this instead of going straight back to the Dr's.........

Here is the advice Sue and I 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.

Ken / Sue.