Type 2 And New

Hiya and welcome -- you're in the right place here. I'll ask @daisy1 to give you her great guide to managing your diabetes. Sorry you're feeling bad but I'm sure you'll soon see what you need to do. Lots of help from experienced friendly people here.
Hopefully you'll get your BS levels down quite quickly so you don't need meds.
Let us know what your GP and/or diabetes nurse suggest.

@Olaf-Jensen

Hello Olaf and welcome to the forum Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Hi and welcome. Follow Daisy's advice to reduce the carbs and hopefully lose weight and blood sugar. Do you have excess weight currently?

Olaf-Jensen said:

Hi all,
I,m 55 and just found out I have Type 2. Not taking any meds and need advice on carbs and so forth. Feeling very poorly at the mo. Blood sugar between 17 and 21

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Hi Olaf, are you Norwegian?

I follow the advice on http://www.dietdoctor.com/ and manage to keep my BG normal.

Hello and welcome,

As Daisy said, the role of carbohydrates needs to be understood in order to control this disease. They all convert to glucose once in the system, so the fewer we eat the better it is for us. Cutting them right back will also help you lose weight, and losing weight will also help your diabetes! So it's a win-win situation. Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals are the worst offenders, plus we also need to be careful with milk and fruit.

Have a good read round and ask as many questions as you like.

The good news is fish meat, eggs, cream, olive and other oils are still on the menu.
The target is to try and your get carbohydrate intake as low as you can that means avoiding root vegetables and anything made from any type of grain.

Initially at least, using a meter to test after meals to see the effect then try re-introducing small quantities. You may find you can tolerate varying quantities of some things without your blood glucose going through the roof.

Olaf-Jensen said:

Yes I am. about 20K overweight

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Hi. Thanks for the update. I just wanted to check the possibility of T1. Yes, definitely T2! Have you discussed taking Metformin with the doctor? Many of us take this and it does help reduce insulin resistance. Diet is of course, the highest priority.

Hi Olaf, welcome.

Apart from the above, have a read of some of my links below. You need to get those blood sugars down quickly, they are very high - cutting out as many carbs as you can is the most effective way if you're not on medication.

Daibell said:

Have you discussed taking Metformin with the doctor? Many of us take this and it does help reduce insulin resistance. Diet is of course, the highest priority.

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See post #3, Olaf was on metformin but was taken off it.

All breads have carbs, all pasta, all Rice, breakfast cereal are extremely high in carbohydrate.
The only real difference between complex carbohydrates (starch) and simple carbohydrates (sugar) is the time it takes to show up as glucose in your blood.

As an example I allow myself a treat of my favourite breakfast Eggs Toscanna (Eggs in the Tuscan style) once sometimes twice per week. Eggs Toscana normally contains a large portion of Focaccia laden with olive oil, tomatoes and basil it tastes like heaven on earth However the cafe where I eat know dietary needs well enough to reduce the size of Focaccia to a sensible size

This morning at 06:30 my blood glucose was 5.5mml/mol, at 08:00 after eating a small amount of cheese and a tiny amount of milk it was 6.7. A 09:30 immediately before my eggs toscanna it had fallen to 5.2 At 10 minutes after Eggs Toscanna it was up at 6.8 and 90 minutes after rose to 8.6 but after 2 hours it had fallen back to a more reasonable 6.8 it will continue to fall but more slowly through the rest of the day.

Eggs Toscanna is just above the limits I set myself for maximum blood glucose levels but a treat once sometimes twice a week is needed to keep me sane.