Type 2 latest results My husn

[ROSIE1988]

hi. New on here and am trying to find my way around.
I have set up this account so I can help my husband. He is type 2 and not on medication. His latest result came out at 100 but we are confused and have been told the system has changed. Why is this and by whom. Makes me suspicious. He lost 2 stone and his diabetes reversed but now it has gone high again. What is 100 in the old system? His doctor said to him you are going to have a heart attack! I challenged him about that and he backed down denying it! My Husband has great cholesterol results and his blood pressure is spot on. Liver test fine and kidneys fine etc etc. Doc keeps pushing metformin. And is dismissive otherwise. Please send advice if you can. All the best.

 

[Boo1979]

Assuming the 100 figure is his hba1c then
Under the old system it would be 11.3% or an average blood sugar of 15.4mmol

 

[Alison Campbell]

Hi welcome to the forum, I'm tagging @daisy1 for a new member post for you that you can share with your husband. In the meantime have a good read around the forum and ask any questions you may have.

I read today that the HBA1C numbers changed in 2011 but in the UK we have been using the old numbers for quite a while. Certainly my test results that I see online from my surgery give both measurements.

 

[ROSIE1988]

Thank you. Will do some more research. Is this number outrageous? Doc was very rude to us!?

 

[Boo1979]

Thank you. Will do some more research. Is this number outrageous? Doc was very rude to us!?

Its certainly v high and needs to come down for the sake of overall health, but that doesnt give the doc licence to be rude

 

[britishpub]

Is this number outrageous?

Well it's not low, but there have been many examples of posters on the forum who have had much higher results, and with the help and support they have received here, have managed to improve (lower) the number quite rapidly.

 

[Brunneria]

The NICE guidelines advise putting a patient on medication if their HbA1c rises above 53.
So if the figure you have been given is an HbA1c of 100, then it is perfectly understandable for your doctor to offer medication. In fact he would be remiss if he hadn't offered it.

There are posters here on the forum who have changed their way of eating and made changes such as increased activity levels, who have brought their blood glucose down without medication, but it takes education, hard work and dedication. Other people will need medication no matter how much effort they put in.

You do not say whether your husband's weight loss is the result of going on a weight loss regime, or from uncontrolled high blood glucose. If it is the former, then he is to be congratulated. If it is the latter, then your doc was right to be concerned, and I would suggest that you accept all the help and care the surgery can offer to bring your husband's blood glucose under control, which may include medication in either the long or short term.

 

[ROSIE1988]

Thank you everyone. He lost the weight by doing the 5.2 fasting. Was 18stone. He admits he has been naughty lately and eating a lot of carbs!! It’s his weakness. Doesn’t eat choc or drink etc. He has a very physical job landscaping but that’s not the same as cardio is it. Swimming would be good? He has kept the weight off but numbers have been rising regardless. Doctor was cross at him for doing the diet too ! Not the nicest doc in the world. May change. He wants to do it naturally so will keep reading and reading. He is frightened of metformin as he swears it killed his dad. His dad was never the same and ended up on 20 different tablets a day and zero quality of life. I am finding it very emotional. Is this normal? Thank you x

 

[Bluetit1802]

I agree with @Brunneria

If that indeed was his HbA1c, it is much too high and needs bringing down or he may head towards complications.
His job is excellent exercise.
It is his choice to accept or decline medication, but either way he needs to pay attention to his diet and seriously reduce his carbs. Metformin is a mild drug and only helps to a limited extent. Diet is the key ..... has he got his own blood glucose meter? If he has this should have warned him that things were sliding in the wrong direction. If he hasn't, then I highly recommend he gets one because without one he is working blind. By testing before and after meals a meter will guide him (and you) and will show at a glance what his meals are doing to his levels, giving him the opportunity to tweak things. We can help you with this.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Thank you everyone. He lost the weight by doing the 5.2 fasting. Was 18stone. He admits he has been naughty lately and eating a lot of carbs!! It’s his weakness. Doesn’t eat choc or drink etc. He has a very physical job landscaping but that’s not the same as cardio is it. Swimming would be good? He has kept the weight off but numbers have been rising regardless. Doctor was cross at him for doing the diet too ! Not the nicest doc in the world. May change. He wants to do it naturally so will keep reading and reading. He is frightened of metformin as he swears it killed his dad. His dad was never the same and ended up on 20 different tablets a day and zero quality of life. I am finding it very emotional. Is this normal? Thank you x

