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hazey59

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Type 2
Hi recently diagnosed as Type 2 with HbA1C of 50. Wanting to avoid medication, deal with a fatty liver and reduce weight. Great to see how other people have managed this already but i do have some questions.
 
hazey59 said:
Hi recently diagnosed as Type 2 with HbA1C of 50. Wanting to avoid medication, deal with a fatty liver and reduce weight. Great to see how other people have managed this already but i do have some questions.
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Welcome to the forum, 50mmol/mol is where I started off and by making some dietary changes I reduced my HbA1C to normal within 6 months with no medication. I followed a low carbohydrate approach following the principals in this link https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/.
Do fire away with your questions.
 
Hi thank you for your replies. I suspected that I was insulin resistant and have been taking blood glucose readings with the finger prick test for a month. I am not sure how to interpret my results, particularly will i get to a point where my pancreas is reacting properly to what i am eating. As an example, yesterday's readings were 5.9 on waking, 6.4 after my tea at 6pm and 4.2 (my lowest reading yet) after i went for a 30 min walk. This morning my reading on waking is 5 5. Since cutting carbs about 2 months ago i have lost 22lbs which i am very happy about and hope it will help to repair my fatty liver.
 
hazey59 said:
Hi thank you for your replies. I suspected that I was insulin resistant and have been taking blood glucose readings with the finger prick test for a month. I am not sure how to interpret my results, particularly will i get to a point where my pancreas is reacting properly to what i am eating. As an example, yesterday's readings were 5.9 on waking, 6.4 after my tea at 6pm and 4.2 (my lowest reading yet) after i went for a 30 min walk. This morning my reading on waking is 5 5. Since cutting carbs about 2 months ago i have lost 22lbs which i am very happy about and hope it will help to repair my fatty liver.
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Hi, well done on the weight loss, that's amazing and as for the rest - sounds perfectly fine to me 🙂 I may be corrected though but those BS are very similar to mine and thats is quite good for me 😉

Welcome to the site also - I am sure you will get the best advice too as people on here are very informative - always check too with your doctor or nurse :D
 
hazey59 said:
Hi thank you for your replies. I suspected that I was insulin resistant and have been taking blood glucose readings with the finger prick test for a month. I am not sure how to interpret my results, particularly will i get to a point where my pancreas is reacting properly to what i am eating. As an example, yesterday's readings were 5.9 on waking, 6.4 after my tea at 6pm and 4.2 (my lowest reading yet) after i went for a 30 min walk. This morning my reading on waking is 5 5. Since cutting carbs about 2 months ago i have lost 22lbs which i am very happy about and hope it will help to repair my fatty liver.
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Sounds to me like you've probably nailed it. Well done!
 
It looks like a brilliant result after a relatively short time. With those readings I would expect you should see a really good result in your HbA1C which you should ask for3 months after the first one.
The thing now is to make it your new normal.
 
hazey59 said:
Hi thank you for your replies. I suspected that I was insulin resistant and have been taking blood glucose readings with the finger prick test for a month. I am not sure how to interpret my results, particularly will i get to a point where my pancreas is reacting properly to what i am eating. As an example, yesterday's readings were 5.9 on waking, 6.4 after my tea at 6pm and 4.2 (my lowest reading yet) after i went for a 30 min walk. This morning my reading on waking is 5 5. Since cutting carbs about 2 months ago i have lost 22lbs which i am very happy about and hope it will help to repair my fatty liver.
Click to expand...

Those are great readings! It sounds like you’re doing fantastically, and that weight loss will have helped you too 🙂
 
Those are fab results, so many congratulations on managing your levels so well and the amazing weight loss. I would say that you can expect an HbA1c in the normal range if those results are pretty much the norm for you now. Well done!

Are you wanting to know if you can relax your dietary control a bit now and whether your pancreas will be able to manage? If so, that is something that you will have to experiment with using you BG meter to assess your body's response but those readings are well within the normal range, so you have room to experiment or you may wish to wait until after your next HbA1c result to experiment, so that you can officially see your progress. Keeping the weight off will most likely be key to managing it long term if you want to go back to a more normal diet. Personally I find that I now enjoy eating low carb and feel it is healthier for me in other respects (less joint pain, no more migraines, better skin, stronger bones and teeth) as well as helping with my diabetes management so I prefer to continue low carb for the rest of my life, but you have to find what suits you and your body and your test meter will help you with that.
 
rebrascora said:
Those are fab results, so many congratulations on managing your levels so well and the amazing weight loss. I would say that you can expect an HbA1c in the normal range if those results are pretty much the norm for you now. Well done!

