• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Stressed about going into insulin-Type 2

C

Curley Shirley

Member
Messages
13
My blood sugar is very high-14 this morning before breakfast, 16.8 yesterday. I have type 2 diabetes & am on 4 glicazide & 1 linagliptin per day. Apparently due to genetics or bad luck my tablets don’t work anymore & I am now threatened with going onto insulin. I weigh 9 stone 9 I play a lot of tennis & exercise everyday & eat what I think is a healthy diet. Can I change this by changing my diet drastically or is it too late? Any advice would be welcome.
Thank you.
 
It is never too late to revert to a healthy diet, and in particular one adapted to T2D. I suggest you go low carb: vegetarian, vegan, carnivore, or Keto, according to your preferences and convictions. What is at stake is lowering your BG by reducing carbs intake as much as possible. Watch out: reducing carbs ingestion should go hand in hand with medicine regulation, too. Consult with your GP or nutritionist... Getting low carb will yield its benefits in a matter of weeks, 3 to 4 max. Good luck!
 
Welcome to the forum.

What do you consider a healthy diet, what do you eat in a typical day?
 
Thank you for your advice. I think I should definitely try a strict low carb diet first before I have to resort to insulin. I have a telephone appt scheduled with my diabetic nurse so will discuss with her.
 
Curley Shirley said:
Thank you for your advice. I think I should definitely try a strict low carb diet first before I have to resort to insulin. I have a telephone appt scheduled with my diabetic nurse so will discuss with her.
Click to expand...
Maybe also see if you can get a c-peptide test to make sure that your T2 diagnosis is in fact correct. Although at the moment that may be quite an ask...
 
Curley Shirley said:
Thanks. What is a c-peptide test & where can you get one?
Click to expand...
It tests how much endogenous insulin you are producing using c-peptide as a proxy.

If you are experiencing high blood sugars considering the medication you are on it could be that you are under producing your own insulin unlike the "classic" T2 who will be overproducing due to insulin resistance.

If you are underproducing then dietary changes, although likely to help a bit, won't be as effective as they would for an over producer.

You may be able to get one on the NHS, just a case of asking, otherwise various organisations do them privately but they aren't cheap.
 
I'd for sure be getting a c-peptide, but based on your diet which is high carb it's not surprising your blood glucose levels are that high.

Here's some good dietary info below in the link, also bare in mind that there are a lot of diabetic nurses who are against low carb, so hopefully you get one that supports it and is up to date and not one of the often encountered DN's who advise eating porridge for breakfast and bananas.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/
 
In addition to all of the above, which I most heartily agree with, even if tests were to reveal that you are now underproducing your own endogenous insulin, that is not necessarily game over. Committed low-carbing over a prolonged period can often 'repair' the pancreas if its currently deficient because it's full of fat. That's not to say that exogenous injections would not be necessary at all but, with a little good fortune and a tenacious grip on diet, it could potentially be a temporary measure.

PS. Do not be surprised if your DN poo-poos the low-carb idea straight out of the gate. Some are stuck in 1980.

EDIT: To add - if you are indeed deficient in insulin, you should also request antibody testing to check for the onset of an autoimmune reaction.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Thanks for your reply. All noted. I feel not quite so depressed about the whole thing now.
 
No need to feel depressed, and if you DO end up on insulin, it's no biggie.

I'd you change your diet drastically, you need to test before and after you eat. However, you need to be careful with your meds or you will end up in hypo territory.
 
xfieldok said:
Gawd. Radical changes needed here.
Calling @JoKalsbeek for help.
Click to expand...
You're always welcome to share the link yourself, if I seem to be awol for a bit. As for @Curley Shirley , it's not too late for anything at this moment. Just be careful when you drastically cut carbs. You want to be testing a lot if you are still on the medication that doesn't seem to be doing much anymore. (Were you taken off it or are you still using them?) If you change the way you eat your blood sugars can drop like a stone, and no-one enjoys a hypo, which would happen with your meds. So do take care. And if you have any questions about whether something's okay to eat for a T2 or no, give us a shout. I do think you'd do well to get a C-peptide test, but not sure how achievable it is right now to get one. Still.... Getting levels down is a priority right at the moment, and even if something's going wrong somewhere with your insulin production, lowering carbs would still help the effort. Test, test, test, like there's no tomorrow, and cut the carbs as much as you dare.

Whatever the outcome, things will get better.
Jo
PS: Are you on any other medication? Steroids, statins? Those can and will up blood glucose levels as well... The need for statins is quite debatable, but if you are on steroids for another condition you might need a little help here and there, on top of a dietary change. Just thinking out loud.
 

Hi Jo,
Thank you so much for your reply & valuable info. I’m not on any other medication. Just glicazide & linagliptin at the moment. I have only just started to test daily so getting in the swing of that. I will discuss the low or no carb diet with my dn. I do not want to go on insulin as I feel like it’s a failure & maybe I can avoid it by drastically changing my diet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…