Type II Diabetes

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  • scrubjay67
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    Does anyone with T2 D have high fasting blood counts? I seem to have that... my highest GLU counts tend to be when I wake up in the morning before breakfast. That seems counterintuitive to me. Should be lowest, I would think. So I'm wondering about other ppls experience with waking glucose counts. Are yours lowest, middle or highest when you wake up? Do you know what it might mean (in laymen's experience) to have high fasting counts? Of course, if you're a doctor, a response to this would be nice as well. Thanks! :smile:
  • Akimajuktuq
    Akimajuktuq Posts: 3,037 Member
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    See if the hospital has nutrition services and set up an appointment with a dietician/nutritionist. Many insurances will help pay for it. Some hospitals also have diabetes education classes, you might check into those. Once she's out of the hospital she'll need to see a doctor regularly and they can recommend classes or nutritionists if you don't know where to start.

    This... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Just be careful. If the nutritionist is encouraging diabetics to eat 60g carb per meal, and several snacks a day... RUN AWAY! I learned the hard way that a controlled carb diet is better than a high carb one.
    Check out http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/
    I've learned so much about insulin and hormones just from living the Primal Blueprint.

    ETA:
    This one even more specifically:
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/#axzz23AptoGAa

    This ^^^

    Many Type 2 diabetics are being told to eat far too many non-veggie carbs. Type 2 diabetes can totally be controlled (and prevented in most cases) by diet if a person wants to. You can do your own research and use your own body and experience to see how you respond to different foods and different macro-nutrient levels.

    I eat a diet that is very good for diabetics (I'm "pre-diabetic" when I don't eat right), and when I stay with it, my health is incredible. Super Woman!
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    See if the hospital has nutrition services and set up an appointment with a dietician/nutritionist. Many insurances will help pay for it. Some hospitals also have diabetes education classes, you might check into those. Once she's out of the hospital she'll need to see a doctor regularly and they can recommend classes or nutritionists if you don't know where to start.

    This... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Just be careful. If the nutritionist is encouraging diabetics to eat 60g carb per meal, and several snacks a day... RUN AWAY! I learned the hard way that a controlled carb diet is better than a high carb one.
    Check out http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/
    I've learned so much about insulin and hormones just from living the Primal Blueprint.

    ETA:
    This one even more specifically:
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/#axzz23AptoGAa

    This doesn't apply to all Diabetics though... I was 560 lbs. and diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic and had A1c of 10.0 and my Endo Dr. set me up with a nutritionist and from day one we never talked about a low carb diet.. We talked about the crap that I was eating (over 8000 calories a day) and the foods that I needed to be eating... I literally brought 2 - 32 gallon trash cans into the house and we threw everything out and replaced it all with healthy choices, complex carbs, fruits, veggies, nuts, lean meats, etc. I was put on a meal plan of 2400 calories a day and 240 grams of carbs a day. (60 grams @ 3 main meals and 20 grams @ 3 snacks) that was 3 years ago and I have lost a few pounds since then, and my exercise and diet today has me eating 3200-3400 calories a day and 320 grams of Carbs a day (80 grams @ 3 main meals and 25 grams @ 3 snacks) and the last 14 months I have been pre-diabetic with A1c of 5.3 average... I am only on metformin today and will be for life but my diabetes is in check and it wasn't from a low carb diet... I am not saying this will work for all but there are Diabetics out there that will respond differently, no one plan works for all.... Just my 2 cents...
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    Does anyone with T2 D have high fasting blood counts? I seem to have that... my highest GLU counts tend to be when I wake up in the morning before breakfast. That seems counterintuitive to me. Should be lowest, I would think. So I'm wondering about other ppls experience with waking glucose counts. Are yours lowest, middle or highest when you wake up? Do you know what it might mean (in laymen's experience) to have high fasting counts? Of course, if you're a doctor, a response to this would be nice as well. Thanks! :smile:

