Pre-diabetes

[LNYCoole]

Hi My mmol/mol was 47 in Jan on a fasting blood test and advised by GP to be retested later in year and I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. In May it was 45mmol/mol on a non fasting blood test. I am not overweight at 7st 11 lbs and 5ft 4 ins. My BMI is 18.5. I was advised by the nurse that I should avoid sugar in my diet. No further appointment advised. Is this information correct?

 

[Josh DUK]

Hi My mmol/mol was 47 in Jan on a fasting blood test and advised by GP to be retested later in year and I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. In May it was 45mmol/mol on a non fasting blood test. I am not overweight at 7st 11 lbs and 5ft 4 ins. My BMI is 18.5. I was advised by the nurse that I should avoid sugar in my diet. No further appointment advised. Is this information correct?

Hello @LNYCoole ,

Thank you so much for joining the Diabetes UK support forum. I thought I would share our Diabetes UK page regarding food that are healthy to reduce your risk of diabetes.

10 tips for healthy eating if you are at risk of type 2 diabetes

Lots of factors can contribute to someone being at risk of or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

www.diabetes.org.uk

In the mean time, while waiting a response, please feel free to look at our website for some recipes.

 

[Deleted member 27171]

Hi My mmol/mol was 47 in Jan on a fasting blood test and advised by GP to be retested later in year and I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. In May it was 45mmol/mol on a non fasting blood test. I am not overweight at 7st 11 lbs and 5ft 4 ins. My BMI is 18.5. I was advised by the nurse that I should avoid sugar in my diet. No further appointment advised. Is this information correct?

Hi and welcome to the forum,

I’m surprised by the ‘no further appointment required‘ - if you have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes I would expect an HbA1c annually to check on things.

When so used to advising on weight loss and exercise I think sometimes those of a healthy weight with increased HbA1c stumps the nurse a bit. Although you certainly dont need to lose weight, how is your diet overall? Even those with a small waist line if eating badly can be doing damage internally, do you think your diet is generally healthy or could it do with some improvement?

The thing with Type 2 diabetes is there are some risk factors you can influence (diet, lifestyle) and some you cant (age, ethnicity, family history) so you can focus only on those which you are able to influence.

Some people find it helpful to keep a food diary for a few weeks and then look back to get a better picture of how well they are eating, making changes from there.

There will undoubtedly be someone along with a similar diagnosis experience who can offer some more helpful tips than just avoid sugar.

 

[LNYCoole]

Thank you for your reply. I have a family history of diabetes Type 2 so maybe it is genetic. I am 65 years old so that gets taken into consideration too. I have looked at the dietary advice on the website and apart from tweaking a little here and there I don't have many changes I can make that is why I was at a bit of a loss. Thank you for the advice about annual blood checks I will calendar a reminder to have it checked.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @LNYCoole

Hope the tweaks to your diet help.

Do get your HbA1c checked as a follow-up though to keep an eye on things. Have your surgery considered LADA (a slow-onset form of autoimmune diabetes)?

In LADA, the reduction in beta-cell function generally happens much more slowly than in classic T1, but as the insulin production falls, the A1c gradually begins to rise.

As others have said, there are many complexities to getting an accurate diabetes classification, and in the early months (or even years!) different types can look confusingly similar.

It may help to have additional checks if your HbA1c continues to rise, such as cPeptide, or GAD antibody tests, which will measure how much insulin your body is able to produce, and whether your immune system may be getting involved 🙂