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vjain79

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Hi,

I am 39 year old male. I have been diagnosed with diabetes just 21 days back. The initial readings were as below:

6th Oct 2018:
Fasting Blood Sugar: 165 mg/dl
Post Lunch Blood Sugar (2 hours after lunch): 247 mg/dl
Hb A1c: 8.8%

My doctor confirmed that I am diabetic and told me reduce carb and stop sugar. He prescribed Gimisave M1 (Drug contains: Glimepride: 1mg + Metformin 500mg) and asked me to get the blood tested again after 15 days. I have strictly followed the diet + 30-45 minutes of brisk walking every day along with the above mentioned tablet.

After 15 days, the readings were as below:

22nd Oct 2018:
Fasting Blood Sugar: 97 mg/dl
Post Lunch Blood Sugar (2 hours after lunch): 149 mg/dl
Hb A1c: 8.2%

On followup visit, my doctor told to continue the tablet. I am thinking of controlling the sugar level by strictly following the diet and implementing exercises and yoga and stop the tablet and test it again in another 15 days to check if I can maintain the sugar only with diet and exercise. I need your suggestions on this?


Thanks & Regards,

I also have a constant slight pain in my right abdomen? My doctor told to ignore it and will see if the pain increases.

Background: I am also regularly taking medicines to control High Blood pressure since 2013. Before being diagnosed with diabetes, for 12 months I lived a very sedantry life style with almost no walking for weeks, eating too much junk and improper sleeping habits.



 
Welcome to the forum @vjain79 . Well done on the reduction in your blood glucose levels. I assume you have been diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic.
In answer to your question, yes you can maintain, and lower your blood glucose levels by diet and exercise. Many of the Type 2s on here, including me, have done that, usually by adopting a Low Carbohydrate High Fat (lchf) approach to eating.. Have a read round the threads to see how it works and ask any questions you want.
 
vjain79 said:
Hi,

I am 39 year old male. I have been diagnosed with diabetes just 21 days back. The initial readings were as below:

6th Oct 2018:
Fasting Blood Sugar: 165 mg/dl
Post Lunch Blood Sugar (2 hours after lunch): 247 mg/dl
Hb A1c: 8.8%

My doctor confirmed that I am diabetic and told me reduce carb and stop sugar. He prescribed Gimisave M1 (Drug contains: Glimepride: 1mg + Metformin 500mg) and asked me to get the blood tested again after 15 days. I have strictly followed the diet + 30-45 minutes of brisk walking every day along with the above mentioned tablet.

After 15 days, the readings were as below:

22nd Oct 2018:
Fasting Blood Sugar: 97 mg/dl
Post Lunch Blood Sugar (2 hours after lunch): 149 mg/dl
Hb A1c: 8.2%

On followup visit, my doctor told to continue the tablet. I am thinking of controlling the sugar level by strictly following the diet and implementing exercises and yoga and stop the tablet and test it again in another 15 days to check if I can maintain the sugar only with diet and exercise. I need your suggestions on this?


Thanks & Regards,

I also have a constant slight pain in my right abdomen? My doctor told to ignore it and will see if the pain increases.

Background: I am also regularly taking medicines to control High Blood pressure since 2013. Before being diagnosed with diabetes, for 12 months I lived a very sedantry life style with almost no walking for weeks, eating too much junk and improper sleeping habits.
Click to expand...
Hey Vjain, and welcome.

I don't "do" mg/dl, so I had to look up your new readings. You are making progress! Usually I kinda do a low-carb-helps paragraph, but you're already on it, so that's good. (Just to be on the safe side though: Bread, potatoes, corn, cereal, rice, pasta are all carby. Fruit too, save for berries. Yeah, okay, I'll give it a rest...). Might be you could lower carbs a tiny little bit further, but its early days. The readings you've shared, the fasting ones, were they taken right before the meal, or in the a.m.? Because you really want to know the difference between before the meal and 2 hours after. They shouldn't go up more than 2 mmol/l, which I think is 36 mg/dl.

As for your meds, metformin is known for giving bowel problems like the runs. If the pain is to the lower right, there is a transition area there between the larger and smaller intestine, where you're appendix is at too. It's very sensitive, so pain there could be IBS, and yeah... That could be due to the metformin component of your pills. You could try to ride it out, but if it's not getting better after two weeks on the tablets, you might want to discuss it again. (And if it gets really bad, see a doc!) None of us here can advise you to quit your pills, and none of us will (unless we want to go straight against forum rules). I can tell you though that if you stick with the low-carb thing, the pill may be redundant soon enough. If you want a change in meds, there are other options, I think there are almost 20 of them, so if this doesn't agree with you and you/your doc want to stick with medication, look into others. Gliclazide is fairly well tolerated for instance. Metformin was a nightmare for me, (lived in the loo, and things got bloody), but Glic I tolerated just fine. But with the low carb I could ditch the medication (with my doc's okay).

Those 12 months may have sped thing sup a little, but T2 is due to a bunch of causes... You were genetically predisposed to get it, so it probably would've hit you sooner or later. Now it was sooner. Try to get 8 hours of sleep, it really does make a difference in bloodsugarlevels. And when you say you ate junk, was that out of nessecity? Because even a Big Mac or a Whopper can be low carb if you order it without that spongy bread. Some people are on the road constantly, so sometimes there isn't much to choose from for them. Knowing a workaround often helps.

In any case, welcome. And just in case no-one's tagged her while I was typing, @daisy1 had a really helpful infopack she'll post here.

Good luck,
Jo
 
Hi and welcome,

Most of us on this forum use mmol/l measurement units. There is a conversion chart on the main website here
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-sugar-converter.html

You have shown a good improvement in your fasting and post meal levels. You must be on the right track. Well done :)

Leaving off your medication is a matter between you and your doctor, but in my opinion it is worth a try for 15 days to see what happens. You can always start again. Metformin is a mild diabetes drug that only helps to a limited extent, mainly with fasting levels, and won't help with any post meal spikes. It is also a cumulative drug and takes a while to have any effect. Gimepirade works differently as it stimulates the pancreas to produce extra insulin. This is only worth while if you are not producing much insulin, and unless you have an insulin test you won't know whether you produce enough or too much. Most Type 2s produce too much. Have a good read about it all and make your own mind up.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-medication/amaryl-glimepiride.html
https://www.drugs.com/search.php?searchterm=glimepiride&a=1

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin/diabetes-and-metformin.html
https://www.drugs.com/search.php?searchterm=metformin&a=1
 
I am almost two years from diagnosis most of that time back in normal ranges by eating a low carb diet. No problems with that and I can eat more carbs without raising BG levels - but it instantly starts to increase my weight, so I am not going to be making changes to my menu any time soon.
I did get pains in my right side, which was most likely my gall bladder being used after a couple of year of low fat - it cleared itself in a month or so and has been no trouble ever since.
 
@vjain79

Hello and welcome to the Forum :) Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will 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 235,000 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 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. Most of these are 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.
 
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