Are you wanting to know if you can relax your dietary control a bit now and whether your pancreas will be able to manage? If so, that is something that you will have to experiment with using you BG meter to assess your body's response but those readings are well within the normal range, so you have room to experiment or you may wish to wait until after your next HbA1c result to experiment, so that you can officially see your progress. Keeping the weight off will most likely be key to managing it long term if you want to go back to a more normal diet. Personally I find that I now enjoy eating low carb and feel it is healthier for me in other respects (less joint pain, no more migraines, better skin, stronger bones and teeth) as well as helping with my diabetes management so I prefer to continue low carb for the rest of my life, but you have to find what suits you and your body and your test meter will help you with that.
Click to expand...
Thank you, i found it really encouraging when you mentioned low carb eating helped with joint pain and migraine as i too suffer with both. Yes you are right, when i lose a few more kgs i will think about adjusting my diet. I think my question about insulin resistance is about whether that can be healed, so that insulin can do its job of opening the cells to allow glucose to be used for fuel. I am also wondering if the low readings i get after exercise, and the weight loss, is proof that this is now happening.
 
hazey59 said:
Thank you, i found it really encouraging when you mentioned low carb eating helped with joint pain and migraine as i too suffer with both. Yes you are right, when i lose a few more kgs i will think about adjusting my diet. I think my question about insulin resistance is about whether that can be healed, so that insulin can do its job of opening the cells to allow glucose to be used for fuel. I am also wondering if the low readings i get after exercise, and the weight loss, is proof that this is now happening.
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When we exercise, glucose uptake into muscles doesn’t use insulin.
 
hazey59 said:
I think my question about insulin resistance is about whether that can be healed, so that insulin can do its job of opening the cells to allow glucose to be used for fuel.
Click to expand...
I think the thing to understand is that your insulin is still doing that job but just a bit less efficiently if you suffer with insulin resistance. There are however several elements to Type 2 diabetes and all the mechanisms are not fully understood, but insulin resistance is one part of it which you may or may not be experiencing. I think of insulin resistance a bit like having a big meal at a friend's house and feeling full but the host encouraging you to have a bit more. The cells get to the point that they are comfortably full of fat stores but the surplus glucose keeps coming and they don't really feel comfortable taking anymore but a persuasive host (insulin) can encourage you to have just a bit more. Exercise uses up some of those stores so the cells feel more comfortable and able to take more glucose without having to be pressured into it by the insulin. I think Professor Roy Taylor talks about an individual fat threshold, which is why some people can be obese and not be diabetic but other people can be barely overweight at all and have reached their fat threshold.
Another aspect of Type 2 diabetes is the balance and communication between the liver and pancreas. The liver releases glucose in the absence of food to keep vital organs fueled and the pancreas trickles out insulin to cover it but when the liver and pancreas are packed with visceral fat, they don't communicate so well, so the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the liver releases too much glucose or both which results in an imbalance. So it isn't just about insulin resistance and you may even be Type 2 diabetic and not have insulin resistance but have visceral fat causing your liver output and pancreas output to be out of step. I think some people who experience highs and lows when they are first diagnosed may have mostly this problem.
Anyway, putting less glucose into your blood stream by eating less carbs means that your cells are not being pressured to take more glucose than they want to and store it as fat and increasing exercise means that they use up some of their stores so they have room to store some excess if you do occasionally have a treat here and there and losing weight will help to burn off the visceral fat and enable the pancreas and liver to communicate better and work in harmony at balancing your BG. Keeping an eye on your BG levels will show you if your body is managing to cope with the glucose you are providing it with and the fasting reading on a morning particularly shows you if your pancreas and liver are managing to balance things. I think if your diabetes has been uncontrolled for a long time and the pancreas has been having to work overtime to overcome insulin resistance, it gets to the stage that it runs dry through persistent overwork and that may be the point at which diabetes is no longer reversible, but in your situation, you are getting good fasting readings and good post meal reading so providing you can maintain the weight loss and not overload your system beyond what it can cope with then it should work reasonably efficiently again.


The above is very much my own interpretation of how I see the main mechanisms of Type 2 diabetes. I think there may be more factors at play than those 2 main ones of insulin resistance and visceral fat but that is as simple as I can explain it.