If he has come down from 18 stone to 16 stone then he still seems to be seriously overweight. How tall is he?

"He admits he has been naughty lately and eating a lot of carbs" - well his BG will go up then, won't it.

Metformin is one of the safer drugs and many people here have been on it for years. Some people have a bad reaction but mainly with digestion; which is why it is called Metfartin! It is quite a gentle drug which improves the management of glucose by the body. So it is unlikely that it was the Metformin that killed his Dad but nobody should be forced to take a drug that scares them.

People can manage without Metformin, but it is the first step on the recommended path before trying stronger drugs.

The big message is that he has poor control and is carrying far too much weight. If he wants to stay off drugs he needs to take this far more seriously and get a grip. Proper eating, no "being naughty".

 

[Brunneria]

Please understand that none of what I say below is intended to upset or frighten either of you.

Metformin is usually used as the first drug, with others added later. The reason that additional drugs up to and including insulin are given to type 2 diabetics is because the condition is usually progressive. Over time, the type 2 worsens and more drugs are needed.

This means that if your husband's father started out on Metformin and got worse and worse, with more and more drugs being added, then that was the typical progression of type 2 diabetes. Metformin is a mild drug, used as the first one. It won't have been the Metformin that caused the deterioration in your husband's father (unless he had severe contraindications from the drug). It will have been the progression of the type 2.

The best thing we can do is to halt that progression as quickly as we can, and stop it from developing further.

Nowadays, we have a lot more hope and more tools in our toolbox to combat type 2. Not all doctors have caught up, but MANY of us on the forum find that we can change our experience of type 2 using primarily diet and exercise, with medication if necessary. Some people are even able to reduce their medication.

Clearly this is a very different experience from the one your husband's father had.

However, it does take quite a lot of effort and a major re-thinking of lifestyle and way of eating.

As Bluetit mentioned above, getting a blood glucose meter and using regularly to find out what foods are sending the blood glucose up, and then avoiding or reducing those foods, will result in lowered blood glucose. Whether your husband will need medication as well is something that he and his doctor will need to discuss.

However, it is very important that your husband gets control of his blood glucose. It is prolonged high blood glucose that causes damage to nerves, blood vessels, eyes and kidneys. These are the things that will start to fail if your husband doesn't get his blood glucose down, leading to diabetic complications which can be very, very serious. Please do not dismiss any of the tools available to you, whether that is changing his way of eating, dieting, medication or increased activity.

Edited to add: I would strongly advise your husband to create his own account on the forum and do his own reading and research into how to combat his own type 2. It is great that you are involved and want to help, but unless he is willing to grasp this by the horns and commit to taking control of his own health, then your efforts won't get you very far. Think of it as a journey you can take together, but he needs to be fully on board, committed and ready to take the helm himself.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

@ROSIE1988 I was coming back to try and say something similar but @Brunneria has put it far better than I can.

If you could tell us a bit more about his Dad, if he was fit or not, overweight or not, and some of the pills that he was on then it would help us to understand and perhaps allay some of your husband's fears.

At the moment his history seems, sadly, to be one of poorly managed diabetes leading to ever more complications. However we are only guessing without a bit more information.

One saying is "correlation does not imply causation" which in you Father-In-Law's case means that just because the first pill he took was Metformin it doesn't mean that it was the cause of all the other problems. It is very understandable to draw that conclusion, however.

