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Tricking the system? Gestational diabetes?

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Doireallyneedanams

Well-Known Member
Messages
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So long story short, in the UK unless you’re high risk for diabetes you don’t get tested. I wasn’t high risk but I am now as a sibling of mine has just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes


The docs have said it’s too late for the glucose test so they want me to monitor my bloods daily and report back in 1 week. I have to do it before eating first thing, then after each meal - I started today and so far all looks good! The maximum it can be one hour after meals is 7.8 and the highest I’ve had is 7.5 which dropped to 5.4 after 2 hours.


BUT... As soon as I found out about my sibling, I freaked and changed my diet to that of a diabetic (as close as possible) just in case, and I’m still doing that so I’m worried that I’m “tricking” my bloods into thinking I am OK when maybe I have it?


Should I be eating high sugar and carbs and then testing to see how it works? My diet was becoming very unhealthy before this so I don’t necessarily want to go back to that but I don’t want to be on a diabetes type diet either and I’m worried if I was to just eat normally like I was before pizza, white pasta, ice cream etc then maybe my results wouldn’t be within the normal range? Can you normally control GD 100% to within the normal range without meds... or am I worrying about nothing?


Help!
 

If you are diagnosed type 2, you would generally go low carb to go into remission. So I don't see any problem in eating to this diet and monitoring levels to ensure they never reach that level before it happens. If you are diagnosed type 2 you would probably end up doing the same thing and with your precautionary measures it may just prolong any potential diagnosis.
 
I have no idea why they won't give you a HbA1c... It's less hassle and gives rather clear answers, as it covers blood glucose of the last 3 months. One blood draw, maybe to two confirm a few weeks later, done. What you can do it eat as you normally would have (Not pizza though, that's notorious for peaking late, waaaay past the time you would check), and check what your numbers do then. Because yes, if you're eating relatively low carb (I don't know exactly what you mean by a diabetic's diet, as that tends to vary depending who you talk to), your numbers could be normal while you're actually prediabetic or diabetic. You do need to know... I don't want to eat the diet I'm on for the rest of my life either. I am going to though, because it'll keep my quality of life and the duration of it in my preferred range. And really, bacon and eggs for brekkie isn't that bad you know.

Still really weird that you're not getting a HbA1c test done.... The medical world works in mysterious ways, that's for sure.
 


Sorry, I probably should have mentioned... I’m 37 weeks pregnant tomorrow! I guess it’s something to do with that as it’s normally done around 28 weeks.

Ah, by diabetic diet I meant low carb and sugar... ISH! To be honest since I started eating this way I’ve been banging on about how much better I feel and how my skin is so much clearer, why wouldn’t everyone eat this way.. but the reality of a possible lifetime doing so is something I have yet to digest. Only a good thing if I have to, but I won’t lie and say that I’d like diabetes to be the reason that I do.
 
I would eat a normal meal and see how you react to be sure. Notes above are perfectly legitimate for a normal case, but gestational is different.

With gestational you get extra checks to make sure the baby is growing correctly and not over sized. \If you carry on eating healthily till the end then it shouldn't make much difference as your results are in line with the testing.

However if you slip and eat a load of **** after your testing period then you wont know any different. I would eat some normal meals, have a cake and come chips - perhaps both together? Your pregnant its pretty much your prerogative.

Better be sure, in all likely hood its fine so you can relax through the last part of your pregnancy. If you dont you will have it in the back of your mind.

***not withstanding having proven one way or another you can choose to keep the healthy diet - but for general health reasons rather then a fear of something that may not be present
 
Hi again,

I completely missed the gestational part of your header! I always check the "recent posts" bit and that way I sometimes end up in places where I shouldn't be. But that does explain the whole using-a-meter-to-diagnose thing. And please ignore the "test with carby foods" idea, because I have no idea what that'd mean when there's a life inside you, should things be diabetes-ey after all.

I'll bow out now, if you don't mind, and leave this to the experts.
Jo
 

You didn’t see the gestational part because... it wasn’t there!! I added it afterwards when I realised I had failed to mention that part and was unable to edit my actual post! Sorry!

Thanks for the advice all. Going to stuff my face this evening and see what happens.
 
Just interested how your getting on Did you enjoy your cake and chip butty hehe Levels ok?
 
sno0opy said:
Just interested how your getting on Did you enjoy your cake and chip butty hehe Levels ok?
Click to expand...

Well! As I’d been eating relatively low carb I think I shocked my system. I had a deep fried chicken burger, sweet potato fries, mac and cheese bites and ice cream... which ended up putting me at 8.3 for 2 hours! I was seriously concerned but I haven’t seen any numbers even close since, so I am hoping it was a one off as my body had not had that in some time.

