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Very confused about numbers!

M

Misky

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all, I posted a thread the other day about diet but I thought the best thing to do would be to get a glucose monitor and see what was actually going on with what I was eating.

So my OGTT came back as FBG - 4.7 mmol/L and after 2 hours - 9.8 mmol/L so I was diagnosed with prediabetes.

These have been my numbers since monitoring my blood glucose:

2 hours post lunch which included a small handful of wholewheat pasta - 5.0

Just before dinner - 3.8

2 hours post dinner which included about half a sweet potato - 5.3

Morning fasting - 4.9

2 hours after a bowl of porridge with honey, dried fruit and some juice - 4.9

2 hours after a piece of toast with low fat cheese and ham - 4.3

I know hardly anything about pre diabetes but after everything i've looked at online, isn't this normal? A little low if anything? I'm not really sure what to do to try and investigate further. I'm not going to feel so bad about upping my carb intake slightly now thats for sure!

Could it be possible that because of other health conditions, my body just really struggled with the amount of glucose given in the OGTT and is actually fine with the amount of sugar I take in on a daily basis?

Like I said, i'm so new to all of this so sorry if any of that sounds stupid!

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
If I'm honest, I've seen non-diabetics drink lucozade and jump to higher than your OGTT, but the key point was that they came back within 2 hours. That's probably why they registered you as pre-diabetic.

Worth having a chat with your hcp about it though, especially if you haven't changed the way you eat to achieve those numbers.
 
I wonder why you had the OGTT, did somebody think you might be diabetic. They are rather a palaver, so I would be surprised if one was done lightly.
However, if I wanted to put someone to the test, your breakfast of porridge, honey, dried fruit and juice would be one way I might consider doing it. And you passed with flying colours - back to starting point in under 2 hours1
As you have a meter, in your shoes I would do occasional tests before and after carb rich meals, just to make sure nothing is going wrong. I would also, as a general health thing, keep my carbs moderate anyway.
Sally
 
Your prediabetic condition is based on the test.
Your testing is showing normal.
I would reduce your carbs and sugars. Enough to be in control.
How long was your glucose test?
Can you remember your readings from every half hour?
You have been given an early warning, use it to your health benefit.

I think that the higher carbs and sugars spike you quickly and though you return to normal after about 2 hours, your spikes are a concern.
 
Hi & welcome, @Misky, as said to do an OGTT is a lot of effort, and they obviously had a reason before to do one, then conducted the test and have classified you as Pre Diabetic.

You have the warning signs of diabetes, not Diabetes, I am with @nosher8355 on this, and it's probably the spikes between the 2 hours that will be their concern when on high concentrations of sugar. Your insulin response is probably enough to bring you down when eating normally to normal within 2 hours. Those number look great.

Maybe you need to check on the 1/2 hour to see what's happening, as has been said, you have been given a warning take this opportunity to make sure you do not progress further. How's your weight BMI may I ask.
Neil
 
Thank you for the replies guys, will try and give you some helpful info!

I had the 2 hour OGTT and I had it done because I was having my growth hormone response tested as well but I know my Dr thought I was possibly showing symptoms of glucose intolerance. The numbers were:

30 mins - 10.4
60 mins - 9.0
90 mins - 8.7
120 mins - 9.8

My consultant had told me to completely cut carbs out of my diet but that made me feel terrible, so what i'm eating at the moment is a lot less carbs than I usually would but i've added some back in to make me feel back to normal. However, before the diagnosis, I never ate any white bread, white rice or white pasta, always been wholegrain and i'm not one for a large refined sugar intake either. The occasional treat maybe once a week.

My BMI is 20.1. I'm a 26 year old female, 5"5 and I weigh around 8st 9lbs.

I'm wondering now if it would just be ok for me to go back to eating basically normally but keeping an eye on things if I have the occasional treat/carb heavy meal. I had my usual (before diagnosis) size serving of wholewheat pasta for lunch today and after 2 hours I was at 5.5, so nothing terrible at all!

Would it be worth me checking as soon as an hour after i've eaten to see if it's spiking there?
 
