Diabetes even though doctor says no?

[Aqualibra]

Hello everyone, I have been having strange symptoms that I have long since suspected were type 2 diabetes for about ten years - but I have been to the doctors about it twice, and each time they said no. All blood tests were normal, except for slight dehydration.

However, is it possible for doctors to miss it? I was/am already adhering to a low-carb diet, so perhaps my blood sugar readings came back normal at the time of testing and the problem was missed.

Please let me give you a little background information on me, and any advice or insight you might have would be much appreciated. I am a. 35-year-old female, not overweight, don’t smoke. I have had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) since my late teens, and in my mid-twenties, went on a low-carb diet as I had read this could significantly reduce IBS symptoms.

I was very strict with it, and ate no sugars, grains or starches for about two years. It did help with my IBS, and I also lost about 15 pounds. After about a year of doing this diet, I went to stay with a vegetarian friend, who served a relatively high-carb meal of jacket potatoes and hummus. I decided taking one day off from my diet would be okay, and ate this, but then woke up in the middle of the diet feeling awful - a splitting headache, nausea, dehydration, and just generally terrible. My symptoms persisted into the next day, I had no appetite at all, and the only thing that started to ease the symptoms was alcohol - I drank a couple of vodka and Diet Cokes, and gradually the symptoms receded, until I was back to normal.

After that, the same thing happened repeatedly. If I ate carbohydrates, I would experience significant discomfort the next day, and the only thing that would get rid of the symptoms was alcohol - presumably because it was lowering my blood sugar.

For the next few years, I could avoid these symptoms simply not by eating much carbohydrate - or if I did, eating them with alcohol - but in the last six months or so, that doesn’t seem to help any more. No matter what I eat, I am getting some manifestations of the symptoms the next day. Not as extreme as when I first experienced them, but still very noticeable - the two main symptoms being dehydration and dry mouth (a feeling like all the water has been sucked out of my body) and fatigue.

However, these symptoms are NOT accompanied by excessive thirst, excessive hunger (actually when I have these symptoms, I have no appetite at all), excessive urination or slow wound healing. My immune system seems to be very good, and I don’t get frequent infections etc. I have also never in my life woken up at night to go to the toilet, and don’t go very often in the day.

To further complicate this however, I have recently developed cataracts, and had one removed. I know diabetes can cause cataracts, but I also have an inherited eye condition which causes early cataracts, and according to the ophthalmologists, that is what caused mine. I don’t have glaucoma and apparently my retinas look healthy.

I have reported all these symptoms to the doctor, and had my blood sugars tested, but as I say,, everything came back normal. However, this was a few years ago. So any advice much appreciated - does this sound like it could be diabetes that has been missed?

 

[robert@fm]

It could very well be; I spotted that I had T2 a month before my GP did.

T2 actually starts at birth or not long after, but typically takes 40 years or more to become severe enough to be detected on a routine blood test. I had my first hypo (that I know of) some 15 years before I was diagnosed (it was a very hot day so I wasn't hungry and thus hadn't eaten anything), and was frightened because I had no idea what it was.

I would recommend that you get back to your GP and ask to be tested again; just because you were "non-diabetic" (or "pre-diabetic" would probably be more accurate) back then, doesn't mean that you still are. Time and chance happen to us all.

 

[Aqualibra]

Many thanks, Robert. I didn't know that about T2 beginning at birth, very interesting. That would actually make sense, as as a child/teenager I already seemed to have some blood sugar control issues; my blood sugar was typically extremely low in the mornings before I had eaten anything, and people would often comment on how pale I was. I've also just read diabetes and IBS tend to go hand in hand.

I will return to the GP. One thing they didn't do was a glucose tolerance test - just fasting sugars and random sugars - so perhaps I shall ask them to do that.

Thanks again.

 

[pav]

I went to the docs about being diabetic due to having the symptoms and they said I was ok. It was only some time later when I was in a right mess did they then say I was diabetic, a fair amount of time had passed between my first asking and actually being confirmed as diabetic.

