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Was it the drugs or the diet or a combination of the two that resulted in my diagnosis of T2?

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
As you all know I am new to T2 and still in the research stage of trying to get my head around my diagnosis.
Tonight I have been looking at the drugs I was/am on before diagnosis to see if they have any bearing on bg.
Here is what I have found so far. Amitriptyline can raise bg. Gabapentin can raise bg.Naproxen can raise bg.
The results of my reading on Lansoprazole were confusing. Anecdotal evidence says yes but no indication of rises in side effects listed, however, the manufacturers own list of side effects lists altered results in liver function tests, inflamation of the liver and inflamation of the pancreas. These side effects must surely have some bearing on bg?

For a couple of years before I was diagnosed my diet was poor due to lack of appetite which was due to two other conditions that I have i.e lots of sanwiches made with white bread and lots of cereals esp granola which my family would push on me.

So which is it? The drugs, the diet or just my bad luck that it is a combination of the two? Sorry for the long post but right now I am more confused than ever and ready to raid the biscuit tin.
 
Can also be genetics.
 
Diabetes is strongly linked to genetics in most cases, even T2. The only things drugs and diet will do is potentially increase your risk for triggering the condition if you're already at risk, but it could have been anything including a virus.

The idea that we cause diabetes ourselves in some way is a harmful one that is based only partially in truth and doesn't really help you one bit. For most of us '**** just happens' and beating ourselves up for bad choices that we aren't even sure of caused this condition does us no good. Even if drugs and/or diet was the trigger for you, you could have lived on a super healthy diet without drugs and still ended up with diabetes. It happens to enough people, T2 included.

The important thing to take away from this is that right now, you have many opportunities. Diabetes is a good educator on how the body works, it helps you figure out what your limits are, it motivates you to push your limits and be the best version of yourself you can be. You have the power to make choices from here on out that will better you. Take them with both hands. Read up on all the long-term diets available to you that can help you manage diabetes. Read up on how this disease might progress so that if it progresses, you will not be caught off guard and can act in time.

Knowledge is power, and this goes doubly for diabetes.
 
Hotpepper20000 said:
Can also be genetics.
Click to expand...
@Hotpepper20000
Aye, genetics though no one else that I am aware of in my family has type 1 or 2.
There is the other treatment that I have had for sacral sciatica, cordal steroid injections though I have only had two rounds of injections, so far. And the added complication of being a wheelchair user so a sedentary lifestyle must play a part. Oh poo! This may take some time to unravel.
 
@DaftThoughts
Thank you. I don't think I'm blaming myself as such though there are days when I feel I should have known that I was putting my health at risk. But then I think Hell No. I'm just looking for answers whe, as you say, it could just be the luck of the draw.
 
I personally believe that we can have a genetic predisposition to it but environment, diet and other health conditions can flick the switch.
Both type 2 and PCOS are in my family so as I see it, it was really not a matter of if but when. All I can do now is manage the best I can. And be thankful I found this forum.
 
I have to be perfectly honest, I wanted to blame the drugs. And I suppose that when I had my second HbA1c I was slightly disappointed that my numbers hadn't reduced further and then whilst reading up on the drugs I was trying to blame them on my paltry attempts to lower the carbs in my diet. I know we are all different and it is not a competition but the comment I read at the time stating 'It's still very high' was not conducive to keeping with the programme which I was struggling with at the time. I thought I had done well.
 
Genetics lots in my family have type 2 although my brother and I are the only ones on insulin.
 
My understanding is there are many things which make you more likely to get diabetes like diet and genetics. However, the actual cause is not known. Your identical twin could eat the same as you and take the same drugs but may not get diabetes.
 
I think the thing to focus on here, is not what or why .. but how to control your blood sugars ! Then when you are in control its time to establish what if anything caused your T2.
I used to say I have no family history of diabetes, but all my family members died very early from heart problems .. now some of us are living longer due to advances in heart attack treatments, we have shown to be T2 as well ! I had put my T2 down to some of the heart drugs I had taken, but other family members had not taken the same as me, still became T2.
There is no point in wasting energy in the why or whats caused this for you .. use this time to focus on taking control .. I don't have biscuits in the house because I will eat them, so your not alone, as far as the biscuit tin goes !
 
