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So I went to the doc's for a unrelated issue and ended up getting booked in for a health check. The result was, after a few repeat tests of my blood and some fasting that I have Type 2 diabetes (45 years old) . I however suffer no symptoms but do eat quite horrendously. The funny thing is that a few months prior I actually started to get out and about on my bicycle daily in a bid to loose a bit of mid life spread. Now in complete denial, a rather gloomy outlook on life. not getting out and about and ignoring it. Might need a bit of a slap to pull myself together. To be fair just writing that down in a place where people might read and go 'Yeah, been there' is quite nice so that's one step forward.
No no no - we just recommend steak and mushrooms for breakfast (well I have been known to do that) with no slapping and no gloom.
The key to controlling blood glucose for an ordinary type two is to cut down the carbs to the amount you can cope with - and it can really sort out that expanding waistline.
I could resize a fair few of my clothes, others just buy new and smaller sizes.
Probably should try and find a decent testing kit for my blood to see what I am playing with, so any suggestions for a fairly handy informative testing kit would be appreciated. As for breakfast, erm, don't eat breakfast nor dinner, just Tea followed by snacking into the evening. (Not very well behaved here)
Welcome to the forum, you will find lots of useful advice for people newly diagnosed. It will help if you know what your HbA1C (that will be a number over 48mmol/mol) is and if you have been given any medication as that will give an idea of how much you have to do to get back on track with your levels.
Have a read around the forum particularly in the 'Newbies' thread as replies to other folk may be helpful and the Learning Zone has lots of information.
As Drummer says reducing carbohydrate intake either by cutting some things out or reducing portion size is crucial.
A good start is to make a food diary of everything you eat and drink with portion size and getting your best estimate of how much TOTAL CARBS (not just sugar) there are. Info can be found on back of packets or Googling or supermarket websites (nutritional information).
It is better to reduce your carbs slowly so start by reducing by one third for a few weeks before going any further, but how low you need to go may depend on your HbA1C.
Probably should try and find a decent testing kit for my blood to see what I am playing with, so any suggestions for a fairly handy informative testing kit would be appreciated. As for breakfast, erm, don't eat breakfast nor dinner, just Tea followed by snacking into the evening. (Not very well behaved here)
People find the GlucoNavil or Spirit TEE 2 are reliable monitors with the cheapest strips. That will allow to to see how foods affect your levels.
A bit of a concern that your erratic eating may be causing high levels as when people don't eat the liver releases stored glucose into your blood system to give you energy to function. Sometimes people don't realise that snacks can be high carb.
Welcome to the forum, you will find lots of useful advice for people newly diagnosed. It will help if you know what your HbA1C (that will be a number over 48mmol/mol) is and if you have been given any medication as that will give an idea of how much you have to do to get back on track with your levels.
Have a read around the forum particularly in the 'Newbies' thread as replies to other folk may be helpful and the Learning Zone has lots of information.
As Drummer says reducing carbohydrate intake either by cutting some things out or reducing portion size is crucial.
A good start is to make a food diary of everything you eat and drink with portion size and getting your best estimate of how much TOTAL CARBS (not just sugar) there are. Info can be found on back of packets or Googling or supermarket websites (nutritional information).
It is better to reduce your carbs slowly so start by reducing by one third for a few weeks before going any further, but how low you need to go may depend on your HbA1C.
I was told 52mmol on a normal test and 51mmol after a fasting test (going to guess that's not too bad anyway). I said no to medication at this time and also have high cholesterol apparently. I have been thinking that my erratic eating could be the root and may have indicated I am diabetic when in fact I may not be? I have just ordered a blood testing monitor so that should help me.
People find the GlucoNavil or Spirit TEE 2 are reliable monitors with the cheapest strips. That will allow to to see how foods affect your levels.
A bit of a concern that your erratic eating may be causing high levels as when people don't eat the liver releases stored glucose into your blood system to give you energy to function. Sometimes people don't realise that snacks can be high carb.