    I don't have this problem as my morning BS numbers range from 85-95 in the mornings, the one thing I had a problem with was if I went to bed on am empty stomach, then I would wake up around 3 or 4 a.m. with low blood sugar and felt like absolute crap (would be in the 40-50 range) I could barely get to the kitchen to get something, so I started going to bed with a bedtime snack, I found a small glass of 1% chocolate milk and a golden delicious apple sliced with some all natural peanut butter on them. This keeps my blood sugar good til morning and haven't had any issues since.. every so often I might have a low morning (60-70 range) but it doesn't happen to often...

    I did find this on one of my diabetes websites in response to your question:

    In the early morning hours, hormonal changes in your body will naturally cause blood glucose to rise. For people who don't have diabetes, the increase in blood glucose is offset by increased insulin production. For people with diabetes, this can be a problem.

    There are a couple of things going on that make your glucose rise in the morning. One of these is insulin resistance—a condition that means your body's muscle and fat cells are
    unable to use insulin effectively to lower blood glucose. However, insulin resistance also affects how your liver processes, stores, and releases sugar, particularly at night. The liver is supposed to release small amounts of glucose when you're not eating. But in type 2 diabetes, the liver dumps more glucose than is needed into the bloodstream, especially at night. So, while your hormones are causing a natural rise in blood glucose, your liver is releasing even more sugar into your system. And because your insulin resistance prevents your muscle and fat cells from using the sugar, your blood glucose level rises.

    Best of Luck...
  • Crochetluvr
    Crochetluvr Posts: 3,143 Member
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    I sent you a couple emails
    Definately see a nutrionist - it was the first thing they sent me too. I pretty much eat paleo and that has solved alot of problems for me.

    And I found out I have sleep apnea. And the sleep doctor says every body that has diabetes has sleep apnea. And he's right - every diabetic I know has sleep apnea. Sleep affects how we metablize insulin and sugar. If I sleep badly, my blood sugar the next morning is a good 40-100 points higher then normal.

    I do not have sleep apnea. Interestingly, none of the diabetics I know have sleep apnea. Your doctor needs to re-read his medical books.

    You have type 1 daibetes. I was referring to type 2.

    I have T2 and I don't have sleep apnea. However, my b/f, who doesn't have diabetes and isn't overweight, does.
  • sunrize_sc
    sunrize_sc Posts: 157 Member
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    I am a Type II. Low carb is the best way to control. Paleo is my suggestion. Feel free to add me if you'd like. Good luck!!
  • sunrize_sc
    sunrize_sc Posts: 157 Member
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    Does anyone with T2 D have high fasting blood counts? I seem to have that... my highest GLU counts tend to be when I wake up in the morning before breakfast. That seems counterintuitive to me. Should be lowest, I would think. So I'm wondering about other ppls experience with waking glucose counts. Are yours lowest, middle or highest when you wake up? Do you know what it might mean (in laymen's experience) to have high fasting counts? Of course, if you're a doctor, a response to this would be nice as well. Thanks! :smile:

    This is referred to as "liver dump" and is very common for diabetics. Type I and II.

    community.diabetes.org/t5/Adults-Living-with-Type-2/Liver-dump-question/td-p/215360
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
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    Have you thought about a primal lifestyle? It has worked great for me. Still hasn't gotten my blood sugar where I want it but it has certainly gotten better. A few sites I frequent:

    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
    http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/

    I keep my carbs under 75 net per day. Yup, it can be hard somedays but I feel so much better and I certainly cannot complain about the weight loss I have had in just 9 months.
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    Personally I try to keep my carbs under 100, and usually come in at 25-50g per day.
  • lilacsun
    lilacsun Posts: 204 Member
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    I second what the others have said, and I'd also like to add my personal experience. Not all bodies are alike, so not all diabetics are alike. I can eat fresh fruit all day and have perfect sugar readings, but others might have spikes from eating fruit. Listen to your body, experiment, and keep at it. It's worth the hard work to get your/your mother's numbers in line! I wish you the best :smile:

