Diagnosed as Pre-diabetic, now what

[Miemie]

Hi there,

I was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic about a month and half ago. A GTT confirmed that with a fasting bs of 5 and after two hours 8.3. What do I do now? Other than to cut down on carbs and sugar, is there anything else I can do? Not even a full 3 years ago I also did a GTT and my numbers were all normal.

What I want to know is if it went so quickly from normal to pre-diabetic, then how fast will it go from pre-diabetic to actual diabetes?

It seems that no matter what I eat, my bs either stays low or go high. Does anyone have any advise, or experienced this as well. Together with this, my bp also is starting to be a bit high, which makes me feel awful.

My dr says my numbers are not that high, but can it be that I am more sensitive to it?

Please help
Regards Miemie

[Larry H.]

Well, perhaps you suffer a bit like I from just knowing you have something going on you don't like and it can show its self as a symptom.. In other words we sort of overplay our feelings and come up with something that relates to the problem.

Other than that, maybe your truly extra sensitive which in a way goes along with what I just said.. I can do either.

But to the main points. If you read the other post of discussions about pre diabetic conditions you will see lots of ideas for how to go about your journey. Cutting back on carbs is of course the first step. Getting lots more activity into your life is another. Watching the amounts of foods you eat and always observe the carb content and serving size of foods you buy. If your feeling a sugar high, then perhaps your eating something that has more carb content or maybe a artificial sugar that is causing a raise in your number.

What you said about either being high or low, is also somewhat true. We strive to keep eating things that will maintain the lower readings, (within reason). Then if we eat things that we can't get by with, in my case white rice or rolls of white flour, seem to cause a fairly good raise. And after eating we always are going to be at our highest points no matter what that is, a few hours after that hopefully things will be back in the lower range we want. So its always an up and down. What you don't want is way up and way down!

There seems to be some rather great variety in how quickly some do or don't go on to type II. In our discussion in the pre diabetic threads about the progression, you will see that some are finding diet and exercise is keeping their numbers down for now. How long for now is, seems to vary.. I have read some things that say if you catch it early, it may never go onto type II. But no one really knows as were all different. Then too there are those here among us who feel there is no such thing as pre at all only type II.

[Miemie]

Hi Larry,

Thank you so much for your reply. It helps to know you are not alone and that other people are also experiencing the same as you, as my family does not always understand, although they try very hard.

I think in a way it is maybe as you say, that I know there's something not right, and maybe overplaying my feelings in the process. I must definitely get more exercise, although I am not overweight, but I have read that it does extend the time from going from pre-diabetic to actual diabetes.

I have also found that white flour is a big no-no for me, just a normal bread roll will push my sugar to above 10, so I'm trying to avoid that.

But at this stage, I'm just feeling that no matter what I eat, I'm feeling terrible afterwards, so I feel like just indulging in sweets and all kinds of stuff that I'm not supposed to eat :), although I know it won't do me any good.

But I decided now not to focus so much on it, and just do what I can from side to prolong the process, focus on the things that I can control.

But thank you again for your advise,

Regards
Miemie

[yannah]

well, I went from prediabetic to diabetic within a year. these thing happen when they happen I guess.

you are on control mode now, cutting carbs and excersizing,
and I would recommend testing as well.

you may be able to slow the progression alot.

stick around and read and post.:)

[GayleM]

Hi, Miemie!

I converted your numbers from mmol/L to the US version (mg/dl) for those of us in the US:

fasting - 90
2 hour - 149.4
10 = 180

Your numbers aren't that bad, but they clearly show your pancreas has gone a bit wonky, unfortunately :(

However, you can absolutely control further progression and that's the good news! It really depends on how much control you are willing to exert. Larry is right in his suggestion to read all the "pre" posts for some good info.

There are two things that universally help us:
1. If you are overweight, lose the extra weight. Your pancreas will operate more efficiently and that will help lower or keep steady your BG. (To say nothing of the multitude of other benefits for our bodies keeping our weight in line!!!!)

2. Practice proper food choices. I won't go in to all of it here as there are tons of resources on the net and here to find what foods to avoid. But it all boils down to carb intake. Sugar is a carb, so just count carbs. Dieticians will tell you to eat more carbs than most of us here can handle. Get a BG monitor and test after you eat, 1 hour after first bit is what I do to see how high my BG goes with certain foods. Others prefer testing at 2 hours. You decide what you think is the best for your management program. Start with maybe 30 carbs per meal and a couple snacks at 15 carbs and see what your meter tells you. (that is your BEST source and the only thing you should really trust for advice ;) ) Raise or lower carb intake accordingly. Read the nutrition levels on everything!!! And consider keeping a journal tracking what you eat and how many carbs - be honest in your portion control and consider testing for awhile to see what foods don't send your BG up.

You'll find as you wean off carbs and those sweets and white bread that your craving for them will also go away. Take willpower, but you know you can do it :)

3. Exercise. Again, another must-do. At least 30 minutes a day of walking at a brisk pace. More is better, of course, but some have conditions that make exercise difficult.