@Guzzler I too researched why I have insulin resistance so strong and type2 compared to my siblings.
It was intially so I could 'cure' myself.
From the forum I've discovered that insulin resistance is my enemy not type2. Type2 is the side affect of insulin resistance.
Now my family are wriggled with arthritis. I have none. I have bulging discs and scatica. No obvious arthritis.
My grandmother on mam's side and my dad's family have arthritis. No diabetes.

On reading about Alzheimers yesterday that it's due to insulin resistance and is type3. Not diabetes thou.

My family have insulin resistance genetically.
I've got diabetes, they have arthritis. Maybe type4?
 
I was diagnosed a bit before you Guzzler and similarly there is absolutely no history of diabetes in my family. I have read and researched trying to find, why me? Yes I had carpal tunnel, yes I've had gallstones resulting in removal of my gallbladder, and yes I take amitriptyline and esomeprazole, and yes I have taken Naproxen in the past, but the links between all these things and diabetes is somewhat tenuous. Therefore I have stopped wondering any more and have taken on @DaftThoughts attitude, that is "**** happens"! I just need to look forwards now not back


EDIT .... and yes I take inhaled steroids for my asthma too!
 
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I have been told that my diabetes is down to long term steroid use. But the way I see it is that it really matters not how we got here, but where we go from here we are diabetic and that's it how we deal with it that's what matters.

Move on.
 
I could only move on once I had the cause known too, or at least a good idea why i was different to my sisters and parents. I even questioned if i was the postman's (to myself).
As many feel the same way.
Many will never know so @JohnEGreen and others are right in advising you to accept your diagnosis is very important, going forward.
I'm sure it will all be revealed in the future. For sure.
 
Oddly enough - My husband retired just two years before my diagnosis, and he wanted sandwiches made for lunch every day. For ease of catering, I started to have the same thing. Using wholemeal bread fitted in with the cholesterol lowering diet I was to follow, after all. Using so much bread though, I did run out of the wholemeal fairly frequently, and rather go shopping just for myself, I ate white - after all - what harm could it do?
Having seen how fast I have recovered, I think that is a rhetorical question - though the few tests I have done show that anything with high starch not only spikes but maintains high glucose for hours when I eat even a small amount.
 
Guzzler said:
There is the other treatment that I have had for sacral sciatica, cordal steroid injections though I have only had two rounds of injections, so far.
Click to expand...

They won't have helped. Steroids can play havoc with BS levels. This is fact. However, it is thought that once they are outside your system, levels should improve. At the time of your injections your levels may have raised. If you have another injection, be aware your levels may well go up again, temporarily until the stuff is gone from your body. You may be one of the lucky ones that this doesn't happen to.

We shouldn't look to the past and wonder why. That doesn't mean to say we don't look for reasons. It's human nature and we all do it. At the end of the day, though, the cause doesn't really matter. It happened and we have to deal with it.

Just a note about genetics. I assumed no-one in my family had diabetes until I ordered a death certificate for my great, great grandfather. I was shocked to see his cause of death was Diabetes. He was 72, died in hospital, and this was in 1897. I subsequently found a distant cousin from the same ancestral line as him who also had Diabetes recorded as her cause of death. She was very elderly. This was in the 1930's.

Then we have to remember that Type 2 wasn't screened for until more recent times. Those with no symptoms, or whose symptoms were thought to be something else, may have died from other causes and diabetes never checked for. It isn't easy to say "no-one in my family has diabetes" as in many cases, we just don't know.
 
Thank you all for holding onto me while I had this wobble. Will switch to researching the best and safest lifestyle to follow and learning more about the condition itself. Next item on list those strange readings called HDL, LDL and Triglycerides and the ratio numbers. I have tried once but it made my teeth itch.
 
My first test after diagnosis showed that total cholesterol was down and the various acronyms were in good or ideal ratios to each other - as well as lowering my Hba1c to 47 in just 80 days eating low carb foods
I can certainly recommend Atkins, as in New Diet Revolution - that was the last Dr Atkins book, the later ones are all Atkins Corporation and pretty much useless.
 
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