Pre diabetes - post remission question

[lendal]

Hi, now 3 months into this, changed lifestyle, have gone Low Carb route and have lost a lot of weight and my body shape is vastly altered! I am going to wait for the 9 month blood test though…a target so to speak.

My question out to all you super knowledgeable people is, once ( and obviously if) I drop below the pre diabetic range, does that mean my body will revert to the days of my youth re blood sugar…i.e. can I go out for a pint or two and not get stressed about it?!

I do drink, mainly Westbrook & Lean Brew and nowhere near my previous lifestyle, but I do miss a poured pint in a pub!

Chin chin

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi, now 3 months into this, changed lifestyle, have gone Low Carb route and have lost a lot of weight and my body shape is vastly altered! I am going to wait for the 9 month blood test though…a target so to speak.

My question out to all you super knowledgeable people is, once ( and obviously if) I drop below the pre diabetic range, does that mean my body will revert to the days of my youth re blood sugar…i.e. can I go out for a pint or two and not get stressed about it?!

I do drink, mainly Westbrook & Lean Brew and nowhere near my previous lifestyle, but I do miss a poured pint in a pub!

Chin chin

The think you have to accept is that even though you reach the level of being in remission (whatever definition you go by) then your body will likely still have a problem with carbohydrates so it is wise to be sensible and not revert to your previous lifestyle but the odd pint or other favourites once in a while should do no harm as long as they then don't become everyday .
But keeping a good check every so often with a home testing monitor rather than relying for those annual HbA1C tests will make sure you keep on track.

 

[lendal]

The think you have to accept is that even though you reach the level of being in remission (whatever definition you go by) then your body will likely still have a problem with carbohydrates so it is wise to be sensible and not revert to your previous lifestyle but the odd pint or other favourites once in a while should do no harm as long as they then don't become everyday .
But keeping a good check every so often with a home testing monitor rather than relying for those annual HbA1C tests will make sure you keep on track.

Thanks

wasn’t thinking of binging, but I love a pint after a walk, or if I’m wandering around London, a pit stop in a good looking pub etc…I have kept away from a monitor because of the 3 month thing and HbA1C results…but, it would make sense once we get there to keep a watchful eye..

 

[Alan44]

@lendal sounds like you're doing really well.

I did buy a home BG monitor as soon as I was diagnosed, because I can keep a check on things and watch for any trends, upwards or downwards and adjust accordingly.

Alan 😉

 

[lendal]

@lendal sounds like you're doing really well.

I did buy a home BG monitor as soon as I was diagnosed, because I can keep a check on things and watch for any trends, upwards or downwards and adjust accordingly.

Alan 😉

Thanks Alan…like us all, worked hard at this! Starting to look long term now the immediate “oh my goodness “ , and “ what do I do/ how many carbs/cals in that…..??!!” has mellowed.

 

[trophywench]

@lendal we usually recommend folk to buy a blood glucose monitor so they can spot 'danger areas' in what they eat and drink rather than needing to wait for there next 'armful of blood' test from the NHS once they express an interest in what their blood glucose is doing in between their HbA1c tests.

If we simply apply a bit of logic, it would be completely unacceptable to jump in your car and drive from home near Lands End and drive to John o'Groats and never glance at your speedometer until after you got to Scotland - but that's what you're doing with your blood glucose!

The reason the NHS doesn't automatically issue you with a meter in the first place is because of the cost of supplying the consumables for them - ie the lancets to prick your fingers to provide the drops of blood needed and the test strips to apply the drops onto, for the meter to test and provide those results.

Some meters are more reliable than others and some test strips are far more expensive than others - hence there are some which many members here have found to be reliable and also have reasonably priced consumables so they can ensure they've normally got enough to last them - these are NOT sold over the counter in pharmacies though - but easily available from eg Amazon. There are currently 3 such meters and I remember one is the Gluco Navii and another the Contour Blue, but can't recall the 3rd.

 

[harbottle]

Well I got my levels down from 83 to the thirties, and reintroduced beer back into my diet a year later when it was still in the 30s. It's not made any difference and I'm still in my thirties two years later. I did see what the effect was using CGM sensors and this gave me enough info to reintroduce it.

 

[Maz2]

Hi, now 3 months into this, changed lifestyle, have gone Low Carb route and have lost a lot of weight and my body shape is vastly altered! I am going to wait for the 9 month blood test though…a target so to speak.

My question out to all you super knowledgeable people is, once ( and obviously if) I drop below the pre diabetic range, does that mean my body will revert to the days of my youth re blood sugar…i.e. can I go out for a pint or two and not get stressed about it?!

I do drink, mainly Westbrook & Lean Brew and nowhere near my previous lifestyle, but I do miss a poured pint in a pub!

