Please help! Prediabetes

[Carol1505]

Hi everyone!

My GP sent me a message ‘you have pre diabetes’ after I had a blood test.

I would like to know if some of you are a terrible thirst and sensation of burning almost of the time, and especially at night?

I have been eating low carb diet (more vegetables, protein and fat) and just one or two fruits a day…I am doing exercises before going to sleep, I mean after dinner, and I realised that I have my sugar 5-5,3 (fast) one point less that when I did not do any exercises before going to sleep ( it used to be 6-6,3 fast).

However, I am thirsty all the time. I have to drink water two o three times when I am sleeping because the thirst wakes me up, and consequently two or three times to pee.

Does anyone here have the same symptom?

And if so, have you done something that have helped you?

Thank you so much in advance.

 

[KennyA]

Hi Carol1505 and welcome to the forums.

Do you know what your HbA1c reading was? That will have been the basis on which your doctor has judged you to be prediabetic. Normal (in the UK) A1c figures are 38-42: pre-diabetes is 43-48; above 48 you will automatically be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

There are a couple of problems with this: one is that it is common for people to have diabetic symptoms at A1c results well below 48. I'm one of those people. I think you've been fortunate in having the early warning.

The symptoms you describe are consistent with Type 2 diabetes, but as no-one on here is capable of diagnosing anything I won't be telling you that for sure.

I reduced my blood glucose from "official" diabetic levels to low normal in about three months. With that reduction came a gradual disappearance of the range of symptoms I'd been having, although the damage done by the elevated sugar levels takes longer to clear in total and I may well have some permanent (slight) nerve damage.

I did that by going extremely low-carb - a "keto" approach taking in around 20g carbs/day. This is by no means compulsory - it happens to suit my all-or-nothing style and many people find that reducing carbs to (eg) 150, 100 or 75g a day works for them.

You already have a meter and the best way to use it is to take a baseline reading immediately before you eat, and then another two hours afterwards. That shows you the impact the food you ate had on your blood sugar levels. You are looking to keep the rise, the second reading, below 7 and not more that 2 mmol/l more than the baseline. You can take readings at other times - many people do a morning fasted reading, but you should be aware that these are often the highest you'll see all day - this is because your liver is helpfully pumping glucose into your blood to get you going for the day.


The other thing is that you need to clear your mind of anything you think you know about healthy eating. If you're going to eat to a pattern intended to reduce and manage your blood glucose, carbohydrates/starches/sugars are the ones that will cause problems. Unfortunately the official "healthy eating" advice tells you to base meals on starchy carbs. Do that and it makes controlling blood glucose by diet (almost) impossible. So I cut out bread and anything flour-based, pasta, rice, sugar, potatoes and most root veg, almost all fruit (very high in fructose, although berries might be OK), and beer.

You need to find out what works for you, it may well be very different to what works for me or anyone else. Best of luck. This forum is a fantastic resource and don't be afraid to ask questions.

 

[NostalgicNeg]

Hi Carol1505 and welcome to the forums.

Do you know what your HbA1c reading was? That will have been the basis on which your doctor has judged you to be prediabetic. Normal (in the UK) A1c figures are 38-42: pre-diabetes is 43-48; above 48 you will automatically be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

There are a couple of problems with this: one is that it is common for people to have diabetic symptoms at A1c results well below 48. I'm one of those people. I think you've been fortunate in having the early warning.

The symptoms you describe are consistent with Type 2 diabetes, but as no-one on here is capable of diagnosing anything I won't be telling you that for sure.

I reduced my blood glucose from "official" diabetic levels to low normal in about three months. With that reduction came a gradual disappearance of the range of symptoms I'd been having, although the damage done by the elevated sugar levels takes longer to clear in total and I may well have some permanent (slight) nerve damage.

I did that by going extremely low-carb - a "keto" approach taking in around 20g carbs/day. This is by no means compulsory - it happens to suit my all-or-nothing style and many people find that reducing carbs to (eg) 150, 100 or 75g a day works for them.

You already have a meter and the best way to use it is to take a baseline reading immediately before you eat, and then another two hours afterwards. That shows you the impact the food you ate had on your blood sugar levels. You are looking to keep the rise, the second reading, below 7 and not more that 2 mmol/l more than the baseline. You can take readings at other times - many people do a morning fasted reading, but you should be aware that these are often the highest you'll see all day - this is because your liver is helpfully pumping glucose into your blood to get you going for the day.


The other thing is that you need to clear your mind of anything you think you know about healthy eating. If you're going to eat to a pattern intended to reduce and manage your blood glucose, carbohydrates/starches/sugars are the ones that will cause problems. Unfortunately the official "healthy eating" advice tells you to base meals on starchy carbs. Do that and it makes controlling blood glucose by diet (almost) impossible. So I cut out bread and anything flour-based, pasta, rice, sugar, potatoes and most root veg, almost all fruit (very high in fructose, although berries might be OK), and beer.

You need to find out what works for you, it may well be very different to what works for me or anyone else. Best of luck. This forum is a fantastic resource and don't be afraid to ask questions.

