Your a diabetic you can't have sugar

[paddyconvery]

This is one of my biggest problems with people who do not understand diabetes, When you tell tell them you are a diabetic and they say so you can't have sugar then, at times i have to walk away before i say some thing. Would these people say to someone in the army who had lost a leg, so you only need one shoe. NO they would not or if they seen someone with cancer who's hair had fallen out, so you won't need any shampoo NO. So why do they think we cannot have sugar have we a big sign that says no sugar allowed. I am not trying to upset anyone who knows someone who has lost leg or has cancer, i am just using it as a example( my father has had polio since he was 3 and my mother had cancer in which most of her belly was taken away so i would not want to upset anyone)

Sadly, most of the UK public learn all they know about diabetes from rags like the Daily Mail who just love blaming the state of the NHS on diabetes! Because of this kind of reporting, most people believe that diabetes is self inflicted.

 

[CherryAA]

Hello every one hope you all enjoy xmas holidays and a new year, l always read everyone’s comments and always get my answers from others questions. Iam type 2 for the past 6 years and my dr told me my hbc1 levels were on Normal range and this was over 18months . I requested to be taken of mertfom 850 mg which l take twice my dr refused said my age of 52 l must carry on taking it . My problem is lam having cramps in my hands every night around 4 am . Is this the side effects of mertfomin

You choose your medications, no doctor can force you to take anything if you do not want to. If you are happy that you can control your Hba1C through your diet alone, then you can choose to tell him you won't take them, or indeed simply not take them if that is what you want to do.
I can't comment on whether it causes hand cramps. I chose to refuse it from the day of diagnosis so I have no experience of metformin.

 

[ringi]

@Mandifadza
"hand cramps" is not a side effect of Metformin I had seen anyone talking about. Are you taking statins?
It could also be low salt or magnesium.

 

[Jayke]

Was diagosed of Type 2 in December, 2016 and have been on tabs. I avoid sugar as a plague. Started taking Stout, a bitter beer made from Cocoa seeds in the firm belief it was bitter and could push sugar out of my blood stream. The alcoholic content rather worsened my situation. Current position is 5.0. Sugar is indeed bad for us and should be avoided.

 

[ringi]

I expect the Stout is very high carbs, and we know that all carbs are converted into sugar by our body when we eat/drink them. (Guinness is about 7% carbs)

 

[pleinster]

Hi I was interested to read the chat about prednisone and its effects on onset Type 2 diabetes.in 1990 I was physical education teacher who did lots of exercise, I am 5' 7' and I weighed about 10 stones. Then I developed Crohn's disease and after many months without a diagnosis I was rushed into hospital as I was bleeding heavily. I was immediately put on a steroid drip and after a month in hospital I was discharged taking 10 prednisone a day. My consultant said he expected me to stay on this for life, but I had other ideas and together with a return to excercise and a change in diet I eventually came off the steroids. Roll on twenty years and after a routine test I was suddenly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I was shocked to say the least as I was still the same weight and height and was playing tennis three times a week. Despite trying to discuss the fact that I could have steroid induced diabetes no one at hospital was prepared to talk about it. Does anyone else have an experience similar to mine?

Hi. No-one would be able to say for sure that your diabetes is a direct result of steroids you were taking twenty years before you were diagnosed...and medical staff in general are reluctant talk about it (or do not know enough about steroid induced diabetes)...but it doesn't sound like you have what may be loosely perceived to be the usual contributing factors; I didn't either (6ft and slightly underweight from birth to 52 years of age on diagnosis a few months post transplant and treatment with prednisolone). While I was warned in advance of the risk, I am sure many are not (particularly those who are not transplant patients) and perhaps hesitancy to discuss it reflects as fear to officially validate the fact that the drug has directly caused diabetes in the person concerned. The legal get out is to refer to it as inducing rather than causing it...hinting at the possibility that the condition was in fact waiting to develop and that the steroid agent rather triggered things. I am not even saying that is not possible, but words are words and then there's reality. The words..liability and compensation can result in all kinds of almost plausible deniability...particularly in the States, I'm sure. One thing to consider, @Redbegonia - you may have had a blood test which allowed a diagnosis twenty years after the use of prednisolone/prednisone...but had you been tested earlier might it have been diagnosed much earlier ? I would emphasise again - I was warned and I accepted the risk...but I do think it is time much more was made of the risk in general.

