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Any advice very welcome

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Perfect10

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hi everyone, I have just had a HBA1C test result was 49. It has come as a real shock and I have to have this repeated in 6 weeks. From what I have read, if this remains high then I will likely be diagnosed with diabetes?
Bit of background - I am 55, generally i have been pretty healthy, keen walker. 6 months ago I had a massive spike in my blood pressure to 205/140 (totally out of the blue as never had an issue with this before) I have since been on blood pressure meds and this is now stable but I've never felt quite right since hence the blood tests, my cholesterol is also too high. I have put weight on recently and about 1 stone overweight. I get palpitations quite alot, I am always too hot and feel like I am burning sometimes, I struggle to sleep and am so tired, i have a stressful job. I am menopausal!
I don't know alot about diabetes so hoping for some advice?
Can the HBA1C be high one time and not the next? Does 49 suggest diabetes or pre-diabetes?
Can blood pressure, hot flashes, palpitations be part of diabetes?
My eating habits will now change and reading other forum posts I should have a low carb diet? And obviously less cakes, sweet stuff etc
Any other advice would be welcome, if there is any chance to reverse this I will do it!
 
Welcome! I absolutely get hot flushes when my BG is too high, I actually find the symptoms incredibly similar to the menopausal ones.
 
I agree that menopausal symptoms and diabetes symptoms can certainly be similar and I asked to try HRT a year ago as I was finding it difficult figuring out what was causing what, having battled with hot flushes for 5 years prior to that. HRT is absolutely amazing and certainly made dealing with my diabetes easier but more importantly it improved my quality of life and particularly sleep 10 fold.

Your HbA1c makes you diabetic but only just... 48 is the cut off. 42-47 is "pre-diabetic" and less than 42 is normal, so it may be with a few small dietary changes (ie cutting carbs) that you can duck back under the red line. Some of us were in triple figures at diagnosis if that puts it into some perspective for you. My reading was 112 and others have been as high as 150 although often that level involves a blue light trip to hospital.

Yes, normal cakes and biscuits and sweets and crisps should be the first things to cut out although we have a few inspirational members who specialise in converting normal cake recipes into low carb alternatives so that they can continue to indulge their sweet tooth, so that is certainly an option if you are into baking and want to learn more.

Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and breakfast cereals are also high carb and portion size needs to be reduced and also, maybe surprisingly, fruit needs to be rationed as it is also high in sugar.
 
Thanks that has definitely helped put it into perspective more and I will certainly try to reverse this.
I agree it is hard figuring out what is causing different symptoms, I have been anaemic before and this has similar symptoms but have had this one ruled out, I also have nodules in my thyroid and have this checked regularly but again this could cause similar symptoms, not to mention the stressful job!
I love baking so will check out low carb baking recipes. Fruit will be the hard one as I eat alot of fruit! Bread, pasta, potatoes and rice I am happy to cut from my diet, I would rather have salad anyway. I only have porridge for breakfast, should I change this? Last time I needed to lose a bit of weight I satisfied the chocolate craving by drinking the occasional options hot chocolate - they are low cal but unsure about sugars?
 
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Hello Perfect10. I luvs your handle, is that what you want to be, a perfect size ten? 🙂
 
Porridge might be OK or may not. Porridge oats are approx. 63g/100g carbs so as carbohydrate dense as any other grain. They are considered low GI but not everyone's digestive system subscribes to Low GI principle and many of us find that our digestive tract breaks down porridge at the same rate as any other grain, so no different to bread and pasta. This is where using a Blood Glucose meter comes in to test your own body's individual response to different types of carbs. Most Health Care Professionals discourage the use of BG meters for home testing and do not prescribe them to Type 2 diabetics unless they are on particular medication like Gliclazide or Insulin, both of which can lower your BG into the danger zone, so they are duty bound to provide them in that situation but otherwise not. Here on the forum, many people self fund them and find they are an invaluable tool in enabling them to see what each meal does to their levels and use it to tailor their diet to their body's own tolerances, by adjusting portion sizes of different meals over a period of weeks and months until they find the quantities which do not spike their BG levels too high.
Personally I can't manage Options hot chocolate without needing to inject a bit of insulin for it, even half and half with coffee, so I don't bother but I can get away with a square of dark (70%+) chocolate with a spoon of peanut butter. I usually half or quarter the square and eat it a bit at a time, dipped into the peanut butter.
 
@NotWorriedAtAll Can you post a link to your FB page for this budding low carb baking convert newbie please!
 
Ditto said:
Hello Perfect10. I luvs your handle, is that what you want to be, a perfect size ten? 🙂
Click to expand...
Wishful thinking, not seen a size 10 for about 20 years now!☺
 
At least you have your memories! :D
 
Welcome to the forum @Perfect10
Glad that you have found us.

I have nothing to add to all the useful advice that you have already been given, and would encourage you to ask any questions that you have. There is plenty of help and support available on here.
 
Just as an example of how porridge is not always slow release (low GI) with everyone, I had a small portion (35g dry weight) this morning made with jumbo oats which are supposed to be slower release than normal porridge oats. I had my porridge made with water and added a little whole milk (normally have yoghurt or cream but none left in the house and need to go shopping) along with a few frozen berries, mixed seeds and a few chopped nuts. The glucose from this food hit my blood stream 30 mins after starting to eat it and peaked after 50mins! I have a Libre sensor so I can see what is happening very easily. Might as well have eaten a Mars Bar for the speed at which my digestive system broke it down!
Love being able to experiment though and see the results so easily and you have to be impressed at the speed of efficiency in getting energy from food! The human body is an amazing bit of kit.... just wish my pancreas was still working as well as my digestive system!
 