Have you had an HbA1c blood test done? This is the one which gives you an "average" blood sugar for the past three months. Blood is drawn from your arm and sent away for testing. This is how diabetes / pre-diabetes is normally diagnosed these days, so I understand. If might help give a broader picture. You could ask to have this done every three months, to see how you are getting on.

You ask, "would just be OK …….?". We can't tell you if it would be OK, and probably nobody else can either. I think you have to test from time to time and see what the results are. Keep a detailed record and learn from your results. That is the only way you, or anyone else will really know what is OK for you.

Concerning your OGTT, I does look odd that your reading went up, after 90 minutes. I presume you ate nothing and stayed sat in one place. I wonder if anyone else can comment on that?
Sally
 
Misky said:
Thank you for the replies guys, will try and give you some helpful info!

I had the 2 hour OGTT and I had it done because I was having my growth hormone response tested as well but I know my Dr thought I was possibly showing symptoms of glucose intolerance. The numbers were:

30 mins - 10.4
60 mins - 9.0
90 mins - 8.7
120 mins - 9.8

My consultant had told me to completely cut carbs out of my diet but that made me feel terrible, so what i'm eating at the moment is a lot less carbs than I usually would but i've added some back in to make me feel back to normal. However, before the diagnosis, I never ate any white bread, white rice or white pasta, always been wholegrain and i'm not one for a large refined sugar intake either. The occasional treat maybe once a week.

My BMI is 20.1. I'm a 26 year old female, 5"5 and I weigh around 8st 9lbs.

I'm wondering now if it would just be ok for me to go back to eating basically normally but keeping an eye on things if I have the occasional treat/carb heavy meal. I had my usual (before diagnosis) size serving of wholewheat pasta for lunch today and after 2 hours I was at 5.5, so nothing terrible at all!

Would it be worth me checking as soon as an hour after i've eaten to see if it's spiking there?
Click to expand...
That helps me understand it more. You have quick spikes and you have an intolerance to high carbs and sugars. If you eat something and are more than 2mmols higher at the two hour stage, that is not recommended and out of control. Long term could do more damage!
You have the warning, the doctor is right to say to not eat a lot of carbs even wholemeal is full of carbs.
Reduce the carbs and sugars in your diet. Eat to your meter.
Do keep an eye on things as you say. A treat every now and then is fine. Just reduce the amount of carbs, add more good veg, or meat and take off a couple of spuds, then test, to see what happens.
Keep a food diary, to show your doc how you are doing.
Have a read around the forum, keep asking questions, try and u.understand o lynch you can stop you from developing diabetes.
 
sally and james said:
Have you had an HbA1c blood test done? This is the one which gives you an "average" blood sugar for the past three months. Blood is drawn from your arm and sent away for testing. This is how diabetes / pre-diabetes is normally diagnosed these days, so I understand. If might help give a broader picture. You could ask to have this done every three months, to see how you are getting on.

You ask, "would just be OK …….?". We can't tell you if it would be OK, and probably nobody else can either. I think you have to test from time to time and see what the results are. Keep a detailed record and learn from your results. That is the only way you, or anyone else will really know what is OK for you.

Concerning your OGTT, I does look odd that your reading went up, after 90 minutes. I presume you ate nothing and stayed sat in one place. I wonder if anyone else can comment on that?
Sally
Click to expand...

I spike quickly like that, when having high concentration carbs or glucose. Then I continually produce too much Insulin, but I'm weird! Without my meds, I would be constantly eating and having hypos after a few hours.

Yes, I've had readings like that a couple of times during my glucose tests!
 
sally and james said:
Have you had an HbA1c blood test done? This is the one which gives you an "average" blood sugar for the past three months. Blood is drawn from your arm and sent away for testing. This is how diabetes / pre-diabetes is normally diagnosed these days, so I understand. If might help give a broader picture. You could ask to have this done every three months, to see how you are getting on.

You ask, "would just be OK …….?". We can't tell you if it would be OK, and probably nobody else can either. I think you have to test from time to time and see what the results are. Keep a detailed record and learn from your results. That is the only way you, or anyone else will really know what is OK for you.