 

[Maggyanne1950]

This is one of my biggest problems with people who do not understand diabetes, When you tell tell them you are a diabetic and they say so you can't have sugar then, at times i have to walk away before i say some thing. Would these people say to someone in the army who had lost a leg, so you only need one shoe. NO they would not or if they seen someone with cancer who's hair had fallen out, so you won't need any shampoo NO. So why do they think we cannot have sugar have we a big sign that says no sugar allowed. I am not trying to upset anyone who knows someone who has lost leg or has cancer, i am just using it as a example( my father has had polio since he was 3 and my mother had cancer in which most of her belly was taken away so i would not want to upset anyone)

I don't think any long term health conditions are understood. I would like to see health education in schools, to teach all children about conditions such as diabetes, dementia, autism and the other common conditions, so that society as a whole will start to have a better understanding of those around them. It may also help children stay healthier and avoid the conditions which can be avoided. My usual rant is what good is Shakespeare if children do not yet have the knowledge to function as decent citizens in the modern world. Meanwhile, it is down to us all to impart our knowledge to the ignorant, to make up for this shortfall in the education system. The old saying "every day's a school day" works both ways. We can all be teachers as well as learners.

 

[Chrissie18]

This is one of my biggest problems with people who do not understand diabetes, When you tell tell them you are a diabetic and they say so you can't have sugar then, at times i have to walk away before i say some thing. Would these people say to someone in the army who had lost a leg, so you only need one shoe. NO they would not or if they seen someone with cancer who's hair had fallen out, so you won't need any shampoo NO. So why do they think we cannot have sugar have we a big sign that says no sugar allowed. I am not trying to upset anyone who knows someone who has lost leg or has cancer, i am just using it as a example( my father has had polio since he was 3 and my mother had cancer in which most of her belly was taken away so i would not want to upset anyone)

I feel your pain, because it is not just the general public it seems to me half the medical profession do not understand the complexities of the disease either, including the so called celebrity doctors who claim to be able to reverse diabetes, well you can't you can put it into remission by diet but you can't cure it. One of my 'friends' who claims to know everything about diabetes because her mother was diabetic told me to become a vegetarian!!! Went to lunch there one day and was greeted with "I don't have anything you can eat" choices were fish pie, cottage pie. The best way to understand the condition is to imagine that your body is just too big for the amount of insulin you are producing. There was an excellent letter in the British Medical Journal recently from a retired consultant, who said the only way to keep his diabetes in remission was to be hungry all the time. He had got it under control by halving his body weight, but the only way to maintain it was to eat very little. I am in a similar boat, I am slightly overweight, but only by about 10lbs now, but the more I lose the more my bloods deteriorate. I just have to accept that I am going to spend the rest of my life hungry, which is why I am still overweight because there are days, and today is one of them when I am just really hungry anbd all the water, celery and carrots just don;t do it.

 

[ringi]

@Chrissie18

Try olives, avocados and other high-fat food, as a lot of us (with Type2) find we can eat as much of them as we like while still keeping our BG under control. Your meter is your friend, testing before meals and 2hr after you started eating to learn what your body can cope with.

There is no need to be hungry provided you except that fat can be good for you.

 

[Bluetit1802]

@Chrissie18

This must be very uncomfortable and depressing for you. I have been on the low carb diet for 4 years and, hand on heart, have never once been hungry! I eat very low carbs, about 30g a day, normal unrestricted protein, and fill up on fats. There really is absolutely no need to ever be hungry simply because you have diabetes.

 

[Lauriem1967]

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