There is every reason to be optimistic with the results you are seeing. How strict with your carb intake are you being to get those numbers?
 
Leadinglights said:
It looks like a brilliant result after a relatively short time. With those readings I would expect you should see a really good result in your HbA1C which you should ask for3 months after the first one.
The thing now is to make it your new normal.
Click to expand...
yes thank you, i am hoping my HbA1c will be significantly lower when test due in early November.
 
rebrascora said:
I think the thing to understand is that your insulin is still doing that job but just a bit less efficiently if you suffer with insulin resistance. There are however several elements to Type 2 diabetes and all the mechanisms are not fully understood, but insulin resistance is one part of it which you may or may not be experiencing. I think of insulin resistance a bit like having a big meal at a friend's house and feeling full but the host encouraging you to have a bit more. The cells get to the point that they are comfortably full of fat stores but the surplus glucose keeps coming and they don't really feel comfortable taking anymore but a persuasive host (insulin) can encourage you to have just a bit more. Exercise uses up some of those stores so the cells feel more comfortable and able to take more glucose without having to be pressured into it by the insulin. I think Professor Roy Taylor talks about an individual fat threshold, which is why some people can be obese and not be diabetic but other people can be barely overweight at all and have reached their fat threshold.
Another aspect of Type 2 diabetes is the balance and communication between the liver and pancreas. The liver releases glucose in the absence of food to keep vital organs fueled and the pancreas trickles out insulin to cover it but when the liver and pancreas are packed with visceral fat, they don't communicate so well, so the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the liver releases too much glucose or both which results in an imbalance. So it isn't just about insulin resistance and you may even be Type 2 diabetic and not have insulin resistance but have visceral fat causing your liver output and pancreas output to be out of step. I think some people who experience highs and lows when they are first diagnosed may have mostly this problem.
Anyway, putting less glucose into your blood stream by eating less carbs means that your cells are not being pressured to take more glucose than they want to and store it as fat and increasing exercise means that they use up some of their stores so they have room to store some excess if you do occasionally have a treat here and there and losing weight will help to burn off the visceral fat and enable the pancreas and liver to communicate better and work in harmony at balancing your BG. Keeping an eye on your BG levels will show you if your body is managing to cope with the glucose you are providing it with and the fasting reading on a morning particularly shows you if your pancreas and liver are managing to balance things. I think if your diabetes has been uncontrolled for a long time and the pancreas has been having to work overtime to overcome insulin resistance, it gets to the stage that it runs dry through persistent overwork and that may be the point at which diabetes is no longer reversible, but in your situation, you are getting good fasting readings and good post meal reading so providing you can maintain the weight loss and not overload your system beyond what it can cope with then it should work reasonably efficiently again.


The above is very much my own interpretation of how I see the main mechanisms of Type 2 diabetes. I think there may be more factors at play than those 2 main ones of insulin resistance and visceral fat but that is as simple as I can explain it.

There is every reason to be optimistic with the results you are seeing. How strict with your carb intake are you being to get those numbers?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the explanation. Regarding reducing carb intake, i started cutting out carbs because i read that sugar causes inflammation and my leg muscles were very sore. I asked my GP to do blood tests to find out the cause of the pains which was how the HbA1c was discovered to be 50 along with the fatty liver diagnosis. So cut out sugar, honey, bread, cakes, biscuits, rice, pasta, pastry, cereals and fasted breakfast and lunch to reduce the number of times my insulin was spiked. I drink lemon and ginger tea or green tea at work and eat meat and salad or roast vegetables plus natural yoghurt and berries on an evening. However maybe once a week i will have a baked potato, a few chips, or a small icecream or occasionally a small cake, and then i will test my BS to see what effect those things have had, and most likely will go out for a walk to reduce the figures again.
 
That is quite extreme cutting out both breakfast and lunch and just eating low carb on an evening especially when your HbA1c was not desperately high but good that you have been a little flexible with the treats on an evening occasionally. Are you comfortable living like that or is this why you are wanting to know if your pancreas can cope with more?

Personally I like breakfast (love my Greek yoghurt and berries and seeds and coffee with cream) but not bothered about lunch most days and then I sometimes have a meal in the evening or sometimes just graze throughout the afternoon or evening on low carb foods. I live alone so I can please myself whether I cook a meal or just pick at some snacks. Sometimes I will just have a pot of olives with feta or a plate of broccoli with sour cream and chive dip or some little stuffed peppadew peppers or just a chunk of nice cheese. But I definitely think there is room in your regime to be a little less strict if you want to be. Even if your levels spike up to 10 or 11 very occasionally it isn't a great concern as long as the majority of your levels are in range.
 
