Pre-diabetes - surprised initial reaction

Melgar said:

Not wanting to challenge you but these are questions I often ask myself and I have no answers.

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Melgar said:

I have a question, if as you say "FAT turns people diabetic "

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And there is an argument that diabetes MAKES people fat.
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FAT turns people diabetic

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PeterB2023 said:

Yesterday I was asked to come back to my GPs surgery following my annual check up and blood tests, she explained that I did not have diabetes however my blood test showed I had reached the mark of 42 on the HBa and that meant she wanted to raise my awareness. I was really surprised as I am a keen cyclist ( usually average 100 miles a week), my wife is great cook (has other talents!) and prepares 90% of our meals from scratch. We usually eat 4 veggie meals a week, 2 fish and 1 with meat usually chicken. My weight is 12st 3lb down from 12st 9lb average last year height is 5ft 10.

My father developed Type 2 diabetes at about 85 when he was in a care home and lived for another 7 years and died of natural causes. My 2 siblings have never mentioned diabetes.

So I am at a loss as to why I am showing signs of developing diabetes - is there something else I should be looking at?

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Melgar said:

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry I misread your comment. You hear it all the time , don't you - T2 is caused by an inactive and over eating lifestyle. I'm normal weight and very active with T2. I've been an athlete and thin all my life. Go figure. So I'm searching for answers. I just bought Jenny Ruhl's recommended 'Blood Sugar 101' book.

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jjraak said:

Well to try and answer two questions

The idea of 'Spiking' as I understand it, IS something diabetic AND non diabetic people do

THAT is normal.

The issue seems to be the longevity of the spike

Below my signature is Jenny
ruhls diabetes 101.

Jenny Ruhl T2D patients always get worse.?.mmh




I liken the body to a pot.
A fuel tank, if you like

Over time for those who build up resistance to carbs (type 2). The pot doesn't drain out as well at the bottom like it does for non diabetics .

At some point it begins to spill over as it's overfill drips then pours into our bodies.

Our poor body tries it best to mop it away and tidy up, by stashing it into places it shouldn't really be

(Mainly as fats wrapped around every organ and as the visceral fat around our bellies in particular )

And there is an argument that diabetes MAKES people fat.
V
FAT turns people diabetic .

At some point that stuffing away of fats causes issues and if left untreated begins the progressive nature of the illness of type 2

The solution for type 2's is
Follow doctors advise and slow but don't stop the decline

Follow a low carb diet and POSSIBLY slow the decline enough not to as big an issue as it could be .

I imagine well managed the decline might not even be an issue as other age related illnesses get us .

So exercise spiking ..normal.
Spiking after food ...normal.

But for type 2's it's the duration of the spikes that causes us damage .

Issue for type 2 is HOW to reduce the pot of glucose inside us
And how to slow or stop it refilling each time we eat .

I think of it as one step forward using up glucose versus 2 steps back if we add more carbs then our meters say we can handle .

The idea of the 2 mmols or less increase is where type 2's try to mimic a non type 2's glucose response .

A long winded reply, but I hope of some use seeing the difference between type 2 & non type 2.

Good luck finding your answers.

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4/10 athletes studied spent more than 70% of the total monitoring time above 6.0 mmol/L even with the 2-hour period after meals is excluded. Fasting BG was also in the ADA defined prediabetes range for 3/10 athletes. Only 1 participant spent substantial time below 4.0 mmol/L which was largely due to significantly lower energy intake compared to recommendations. [my emphasis]

Contrary to expectations high BG appears to be more of a concern for athletes then low BG even in those with the highest energy expenditure and consuming below the recommended carbohydrate intake. This study warrants further investigation on the recommended diets and the BG of athletes to better determine the causes and impact of this hyperglycemia on overall athlete health.

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sw600 said:

Thanks for the link. I read through Jenny's website, I was initially concerned because usually when you see a 'what doctors aren't telling you' then it's some quack pseudoscience, moreso when they start banging on about toxins. However it seems that this person is able to read scientific studies and draw sensible conclusions from them, from the limited number of references I followed up, so I'm assuming it's trustworthy.

I found some bits very interesting, and indeed there is a page on what 'normal' looks like. However I still couldn't find much on what athletes might expect. I did some more random googling though and discovered this:

<I can't post links it seems, but search on the US National Library of Medicine site for PMC5094325>

This is right in my sweet-spot, investigating sub-elite athletes (emphasis on SUB in my case). My numbers (vo2 max, resting HR etc) are not much higher than those. Anyhow:



That's interesting. Matches my experience. It's only a small study though so I will have to see if there is something a bit more statistically significant somewhere.