If you do those three things some stats I've seen say there is a 50% chance you can keep from progressing further in the disease. Cool, huh? :cool:

The upshot is this is one of the few diseases YOU have a huge amount of control over! This isn't a short term "diet" kind of thing, though...to keep this in check it will be a lifelong change in how you eat. So be prepared for that. If you are in the early stages of diabetes (which is what I consider "pre" to be, otherwise it's like being a little bit pregnant) you won't ever "cure" your glucose intolerance. You will just be able to control it. So find the eating plan that will work for the rest of your life AND keep your BG in line.

I chose to dive in head first and never look back. If we don't control the disease the consequences are more than I am willing to pay....loss of fingers, toes or limbs, neuropathy, loss of eyesight, heart disease and more.

Totally up to each of us.

The best of luck to you and continue to do your research!!

Take care!

[Larry H.]

Mimie

Focusing your sadness on sweets is only going to make matters worse.. you need to get some sugar free/ fat free pudding mix. Add some bananas or fruit, some low sugar cool whip type products if you want to eat something comforting. Or choose jello, or fresh fruit and no fat milk perhaps. If I do for some reason eat some things that are too carb rich even I can feel tired and out of sorts after wards..

There are a lot of things you can figure out eventually that you can eat, but it takes some persistence to get on line or in books or here in the food section, and find low carb alternatives for that snack.. One of the first I found an so easy was the one Princesslinda pointed out to me for Peanut Butter Cookies made with just splenda, peanut butter and I think one egg or egg substitute. Have to go in and read the recipe for sure. Its not wonderful, but a couple can satisfy your needs for a treat. Eventually you will get good at finding ways to make many things that are greatly reduced in carbs that you can enjoy, but they won't be like 30 carbs a cookie times how ever many we eat, and I could have eaten a lot.

Larry

[GayleM]

Miemie, Larry is right...if you can't live without something sweet play with recipes and see if you can get the carbs down on them :) Regardless of the package saying sugar-free, check the nutrition label...oddly enough many of the sugar-free items have more carbs than the regular! Go figure. Must be all the stuff they add to replace the sugar?

The only thing I would add is be sure to TEST after trying a new food. For example, Larry does really well with bananas & milk (do I recall that correctly, Larry?) but bananas and milk are really bad choices for me and many others. THe riper bananas get the higher their glucose content and the carbs are high - 30 carbs for a smallish sized one. You may also find you can tolerate more carbs in the afternoon and evening...dunno why, but again some of us can do that.

Point is, we are all different so the only way to know what works for you is to test after adding a new food.

Here's my contribution to a low-carb-good-for-you kinda yummy... one snack pak of Dannon's Lite & Fit "Diabetic and Carb Friendly" (it says that right on the package) vanilla yogurt with a tablespoon of chopped nuts and add cinnamon. My neighbor passed that on to me from the board she belongs to and it is yummy, sweet, filling and only 102 total calories and 4 carbs!

Yum! :D

[Miemie]

Thanks so much you guys

I must say, you have given me more info and positivity and hope than any doctor have done the last 3 months. Larry, Gayle, I will definitely try some of those recipes, I am unfortunately a very sweet tooth :), so they will come in very handy.

I haven't put it on my profile, but I am from South Africa, and we are apparently known to be very unhealthy eaters :), although I try not to eat so unhealthy.

Thanks again for all the support and advise,

Will check regularly, control the carbs, and stay positive!

Thanks again
Miemie

[Larry H.]

Its a bit off topic I guess, but since most of us are feeling deprived when we get here any way the discussion of "sweets" or "deserts" is one that brings a lot of anxiety to most of us. I can't hardly have a meal without a "desert" of some kind. The choice is where you have to be careful. Yes as Gayle says, check the label. Often its not the sweetener thats the issue as much as the other ingredients, such as the flour used or fruit, ect. I always look on the label to see what I can find that is within reason. I don't deprive my self of any category of food as long as I can keep the total carbs and readings low enough. A few things seem to be out of the question, but for me not too many. Another trick I might do is if I go somewhere and the host is serving regular wonderful sugar filled treats, I may cut a inch square off the thing and enjoy the flavor, while eating some low carb jello, or fruit for my self.

Something that gets little attention here is the Egg White Meringue kinds of things. I had a wonderful desert an Australian man made one time and the basic lower crust and edges were made from Meringue. There Called Pavlovas I think? Egg whites whipped with a bit of Cream of Tarter and splenda to replace the sugar. You form it into a shell kind of thing either on a flat parchment type baking paper, or as I am experimenting now, you can form it in a glass baking pie plate sprayed with canola oil or other cooking spray. I find they don't stick and the glass pan helps keep it from breaking apart.

There are a number of no/fat cream and sour cream products that with splenda can be made to a cheese cake kind of filling. I haven't done that yet, but I am sure it will work. Another thing was the recipe Princess Linda gave once on Cheese Danishes made in a similar way with a bit of cheese mixed in the meringue and filled with fat/free cream cheese and vanilla and splenda.. Quite delicious and almost no carbs.

