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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Newbie hello
- Thread starter Ziggy
- Start date
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rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi Ziggy and welcome
Would you like to tell us a bit more about your diabetes diagnosis?
Things like:-
When you were diagnosed and how that came about? ie Routine blood test or did you go to the GP with symptoms etc?
What if any medication you have been given to help manage your diabetes?
What your HbA1c was if recently diagnosed? This is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes and is usually a number in excess of 47 but can be significantly higher if things have gone significantly awry.
What if any dietary advice you have been given?
Would you like to tell us a bit more about your diabetes diagnosis?
Things like:-
When you were diagnosed and how that came about? ie Routine blood test or did you go to the GP with symptoms etc?
What if any medication you have been given to help manage your diabetes?
What your HbA1c was if recently diagnosed? This is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes and is usually a number in excess of 47 but can be significantly higher if things have gone significantly awry.
What if any dietary advice you have been given?
Hi
Thanks for your reply, I was told I has diabetes 2 in March 2020, after my routine blood test, which I have every 6 months, due to the medication I take, since my heart attack in 2012, as to my HbAlc I am unsure as to where I sit, my meeting with my diabetic nurse, from my GP informed me I was very high, but as this was all new to me, I didn’t take it any further, I was put on Metoformin 500mg twice a day, however after my visit with my diabetic nurse, I was put on Empaglifozin 10mg, once a day, and I still take these to this day, I also suffer with high blood pressure, and again have done since March, I have been on many blood pressure tablets, with no response, I have now been put on 2 different types of BP tablets, that was a month ago, I do feel quite alone as my doctor never contacts me, unless I request a call from him, even though he informs me that he needs to keep his eye on, due to my BP and my diabetes, to this day I have not got a clue how both are, I just seem to keep taking the tablets along with my other 7 I take for my heart, I have never been given any dietary advice.
Thanks for your reply, I was told I has diabetes 2 in March 2020, after my routine blood test, which I have every 6 months, due to the medication I take, since my heart attack in 2012, as to my HbAlc I am unsure as to where I sit, my meeting with my diabetic nurse, from my GP informed me I was very high, but as this was all new to me, I didn’t take it any further, I was put on Metoformin 500mg twice a day, however after my visit with my diabetic nurse, I was put on Empaglifozin 10mg, once a day, and I still take these to this day, I also suffer with high blood pressure, and again have done since March, I have been on many blood pressure tablets, with no response, I have now been put on 2 different types of BP tablets, that was a month ago, I do feel quite alone as my doctor never contacts me, unless I request a call from him, even though he informs me that he needs to keep his eye on, due to my BP and my diabetes, to this day I have not got a clue how both are, I just seem to keep taking the tablets along with my other 7 I take for my heart, I have never been given any dietary advice.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sadly your experience is typical of many in the lack of information and support from their G P practice. Just take these meds without appropriate dietary advice and then they wonder why people are unable to manage their diabetes. You sound to be taking quite a cocktail of meds for various things. There are things you would expect to be having as a diagnosed diabetic, like regular HbA1C so you know where you are and if the medications are working, foot and eye checks.
I would suspect that as you have been given both those meds your HbA1C was quite high but it is important to know what it is so you should ask, that will tell you how much you need to do to get it back to a more normal level.
Even with those meds it will probably still be needed as well.
If you need to lose weight then doing that will both help with blood glucose control but with reducing blood pressure.
Have a read of the Learning Zone to give you a better understanding of what might be needed to manage your condition and please ask any questions you may then have.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think it is likely that some dietary changes may well improve your BP and your BG (Blood Glucose) levels.
The first thing I would suggest is to get yourself a basic BG meter. The two recommended here on the forum by people who self fund, for reliability and economy of use are the Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2. Both are available online and are about £15 for the basic meter kit which includes 10 test strips and lancets. You will need extra test strips which I think you can get for about £8 per pot of 50. Test strips are not universal, so getting a meter which has the cheapest test strips is a good financial choice. You may also need an extra box of lancets and a small sharpsafe box. They should all be available online and do make sure to tick the box to confirm you are diabetic as that will remove the VAT from the price.
Once you get your meter you can start testing and this will enable you TO SEE the impact food you eat has on your BG levels. By testing before and 2 hours after eating a meal you will see the rise in BG that meal caused and if that rise was too much (more than 3 whole units) then you ate too many carbohydrates. Once you have tested a meal that you have regularly (say you have the same breakfast most/every day) and adjusted it so that it doesn't spike your BG levels you can assume that meal is pretty well sorted and concentrate on other meals.
The thing to understand is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose in the digestive system and get absorbed into the blood stream. Non diabetic people produce insulin to remove that glucose and pack it into the cells of the body where it is used for fuel or stored as fat. For us diabetics, either we don't produce enough insulin to remove the glucose or the cells have become resistant to the insulin we produce and are not efficient at accepting the glucose. It may be because the cells have reached their fat threshold and can't store anymore or it may be that the insulin production is delayed because the pancreas and liver have got encased in fat and they aren't communicating well so the insulin release is delayed or the liver which is like a back up battery for the times when we have no food in our system.... ie overnight and when we skip meals... is pumping out too much glucose. Reducing the amount of glucose which is going into the blood stream alleviates the problem very quickly and helps the body to cope better with a reduced level of glucose.
