feeling sick not sure why!

[Peter Carman]

diagnosed in Sept 2017. metformin totally disagreed with me. 2 weeks of being suck headaches and the trots!
put on glucophage sr. went upto to 3 tablets a day but felt rotten again. took matters into my own hands went to 1 tablet a day and a low carb diet.cut bread pasta rice and root veg right down. last 3 month test had high colesteral. put on 1 statin a day and told to take 2 glucophage. been on this regime for 3 weeks with no problem till now. last few days ( i work night shifts all the time) i get up about 9pm have a pint of water then drive to work about 30 mins. i then have a tin of tuna in spring water normally with some salad . by 1am i have what seems chronic indegestion, heartburn and feeling sick. this last all night. im also running out of energy by 4am. i normally have a few almonds about 2am and my lunch about 4am (more salad) then some more almonds or cashews about 6am. i drink 1 cup of tea at 11pm then 4 pints of water over the night. i have normal bowel movements but not sure why im feeling c**p!

any advice? I hear horror stories about statins

 

[Jeandp]

Sorry you are feeling unwell. I am no expert by any means but from what you say you seem to be eating very little. Are you losing weight? Can you add any fats to your diet? Full fat Greek yogurt is delicious, maybe with some raspberries. Bacon and eggs? High meat content sausage?
I brought my bg levels down and improved my cholesterol by eating low carb high fat (that just means normal fat, not excessive amounts) and my GP has taken me off metformin and statins. Just my experience, we are not all the same. Good luck!

 

[Robin]

The problem with diabetes is that there's a tendency to put down everything to 'oh it's the diabetes' It may be that you've just got a bug of some sort, so keep an open mind.

 

[trophywench]

Well presumably your HbA1c test must have been too high, hence they asked you to increase the tablets. Glucophage SR is the 'slow release' version of common or garden Metformin, not a different drug.

Sounds to me like you are filling yourself up with water instead of food. Is this the reason for the indigestion/nausea? .Salad, frankly (and I do love it myself) is not all that filling, very low carb and calorie value but shedloads more water. However we don't know what you consume after you leave work. Protein is a lot more filling than carbs but no mention of any dietary fat to speak of there.

High blood glucose can cause nausea too, and unless you have high blood glucose in between blood tests at the doctor's, your results from his tests wouldn't be high. Do you have a meter and do finger prick blood tests to find out when the daily highs are and which foods make it better or worse? How else are you ever going to know which things to cut down on and which to keep in your diet?

Is it a very hot environment at work cos needing to drink over half a gallon of liquid over a shift sounds a lot to both me and my husband (non diabetic) unless eg you're a foundry worker?

 

[Drummer]

Your diet does seem to lack fats - they are a good energy source, and they are also essential in our diets, so you could find that having an oil and vinegar dressing on your salad, or even mayonnaise or coleslaw will improve things.
Starting your day with coffee and cream might help too.
Adding eggs and cheese might be an idea - the cholesterol in your body is not derived from your diet, so you don't need to worry all that much - particularly as when there was a revolt against taking statins in France a while ago the death rate from whatever it they are supposed to protect against went down by almost the same number it was predicted it would rise. All the 'information' about cholesterol and hart disease, is very suspect - highly selected, and when examined seems to fall apart.

 

[Maz2]

Your diet does seem to lack fats - they are a good energy source, and they are also essential in our diets, so you could find that having an oil and vinegar dressing on your salad, or even mayonnaise or coleslaw will improve things.
Starting your day with coffee and cream might help too.
Adding eggs and cheese might be an idea - the cholesterol in your body is not derived from your diet, so you don't need to worry all that much - particularly as when there was a revolt against taking statins in France a while ago the death rate from whatever it they are supposed to protect against went down by almost the same number it was predicted it would rise. All the 'information' about cholesterol and hart disease, is very suspect - highly selected, and when examined seems to fall apart.

Haven't heard that one Drummer about France. Must look into that. That is very interesting as I have two friends with high cholesterol who are terrified of fat.

 

[Mark Parrott]

Haven't heard that one Drummer about France. Must look into that. That is very interesting as I have two friends with high cholesterol who are terrified of fat.

Most people are still terrified of fat & there are some processed fats that are bad and should be avoided, but natural fats are fine. My total cholesterol didn't come down since going LCHF but the ratios completely changed for the better & this really confuses the Gp's as their computers still flag it up as bad when it isn't.

 

[Maz2]

You have done really well Mark to get yours resolved. Lord knows why mine has gone up pre-diabetic again. GP baffled too but have to have another test next year. Have not changed the diet really. Oh well, will start testing again and battle on.

My Optometrist follows LCHF (not diabetic) and he said a lot of docs don't differentiate the bad and good cholesterol so people are told it is too high. My surgery does differentiate. this time mine had gone up to total 4.7 and I was a bit peeved that that had increased as well, although not much. GP said does not matter about the total, it is the good and the bad. The bad was down, good up, and the ratio good to bad was better. At least that is something.