What are the outcomes if I resist the medication?

[Aristocat]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum so please bear with me if I rant a bit!

I have been diagnosed with borderline diabetes since 2013 and have resisted the drugs so far. My GP has told me that my pancreas is probably dried up and not functioning anymore! Can you believe it? I have managed to get my readings down from: sugar 7.5, cholesterol 6.6 to sugar 6.6, cholesterol 6.8(unfortunate). He is determined to put me on the meds but I am not having it and keep insisting that I will get the readings down via the diet way. I do tend to stray from the diet because I am always hungry. I do eat healthy, no processed foods at all except for baked beans, tinned chick peas, tinned tomatoes, occasional supermarket pizza, fish pie, oven chips. My weakness is dessert. and I have cut back tremendously but still craved sweet things. I eat a lot more fruits than I used to and look for the sugar contents in food before buying and have reduced my portions It takes time to get your head round all this. My questions to the forum is this: How long can I hold out taking the meds? Will I eventually have to give in? If I can keep my sugar and cholesterol readings to under 7, is this not ok?

Thank you
Best Regards

 

[Brunneria]

Have a read of www.bloodsugar101.com

It offers the best reasoning I have found to explain why keeping your blood glucose below the levels set by the NHS is a good idea.

In your place, i would be accepting medication with your current levels.
Or i would be clamping down hard on those carbs to lower my blood glucose.

Almost all the foods you list are too carb laden for me, and if you are craving sweet things, fruit and carbs, then in my experience the carb levels are too high. It is like an addiction. The more you eat, the more you crave.

There is masses of info on the forum, and the internet giving delicious lower carb recipes and food choices.

Do you have a meter, and do you test your bg before and after eating?
Seeing exactly how high, and how long those sugars are raised is an astonishing motivator!

 

[Enclave]

Welcome Aristocat, am tagging @daisy1 who will be along with your welcome info. Are you cutting down on carbs or just sugars .. as baked beans and chick peas are quite high in carbs and could be putting your sugars up. Carbs turn to sugar when eaten !

 

[ButtterflyLady]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum so please bear with me if I rant a bit!

I have been diagnosed with borderline diabetes since 2013 and have resisted the drugs so far. My GP has told me that my pancreas is probably dried up and not functioning anymore! Can you believe it? I have managed to get my readings down from: sugar 7.5, cholesterol 6.6 to sugar 6.6, cholesterol 6.8(unfortunate). He is determined to put me on the meds but I am not having it and keep insisting that I will get the readings down via the diet way. I do tend to stray from the diet because I am always hungry. I do eat healthy, no processed foods at all except for baked beans, tinned chick peas, tinned tomatoes, occasional supermarket pizza, fish pie, oven chips. My weakness is dessert. and I have cut back tremendously but still craved sweet things. I eat a lot more fruits than I used to and look for the sugar contents in food before buying and have reduced my portions It takes time to get your head round all this. My questions to the forum is this: How long can I hold out taking the meds? Will I eventually have to give in? If I can keep my sugar and cholesterol readings to under 7, is this not ok?

Thank you
Best Regards

Welcome, I agree with the other posts, low carbing is the key to avoiding meds or progression to diabetes.

Your GP is wrong about your pancreas (lol). It's probably working fine - the issue is in the cells around your body, which are insulin resistant, making your pancreas produce more insulin than normal. This is reversible with low carbing. It's in T1 diabetes that the pancreas doesn't function anymore.

You might want to find out what your individual cholesterol readings are (Triglycerides, HDL and LDL) as these are more informative than the total number.

Has your blood pressure been checked? It should be under 130/80 and checked at least once a year or every time you see the doctor.

If you did end up needing diabetes or other medication, it's not the end of the world. Medication is a tool that can help us stay healthy. It's not a sign of failure, it's just a sign of what your body may need, which is often down to genetics.

 

[Aristocat]

Have a read of www.bloodsugar101.com

It offers the best reasoning I have found to explain why keeping your blood glucose below the levels set by the NHS is a good idea.

In your place, i would be accepting medication with your current levels.
Or i would be clamping down hard on those carbs to lower my blood glucose.

Almost all the foods you list are too carb laden for me, and if you are craving sweet things, fruit and carbs, then in my experience the carb levels are too high. It is like an addiction. The more you eat, the more you crave.

There is masses of info on the forum, and the internet giving delicious lower carb recipes and food choices.

Do you have a meter, and do you test your bg before and after eating?
Seeing exactly how high, and how long those sugars are raised is an astonishing motivator!

Have a read of www.bloodsugar101.com

It offers the best reasoning I have found to explain why keeping your blood glucose below the levels set by the NHS is a good idea.

In your place, i would be accepting medication with your current levels.
Or i would be clamping down hard on those carbs to lower my blood glucose.

Almost all the foods you list are too carb laden for me, and if you are craving sweet things, fruit and carbs, then in my experience the carb levels are too high. It is like an addiction. The more you eat, the more you crave.

There is masses of info on the forum, and the internet giving delicious lower carb recipes and food choices.

Do you have a meter, and do you test your bg before and after eating?
Seeing exactly how high, and how long those sugars are raised is an astonishing motivator!

Thanks Brunneria,
This is really helpful. I am so glad I joined this forum, it will help me to get on track. I do have a problem with carbs, I know this, I try to eat the main meal during the day instead of the usual evening and I walk a lot. I will have to come to terms with my addiction to carbs, I want to resist the meds as long as possible. I do have a meter and have been testing my blood but not sure what to make of the readings before and after meals, help with this will be helpful. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Aristocat]

Welcome Aristocat, am tagging @daisy1 who will be along with your welcome info. Are you cutting down on carbs or just sugars .. as baked beans and chick peas are quite high in carbs and could be putting your sugars up. Carbs turn to sugar when eaten !