How can you tell if you have permanent nerve damage?

 

[NostalgicNeg]

Hi Carol1505 and welcome to the forums.

Do you know what your HbA1c reading was? That will have been the basis on which your doctor has judged you to be prediabetic. Normal (in the UK) A1c figures are 38-42: pre-diabetes is 43-48; above 48 you will automatically be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

There are a couple of problems with this: one is that it is common for people to have diabetic symptoms at A1c results well below 48. I'm one of those people. I think you've been fortunate in having the early warning.

The symptoms you describe are consistent with Type 2 diabetes, but as no-one on here is capable of diagnosing anything I won't be telling you that for sure.

I reduced my blood glucose from "official" diabetic levels to low normal in about three months. With that reduction came a gradual disappearance of the range of symptoms I'd been having, although the damage done by the elevated sugar levels takes longer to clear in total and I may well have some permanent (slight) nerve damage.

I did that by going extremely low-carb - a "keto" approach taking in around 20g carbs/day. This is by no means compulsory - it happens to suit my all-or-nothing style and many people find that reducing carbs to (eg) 150, 100 or 75g a day works for them.

You already have a meter and the best way to use it is to take a baseline reading immediately before you eat, and then another two hours afterwards. That shows you the impact the food you ate had on your blood sugar levels. You are looking to keep the rise, the second reading, below 7 and not more that 2 mmol/l more than the baseline. You can take readings at other times - many people do a morning fasted reading, but you should be aware that these are often the highest you'll see all day - this is because your liver is helpfully pumping glucose into your blood to get you going for the day.


The other thing is that you need to clear your mind of anything you think you know about healthy eating. If you're going to eat to a pattern intended to reduce and manage your blood glucose, carbohydrates/starches/sugars are the ones that will cause problems. Unfortunately the official "healthy eating" advice tells you to base meals on starchy carbs. Do that and it makes controlling blood glucose by diet (almost) impossible. So I cut out bread and anything flour-based, pasta, rice, sugar, potatoes and most root veg, almost all fruit (very high in fructose, although berries might be OK), and beer.

You need to find out what works for you, it may well be very different to what works for me or anyone else. Best of luck. This forum is a fantastic resource and don't be afraid to ask questions.

I find your posts really informative and invaluable: thanks Kenny.

 

[KennyA]

How can you tell if you have permanent nerve damage?

I can't really. But my blood sugars have been in low normal range for three years now, and I still have a slight pins and needles tingling sometimes in my toes and feet. It is nowhere like the "burning foot" pain that stopped me sleeping when it first arrived in 2014 or 2015. It reduced very quickly, and then it's stayed at this (not painful) tingle since. My guess that if it hasn't faded any further after three years, it's probably not going to.

 

[NostalgicNeg]

I can't really. But my blood sugars have been in low normal range for three years now, and I still have a slight pins and needles tingling sometimes in my toes and feet. It is nowhere like the "burning foot" pain that stopped me sleeping when it first arrived in 2014 or 2015. It reduced very quickly, and then it's stayed at this (not painful) tingle since. My guess that if it hasn't faded any further after three years, it's probably not going to.

I get a slight tingling feeling on my skin on my hands and feet, but also occasionally else where. I was also getting pain in my toe or two toes, but that has stopped. I'm wondering if it could be neuropathy. I feel I'm really going to struggle not binge eating chocolate. I would do that every night. You said in a thread that you are a all or nothing guy and I'm the same.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I get a slight tingling feeling on my skin on my hands and feet, but also occasionally else where. I was also getting pain in my toe or two toes, but that has stopped. I'm wondering if it could be neuropathy. I feel I'm really going to struggle not binge eating chocolate. I would do that every night. You said in a thread that you are a all or nothing guy and I'm the same.

Get rid of all chocolate except the really dark ones. 85% or higher would be sort of okay, and they're so chocolaty a square or two would tend to scratch the itch more than a whole bar of milk chocolate would. Might want to ditch the fruit though, everything save a few berries is usually too sugary for us to deal with. The vitamins and fibres you get from there can just as easily be found in an extra portion of veg instead, or liver for instance.

I can't quite gather if the constant urinating burns or whether it's tingling limbs, but if its the wee's... If your blood sugars run a little high, your bladder just loves catering to bacteria. Get checked for a bladder infection. If it's the tingling, up your vitamin B12 intake, to help nerves heal. Takes forever, but might as well get a head start.

For what it's worth, I used to be in the washroom every 10 to 30 minutes. Was the butt of the joke with that, but as it turned out, I'd been prediabetic and diabetic for quite a few years already. Drank a whole lot too. You'll be okay. Just look into a different way of eating like (very) low carb or keto, and you could well feel a whole lot better. I know, you already started, but if you're still eating fruit, it's quite likely there's more room for improvement. Which'd be a good thing! Could you by any chance list exactly what you eat in a day? Maybe we can help tweak things. As you're just prediabetic, a few small alterations might make a massive difference.

Hugs,
Jo