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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Hi t2 newbie here
- Thread starter Daveb1976
- Start date
- Status
Eddy Edson
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- In remission from Type 2
I had my (slightly delayed) 12 months post diagnosis blood test results today. The surprise was the HbA1c number: 27,versus 89 at diagnosis. Here in Oz, this is officially classified as "lower than a snake's armpit" and it means that I am now a certified Internet diabetes guru & everybody has to listen to what I say.
My advice to T2 newbies:
1. Lose weight, probably. Doesn't matter if you're not officially overweight. I had a BMI of 25 at diagnosis; by the time I lost around 9kg down to BMI around 22.5 my BG numbers were at "normal levels". Then I kept grinding off some more kilos, down to around BMI = 20, because being skinny is fun. When your family, friends and colleagues tell you you're too scrawny, as they will, tell them to go eat a donut.
If you want to delve into this, check the work of Prof Roy Taylor at Newcastle University and others. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/ This is best known for an 800 calorie short-term dietary intervention + long term weight management program being rolled out by the NHS, but it really doesn't matter how you lose the weight. The general target is to lose 15kg, but the actual loss required depends on the individual.
It won't work if you've had diabetes for too long & your pancreas is too clapped out; you'll lose remission if you stack the weight back on; if you're really skinny to start with then it's presumably not an option; and given the complexity and individual variability of T2 it surely won't work for everybody else.
But it must be the best bet at the moment for most T2's of getting to remission in a way which doesn't require any particular dietary restriction beyond general healthiness and not regaining weight.
2. Be sceptical about aggressively low-carb approaches. The most tedious thing for a T2 newbie is having to learn about carbs and how to juggle them. Simply cutting them out can seem like an attractive approach. But there is little evidence that this is more effective than other approaches in the long term; you have to always restrict carbs otherwise it doesn't work; if it means you don't eat fruit it makes no health sense; if it means you instead load up on bacon, red meat and dairy it also makes no health sense; and if you cut out whole grains and don't replace them at least with an alternative source of fibre it makes zero health sense.
You need to test before and after eating to work which carbs do what to you, individually. Ignore little rules people come up with saying that you must or must not eat this or that. Everybody's different, and what works for them may or may not work for you.
Personally, I worked out that grains were my nemesis and I replaced them with nuts and seeds. I also cut down on fruit portions for a while. Since getting BG under control I've dropped the fruit restrictions entirely and I am (a little nervously) adding some grains back. It's good not to be restricted.
3. Exercise. It reduces insulin resistance and makes you feel better. I have a blocked artery in my left leg which is totally frikkn annoying as walking has always been one of my main pleasures. Dealing with that involves walking as much as you can stand and I've gotten up to 12km+ per day from maybe 4km at diagnosis, with big improvements over the last couple of months. I'm sure that this has been the main reason for my HbA1c dropping from 36 to 27 since February.
4. Pay attention to CV matters. Your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are increasingly more important for health than BG once you've gotten it under some degree of control. Again, it's tedious, but you need to learn about the role of dietary fats, cholesterol, statins etc etc and there is a mountain of utter c**p out there on these subjects. Don't look to Youtube, message boards, Internet gurus, personal anecdotes, journalists for advice. Do go to the expert bodies, who are all in substantial agreement and whose advice is backed by a vast weight of evidence.
If you want to delve into this stuff, the best and most comprehensive overview of dietary fats and CV disease I've found is this from the American Heart Association: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000510
This is the latest consensus from all of the major US bodies on cholesterol management: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000625
This from the AHA is the best review of statin safety I've seen: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATV.0000000000000073
(Really, I have to say that NICE seems a bit rudimentary and slow in comparison.)
And this is an excellent overview of the "cholesterol controversy" from a mainstream perspective: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-cholesterol-controversy/
In simple terms: Avoid saturated fats (meat, dairy, coconut, palm). Avoid refined carbs. Do eat mono- and polyunsaturated fats (nuts, olive/canola/etc oil, avocados, fish, seeds). Do eat whole grains, to the extent they don't screw up your BG too much. Do accept statin prescriptions, if you're at CV risk.
My advice to T2 newbies:
1. Lose weight, probably. Doesn't matter if you're not officially overweight. I had a BMI of 25 at diagnosis; by the time I lost around 9kg down to BMI around 22.5 my BG numbers were at "normal levels". Then I kept grinding off some more kilos, down to around BMI = 20, because being skinny is fun. When your family, friends and colleagues tell you you're too scrawny, as they will, tell them to go eat a donut.
If you want to delve into this, check the work of Prof Roy Taylor at Newcastle University and others. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/ This is best known for an 800 calorie short-term dietary intervention + long term weight management program being rolled out by the NHS, but it really doesn't matter how you lose the weight. The general target is to lose 15kg, but the actual loss required depends on the individual.
It won't work if you've had diabetes for too long & your pancreas is too clapped out; you'll lose remission if you stack the weight back on; if you're really skinny to start with then it's presumably not an option; and given the complexity and individual variability of T2 it surely won't work for everybody else.
But it must be the best bet at the moment for most T2's of getting to remission in a way which doesn't require any particular dietary restriction beyond general healthiness and not regaining weight.