The original recipe of the Australian was filled with fresh strawberries, and pineapple and whipped cream. Was wonderful. I substitute the whipped cream for no sugar whipped topping and use splenda for the strawberries. Wonderful and very low carb, if you don't eat way too much..

Have fun, life and food isn't over, you just have to find ways around old foods that are good. One warning on that front. I purchased a number of Diabetic CookBooks and some of them are way over the top in what they use in them. I am amazed at how many contained white rice and white flour and potatoes.. Eaten in moderation even they can be alright if kept to the serving sizes shown..

[GayleM]

[QUOTE=Miemie;480459]Thanks so much you guys

Your positive attitude, Miemie, will serve you well! I just remembered something else good for desserts! Almond meal :)

You can get your own raw almonds and ground them up super-fine (a coffee bean grinder works well) or hopefully you have stores in your country that sell it already milled. (Try a health food store or online as well as your local grocer) I use that instead of flour for tarts and as the replacement for graham crackers in that type of crust. Works really well. I use Bob's Red Mill brand and 2 T are 6 carbs. I make the crusts thinner than I would with flour or graham cracker, but the taste is yummy and you get the added benefit of the good fat from the almonds.

I agree with Larry...I don't buy the diabetic cookbooks anymore because they are too high carb. I go with just my old recipes and convert them as needed.

Have fun experimenting and please share the good ideas you come up with! ;)

[Miemie]

Morning,

All this talk of food is really making me hungry now! But, going to try some of those recipes this weekend. My mother in law is Type 2, so this will come in handy for her as well.

We have quite a lot of health stores, so I'm sure I'll get the almond meal there. I'll keep you guys up to date and let you know if I find anything interesting for us to eat!!

Enjoy your w-end
Miemie

[Gozelle]

Read everything you can . . . there are some great books. One is all about the first year you have type 2. I really believe if I had read that book five years ago and understood all that I do now, that I would have not gone from pre to full-blown. If I were you, I would live, exercise, and eat as if your were diabetic and then you will not risk killing off those beta cells. Act now; you will be glad later!

[dbaratta]

[QUOTE=Miemie;479839]Hi there,

I was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic about a month and half ago. A GTT confirmed that with a fasting bs of 5 and after two hours 8.3. What do I do now? Other than to cut down on carbs and sugar, is there anything else I can do? Not even a full 3 years ago I also did a GTT and my numbers were all normal.

It can happen real fast...it did for me. I had just seen my doc a few months before where they always check BG levels and I was normal. That was somewhere around Sept of 2006, by Jan of 2007 I was a full blown diabetic, but, I was also hypoglycemic most of my life and I have always heard that hypo and becoming diabetic is a pretty sure bet......You are lucky you are pre, you can very possibly take care of it with diet and exercise. Try the exercise and cutting back on simple carbs you may be surprised at how well you do......;)

[Miemie]

Hi you guys

I also believe that knowledge is power, so to know enough about what you are dealing with, gives you the power to everything you can to stall it.

I just have a question, my bg seems to very up and down. In the morning it's between 66 and 82, 8:00 I will have breakfast (old fashioned oats) within 15 min it goes up to 126, after an hour it's down to 90, then if I test afte 2 hours it's gone up to 126 again, by then, I eat again (mid-morning snack - low fat yogurt and a fruit), so that then pushes it up again.

This just confuses me a bit, because we are supposed to eat more regularly, but it seems to me the more I eat, it just goes more up and down? Have any of you experienced this before?

[Larry H.]

Its going to naturally go up when ever you eat food. It just depends on what you eat as to how much of a difference your going to see. I too can be surprised when things seem to be doing well, all of a sudden I find that something I ate caused a raise of more than I wished. Recently due to having to watch my fat and well as carbs we ended up switching from our usual low carb (4) ice cream due to the fat content in it. So we went fat free. But after a few readings I see that the sugar content in the fat free is most likely causing an raise beyond what I expected. So I am having to reconsider my strategy.

The up side is that if your testing you will start to get a feel for what is normal for you and then when you see a wider variation you will have a warning to start looking at why. Its really not hard, just takes some time. If I have a morning reading of say 95, naturally after breakfast it may raise by 30 points or so, but often I find for some reason in the morning I actually end up lower. The other day I had a reading on awaking of near the 95 point and two hours latter even without walking I had a 86 so there doesn't appear to be any absolutes either.

[Miemie]

Hi Larry,

Yes, I checked this morning as well. I had the oats last week with about a tsp and half of sugar, a bit of butter and a bit of milk. Today, I had it with sweetener, no butter and a bit of milk, in half an hour it was 88.2 (this was the highest), within an hour 70.2 and 2 hours 75.6. So in this I can really see what an impact even a little bit of sugar has.

When I talked to my dr about the pre-diabetes, I asked him if I can eat sweets, etc. And he said, in moderation, cause he's more worried about my bg being too low than too high at this stage. But here, I've proven to myself again, that it does definitely influence me, and I must say, I felt much better this morning after breakfast than last week after breakfast.

It's like you say, it just takes time to figure out what to eat and what not.