Not sure how much you know about nutrition, but carbohydrates are sugars and starches. These are in most foods so it is not a question of avoiding them but to choose lower carb foods over high carb ones. High carb foods are obviously sugar and cakes and biscuits and sweets, but also grain products, so anything made with flour like bread and pasta and couscous and breakfast cereals and rice and barley and oats and starchy root veg like potatoes and parsnips. Initially you are looking to reduce your portion size of these foods but your meter will guide you on how much of them your body can tolerate and which ones are your Kryptonite and which are a little more forgiving and that can be highly individual, which is why testing is so important. For instance some of us find pasta and bread and porridge are not worth the BG upheaval but a few new potatoes occasionally are OK. That might sound drastic and you may be able to manage a limited amount of bread and pasta or whatever, but portion size will be key and your BG meter will enable you to find that out and tailor your diet to your body's tolerance and your tastes.
If you can slowly adjust your diet so that the meal rise remains below 3, your premeal readings will gradually start to come down and your HbA1c result will improve. I know it all sounds horribly complicated but once yopu get into the swing of it and record everything in a food diary along with the before and after readings it all starts to make sense and become second nature. It takes 2-3 months of intensive testing to get a repertoire of meals that your body is fine with and after that you will just need to test new foods and maybe do an occasional spot test to make sure things are staying on track.
Anyway, that's the basis of the approach that works very well for most of us here on the forum and gives us the knowledge and control to manage our diabetes well and many people here even come off all medication and get their HbA1c result back down into the normal ie non diabetic range. If you can add in a daily walk if you are able, that will also help significantly.
The first thing I would suggest is to get yourself a basic BG meter. The two recommended here on the forum by people who self fund, for reliability and economy of use are the Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2. Both are available online and are about £15 for the basic meter kit which includes 10 test strips and lancets. You will need extra test strips which I think you can get for about £8 per pot of 50. Test strips are not universal, so getting a meter which has the cheapest test strips is a good financial choice. You may also need an extra box of lancets and a small sharpsafe box. They should all be available online and do make sure to tick the box to confirm you are diabetic as that will remove the VAT from the price.
Once you get your meter you can start testing and this will enable you TO SEE the impact food you eat has on your BG levels. By testing before and 2 hours after eating a meal you will see the rise in BG that meal caused and if that rise was too much (more than 3 whole units) then you ate too many carbohydrates. Once you have tested a meal that you have regularly (say you have the same breakfast most/every day) and adjusted it so that it doesn't spike your BG levels you can assume that meal is pretty well sorted and concentrate on other meals.
The thing to understand is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose in the digestive system and get absorbed into the blood stream. Non diabetic people produce insulin to remove that glucose and pack it into the cells of the body where it is used for fuel or stored as fat. For us diabetics, either we don't produce enough insulin to remove the glucose or the cells have become resistant to the insulin we produce and are not efficient at accepting the glucose. It may be because the cells have reached their fat threshold and can't store anymore or it may be that the insulin production is delayed because the pancreas and liver have got encased in fat and they aren't communicating well so the insulin release is delayed or the liver which is like a back up battery for the times when we have no food in our system.... ie overnight and when we skip meals... is pumping out too much glucose. Reducing the amount of glucose which is going into the blood stream alleviates the problem very quickly and helps the body to cope better with a reduced level of glucose.
Not sure how much you know about nutrition, but carbohydrates are sugars and starches. These are in most foods so it is not a question of avoiding them but to choose lower carb foods over high carb ones. High carb foods are obviously sugar and cakes and biscuits and sweets, but also grain products, so anything made with flour like bread and pasta and couscous and breakfast cereals and rice and barley and oats and starchy root veg like potatoes and parsnips. Initially you are looking to reduce your portion size of these foods but your meter will guide you on how much of them your body can tolerate and which ones are your Kryptonite and which are a little more forgiving and that can be highly individual, which is why testing is so important. For instance some of us find pasta and bread and porridge are not worth the BG upheaval but a few new potatoes occasionally are OK. That might sound drastic and you may be able to manage a limited amount of bread and pasta or whatever, but portion size will be key and your BG meter will enable you to find that out and tailor your diet to your body's tolerance and your tastes.
If you can slowly adjust your diet so that the meal rise remains below 3, your premeal readings will gradually start to come down and your HbA1c result will improve. I know it all sounds horribly complicated but once yopu get into the swing of it and record everything in a food diary along with the before and after readings it all starts to make sense and become second nature. It takes 2-3 months of intensive testing to get a repertoire of meals that your body is fine with and after that you will just need to test new foods and maybe do an occasional spot test to make sure things are staying on track.
Anyway, that's the basis of the approach that works very well for most of us here on the forum and gives us the knowledge and control to manage our diabetes well and many people here even come off all medication and get their HbA1c result back down into the normal ie non diabetic range. If you can add in a daily walk if you are able, that will also help significantly.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Ziggy
Sorry to hear you’ve found advice a bit thin on the ground drom your surgery
You might like to create an account in the ’Learning Zone’, which has heaps of informative modules you can work through.
Lots of folks here also highly recommend Maggie Davey's letter to the newly diagnosed, or Gretchen Becker’s book: Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year
Keep asking questions with anything and everything that crops up too! No questions will be thought of as ‘silly‘ here 🙂
Sorry to hear you’ve found advice a bit thin on the ground drom your surgery
You might like to create an account in the ’Learning Zone’, which has heaps of informative modules you can work through.
Lots of folks here also highly recommend Maggie Davey's letter to the newly diagnosed, or Gretchen Becker’s book: Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year
Keep asking questions with anything and everything that crops up too! No questions will be thought of as ‘silly‘ here 🙂
Alan S
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I read it all but wish to concentrate on this part.
What is your typical daily menu at the moment? What foods do you specifically avoid for fear of heart or other medical problems? Do you have a home blood glucose tester?
Read this to see why I ask: Getting Started
- Status