New member questions

[angies]

Hi every one,

I am new here. I have recently been dx with pre-diabetes. It took me a long time to come to term with this diagnostics. About 2 years ago, my blood work started to show that I have high blood sugar 6.8 , I followed doctor advice to remove almost all sugar from my diet, 6 months later blood glucose did improved to 5.8 but still not enough according to doctor. So I went on to remove all sugar and white flour products and almost all carbs from my diet. I also started doing exercise 5 days a week. After doing all this life style changes for about 1 year, I thought my BG will go back to normal. To my great disappointment it actually went up to 6.1. Doctor said since I have been following her advise, she does not know what else to ask me to do other than keeping an eye on the BG to ensure that it does not go above 7.

I know I can improve and be more strict with my diet and remove the occasional carb/sugar treats and hit the gym more regularly. Other than this is there any thing else that I should do.

I am 5'3" and 115lbs. I could do with 5-10lbs weight loss. I am losing my hair in a fairly rapid rate and also have bad insomnia. Other than these I feel pretty normal and can do a normal day work with ease. I cannot think of any symptoms. Are there symptoms that I need to watch out for? Note also that my job can be stressful at times, although I tried hard to relax and block out any stress after work, I am sure this cannot be good for my health.

[mortis505]

Hello angies and welcome to DF! Has your doctor run any other tests? Do you test at home?

I'd recommend a C-peptide test to determine your level of insulin production and perhaps even an Islet Cell Antibody test to see if you may not be A T2. Also see if you can find an Endocrinologist. This type of doctor specializes in diabetes care.

[cherokee_psh]

Hi angies and welcome to the site. I second the endocrinologist suggestion. If 6.8 was an A1C it's too high to be prediabetes.

[angies]

I have many blood tests over the last 2 years. I am not sure what is A1C. The figures are showing as blood glucose. My insulin is now 9 which she say is normal. She said I can come back in 3 months time to do a Gluocose tolerance test. May be I can ask her for a reference to see a endocrinologist.

[Ronin]

Hi Angies!

Welcome to the world of Pre-D's. I agree with the recommendations to get both the HbA1c test as well as a C-Peptide test (this can be part of an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test which shows how well your body processes glucose).

Also, if you will, take a moment to fill in the details in your public profile as this can give us a bit more information about you so we can know who we are talking to.

[owlyn]

The losing of the hair and insomnia symptoms cause me concern. You should revisit the doctor and talk to him/her about these symptoms. These, combined with your elevated BG could point to something else (or not, but you should check). If the doc blows you off, get another one.

[angelsbridges]

Have you had a lot of weight loss, as well?

This sounds like me a few years ago (they never checked my blood sugar), but I was losing chunks of hair over the course of a few months. I ended up testing positive for mono, but I'm not sure if that was the underlying cause of it all. The stress on your body and mind might be what's attributing to it.

I think owlyn is right, you should definitely talk to your doctor about it. Even if it ends up just being stress, maybe he/she has some advice on how to better control it, or if there are supplements you could take to avoid the hair loss and insomnia (I'm not a fan of sleep aids, but you could always see if that would help?)

I hope you start finding some answers, and welcome! (I'm new here, too!) - we have about the same stats (5'3" and about 110lbs).

[angies]

No I did not have weight loss. I put on about 10lbs and find it hard to lose it even with all the exercise. I have been following this diet where I fast for 15-16 hours a day. So it means I break my fast at lunch with some light raw food. This suppose to reduce blood sugar and insulin resistence.

I am sure the stress has a lot to do with my hormone being messed up. I tries meditation and exercise to relax and help me my insomia.

I hates doctors. My brother is a doctor and he is of no help. I feel I have to stick with one for a while so she can get to know my symptoms, but so far I did not get very far other than very basic advise which I could find by googling.