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KennyA said:

Well, your starting A1c of 42 is still technically still in normal range. You also don't report any diabetic symptoms. However there's a bit of error in all tests and your BG could well have actually been a little higher or lower. "Normal" is usually defined as an A1c of 38 to 42, mainly because most non-diabetic people have A1cs in that range. I've attached a graph showing this, from a Dutch study.

Your reduction to me shows that whatever you did worked and maybe you should just keep on with that.

There is a lot of info on various websites showing carb content of food - I found dietdoctor.com very helpful. One of the wrinkles with this is that the carbs in foods are different and have different impacts on individuals. Example: I am not too bad with legumes but cannot tolerate potatoes or pastry. Both cause my BG to rise - legumes a little and slowly, pastry/potatoes a lot and very quickly. GI isn't apparently a factor for me.

If you were diabetic I would certainly advise using a blood glucose monitor. You are not, it seems, diabetic. Whether you use one or not is up to you, and as you're only looking for a small reduction in BG maybe the expense isn't worth it. The cost usually doesn't lie in the device but in the testing strips.

In your shoes I would want to honestly assess how many carbs I had generally been eating. Most so-called "healthy" diet advice produced by the NHS and echoed in the media is to eat lots of carbs - cereal, fruit/fruit juice, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, that sort of thing. All very carb heavy, and I used to eat a lot of all of them. You might try generally cutting back on some, and seeing what happens.


I haven't spoken to a dietitian since my "training" just after diagnosis. The guy was NHS and excellent. His best advice was that "carbs are inessential and we can happily live without them".

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PeterB2023 said:

Yesterday I was asked to come back to my GPs surgery following my annual check up and blood tests, she explained that I did not have diabetes however my blood test showed I had reached the mark of 42 on the HBa and that meant she wanted to raise my awareness. I was really surprised as I am a keen cyclist ( usually average 100 miles a week), my wife is great cook (has other talents!) and prepares 90% of our meals from scratch. We usually eat 4 veggie meals a week, 2 fish and 1 with meat usually chicken. My weight is 12st 3lb down from 12st 9lb average last year height is 5ft 10.

My father developed Type 2 diabetes at about 85 when he was in a care home and lived for another 7 years and died of natural causes. My 2 siblings have never mentioned diabetes.

So I am at a loss as to why I am showing signs of developing diabetes - is there something else I should be looking at?

Click to expand...

PeterB2023 said:

Yesterday I was asked to come back to my GPs surgery following my annual check up and blood tests, she explained that I did not have diabetes however my blood test showed I had reached the mark of 42 on the HBa and that meant she wanted to raise my awareness. I was really surprised as I am a keen cyclist ( usually average 100 miles a week), my wife is great cook (has other talents!) and prepares 90% of our meals from scratch. We usually eat 4 veggie meals a week, 2 fish and 1 with meat usually chicken. My weight is 12st 3lb down from 12st 9lb average last year height is 5ft 10.

My father developed Type 2 diabetes at about 85 when he was in a care home and lived for another 7 years and died of natural causes. My 2 siblings have never mentioned diabetes.

So I am at a loss as to why I am showing signs of developing diabetes - is there something else I should be looking at?

Click to expand...

Melgar said:

I wonder how many athletes test their blood sugars, or how many Dr's request an HbA1c for anyone under 50 who is an athlete. When I was running I didn't even think about my blood sugars. Maybe that was my bad. I focussed on carbs in general of course. Carbs in the context of slow release and sustained energy. I never questioned or even considered whether my blood sugars were too high or too low. I tested my heart rate, my resting heart rate, and how quickly my heart rate returned to homeostasis. I monitored my BP, but never my blood sugar. Maybe International athletes get their BG's monitored. So my point is do we damage are BG systems by carb loading?

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Melgar said:

I was told I was pre-diabetic at the end of 2019. I am now diabetic. I was a competitive long distance runner and very active for much of the preceding decades. No diabetes in my family (including my aunts and uncles) other than my brother who is T1. I always ate healthy meals, never touched soft drinks, chips, crisps and fast food, breads or pastries. Not overweight, in fact a few years ago I had terrible trouble keeping weight on. And yet here I am T2. To be honest I felt hard done by and angry. I could have understood it if I ate pizzas and McDonalds and junk but nope I was almost freakin angelic with my food. Well that came back to bite me. The other thing that I totally despise is social media banging on about how T2 is preventable. You will just have to try and ignore that aspect. I need to breath lol I feel worked up even typing it. lolol

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