Hi and welcome. I did a quick check on Options, and the carbs vary from 5.5gm to 8.5gm per serving, depending on the flavour. One square of dark chocolate is 3.2gm, but a 100gm bar is a whopping 63.5 gm.
I came to grips with my carb levels by getting an app, then measuring and recording everything that went into my mouth. It quickly became a habit, with my digital scales on the worktop, and just takes a few seconds. DUK recommends less than 130gm per day but people vary between less than 50gm up to 130gm - it depends what suits each individual. I go between 60gm - 90gm per day.
You recognise you have gained a stone, and losing that would be a great help - I think since lockdown most people have gained weight as I certainly have. But you need to watch your baking and be very disciplined with your portion sizes. One thing I found helped was to cut up the portions when cold, then wrap and freeze them. Best wishes
 
Thanks so much for all the replies to start me off on this new journey
I have a weight loss app that I have had success with previously and can count carbs on there too, really surprised to see how many I have eaten so far today so been to the supermarket to stock up on low carb ingredients. I am cooking keto meal tonight but quite alot of fat content and unsure how this works when I currently have high cholesterol and am trying to reduce this to avoid the need for statins?!
I'm going to stop eating the porridge for a while and try different things!
 
Eating more fat was something which concerned me as it was totally contrary to the medical advice I had been given when diagnosed. I did a bit of online research and was able to satisfy myself that it was as safe to eat more fat as it was safe to follow the other NHS advice I had been given as a diabetic which was to eat wholegrain carbs, porridge etc which I could clearly see on my BG meter was not doing me any good. My Dad also ate a lot of dietary fat and particularly saturated fats and had the heart of an ox, so I was comfortable to give a higher fat diet a go and it is working for me. My cholesterol is still a bit higher than under 4 which I believe is the NICE guideline for diabetics, but my ratios are good and my overall level has reduced slightly since I started to eat low carb high fat and my health care professionals have not pushed me to start on statins which seems to be pretty unusual these days for anyone over 50! There are others on the forum who have reported similar reductions in cholesterol despite eating more fat with a low carb diet.
There is evidence I believe which now indicates that cholesterol levels are not closely linked to dietary fat/cholesterol as was previously thought, but only you can make the decision whether you feel it is safe to go against current NHS advice. Maybe consider other factors like personal genetic risk or stick with the less controversial sources like olive oil and avocado and oily fish and eggs rather than the more controversial saturated fats from meat and seed oils etc
 
I switched from a 'cholesterol lowering' diet - which only made it higher, to low carb with the fats which occurred naturally and my cholesterol went down. The nurse said it was a delayed reaction - I said 'Yeah. Right'
 
Perfect10 said:
I'm going to stop eating the porridge for a while and try different things!
Click to expand...
I’ve given up on porridge, but might try it again in winter.
Lots of things I’ve given up: crisps, biscuits, cakes, sweets, milk chocolate, most puddings
I‘ve cut the portion size in half with pasta, rice and toast and cut frequency
I still eat ice cream but less frequently
Steak more frequently, generally twice a week
 
Perfect10 said:
Thanks so much for all the replies to start me off on this new journey
I have a weight loss app that I have had success with previously and can count carbs on there too, really surprised to see how many I have eaten so far today so been to the supermarket to stock up on low carb ingredients. I am cooking keto meal tonight but quite alot of fat content and unsure how this works when I currently have high cholesterol and am trying to reduce this to avoid the need for statins?!
I'm going to stop eating the porridge for a while and try different things!
Click to expand...
I believe something like 80% of cholesterol comes from your liver function, so diet has a minimal effect. Also low fat items are usually loaded with more sugars ie carbs to give flavour. The proof of the pudding will be in your next blood tests.
Just be glad you're not me with a gall bladder problem. I've been told to follow a very low fat diet on top of low carbs, so my diet is protein heavy.
 
Felinia said:
I believe something like 80% of cholesterol comes from your liver function, so diet has a minimal effect. Also low fat items are usually loaded with more sugars ie carbs to give flavour. The proof of the pudding will be in your next blood tests.
Just be glad you're not me with a gall bladder problem. I've been told to follow a very low fat diet on top of low carbs, so my diet is protein heavy.
Click to expand...

I had a gall bladder problem a year before I was diagnosed with type 2 and I went onto a low fat diet as recommended - for me the consequences of that were all negative and my gall pain kept happening. I think the low fat diet may have led to the diabetes because when I swapped fat out I swapped carbs in.

When I went onto a high fat very low carb diet I had early stage fatty liver disease. Three months later it was gone and I haven't had a twinge from my gall bladder from the day I went keto.

I eat butter, double cream, lard, avocados, cocoa butter, coconut oil, chocolate, very fatty cuts of meat, pate, multiple eggs a day - but I don't go near vegetable fats, processed fat, rapeseed oil etc - just unprocessed fats. I eat a lot of fibre - I started out upping my fibre a bit but now I eat huge amounts of fibre. In fact I think I swapped out carbs and swapped in fibre - my liver and gall bladder has never been so healthy and all the tests I've had since bear that out.
 
NotWorriedAtAll said:
I eat butter, double cream, lard, avocados, cocoa butter, coconut oil, chocolate, very fatty cuts of meat, pate, multiple eggs a day - but I don't go near vegetable fats, processed fat, rapeseed oil etc - just unprocessed fats. I eat a lot of fibre - I started out upping my fibre a bit but now I eat huge amounts of fibre. In fact I think I swapped out carbs and swapped in fibre - my liver and gall bladder has never been so healthy and all the tests I've had since bear that out.
Click to expand...
Hi NotWorried, That's interesting!
Please list the fibre you eat, the quantities and frequencies...if you don't mind and when you have time. Thanks! Mac
 
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