Thank you. When I finally start taking this seriously I am pretty sure that if I was to record my carb intake and post it on here I would probably get shouted at. I think joining this forum was the first sensible thing I have done.
Thank you. When I finally start taking this seriously I am pretty sure that if I was to record my carb intake and post it on here I would probably get shouted at. I think joining this forum was the first sensible thing I have done.
Welcome to the forum.
We are a friendly bunch who avoids shouting at other members (unless you ask nicely 😉 ).
The reaction associated with a diagnosis of diabetes is often compared to the reaction to grief where denial is one of the phases that we go through - you are no different to many.
As you say, joining this forum is the first step. There are many members who have been where you are and have inspirational stories about how they turned their health around and felt much much better for it.
When you are ready, feel free to ask questions, share your story (the good and the bad if you want) and just vent if you need to.
So I went to the doc's for a unrelated issue and ended up getting booked in for a health check. The result was, after a few repeat tests of my blood and some fasting that I have Type 2 diabetes (45 years old) . I however suffer no symptoms but do eat quite horrendously. The funny thing is that a few months prior I actually started to get out and about on my bicycle daily in a bid to loose a bit of mid life spread. Now in complete denial, a rather gloomy outlook on life. not getting out and about and ignoring it. Might need a bit of a slap to pull myself together. To be fair just writing that down in a place where people might read and go 'Yeah, been there' is quite nice so that's one step forward.
Hi Nick. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in February this year. I have lost 17kg and reduced my carbs to 100g per day. My Hb1AC went from 48 to 28 in 6 months and my diabetes is now in remission. I share everything I eat on Instagram at @whatabbiate if you need meal inspiration.
The test you had done would be the HbA1C which is an average over a three month period so it is not relevant whether it is fasting or not but often for other tests it would need to be fasting.
At 52 or 51 you are still in the diabetic zone but only just so some dietary changes should improve things without medication at this point. Many people find that by getting blood glucose levels down it also improves cholesterol level.]
Hello and welcome
As you are only just in the diabetic zone, you should be able to get your HbA1c down with a few tweaks and sensible eating, without the need for medication. You know what your dietary issues are! I think most people would admit that they like snacks, but I suggest you swap yours for a light breakfast and lunch (if you struggle to eat during the day), so you won't want to snack in the evening. It would also give your glucose something to work on during the day. There is a thread here "What did you eat yesterday" to give you some ideas.
Since being diagnosed, I eat better, exercise regularly, feel so much better, and many others say the same.
Cholesterol isn’t just one number. On diagnosis my total cholesterol was ok but the LDL HDL and my ratios were totally out of range. I think they call it a lipid profile. Not sure how much you know about those but LDL is all your bad fats, HDL good. So less of the fried stuff, pastries etc and more good fats e.g nuts fatty fish avocado eggs. I use thriva for my blood tests. I’ve gone from being in the red for all bar total cholesterol to now in optimal range for all 5 types/ratios. Triglycerides is another one. I’m not really sure what it all means but I do the test every 6 months and they send me a pretty graph with tips. My last message from the doctor was whatever your doing keep doing it. My sugars have come down to in the middle of normal range , not even prediabetic! Would still love to demolish an entire pack of Scottish shortbread… but I’m not gonna😛
Probably should try and find a decent testing kit for my blood to see what I am playing with, so any suggestions for a fairly handy informative testing kit would be appreciated. As for breakfast, erm, don't eat breakfast nor dinner, just Tea followed by snacking into the evening. (Not very well behaved here)
I did not want the long period of higher blood glucose which I found when I did not eat fairly early - I was never one to have breakfast when it was something high carb.
I am really sensitive to carbs and when first diagnosed I was eating 50 gm of carbs a day - now I am down to 40 gm max to try to get down into normal figures, but that didn't happen - but I am sure others don't need to be as strict as me, though I do like the foods I eat and can really recommend the bubble and squeak I make with mashed swede various veges and eggs beaten into it, served with boiled bacon.