How does your husband feel about other pills? Is he anti all pills? Because he could always skip the Metformin and go straight to something a bit more powerful if that would make him more comfortable. With the Doctor's agreement, of course.

 

[ROSIE1988]

That’s a lot to take in and thank you for the input. I am very grateful. My husband is 6’1 and a strong man and doesn’t look fat at all. He has a tummy albeit it small and lost a lot of weight. He is always on the go too.

If we were to get a meter. What number should he be aiming for after meals? So if he eats toast and it rises we would know by how much and act accordingly. Yes? Sorry if I sound thick. It’s just a lot to get your head round isn’t it.

My father in law. Was a short fat man who literally sat down all his life prison officer for twenty years then coach driver. A lot of sitting down and had a terrible diet all his life. His attitude was awful too and extremely negative and closed minded. So nothing like my hubby at all. Mother in law was very controlling and would go mad if he had even one biscuit so he would eat ten behind her back. That sort of thing! So not the same thing and not good at all.

After reading this forum I really think we can learn a lot and work on it together. And I feel hopeful now as opposed to it’s all over from the doctors attitude. I think I read on this website that with proper control life should be good.

As a side note a friend of the family who is twenty two has just been diagnosed with type 2 and he is very slim and super fit! He is on two metformin already. So it just goes to show it can affect all sorts.

 

[Bluetit1802]

If we were to get a meter. What number should he be aiming for after meals? So if he eats toast and it rises we would know by how much and act accordingly. Yes? Sorry if I sound thick. It’s just a lot to get your head round isn’t it.

Yes, that is the idea. You test immediately before you eat, then again 2 hours after first bite. It is the actual rise from before to after that is important. Initially it needs to be under 2mmol/l. More than that and there is too much carbohydrate in the food, so you can either reduce the portion size (such as 1 slice instead of 2) or eliminate it. Later, you can try to keep it even less than 2mmol/l. I now try to keep it around 1mmol/l but don't always succeed. Keeping a food diary including portion sizes is a good plan, so you can see what is raising levels all the time, and look for patterns.

 

[gardengnome42]

Assuming the 100 figure is his hba1c then
Under the old system it would be 11.3% or an average blood sugar of 15.4mmol

Thank you. Will do some more research. Is this number outrageous? Doc was very rude to us!?

Your doc sounds typical of so many docs who don't believe patients can change their lifestyle/way of eating and have to be pumped up with pills. But as everyone here says - diet is key - and specifically low carbing. Best of luck, you'll have so much help from people here.

 

[ROSIE1988]

Thank you so much! I was frightened before but feel more able to get a grip of it all now and can help hubby sort it out So glad to find this forum. Thank you x

 

[Guzzler]

Thank you so much! I was frightened before but feel more able to get a grip of it all now and can help hubby sort it out So glad to find this forum. Thank you x

My number of 98 on diagnosis is similar to your husband's. I changed my dietary habits and got that number down to 43 within four months. I am a wheelchair user so cannot excercise but your husband's job is very physical so he could bring down his numbers a lot faster. It takes a little thought and planning but it can be done and, frankly, needs to be done to avoid complications later.
I was prescribed Metformin and I am happy to take it. Well done on finding this forum and taking the time to learn how to support your hubby.

 

[rom35]

Yes, that is the idea. You test immediately before you eat, then again 2 hours after first bite. It is the actual rise from before to after that is important. Initially it needs to be under 2mmol/l.

My opinion is, that in the beginning of trying to control T2D is also very important to measure 1h after meal to catch the spike. So 3x for one meal: Before the meal, one hour and 2h after meal.

 

[daisy1]

@ROSIE1988

Hello Rosie and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope this will help you to help your husband. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 well over 235,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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 blood glucose 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.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

 

[ROSIE1988]

Shall I keep this thread or start a new one if I want to ask about food advice? I’m guessing cereal is not a good breakfast? What about grapes? Etc. Thanks.