• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

What do they mean ??

C

celast

Well-Known Member
Messages
157
Location
wilmslow cheshire
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
What actually do they mean when they say "keep your sugar under control) do they mean never let your test be over 7.8 or any other reading? Now and again I have seen mine 10.3, is that serious ? its got me confused as to what I should be aiming for.. :?
 
What it means is that you and your doctor figure out a target BG range and then you try to be in the range, not over or under.

Of course it doesn't matter if your BG is over the range sometimes. Just do your best, learn all you can and keep monitoring and managing your condition.

High BG over a period of time does put you at risk of diabetes complications great and small. Watching it means regularly testing it and taking actions to get it down.

HbA1C is a good 2-3 monthly indicator of how stable your BGs have been. I place more store in my HbA1c than my day to day BG levels. Although if they are high most of the time, the HbA1c will be high.
 
Thank you for you reply, my diabetic nurse say's Do Not Test your blood, we will do it every 3 months and give you the advice after that Hba1c test, is that good advice
 
I agree, you do need some sort of targets.

I suggest that you aim for not more than 7 two hours after eating for a start.

Damage starts to occur when BGs spike above this figure, 8 would be OK ish, and is what my doc. thinks is OK. I don't, so I aim for 7 or less, I manage that most of the time but I am only human, so sometimes it goes over.

Fasting (wake up) levels are also important but since you can't do much about them just know what they are and record them.

Pre meal readings are important in as much that if you are to high before you eat you will be even higher 2 hours later.

As to what is to high before meals my guess is that 5 or 5.5 should be achieveable.

These are my suggestions, everybody is different, and we all react differently to various foods.

Hopefully my ideas will point you in the right direction, you will be able to set yourself your own targets as you get a better feel for things.

H
 
The National Institute for Clinical health & Excellence (NICE) has published blood glucose target levels for Type 2s, as follows:

4 - 7 fasting/before meals
less than 8.5, 2 hours later

These are in mmols/l. Many of us on the forum prefer never to go above 7.8, 2 hours after meals.

Non-diabetic levels are within the range:

3.5 - 5.5 before meals
less than 8, 2 hours later.

To check what different foods do to your blood glucose levels, test just before you eat and 2 hours after you've finished the meal. It's really best if your BG level after eating is about the same, or not much above, the level you started at. If you eat something that spikes you, eat smaller portions or leave that food out altogether.

Don't worry, though - it takes a lot of experience to understand which foods spike your BG levels and which don't. I low-carb, mainly for weight loss but it also keeps my BGs low. See Viv's Modified Atkins Diet in the 'Sticky Thread' section for a list of my basic foods.

My BGs are now normally within the non-diabetic range, but it's taken 2 years to get there. I'm still human - every now and again I have a blow-out (bread-and-butter last week! in quantity :oops: ).

Carbohydrates, which include sugar, do the damage. If you can cut down on those (you don't need to go as low as me!) you'll gradually bring your blood glucose down.

Tell your GP that you are trying to control your carbohydrate intake, and that you would like to have a self-testing kit to help you learn which foods spike your blood glucose - you can't learn that without testing! The NICE guidelines recommend self-testing as part of the structured diabetic education you should be receiving, though many PCTs are restricting test strips as a cost-cutting exercise. If they think you're taking control by diet seriously, they might give you strips on prescription. Cheaper for them in the long run!

Let us know how you get on :D

Viv 8)
 
celast said:
How do you work this out ? after 1 hour 6.1 after 2 hours 8 after 3 hours 10.3 could not understand that one :o
Click to expand...

What did you have for your meal celast?
 
Hi. As others have said so much depends on the state of your diabetes progression. The NICE guideline targets make good sense hence the need for a meter so you know whether you are meeting them with regard to spikes and what causes the worst spikes. The HBa1C test is useful but doesn't tell you anything about spikes and which foods are adding to your average. I quite often go just over 10 2 hours after a meal and occasionally into the teens. That's reminder to me that I need to reduce carbs further and to be prepared for insulin one day but that's my problem. As you are diet only you can have tablet medication in the future if you need it.
 
Thanks Daibell , that has made me easier, I have a contour meter and i keep in the liimits usually but is much harm done if I go over now and again ?
 
Personally I think it is ok to go over now and again - we are only human and being too strict can lead to stress and that is just as bad for our health as the occasional high BG, IMO.

Maybe discuss with your doctor if being "diet only" is appropriate at all - given the advice you've had from them so far, who knows.

It would be worth getting another HbA1c test done soon - at the start you should be getting them done more often - every 2 to 3 months is ok.

Apart from learning what food spikes your levels, home BG testing is important for when you are sick or in hospital for surgery or illness. You can't trust most hospitals to manage your diabetes for you, it is better to do it yourself. And even the common cold can make your BG levels go all over the place. So I always up my testing routine when I am sick. It's easier if you get familiar with testing before you get sick, because it's harder to learn if you're already unwell.
 
Back
Top