    Yes this is true. I can eat fruit but no potatoes (except sweet potatoes) and no white flour at all.
  • Sharonks
    Sharonks Posts: 884 Member
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    I'm a T1.5 diabetic. I was diagnosed in 2002. Eventually it got out of control and I was put on insulin, and eventually an insulin pump. After I had my first child, I hit rock bottom and knew my life had to change. I was taking massive doses of insulin and metformin. Within a year I was completely drug free.
    It can be done! I like to tell fellow diabetics that there IS a cure. It's them.
    Really, I have never heard of a 1.5 getting off insulin since in reality a 1.5 is a slow 1. T1s are just insulin dependent and 1.5's ultimately are. Please make sure you continue to check your BG since 1.5 includes pancreas failure. It just happens slower than for T1s. In fact, most 1.5s I have known find that as they get on insulin they don't need met since they aren't resistant.
  • Sharonks
    Sharonks Posts: 884 Member
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    I sent you a couple emails
    Definately see a nutrionist - it was the first thing they sent me too. I pretty much eat paleo and that has solved alot of problems for me.

    And I found out I have sleep apnea. And the sleep doctor says every body that has diabetes has sleep apnea. And he's right - every diabetic I know has sleep apnea. Sleep affects how we metablize insulin and sugar. If I sleep badly, my blood sugar the next morning is a good 40-100 points higher then normal.

    I do not have sleep apnea. Interestingly, none of the diabetics I know have sleep apnea. Your doctor needs to re-read his medical books.
    I also don't have sleep apnea. i agree that poor sleep can greatly impact your BG since stress will cause it to spike. Also, many people get dawn phenomenon and either spike because of a night time crash or spike in preparation for waking up. Many T2s are overweight and many overweight people have apnea. Since I am within my normal weight range I don't have apnea. I dislike how drs. say things like this. Not all T2s are overweight. I have never been particularly large.
  • Sharonks
    Sharonks Posts: 884 Member
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    Does anyone with T2 D have high fasting blood counts? I seem to have that... my highest GLU counts tend to be when I wake up in the morning before breakfast. That seems counterintuitive to me. Should be lowest, I would think. So I'm wondering about other ppls experience with waking glucose counts. Are yours lowest, middle or highest when you wake up? Do you know what it might mean (in laymen's experience) to have high fasting counts? Of course, if you're a doctor, a response to this would be nice as well. Thanks! :smile:
    Morning has always been some of my worse times. For some people, it is caused by having a big drop in BG caused by not eating all night. Then your liver tries to compensate by doing a glucose dump. Your liver stores glucose for just such emergencies. It helps to eat a snack at bedtime. For many half a sandwich is good because you get a combo of protein and carb. For others the problem is that their body over does the glucose dump in preparation to wake up. I guess everyone's body does a bit of a dump to give you the energy to wake up but T2s often go overboard. For me, the improvement came when I started taking Amaryl which increases the insulin production from your pancreas. I make a very low amount of insulin and I guess it isn't enough to handle the dump. For others, metformin is good because it increases your insulin sensitivity and keeps the dump from causing problems. For others it takes insulin or some other drug that will increase the insulin levels in your body.
  • CRody44
    CRody44 Posts: 776 Member
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    Scrubjay67,

    I have had T2D for 9 year and always had high A1c and Morning BG. It wasn’t until the last year that I got serious about it and started using my meter 2 hours after every meal, logging the results as well as what I had. I found that I spiked with bread, pasta, grains and a lot of processed food (including sugar), so I quit them. I then found that I was eating too much fruit, up to 8 cups of fresh berries a day and that set the meter off.