 

[Aqualibra]

Thanks Pav. So it seems doctors can indeed miss diabetes. Looks like I will have to go back.

 

[mikeyB]

If you have had these same symptoms for 10 years it is unlikely that you will get a different answer. You could always ask the doctor for an HbA1c blood test, which will show your average blood glucose over the last three months. If that is normal, then you don’t have diabetes. Nor is it likely to tell you whether you ever will, unless the result is at the very top end of normal.

This blood test is routinely done when someone presents with symptoms that may be diabetes, so it’s not doctors “missing” diabetes, it just isn’t present at the time of testing.

 

[JayBay]

If you are on a low carb diet any HBa1c test could come back with low figures. Doctors should use the glucose tolerance test, where they take a fasting blood and then give you a sugar drink. Two hours later they take another blood test. This shows how your body deals with sugar. This is how I was diagnosed. My HBa1c is low 40s because my diabetes is controlled.

 

[Drummer]

My Hba1c has been normal for months now - but I was diagnosed with full blown diabetes as I was not eating my normal diet, putting on huge amounts of weight and feeling very dismal.
I am now eating just as I did for decades to control my weight, and would not show up as diabetic in the tests usually done.
Low carb is a powerful tool for controlling blood glucose, but it can mask diabetes very effectively.

 

[Amigo]

If you are on a low carb diet any HBa1c test could come back with low figures. Doctors should use the glucose tolerance test, where they take a fasting blood and then give you a sugar drink. Two hours later they take another blood test. This shows how your body deals with sugar. This is how I was diagnosed. My HBa1c is low 40s because my diabetes is controlled.

This isn’t the recommended method of diagnosing diabetes now however according to my GP. The Hba1c test is the accepted diagnostic tool.

 

[Aqualibra]

Thanks everyone. My concern is that, as Mike says, as I've been having these symptoms for such a long time, and I've already been to the doctors twice, if I go again, I'll just get the same result, and be no further along! I'm at a loss as to what else could be causing these symptoms though. The only thing I have theorised is that I somehow damaged my metabolism when I went on a very low-carb diet, as apparently this can happen - you can make yourself glucose intolerant; not diabetic, but the symptoms will be similar. The explanation is, when you go very low carb, your body responds by prioritising the brain for what little glucose there is in the diet (from vegetables etc), because the brain needs it most. To ensure the glucose goes to the brain, the body trains the cells in the rest of the body not to absorb it. Therefore, they become effectively intolerant to it. This sounds like diabetes, but isn't quite the same, because the problem isn't insulin resistance. However, if this is the problem, I'm not sure how to reverse it - other than eating carbs and hoping the body eventually adjusts back?

 

[Mark Parrott]

Thanks everyone. My concern is that, as Mike says, as I've been having these symptoms for such a long time, and I've already been to the doctors twice, if I go again, I'll just get the same result, and be no further along! I'm at a loss as to what else could be causing these symptoms though. The only thing I have theorised is that I somehow damaged my metabolism when I went on a very low-carb diet, as apparently this can happen - you can make yourself glucose intolerant; not diabetic, but the symptoms will be similar. The explanation is, when you go very low carb, your body responds by prioritising the brain for what little glucose there is in the diet (from vegetables etc), because the brain needs it most. To ensure the glucose goes to the brain, the body trains the cells in the rest of the body not to absorb it. Therefore, they become effectively intolerant to it. This sounds like diabetes, but isn't quite the same, because the problem isn't insulin resistance. However, if this is the problem, I'm not sure how to reverse it - other than eating carbs and hoping the body eventually adjusts back?

I have never heard of this. On a low carb diet, the body will burn fat & also convert fat & protein to glucose but much slower than carbs. My insulin resistance has improved since going low carb. If I eat carbs now, I don't get the very high peaks that I used to, though still go higher than a non diabetic. I don't suffer any of these symptoms or have heard of anyone else following low carb to suffer these also. It must be frustrating to have these problems and not know what's causing them. I think you may have another underlying problem that's causing this & your GP needs to find out what it is. Keep badgering him!