Today lunch was 73g carbs in the form of pasta and sauce as another kind of “test” , I started at 4 and I was at 6.6 after 1 hour and 5.8 2 hrs & 20 mins later. I am hoping that’s normal?

In all honest I’m absolutely terrified and this is ruining the last few days of my pregnancy!

My fasting level when I wake is always below 4.5, from what I’ve read this is a good sign.
 
That all seems pretty normal to be honest. If you can eat something that carb loaded and have low levels you will be fine I'm sure.

Keep recording till your next appointment and they will give you a verdict but it looks pretty good

Chill out, put your feet up and get on the Ben n Jerry's
 
I just don’t understand it. I must be diabetic, because if I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, there is no way I’d stay under 7.8! Does anyone!? If I ate all day long, my body wouldn’t be able to keep up. I find it hard to see how anybody’s would.

Thanks! My worry though is that I only got to 6.6 as I started off low at 4, I normally hover higher than that around 5.5, so had I consumed the same meal I’d be over the 7.8 straight away. I don’t know if I’m overthinking things, I probably am.
 
Those mobile sensors are only accurate to 10% at best any way so the number could have been lower.

My wife is not diabetic and I test her sometimes for context and she can run up that high if she ate a load of ice creme and stuff. The trick is that it came down on its own quickly.

Just keep doing the tests prescribed and try to relax into it, your numbers look good. If most of the people here had a big bowl of pasta we would be in double figures for several hours.
 

I suppose! My good friend has type 1 and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been on a trip to hospital with her or had to remind her to check her bloods, she really does not care anymore as she has been dealing with it since age 9 - yet here I am going on about this, it does make me feel bad.
 
hi
i work with pregnant women with Diabetes , pregnancy hormones change your carbohydrate metabolism , persistently high sugars can have an effect on the growth and water around the baby , and if you think about the purpose of an Hbaic you have been pregnant for the last 3 months and at this late stage its irrelevant to your pregnancy care and will be offered to you
by your GPat 6 weeks post birth , when those pesky hormones have gone. just monitor as you have been eat healthily with good carbs high fibre unprocessed small portions ,and eat normally after birth until the blood test at 6 weeks
 
F

From everything I have learned since having gestational diabetes, there is something we are never told for our general health and that is that you will have insulin resistance for 10 or more years prior to becoming prediabetic, and insulin resistance already causes problems in the body with more insulin floating around all the time.

Also, when women are pregnant, their blood sugar is naturally a little lower and their cells naturally become a little more insulin resistant so the growing baby will end up with more nutrition. And normal healthy blood sugar should sit between 4 and 6 mmol all the time. So once you are seeing 7s and 8s, I think you are showing signs of insulin resistance.

As far as your pregnancy now goes, since you are close to due and are only registering 7 or 8 mmol at the one hour spike (which they don't even look at by the way (although they probably should), they won't blink an eye at that because there are plenty of insulin resistant folk who are classed as "normal and healthy" who spike to 8s and 9s even, and they are not even warned that they are a step in the wrong direction towards diabetes.

As the pregnancy goes on, you will naturally become more insulin resistant so if you continue to eat very high carb sugary stuff, you won't be doing your bub a favour in any way, but unless you are registering 8mmol and upwards at the 2 hour mark or over 5.1 (or 5.5 mmol) fasting, I doubt they will do anything differently. Except if you eat very high carb and manage to grow your baby to be over 4kg, which is what can happen when you are gestationally diabetic. Then giving birth might be a little more uncomfortable for you

But in your case, as you have a sibling with diabetes, and you probably grew up eating the same foods, you would be wise to educate yourself about insulin resistance and how to eat in a way that will allow you to enjoy some carbohydrates for the rest of your life, rather than eating too many carbs at every meal and in between over the short term and then being faced with having to either go extremely low carb for the rest of your life or progress to diabetes and all the complications. (If I sound harsh, I don't mean to - it's just the pep talk I give myself to keep me on the straight and narrow

Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy! Enjoy bubs - they really do grow up so fast, don't they?

P.S. This video might help you understand insulin resistance and how it progresses to diabetes.

The test which can give you the clearest picture (but is not one routinely used) is a glucose tolerance test with an insulin test performed at the same time - fasting (or before), then 1 hour and 2 hours (and sometimes 3 hours) testing for both blood glucose levels and insulin levels to see the relationship. If you can do one of those at some point in the next few years, it might help you see if you are getting close to prediabetes or not.

 
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