Hi Mark,
I'm from Yorkshire too!
A fasting level of over 7 mmol/l is about the stage where the medical people decide to make a diagnosis of someone being diabetic. I hope that I'm wrong but that sounds to be exactly the same stage that I was at on diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes just over nine years ago - even down to the pins and needles in the hand. I wish that I'd done what you have done and come to these diabetes forums at that stage instead of arriving just less than a year ago.
My diabetic situation got slowly and gradually worse for seven or eight years until my HbA1c increased from 5.7% at diagnosis to 9.4% - they call it the inevitable progression of diabetes. At that stage, my GP started me on metformin tablets Anyway, the metformin tablets didn't sort anything out really - although they help a little bit. Then my doctor doubled my dose of metformin. I could see that I was heading towards having to inject insulin. At that stage, I decided to get involved myself!
So, I started testing even though I had to buy my own test strips. That testing told me that starchy carbohydrates - i.e. cereals, bread, potatoes, pasta and rice etc - were the foods that were causing my problems and elevating my blood glucose levels. By cutting back on most of that type of food, I have reversed my situation totally. My HbA1c is now 5.1% - i.e. better than it was at diagnosis. My total cholesterol is now 3.1 compared with 7.0 at diagnosis - other numbers such as LDL and triglycerides are dramatically improved too.
Any minor diabetic symptoms that I might have had - such as tingling hands, cramps in the calves during the night, needing to get up several times in the night to go to the toilet etc, etc - have disappeared altogether.
I've lost 5 stone over the last sixteen months through the dietary changes but also by counting calories too. However, I put most of my improvement down to cutting out the starchy carbohydrates and not to the weight loss. By the way, I do very little exercise - at most the occasional two to three-mile walk. I really did ought to do more!
None of us ever know what the future holds for us. However, these days, I seem a million miles away from having to inject insulin - and even further away from developing the quite nasty complications that can come a diabetic's way.
Irrespective of whether or not you receive the bad news of diabetes diagnosis, I suggest that you stick around these diabetes forums and take heed of what advice you will be given. It sounds likely that you are at least pre-diabetic and it may not be too late to avoid diabetes developing by making some quite simple changes to your diet in particular and your lifestyle in general.
Believe me diet is very powerful!
Good luck and best wishes - John