 

[Aqualibra]

Thanks Mark. Yes, I have also read that low-carbing should improve response to carbs, so all very confusing!

I have also wondered whether there could be something else wrong, which has some symptoms similar to diabetes, but actually isn’t. For instance, one would think if I had had diabetes for 10+ years, some more of the classic symptoms would have developed by now, such as increased trips to the toilet, and excessive hunger and thirst, but they haven’t. Also no weight changes for years.

I wonder if it could be adrenal fatigue, a condition which can’t really be picked up in doctors’ tests, and whose symptoms do have some crossover with diabetes. Apparently, this condition comes with salt cravings, which I do definitely have, put it on everything - I never crave sugar though.

The two main symptoms I have - dehydration and fatigue in the morning - are consistent with adrenal issues, as is the fact that the dehydrated feeling isn’t usually accompanied by thirst. Plus, about two-thirds of people with adrenal fatigue have IBS (not sure what the numbers are for diabetes).

So this seems a possibility, perhaps.

 

[mikeyB]

Sounds very much like you’ve got googling symptoms down to a fine art, Aqualibra, but not the skill to identify guff. There’s no such thing as adrenal fatigue, except on the internet. The only folk who believe it exists are conmen who want to sell you products to ‘wake up’ your adrenal glands. Their big selling point is doctors can’t test for it.

Aye, right.

If your adrenal glands were underperforming that would have been picked up by the doctors tests, and you don’t have the symptoms of it anyway.

So please stop googling, it’s a swamp out there. Wait and see what your doctor says.

 

[Aqualibra]

Mike, your rude and condescending tone is neither warranted or appreciated. I’ve been to the doctors twice and they haven’t found anything, as my post clearly states. I’d appreciate you not commenting again if you can’t be polite.

 

[stephknits]

Mike is only concerned that we can all fall into the trap of googling stuff and being led astray by false information. These claims and sites are very clever and can seem very convincing.

 

[Aqualibra]

That may be the case, but there are ways of expressing that politely, as you have just done. He was very rude and patronising, and it was completely uncalled for.

 

[Amigo]

If I’d relied purely on what my doctor had told me over the years, I’d be dead now!

However, it’s vital that medical information gleaned from google searches can be set into context and not grasped as an answer in isolation. Doctors are always dismissive and offended at the very idea that mere mortals can also accurately research, interpret and actually understand medical information.

I’ve had to because I’m caught up in a DIY cancer system and am becoming increasingly disallusioned by beleaguered, out of date doctors who really can’t be bothered to update their knowledge base as medicine and treatment possibilities advance.

 

[trophywench]

..... but most certainly has years of medical training behind him which the vast majority of us don't, so his actual knowledge of medical symptoms and conditions shouldn't be ignored, even if we don't like what he says .......

 

[Amigo]

..... but most certainly has years of medical training behind him which the vast majority of us don't, so his actual knowledge of medical symptoms and conditions shouldn't be ignored, even if we don't like what he says .......

My response wasn’t directed at Mike TW. It was a general observation. It’s not many years ago conditions like fibromyalgia and CFS were dismissed. We still have doctors pretty clueless about diabetes regardless of their ‘years of training.’

 

[Aqualibra]

If I’d relied purely on what my doctor had told me over the years, I’d be dead now!

However, it’s vital that medical information gleaned from google searches can be set into context and not grasped as an answer in isolation. Doctors are always dismissive and offended at the very idea that mere mortals can also accurately research, interpret and actually understand medical information.

I’ve had to because I’m caught up in a DIY cancer system and am becoming increasingly disallusioned by beleaguered, out of date doctors who really can’t be bothered to update their knowledge base as medicine and treatment possibilities advance.

I agree, Amigo. Doctors can be very arrogant and close-minded, and often do not keep up-to-date on the latest research - they did nothing for my IBS (actually what they prescribed made it worse), whereas information from "Dr. Google" helped me. Obviously when doctors get it wrong, or can't find anything, one must explore other options.

I am very sorry to hear about your cancer, and hope things improve for you soon.