    My last A1c was 6.1 (from a high of 7.9), but my morning BG was seldom under 130 (on my meter), until I started eating low carb. I try to eat 10% of my calories (48g) in carbs. Since I started doing that, the first of the month, I have been up to 132 only once, the rest between 112 and 122. I have mushrooms with my morning omelet, a piece of fruit after my morning workout, usually a salad of 1 cup of romaine lettuce, three mushrooms, three cherry tomatoes, 60 grams of walnuts and ½ avocado drizzled with 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. If I have carbs left over, I will have some sautéed green beans with dinner.

    T2D can’t be reversed but it can be put into remission, where you always test around 100. It’s like being an alcoholic. Just because you quit drinking (almost 27 years for me) you are still an alcoholic.

    I went for a period of time when my morning BG was higher than 2 hours after dinner, but that has stopped now and my morning BG is lower than after dinner.
  • Sharonks
    Sharonks Posts: 884 Member
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    Here is a nice supportive T2 group on MFP http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1789-type-2-diabetes-support-group

    I am sorry your mother has T2 but it is good that she has found out and is getting it under control. Some damage can be reversed after a few years. I had signs of deterioration in my eyes and after a few years it improved and has not returned.

    I was diagnosed 14 years ago. I was 34 years old, worked out 2 hours a day, was on the high side of normal weight and in general considered very healthy. I have never been diet controlled. At the time I was diagnosed I ate whole grains, lean meats, fruits and vegetables. The first month I was diagnosed they put me on the standard diet and I had minimal improvement. I have been on metformin since. For people who say that it is all about diet do not know what they are talking about. I was eating 25 grams of carbs a day and exercising, totally hitting a wall because of lack of carbs, for several months. It minimally improved my BG even with an increase in my met. I am somewhere around 5 to 10 lbs over my desired weight so it isn't always about weight, carbs, and exercise. Sometimes it is just bad genes. The goal is to stop the rot so if you need to take drugs to do that then don't feel bad. i will always have to take drugs and likely it will continue to increase every few years.

    That being said, for many people their BG will improve if they take care of what they eat and how they exercise. For some, they may be able to get off drugs for years by losing weight etc. The only way to really know what you should be doing is to test regularly. Test when you try new foods or exercise. Test after your meals. bloodsugar101.com has a great explanation on how to do that. Your body is unique and what one T2 can eat another can't. So you need to find what is right for you.

    if you both can attend a diabetes class that would be great. It is an excellent place to start and they will give you lots of information that will help you plan your diet. I personally think walking is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself. It is a great starter exercise and for some people it is all the exercise they ever need. For many T2s walking a bit after each meal helps them stay in control.

    Good luck and feel free to add me.
  • Agator82
    Agator82 Posts: 249 Member
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    Your concerns strike a cord with me because I too have a family history of diabetes and so I work aggressively to keep it in check. At two points in my life I have been in the pre-diabetic range and the first time I was able to get it under control with moderate weight loss, I am currently working on the second time, but I am only 4 points above the pre-diabetic thresh hold so I am almost past it again.

    An excellent resource is the American Diabetes Association, diabetes.org, thy have an active community and a 'Newly Diagnosed' message board. Additionally, I have gone so far as to own blood glucose monitors (I have a couple) to make sure that I am not in the diabetic range. It is a small investment for a bit of confidence, this can also be used to learn how different foods affect your glucose levels.

    Diabetic classes also would be useful to help manage your mom's condition and it will give you a feeling of control of your own life. The biggest things have already been hit on here watch out for sugars (ketchup is really bad) and simple carbs (no white bread) and otherwise have a well rounded diet. Exercise also helps to keep blood glucose under control. Please emphasize to your mom the importance of managing this, sometimes people live in denial. The effects of this disease can be really horrible and often times people will ignore it until they have the onset of nerve damage or some other negative result. Good luck as you go down this road.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,721 Member
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    Lucky, you're mother is blessed she found out. My mom died this January from undiagnosed diabetes, her levels were 1700...