recently diagnosed

[josie]

i was only diagnosed with type2 in early oct and are trying diet control first but my blood sugar seems to go from being high (10.9+) to being low (2.9). i dont know if this is a common problem but i would like some advice about it just so i know i am not going totaly mad and does anyone think maybe diet alone is not right for me.

any advice will be appreciated greatly

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi Josie welcome to the forum,

What is your typical day's diet ?

Controlling your diabetes with diet can be done but it takes work and knowledge to do it.

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.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce drastically are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

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.

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, but you can but try !!

 

[josie]

thank you, for the advice, i already do check my diet for carbs aswell as sugar content and i test my bloods twice aweek if i feel ok but more if i dont, im just worried about the swing from high to low sugar level as it happened again today. i am proactive with my treatment as my dn is very good and am waiting for appointment to our local support group, which no dowt will also help but i was wondering if other people who also suffer from type 2 suffer with low blood sugar awsell.

 

[cugila]

thank you, for the advice, i already do check my diet for carbs aswell as sugar content and i test my bloods twice aweek if i feel ok but more if i dont, im just worried about the swing from high to low sugar level as it happened again today. i am proactive with my treatment as my dn is very good and am waiting for appointment to our local support group, which no dowt will also help but i was wondering if other people who also suffer from type 2 suffer with low blood sugar awsell.

Josie.

The swing in blood sugars is usually related to diet .......If I eat very little my Bg levels can drop alarmingly, if I eat masses of carbs then I can get highs all the time !

Testing twice a week frankly, is going to tell you nothing at all. You have to test much more often, before meals and at 2 hrs after meals as Sue has advised you. That, is the only way to understand just what is happening to your Bg levels and why .

This is no doubt all down to your diet, unless you have an underlying illness.....which only your GP can tell you.