2. Be sceptical about aggressively low-carb approaches. The most tedious thing for a T2 newbie is having to learn about carbs and how to juggle them. Simply cutting them out can seem like an attractive approach. But there is little evidence that this is more effective than other approaches in the long term; you have to always restrict carbs otherwise it doesn't work; if it means you don't eat fruit it makes no health sense; if it means you instead load up on bacon, red meat and dairy it also makes no health sense; and if you cut out whole grains and don't replace them at least with an alternative source of fibre it makes zero health sense.
You need to test before and after eating to work which carbs do what to you, individually. Ignore little rules people come up with saying that you must or must not eat this or that. Everybody's different, and what works for them may or may not work for you.
Personally, I worked out that grains were my nemesis and I replaced them with nuts and seeds. I also cut down on fruit portions for a while. Since getting BG under control I've dropped the fruit restrictions entirely and I am (a little nervously) adding some grains back. It's good not to be restricted.
3. Exercise. It reduces insulin resistance and makes you feel better. I have a blocked artery in my left leg which is totally frikkn annoying as walking has always been one of my main pleasures. Dealing with that involves walking as much as you can stand and I've gotten up to 12km+ per day from maybe 4km at diagnosis, with big improvements over the last couple of months. I'm sure that this has been the main reason for my HbA1c dropping from 36 to 27 since February.
4. Pay attention to CV matters. Your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are increasingly more important for health than BG once you've gotten it under some degree of control. Again, it's tedious, but you need to learn about the role of dietary fats, cholesterol, statins etc etc and there is a mountain of utter c**p out there on these subjects. Don't look to Youtube, message boards, Internet gurus, personal anecdotes, journalists for advice. Do go to the expert bodies, who are all in substantial agreement and whose advice is backed by a vast weight of evidence.
If you want to delve into this stuff, the best and most comprehensive overview of dietary fats and CV disease I've found is this from the American Heart Association: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000510
This is the latest consensus from all of the major US bodies on cholesterol management: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000625
This from the AHA is the best review of statin safety I've seen: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATV.0000000000000073
(Really, I have to say that NICE seems a bit rudimentary and slow in comparison.)
And this is an excellent overview of the "cholesterol controversy" from a mainstream perspective: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-cholesterol-controversy/
In simple terms: Avoid saturated fats (meat, dairy, coconut, palm). Avoid refined carbs. Do eat mono- and polyunsaturated fats (nuts, olive/canola/etc oil, avocados, fish, seeds). Do eat whole grains, to the extent they don't screw up your BG too much. Do accept statin prescriptions, if you're at CV risk.
silentsquirrel
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
[QUOTE="Eddy Edson, ........... I am now a certified Internet diabetes guru & everybody has to listen to what I say.
My advice to T2 newbies:
.......................
there is a mountain of utter c**p out there on these subjects. Don't look to Youtube, message boards, Internet gurus, personal anecdotes, journalists for advice. ...........[/QUOTE]
Bit of a paradox there, Eddy?? 🙄🙄
My advice to T2 newbies:
.......................
there is a mountain of utter c**p out there on these subjects. Don't look to Youtube, message boards, Internet gurus, personal anecdotes, journalists for advice. ...........[/QUOTE]
Bit of a paradox there, Eddy?? 🙄🙄
Eddy Edson
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- In remission from Type 2
Bit of a paradox there, Eddy?? 🙄🙄[/QUOTE]
I'm now a *certified* Internet diabetes guru. I've got a special hat to prove it!
Madeline
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I'm now a *certified* Internet diabetes guru. I've got a special hat to prove it![/QUOTE]
G’wan, show us your hat
Welcome Dave.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I was diagnosed as type two diabetic in 2016, but have been back in the normal range since mid 2017. I cannot eat grain, (brown or wholemeal it makes no difference) similarly starchy vegetables and sugary or starchy fruit are all off my menu.
Using a glucose meter to check my levels after eating showed me the problematic foods and so I settled on a diet of low carb foods, nothing more than 10 percent carbs.
Last week I had to pay a flying visit to the local GP surgery and left one of the doctors open mouthed with astonishment after me pointing out that my Hba1c has been the top end of normal for years.
Using a glucose meter to check my levels after eating showed me the problematic foods and so I settled on a diet of low carb foods, nothing more than 10 percent carbs.
Last week I had to pay a flying visit to the local GP surgery and left one of the doctors open mouthed with astonishment after me pointing out that my Hba1c has been the top end of normal for years.
Eddy Edson
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- In remission from Type 2
Impressive, no? The skull's a bit iffy - can't turn your head too quickly or it falls off.
Madeline
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
My what magnificent ‘tasche you have.
Impressive, no? The skull's a bit iffy - can't turn your head too quickly or it falls off.
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love the hat. I have a friend who has a very similar hat but in place of skull badge he has a very firmly attached hammer and sickle badge. Highly entertaining. I point it out to everyone and their reactions are hilarious😱🙂🙂. He usually tries to show them the error of their politics.
Impressive, no? The skull's a bit iffy - can't turn your head too quickly or it falls off.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Do be aware though that it is controlling your blood glucose which is the key - losing weight might well be a side effect - as we gain weight as our metabolisms try to cope with the carbohydrates, so aim for normal blood glucose levels after meals to get things back in balance.
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