T2 control with diet and execise only - how long?

As you can see from my signature. I was IGT in 1995, diagnosed in 2004 and am still diet and exercise controlled.
So that's 9 years diabetic or 18 years since getting a pre-diabetic label.
I've only recently joined this forum and with the new knowledge I've gained, I'm hoping to stave off medication for some more years yet. Here's hoping...

pickledpepper2

IGT = impaired glucose tolerance i.e. pre-diabetic, picked up on a GTT on my foreign office pre-posting medical. I wasn't given any advice at the time but I spent the next 2 years eating a regular Basotho diet of cornmeal and spinach, with plenty of walking and running. I got diagnosed on the basis of consecutive GTTs in 2004 (weighing 80kgs) but I didn't get my first Hba1c until 2007 (73kgs) when it was 6.6%. I got it back to 5.9% by 2008 (68kgs) but it has crept up since (6.5% in Feb) as has my weight, until I started low carbing and I'm now down to 66kgs)
I used to do ridiculous amounts of exercise before diagnosis but then I changed career and don't do as much. These days I run 3x a week (60-90mins each), do 1or2 weights sessions, a couple of walks and a few HIT sessions.

I am currently on diet control only like you but I just thought I would tell you my mum was diagnosed in 1995 and by 2000 she was on tablets then in 2006 she went on insulin.

Pickledpepper,

May I request you to read my reply to Paulwbm's post titled, The Reverse Diabetes Diet, in Ask A Question, found on page 2. In there, you will find my answer to your question.

Enjoy!!!

Bonny Damocles

I am already 10 years diagnosed as prediabetic and I do not use any normal medication. I take since January this year ayurvedic herbs and chromium and as a pensioner (67) do a lot of sport. Everyday yoga (45 minuten) and I work with kettle bells (sort of weigh lifting), riding bike and make everyday a morning walk of 10 minutes and an evening walk of 20 minutes. Hb1ac about 6.5. I have to do now more than 10 years ago to keep my sugar level right. Lucky enough I have stayed in perfect shape during these years. For me diabetes has been a blessing in disguise. Further of course eating the right stuff. So for me medium carb is well.

I saw my DN for the first time yesterday and she started the conversation by saying "I am Type 2 and not on medication."
She said she has 3 sisters. They are all older than her and she is the slimmest. She has never drunk or smoked and yet she is the one who has diabetes.

She explained the importance of diet and exercise. Was happy that I am monitoring myself and gave me a script for some strips and lancets which was very happy with and a little surprised as I thought Type 2s who don't medicate don't get a script.

Anyway she drew pictures to how the pancreas works and the liver... She explained how folk with no insulin cope,how folk with some insulin cope and how 'normal' folks livers and pancreases work.

She explained that in the end I would probably need insulin. It could be 5 years,10 years,15,20,25... But eventually I would probably need insulin as Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease.

She said it was no fault of mine and it is a hereditary thing. It could be a Grandparent who passed it down.

But as long as I keep an eye on my diet and exercise regularly I should be able to stave off the insulin for as many years as possible.

This was all news to me. I was under the impression that I could 'reverse' my diabetes.

So it really is all in my hands now....

But she weighed me ( I couldn't look) and I said I drink too much and she said "How much" and I told her honestly what I used to drink and what I have been drinking for the last fortnight.
I asked her id doctors really double what patients say when they state their drinking.
I have always been totally honest with ,my doctor about my smoking and drinking. ( I no longer smoke ciggies.I have just changed the way I get my nicotine and I now vape on Electronic cigarettes.)

She said "Yes they do"

"Not fair" I replied.....

*Sigh*.....

Anyway,appointment set for next month. Hopefully I will have lost some weight by then.

pickledpepper2 said:

Do all diet and exercisers eventually succumb? Will those Hba1c figures eventually creep up regardless?

Click to expand...

When this question has cropped up in the past, some people have reported that relatives have controlled their diabetes with diet and exercise into their 70s and only started taking medication in the last couple of years when they got tired of behaving themselves. There are people around who are fit and active and who have had diabetes for many many years.

Statistically people give up the diet and exercise early and rely on meds. Then they start to think that the meds will do everything for them so they start to eat the wrong things. Then they need more meds. What data there is is not worth much because the medical profession have just pushed the meds as an easy option. Anecdotal evidence however shows that it doesn't have to be that way but this sort of evidence is hard to verify.

I do the diet and exercise thing have lost a lot of weight and am very much more fit and active. Last year I had difficulty getting my shoes and socks on. Now I am wielding a splitting maul and cleaving logs with steel wedges. I bash away until I feel dizzy and then go lie down until it passes. I ponder the advantages of just taking the pills and be done with it For the first time in many years I am looking forward to doing some walking on holiday, in the alps no less. Last year I found Holland hard enough and that was without climbing up the dykes.

In truth, you'll feel better for eating well and being more active and it's worth doing just for the sake of it. I feel that I have got my life back.

Keeping a positive mental attitude is important. It gets people through conditions where their life is threatened. As sure as eggs are eggs, a positive mental attitude will get you through diabetes.

I had one of those 2am moments concerning this thread. We can't get meaningful statistics on this subject since the more long term diabetics probably followed NHS advice and ate platefuls of carbs in the healthy balanced diet mode.

The low/no carb movement is relatively new and patients have not been on it long term so we can't judge it long term yet.

Perhaps we should all re-convene in 10 years or so.

I was taken off diabetes meds 22nd November 2012. My last blood test a few weeks back was still ok (see figures below) My next test will be sometime this November, fingers crossed and with some low carb advice from this forum I should still be clear. I can't say I get to relax too much though. I feel as if I am serving a suspended sentence that starts again after the next blood test! When I was diabetic I just had to observe a few rules, to stay meds free I have to really work at them. (sometimes I bend the rules a bit but I'm a good boy when the bloods get near ) I still exercise by walking and I think it builds general good health too. Here in Cornwall when you meet someone as you meander you say hello, maybe not so much in the big towns but certainly in most of the smaller places. I enjoy chatting to people in their gardens, one man gave me a packet of runner beans seeds to replace mine that had failed!

I've been on Metformin for about 10 years. In the early days, I took Gliclazide and for a while, Starlix as well. Then Idecided to minimise my medication and have been on 2 x 500 Metformin for something like 7 - 8 years. My Hb A1c has been consistently in the 5%s and Irarely get a bg above 6. 7 is VERY rare [maybe half a dozen times a year]. I'm pretty strictly low carb.
Also you might read David Mendosa's site. He did use more medication and was one of the first users of Byetta. Certainly, for a time he was totally medication free, but I have an idea he's chosen to use a small amount of Metformin again.
As far as I can see, it's possible to manage on minimal medicine for a long time. However, an infection or other illness can knock everything off plan easily. I had a bug around Easter and it's taken until now to get back to where Iwant to be. I do quite a lot of exercise. about10 hours per week. Plus Iwalk to get around.
Hana