Hi Daisy1,

Yes, trying to cut down on both but not hard enough I think. Thanks.

 

[Mike d]

I do have a meter and have been testing my blood but not sure what to make of the readings before and after meals, help with this will be helpful.

The "rule" is after the first bite of food, at one hour afterwards and then two hours. You have any figures for us to look at?

Mike

 

[Aristocat]

Welcome, I agree with the other posts, low carbing is the key to avoiding meds or progression to diabetes.

Your GP is wrong about your pancreas (lol). It's probably working fine - the issue is in the cells around your body, which are insulin resistant, making your pancreas produce more insulin than normal. This is reversible with low carbing. It's in T1 diabetes that the pancreas doesn't function anymore.

You might want to find out what your individual cholesterol readings are (Triglycerides, HDL and LDL) as these are more informative than the total number.

Has your blood pressure been checked? It should be under 130/80 and checked at least once a year or every time you see the doctor.

If you did end up needing diabetes or other medication, it's not the end of the world. Medication is a tool that can help us stay healthy. It's not a sign of failure, it's just a sign of what your body may need, which is often down to genetics.

Hi CatLady,

Thanks for the reply. As mentioned to Brunneria, I am so glad I joined this forum. I am sure with the support I will try harder. My blood pressure has thankfully always been normal. I just hate the meds and the side effects it brings. BTW, what side effects if any do you experience from taking the T2 meds for diabetes?

I have my blood test again in Nov 15, I really want to get the levels down. Did u accept the meds as soon as you were diagnosed or did u resist like I'm doing? The GP said that I may have organ damage if I carry on without the meds. Is this true?

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Aristocat]

The "rule" is after the first bite of food, at one hour afterwards and then two hours. You have any figures for us to look at?

Mike

Hello Mike,
Those readings are pretty impressive. My GP said that the readings on my home machine doesn't count, The HBA1c is what matters to him. I'll start testing again from tomorrow before and after meals and get back to you.

 

[Indy51]

Hi and welcome to the forum. You've been given some great advice and hope you can fine tune your diet to get even better control

 

[Mike d]

Hello Mike,
Those readings are pretty impressive. My GP said that the readings on my home machine doesn't count, The HBA1c is what matters to him. I'll start testing again from tomorrow before and after meals and get back to you.

Hi @Aristocat

Thanks for that ... and your GP is simply wrong. Your HBA1c is (generally) taken once every 3 months. How in the heck would anyone know what your levels are between one HBA1c test and the next unless you read from your meter on a daily basis. Ignore him. Showing your progress is what's critical (excel s/sheet) so you can get your diet right and those figures down a bit. In fact it also helps you predict what that next HBA1c might be.

@Brunneria got it right ..... you need to watch what you eat as well

Mike

 

[ButtterflyLady]

Hi CatLady,

Thanks for the reply. As mentioned to Brunneria, I am so glad I joined this forum. I am sure with the support I will try harder. My blood pressure has thankfully always been normal. I just hate the meds and the side effects it brings. BTW, what side effects if any do you experience from taking the T2 meds for diabetes?

I have my blood test again in Nov 15, I really want to get the levels down. Did u accept the meds as soon as you were diagnosed or did u resist like I'm doing? The GP said that I may have organ damage if I carry on without the meds. Is this true?

Thanks again for the advice.

I was lucky and never had side effects from metformin. Lots of people do though, and some of them find that slow release metformin is ok. I accepted the meds right away, I was quite keen to have them.

Your GP is taking the wrong approach IMO. If your HbA1c increases and stays high then yes you could get organ damage eventually, but you don't necessarily need meds to avoid this. You can avoid it with low carbing. He probably doesn't understand this and sees meds as the only option. You could try being really clear with him and saying "thanks but not thanks and there's no point keeping on raising the issue". If he continues to try to pressure you, you might want to change GPs, because IMO there should be mutual trust and respect for a doctor-patient relationship to work.

 

[daisy1]

@Aristocat

Hello Aristocat and welcome to the forum I agree with other members that you need to reduce the carbohydrates you eat as they will put up your levels. The more carbs you eat the more you want. Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find this helps you to adapt your diet. 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 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.

 

[Aristocat]

Hi and welcome to the forum. You've been given some great advice and hope you can fine tune your diet to get even better control

Thanks Indy51.

Hi @Aristocat

Thanks for that ... and your GP is simply wrong. Your HBA1c is (generally) taken once every 3 months. How in the heck would anyone know what your levels are between one HBA1c test and the next unless you read from your meter on a daily basis. Ignore him. Showing your progress is what's critical (excel s/sheet) so you can get your diet right and those figures down a bit. In fact it also helps you predict what that next HBA1c might be.

@Brunneria got it right ..... you need to watch what you eat as well

Mike

Thanks, everyone is so helpful. I think talking to other people with this condition helps a lot hence this forum.

 

[Aristocat]

@Aristocat

Hello Aristocat and welcome to the forum I agree with other members that you need to reduce the carbohydrates you eat as they will put up your levels. The more carbs you eat the more you want. Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find this helps you to adapt your diet. 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 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.

Thanks Daisy1, the above information is very useful and I am so glad that I have joined this forum. I knew I did the right thing in buying my meter to get an idea of how certain foods were affecting my blood levels. I did ask my GP for one but the respond was negative. I also applied for a free one online but because I wasn't on any meds and other factors again, a negative response. I'm happy to buy my supplies because it's for my own benefit.
Regards