10 weeks in and blood glucose still not going down enough

[HappyHattie]

I’m a type 2 diabetic and the doctors have given me 12 weeks to get bs down before putting me on medication. I’m now in my 10th week and have lost a stone but my levels are still quite high. Today 7.6 when I woke then full fat Greek yoghurt berries and almonds 8.7 after 2 hrs. Then before lunch 6.8 then frittata and toms 2hrs after 6.5 then before tea 6.1. Bbq sausages and burger with spinach, toms and green beans. Did have Tom sauce. No buns. No alcohol. 2 hrs later 8.3 I have hardly eaten any carbs at all since I started. Watched current Michael Mosley programme last night where he told the young lad that a blood glucose level of 6.5 was really not good and he needed to get it down. I thought the range was 4-7 for people who aren’t diabetic. Can anybody tell me what else I could be doing. Been doing dance class on you tube. Blood sugar goes up after that too. My diet has massively improved. I feel loads better. Moods have stabilised massively. I have more energy but do not want to go on to medication. Do I just continue with diet until I loose enough weight to get below my personal fat threshold which will probably be another stone. Advice would be welcome. Thank you

 

[Inka]

Welcome @HappyHattie 🙂 Those numbers don’t look too bad to me. Your weight loss is great too. It seems you’re going in the right direction.🙂

These are the target levels for Type 2s:

If you have Type 2 diabetes​

• before meals: 4 to 7mmol/l
• two hours after meals: less than 8.5mmol/l

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Your results certainly sound like they are heading in the right direction @HappyHattie - and you are being very diligent with your food choices.

Well done on the weight loss, and great to hear that you are feeling better and more energised.

Hope your results reflect how much effort you have been putting in 🙂

 

[pm133]

@HappyHattie ,

I would also add that it isn't going to be your doctor who gets to decide whether you go on medication or not.
That will be your choice to agree to his recommendation.

You're doing the right things, your numbers are looking good with a bit of room for lowering still. Honestly, I would encourage you to keep going as you are. Lose the excess weight you feel you need to lose and providing your HbA1c stays reasonable I'd just carry on with your life and not overly worry.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Absolutely nothing wrong with medication. Why do you not want to go on it?
No idea why 6.5 is a bad number either?
Controlling/reversing diabetes is a marathon, not a 100m dash.

 

[Ljc]

Your numbers are fine, so please stop worrying.

The figures quoted above are the ideal numbers , however we are merely human not saints so as long as we don’t stray outside of those figures by too much regularly then we are doing well. So please don’t get hung up on being a few 0.2 or even the occasional 2.0 above quoted. Above , you see the Hb1ac that the staff at the go practice goes by is measuring the glucose that has adhered the red blood cells over the past 12 or so weeks, so it averages out all the peaks and troughs .

In my signature below you can see my latest Hb1ac, however if you were to see the graph on my Libre , it tells a different story , I can go up to 9.5 on occasion and I have the added benefit of being on insulin, which you don’t have .

Please don’t be afraid of diabetes medications, if you need them, you need them, it’s certainly not a failure, nor does everyone get side effect from them, when it was believed I had T2 I was on Metformin for years and did well on it with no side effects at all .
Later I had to go in Gliclazide instead , once again it had no side effects. For me it was like taking a placebo . So insulin came next and I am glad I am on it I still had the T2 label at the time.

Aprox How many carbs a day are you having a day ?

 

[Ljc]

I’ve no idea why 6.5 is bad either.

 

[Loobyloo]

After all that it's a 5.5 this morning. Maybe the 24,701 steps I recorded yesterday helped.

Yes i always find the exercise counters the treats 🙂 A little of what you fancy doesn't hurt once in a while.

 

[pm133]

Absolutely nothing wrong with medication. Why do you not want to go on it?
No idea why 6.5 is a bad number either?
Controlling/reversing diabetes is a marathon, not a 100m dash.

All medicines bring a risk of side effects.
Presumably people are worried about that.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

All medicines bring a risk of side effects.
Presumably people are worried about that.

I couldn't presume for other people.
That's why I asked.
Personally, I took an approach that considered reducing my high blood glucose levels at a managed rate initially, I included medication, then removed it later when I reversed my diabetes.
As to Metformin, it is a tried and tested drug, it seems it has benefits apart from lowering BG, and generally no side effects, particularly with the slow release version, although I was fine on both.

 

[Leadinglights]

If what you have been doing so far has seen some success then I think you are justified in wanting to continue without medication, however if not then it would be hard to persuade the GP unless you know you have not made your best effort and could step up the effort. For some people no matter what they do they will need help from medication.

 

[pm133]

I couldn't presume for other people.
That's why I asked.
Personally, I took an approach that considered reducing my high blood glucose levels at a managed rate initially, I included medication, then removed it later when I reversed my diabetes.
As to Metformin, it is a tried and tested drug, it seems it has benefits apart from lowering BG, and generally no side effects, particularly with the slow release version, although I was fine on both.

Oh it's certainly not true that Metformin has "generally no side effects".
That's not true at all I'm afraid.
The following link lists some of them and people on here discuss negative side effects on a regular basis on various threads.
Like all medication, the pills themselves will come with a very large sheet describing a vast list of reported side effects.

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/metformin/

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Oh it's certainly not true that Metformin has "generally no side effects".
That's not true at all I'm afraid.
The following link lists some of them and people on here discuss negative side effects on a regular basis on various threads.
Like all medication, the pills themselves will come with a very large sheet describing a vast list of reported side effects.

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/metformin/

I doubt "people on here" are anything other than a very, very, small percentage of the millions of people in the world who are prescribed Metformin daily.
The "very large sheet describing a vast list" is apparently only nine, and that is a list of variations on a theme as well.
Are you by any chance anti med or anti big pharma on principle?

 

[pm133]

IAre you by any chance anti med or anti big pharma on principle?

No. I'm on insulin and gabapentin and I'm a strong vaccine advocate so I'm hardly a poster boy for anti-meds. 🙂

Happy to retract the word "vast" from that post.
But I'm sticking with the point that all medication comes with potential side effects and not all people like taking those risks.

And it doesn't matter whether the people on here are a very small percentage of metformin users or not. It was one of the members who raised the concern.

You seem to be in the mood for an argument today but I'm not so I'll bail from the discussion.

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome to the forum. 🙂