Yes I agree I have some wiggle room now but for a long time i wasn't able to lose weight and my bmi was 39, so it is very motivating to see the scales gradually drop pounds, knowing that i have both fat in my liver and visceral fat to burn. At last i have found a method that works and i do not feel tired or hungry by not eating till 6 ish as i keep well hydrated during the day. During lockdown i ate what you are eating, greek yoghurt, seeds, nuts, smoothies made of spinach and avocado, strawberries and almond milk but i didn't lose weight. When not trying to eat healthily my whole diet was carb based for every meal and snack, so for me i have spent the last two months experimenting with different foods - like one day i ate 4 ginger biscuits and 6 cream crackers with jam and got my highest ever reading which was 7. Another day i ate chippy fish and chips and my reading was 6.8.
I understand there is something called the Dawn effect where your readings are higher on a morning as your liver releases glucose to start your day but over this time of recording my readings seem to be fairly steady on 5 something each morning.
I was only diagnosed in July so i am trying to understand it all and am grateful that there are experienced people on this site, like yourself, who are willing to share.
 
rebrascora said:
I think the thing to understand is that your insulin is still doing that job but just a bit less efficiently if you suffer with insulin resistance. There are however several elements to Type 2 diabetes and all the mechanisms are not fully understood, but insulin resistance is one part of it which you may or may not be experiencing. I think of insulin resistance a bit like having a big meal at a friend's house and feeling full but the host encouraging you to have a bit more. The cells get to the point that they are comfortably full of fat stores but the surplus glucose keeps coming and they don't really feel comfortable taking anymore but a persuasive host (insulin) can encourage you to have just a bit more. Exercise uses up some of those stores so the cells feel more comfortable and able to take more glucose without having to be pressured into it by the insulin. I think Professor Roy Taylor talks about an individual fat threshold, which is why some people can be obese and not be diabetic but other people can be barely overweight at all and have reached their fat threshold.
Another aspect of Type 2 diabetes is the balance and communication between the liver and pancreas. The liver releases glucose in the absence of food to keep vital organs fueled and the pancreas trickles out insulin to cover it but when the liver and pancreas are packed with visceral fat, they don't communicate so well, so the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the liver releases too much glucose or both which results in an imbalance. So it isn't just about insulin resistance and you may even be Type 2 diabetic and not have insulin resistance but have visceral fat causing your liver output and pancreas output to be out of step. I think some people who experience highs and lows when they are first diagnosed may have mostly this problem.
Anyway, putting less glucose into your blood stream by eating less carbs means that your cells are not being pressured to take more glucose than they want to and store it as fat and increasing exercise means that they use up some of their stores so they have room to store some excess if you do occasionally have a treat here and there and losing weight will help to burn off the visceral fat and enable the pancreas and liver to communicate better and work in harmony at balancing your BG. Keeping an eye on your BG levels will show you if your body is managing to cope with the glucose you are providing it with and the fasting reading on a morning particularly shows you if your pancreas and liver are managing to balance things. I think if your diabetes has been uncontrolled for a long time and the pancreas has been having to work overtime to overcome insulin resistance, it gets to the stage that it runs dry through persistent overwork and that may be the point at which diabetes is no longer reversible, but in your situation, you are getting good fasting readings and good post meal reading so providing you can maintain the weight loss and not overload your system beyond what it can cope with then it should work reasonably efficiently again.


The above is very much my own interpretation of how I see the main mechanisms of Type 2 diabetes. I think there may be more factors at play than those 2 main ones of insulin resistance and visceral fat but that is as simple as I can explain it.

There is every reason to be optimistic with the results you are seeing. How strict with your carb intake are you being to get those numbers?
Click to expand...
hi @rebrascora, I just want to thank you for your helpful advice and for mentioning Roy Taylor to me. I looked up his study and it made sense of several other terms i have seen on other forum members posts like reference to Fast 800 or the Newcastle diet. I see that fat in both the liver and pancreas is key to a diabetes diagnosis, so reducing that fat is the main aim of both low calorie intake and weight loss - weight loss then has to be maintained to stay in remission from type 2 diabetes but food intake can be adjusted to suit the individual. For myself i will look at including more healthy carbs like lentils and nuts - neither of which i would have considered in my previous way of eating which was highly (bad) carb based.
 
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