Chin chin

My advice would be to do things in moderation not revert to the lifestyle which led to the problems. I don't know your age but you become more insulin resistant with age, some more than others. Our bodies won't let us do what we did as youngsters. There are exceptions though, as always.

A friend of mine went diabetic at hba1c 47, lost weight and was hba1c 38, non diabetic and not even pre-diabetic. She went back to her normal eating, gained weight again and went back to 47.

 

[lendal]

Thanks all...(I hear you about the meter, and do understand the reasoning, but I think I'm going to stick with my plan), moderation is the watchword.

 

[effayjay]

Well I got my levels down from 83 to the thirties, and reintroduced beer back into my diet a year later when it was still in the 30s. It's not made any difference and I'm still in my thirties two years later. I did see what the effect was using CGM sensors and this gave me enough info to reintroduce it.

Can you be a bit more specific about “reintroducing beer”, pint a month, week, day?

 

[harbottle]

Can you be a bit more specific about “reintroducing beer”, pint a month, week, day?

2 or 3 pints one night every 2 weeks, sometimes a bottle or two of German Helles lager in the evening. Occaional pint or two if I go out for a meal.

I don't worry about it at all.

 

[PerSpinasAdAstra]

Hi, now 3 months into this, changed lifestyle, have gone Low Carb route and have lost a lot of weight and my body shape is vastly altered! I am going to wait for the 9 month blood test though…a target so to speak.

My question out to all you super knowledgeable people is, once ( and obviously if) I drop below the pre diabetic range, does that mean my body will revert to the days of my youth re blood sugar…i.e. can I go out for a pint or two and not get stressed about it?!

I do drink, mainly Westbrook & Lean Brew and nowhere near my previous lifestyle, but I do miss a poured pint in a pub!

Chin chin

The definition of prediabetes is surprisingly vague. The simple definition is to be at high risk of progression to Type 2. There are three aspects to that - high fasting blood glucose levels (Fasting Plasma Glucose - FPG), blood glucose levels that go very high after eating a lot of carbs (Impaired Glucose Tolerance - IGT) and a high HbA1c test result which may be due to one or other of the above, or a combination of both. IGT is tested via a glucose tolerance test - a person drinks a 75 grams of glucose dissolved in water and their blood is tested before and at following intervals, the most important for a prediabetes diagnosis being the 2 hour mark.

The American Diabetes Association has thresholds for all three aspects with a HbA1c of 5.7% (39 mmol/mol) being the level above which they assert prediabetes should be diagnosed. You could say this level is abnormally high but not conclusively associated with significant health problems. Most other counties only use the HbA1c aspect with the threshold set at 42 mmol/mol - the level above which associated health issues have been identified - and largely ignore FPG and IGT for the purpose of diagnosing prediabetes. The World Health Organisation does not recognise HbA1c at all, only the other two aspects as a means to define prediabetes - Link

The reason I say all that is if your prediabetes was due to IFG only, which may in very large part be due to excess fat in your liver causing insulin resistance in that organ, and if you've lost a lot of weight, you might be almost 'cured' and stay that way so long as you control your weight. If however you have IGT only then it appears likely at this time that there is at least some long-term impairment to the insulin response from your pancreas or you have very high levels of insulin resistance in perhaps muscle tissue. These are not things that can be 'cured' in any meaningful way. Improved through exercise and weight loss yes, but not resolved. You may perhaps have a combination of these two aspects of prediabetes.

The only way to figure it out is to test after eating. I would guess that some beer is very probably fine so long as you maintain your weight. I myself was extremely diabetic before I lost the weight and at present I could drink beer if I wanted to though I can't drink beer immediately after eating a lot of carbs as it keeps my blood glucose levels high for hours. The carbs and alcohol in the beer, for me personally, have a kind of neutral effect for a few hours - they kind of cancel each other out and keep levels quite flat. I could drink beer after low-carb foods and that's exactly what I plan to do when going out for Christmas pints this year - fill up on nuts beforehand, but generally I need to stick with low-carb drinks like dry white wine. Your experience though will likely be very different, you never developed the severe IGT that I did and still have to a large extent. While beer might be fine you might have to test to see how much sugar or pizza you can eat for example. A small bag of jelly sweets results in extremely high levels for me for a couple of hours. This might not show up on a HbA1c test - a person could have apocalyptically high blood glucose levels for a stretch of days and it would have a relatively small impact on a HbA1c test - that test is all about averages over weeks and months. If your diagnosis was due to IFG only though you may actually be able to eat way more carbs than I can with no issue whatsoever. You'd have to test to know for sure. Beer though, very probably fine. If I can drink it you probably can too.

I hope that helps.