I have two meals a day and find I don't need to snack.
Thank you. When I finally start taking this seriously I am pretty sure that if I was to record my carb intake and post it on here I would probably get shouted at. I think joining this forum was the first sensible thing I have done.
Cholesterol isn’t just one number. On diagnosis my total cholesterol was ok but the LDL HDL and my ratios were totally out of range. I think they call it a lipid profile. Not sure how much you know about those but LDL is all your bad fats, HDL good. So less of the fried stuff, pastries etc and more good fats e.g nuts fatty fish avocado eggs. I use thriva for my blood tests. I’ve gone from being in the red for all bar total cholesterol to now in optimal range for all 5 types/ratios. Triglycerides is another one. I’m not really sure what it all means but I do the test every 6 months and they send me a pretty graph with tips. My last message from the doctor was whatever your doing keep doing it. My sugars have come down to in the middle of normal range , not even prediabetic! Would still love to demolish an entire pack of Scottish shortbread… but I’m not gonna😛
Only SOME of the LDL is 'the bad stuff' - whereas the 'good' part of LDL serves an ABSOLUTELY essential purpose!
The very simplistic way I look at it is, if you picture your brain as being the junction box of your whole nervous system, and the body's nervous system consisting of electrical wires similar to your home and we can all probably see some of those wires into/out of various appliances wherever we happen to be - because there's electricity flowing in various directions back and forth in a multitude of different directions through the junction box constantly enabling all your 'bits' to function - some bits get entangled and so constant maintenance is required to sort the wiring out and repair any bits of insulation (the myelin sheaths) etc that are wearing out before there are actual breaks in the wiring. And blimey! - the good bit of the LDL, enables this to occur by transporting the electrician and his toolkit from wherever he is, into the junction box to carry out the maintenance/repairs.
Of course it's more complicated than that and they still haven't found a reasonable way of physically measuring how much LDL any living creature actually has circulating but do have a formula for getting a good estimation of it using actual measurements of circulating HDL and Trigs in the blood stream.
However yes - very often by reducing our carbohydrate consumption as well as reducing our blood glucose a welcome added side effect of that, is to improve the ratios between the 3 elements of our serum (blood) lipids.
Nobody can guarantee that will happen and we're all going to die anyway - but since I don't wish a long lingering miserable death on any creature, since reducing your carb consumption is such an easy thing to do with no adverse side effects, surely it's got to be worth a go!
Wow ! see this is why I said I didn’t really get it but if I read your post a few times over it might help. See what I don’t get, although all my bits and bobs are optimal that actual total cholesterol is 5.1 which is still fine but I would of thought it would of been lower. Is that the high HDL do you think? I was told LDL was bad fats by the first DN I saw, or was it triglycerides ? This is way too complicated… I think my junction box has overloaded
Wow ! see this is why I said I didn’t really get it but if I read your post a few times over it might help. See what I don’t get, although all my bits and bobs are optimal that actual total cholesterol is 5.1 which is still fine but I would of thought it would of been lower. Is that the high HDL do you think? I was told LDL was bad fats by the first DN I saw, or was it triglycerides ? This is way too complicated… I think my junction box has overloaded
@EmmaL76 Cholesterol is so vital to our bodies that our brains make their own.
While Oxidised and Glycated LDL is thought to be bad for us (dense LDL), the LDL that fresh from our liver is good - why would our body make something that is bad for us?
Drug companies and Doctors have demonised LDL for almost 70 yrs ( mainly in order to sell Statins).But how many people know the following proven facts:
1. More people with low LDL have heart attacks than those with high LDL
2. In people over 70 it was found that those with the highest cholesterol lived the longest.
3. Although taking statins (on average) does reduce the number of heart attacks, it also increases the number of heart failures!
Look forward to hearing more of your experiences over the coming weeks, as you begin to make some positive tweaks and adjustments to your menu and eating habits to try to bring your diabetes into line.
There are no right answers, only better questions - and finding a way of managing diabetes that works for you as an individual.
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