Concerning your OGTT, I does look odd that your reading went up, after 90 minutes. I presume you ate nothing and stayed sat in one place. I wonder if anyone else can comment on that?
Sally
Click to expand...

I haven't had the HbA1c, no one's even mentioned it to me before so i'll keep that in mind!

Yep ate nothing and stayed laying down.

nosher8355 said:
That helps me understand it more. You have quick spikes and you have an intolerance to high carbs and sugars. If you eat something and are more than 2mmols higher at the two hour stage, that is not recommended and out of control. Long term could do more damage!
You have the warning, the doctor is right to say to not eat a lot of carbs even wholemeal is full of carbs.
Reduce the carbs and sugars in your diet. Eat to your meter.
Do keep an eye on things as you say. A treat every now and then is fine. Just reduce the amount of carbs, add more good veg, or meat and take off a couple of spuds, then test, to see what happens.
Keep a food diary, to show your doc how you are doing.
Have a read around the forum, keep asking questions, try and u.understand o lynch you can stop you from developing diabetes.
Click to expand...

Ahhh ok. That makes sense. So I don't want to be jumping from say 4 before meals to 6, 2 hours after meals? Just try and keep everything steady? I'm definitely cutting down on the amount of carbs I eat. With dinner it would usually be that the carbs were the most prominent thing on my plate, now they're the smallest serving. So is it sufficient for me to just be testing before meals and 2 hours after if i'm spiking like that? Or would it benefit to test half an hour/an hour after eating for a few meals? My finger tips are getting a little sore already and it's only been 2 days! :P

nosher8355 said:
I spike quickly like that, when having high concentration carbs or glucose. Then I continually produce too much Insulin, but I'm weird! Without my meds, I would be constantly eating and having hypos after a few hours.

Yes, I've had readings like that a couple of times during my glucose tests!
Click to expand...

I feel like I'm constantly having to nibble on something. Yesterday when I wanted to nibble, I resisted the urge and ended up with that reading of 3.8!
 
Your hba1c will probably be on your doctor's list.
It is about control, your fasting blood glucose levels are around 6mmols. You test after two hours to give you a baseline when you record your results, this the easiest way to see what you body spikes to.
You can do the one hour to see how high your spikes go, but it can vary a lot with the same food, that's through my own experience.
You will get used to the finger testing, I don't notice it now. You can use other soft parts to get your results, look it up.
3.8 is not considered low. That's in the normal range.
Snacking is from the reduction in carbs and this will pass after a while.
Hope this helps.
 
nosher8355 said:
You will get used to the finger testing, I don't notice it now. You can use other soft parts to get your results, look it up.
Click to expand...
I understand that using the side of the finger tip is much less uncomfortable than the pad. Also, meters are calibrated for this part of the body, so to use, say your arm, could give a wrong reading.
Sally
 
Research indicates that it's large changes in blood sugar that are problematic. So it would probably make sense to test after one hour.
If you have large spikes after one hour, that then goes down at two hours, this means that your beta cells are working really hard secreting a lot of insulin.
Over time this wears them down, they start dying, and then you have diabetes.
Your one hour blood sugar should not be above 7,8 according to this website: http://www.phlaunt.com.
It's based on scientific literature and quite trustworthy.
 
Rillum said:
Research indicates that it's large changes in blood sugar that are problematic. So it would probably make sense to test after one hour.
If you have large spikes after one hour, that then goes down at two hours, this means that your beta cells are working really hard secreting a lot of insulin.
Over time this wears them down, they start dying, and then you have diabetes.
Your one hour blood sugar should not be above 7,8 according to this website: http://www.phlaunt.com.
It's based on scientific literature and quite trustworthy.
Click to expand...
Ah I see. I ate a piece of toast with ham and cheese the other day and tested. I know it's not a full on meal but my BG was 5.5 before I ate it (was about 2 hours after lunch), 6.1 half an hour after and back down to 5.4 an hour later.
 
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