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Very worried about my girlfriend

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fchris17

fchris17

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Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
My girlfriend is 21 years old, very sporty/physically active, slim, and eats pretty well. Yet despite all this, she was diagnosed as pre-diabetic last week. (she's black/caribbean and her dad - in his 70's - is diabetic so I know there's a higher risk)

I'm really worried because after reading all the things people should do/eat/avoid, there isn't much more she can do to live a healthy lifestyle.

Sugary drinks, chocolate and sweets are obviously ruled out now (she didn't eat that much before), but now I feel like the food police with everything she eats... watching processed carbs, portion size etc.

I'm so worried because had she been eating loads, overweight or not physically active there would be obvious things to change. But because there isn't I don't know how strict we need to be with food now.

I know none of that is a question, but does have anyone have any thoughts on this? Anyone in a similar situation?
 
Hi and welcome.

How wonderful that you want to help and support your girlfriend with this health issue.

My advice would be to purchase a Blood Glucose Meter and test strips and monitor her Blood Glucose (BG) before and 2 hours after food to see which foods are causing her to spike. This will enable her to tailor her diet to her own body's intolerances and also keep a general eye on her levels, which can in itself be reassuring or motivating. Some of us find that grains in general cause us more problems than other things like fruit, even fairly unprocessed healthy whole grains and porridge etc. Learning to eat low carb takes some getting your head around but it can be an enjoyable way to eat once you figure it out. I only ate brown/wholemeal bread and pasta prior to diagnosis and porridge but I have cut them from my diet now as my BG spikes for 8-10 hours after eating them. Living without bread seems almost impossible but it is doable although many people here choose special low carb bread and just have 1 or 2 small slices of it.

Meters are inexpensive @ approx. £15 but the on going purchase of test strips can tot up the costs so it makes sense to buy a meter which uses the cheapest test strips. For this reason here on the forum we often recommend the SD Codefree Blood Glucose Meter as the test strips for it cost £8 for a pot of 50.... as oppose to £15-£20 or even more for some other meters. I believe it is available on Amazon.
 
Just cutting back on the amount of carbohydrate in the diet can mean normal levels of glucose in the blood - the obvious targets are high carb foods, bread, pasta, potatoes rice and other grains, maybe peas and beans too as some people find that they seem to react more to them than the carb count would suggest.
Meat, fish, and other seafood, eggs cheese full fat yoghurt, cream, sugar free jelly and small amounts of berries, plus low carb salads and veges are the way to beat full on diabetes, so if your girlfriend uses that as the basis of her diet and then adds in a few extra carbs - easier to find out just how many and of which foods with a glucose meter, testing after eating to spot spikes.
 
21 would be unusually young to be diagnosed with T2 (while there are a few children getting a T2 diagnosis it is still very unusual).

However 21 is not at all uncommon to develop T1 or LADA (a slow-onset form of T1 that confuses some Doctors because initially it can appear to respond to oral medications, but it quickly develops into needing insulin)

In your shoes I would want to be asking for an antibody test to inform the diagnosis myself.
 
Hi fchris17,
So sorry to hear that your gf is pre-diabetes at only 21. As has been mentioned, sometimes Type 1 diabetics are mis-diagnosed as pre-diabetes or Type2's if they are discovered outside of their teenage years - so it is useful to get confirmation since for Type 1's insulin injections are always needed, where for a Type 2 they are only needed if the Blood Glucose isn't well controlled without it.

The advice about the Low Carb 'way of eating' is valid for both Type 1 as well as Type2. For Type 2 it can put it into remission, for Type 1 it can help with control since the range of BG readings will be smaller and so the inevitable over/under shoots in BG when trying to get the insulin doge right are likely to be smaller.

Contrary to what is commonly thought, thin (even athletic people can get Type 2 as well as the Obese and the inactive. Thin Type 2's are known as TOFI's since we look thin Outside , yet are Fat Inside (around and in our internal organs such as liver and kidneys).
The jury is still out, but some think that the carb restrictions required to put TOFI's into remission may have to be greater than for those who have more sub-cutaneous fat cells (the more typical Type 2's).
 
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While an unusually young age to be diagnosed, 21 isn’t unheard of. I’d urge caution over changing diet too much, your girlfriend sounds like she is very active, so will need carbs to see her through all of that activity. Once the diagnosis is clearer (and I agree with everydayupsanddowns about testing for one of the rarer forms of diabetes), it will be easier to find what works because the uncertainty will be gone. Listen to the advice you’re given by the diabetic team, and on here, and you will find the answers you and she need.

Take care
 
Thank you so much to everyone who applied. Really appreciated. We bought the meter that you suggested and she's a 6.2 after fasting.

Are people allowed to ask for specific tests on the NHS to distinguish between type 1 and 2? When the doctor first told her he just said come back in 6 months for a blood test.
 
Hi fchris17,
This is a contentious area (because of cost). Yes patients can always ask for such tests such as the c-peptide test, but the GP will often/mostly refuse them.
 
The fasting levels aren't all that important with prediabetes/type two. It is the after eating which reveals information about the composition of the meal being suitable, and also the ability to deal with carbs from particular sources. I find that carbs from beans and peas affect me more than they should compared with the same amount from other sources.
 
Super that you bought a metre. i would advise testing an hour after eating and maybe again 4 hours adter eating for a few weeks (someone might know better than me about thie timings). this is best done in a diary - I had one anyway where I just wrote appointments and started recording exercise, and stuff eaten at meals, an BGs. This gave me some ideas as to where the problem areas were (I am T1 but I guess the same principle applies). Then perhaps look back over it at the end of January and see if you can spot any patterns. If you think the diagnosis is wrong, always ask your GP. I know my GP initially couldn't deicde if I was LDAD or T2 or T1 because I was the right age for T2 but slim and active. I think people tend to expect their GPs to know everything about diabetes but the truth is that many don't and unless you take the lead in managing your diabetes, it's easy for them just to say do more exercise, or prescribe insulin or other drugs, and avoid the diffucult questions like: have we got the right type of diabetes here.. That said it's well over 10 years since I was diagnosed and my own team have always been pretty good.

Oh yes - and you are obviously trying to help and be supportive, which is what every diabetic in a relationship needs from their other! Well Done!
 
To be able to make comparisons with how other diabetics react, you would need to test at the standard times of just before starting to eat and two hours after the first bite - you can test at other times if you are interested, but the numbers at those times relevant to meals would probably be asked for by those trying to help fathom out what is happening.
 
Testing 2 hours after eating is the standard time you hear. However, your BG can peak at different times, some time before or after this. Depending on different factors, including what you eat. Some are also checking for lows, which can mean checking at other times.
Keeping a food diary, along with a record of your levels. Hopefully you'll see a pattern after a couple of weeks. Obviously the next couple of weeks won't be typical.
 
The standard time to test response to foods is two hours after starting to eat.
 
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