One thing is clear…I need to to go see my Dr.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
First, if you are eating right, and taking your meds and your blood sugar is still too high, you need to see your Dr and get your meds adjusted. 2) carb count alone does not fix the equation. you also need chromium, fiber and exercise. Carbs have to be blended with fiber in your diet in order to be properly absorbed in the system. 3) stress really messes with your blood sugar and your body can not work stress out naturally without vitamin B. Make sure you get a lot of vitamin B either from supplements and/or your diet. I work with a company called Market America, and I teach a class called Transitions. Its mostly for weight loss, but our objective is natural weight loss through improving basic health. send me your email address and I will send you one of our shopping lists. We advocate whole natural foods. I’ll send more info with the shopping list.
bob
Suzanne,
Go on Atkins induction and get off of ALL SUGARS OR CARBS (at least as much as humanly possible). Even stay off any alcohol of any kind. It will work. I was diagnosed Type 2 on May 9,2009. I went on almost no carb, no sugar and in less than 10 days, my blood sugar went from 267 to 90. After 2 months, my A1C went from 11 to 6.5 and I went from 2 pills a day down to 1 and I am about off of the pills. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE NUTRITIONISTS…THEY KILL TYPE 2’s. The food pyramid is wrong. If anyone doubts me, message me and I get them copies of my blood tests.
Definitely don’t doubt that it worked but unfortunately we don’t all have that kind of self control. Not to mention you might want to be careful making such a sweeping statement to anyone on this site. You could “kill” someone yourself! Until you know someone’s medical background you might want to tone down your opinions, maybe giving advice but not claiming to have the answers?
Suzanne, I understand what you are saying…been there this summer, also. But I have been diabetic for 10 years, just switching eating plans. First, your body is adjusting to the metformin, which takes about a month…then you said you had just had surgery, well your pancreas is secreting horomones to help you heal from that…not perhaps providing your body with enough insulin to function on…so you are kicking in and making more. Overnight, I found out, that my liver will secrete more insulin to make up for what is missing in my diet or evening snack. I had to choose between weight or diabetes. I have lost 45 lbs and didn’t want to gain, but the diabetes had to come first, and the weight will follow eventually. I would definitely make the appt with your doc and a dietician to see what you should be eating, because 40 carbs doesn’t seem like enough to me, but I’m not your doc. Tell them about the sugar levels, about not wanting to gain weight, etc. It can be worked out, but you have to be tweaked a little to make it work. I am getting between 150 and 175 carbs a day…just as a comparison, so maybe you’re starving yourself…but check with the doc or your nutritionist…and if that doesn’t do the trick, then ask for the referral to the endo people.
Suzanne,
A 140 2 hours after eating something is good. The general rule of thumb is 90-120 fasting and under 180-200 2 hours after eating. I also usually have issues with high blood sugars in the morning. I am currently on a weight loss program with my husband and it is the first time since I was diagnosed that I am having low numbers in the morning.
You’ve probably barely been on the Met long enough for it to start having a solid, stable effect. It takes 4-6 weeks, as it builds up in your body. Most RDs and CDE’s recommend the ADA number of carbs per meal and per day, and it’s higher than almost anyone who is on Met alone can handle. Some people eat very low carb indeed, like 40 for the whole day; I can’t do that. I call myself a medium-carber, I have anywhere between 90-150 carbs per day. After I’d been on your dosage of Met for three months, I asked to have it double, and I now take 1000 mg twice a day - it makes a difference, definitely, but many T2s, especially if they are overweight and light on the exercise, just can’t handle more than 20-30 carbs per meal.
A little update…
My 2 hour (after eating) numbers are good, in that they dont rise much, in fact it almost seems as eating is what gets my blood sugar to come down. I’m eating low carb. My fasting numbers are the problem…I’m starting out too high. This morning my blood sugar was 160.
They’ve adjusted my med to 1000 mgs of metformin at night, and 500 in the morning. Back to having an upset stomach.
I’ve been sick ever since my diagnosis (mid July officially diagnosed Aug 3rd) either because of appendecitis, surgery and now sinus infection/bronchitis. Now I’m back on antibiotics.
I’ve lost 10 pounds since the 1st of August. I’ll be so glad to feel better someday! 
You should take the Metformin with food, it cuts back on the stomach problems.
Maybe your infection is making your morning sugars high.
Maybe you have Dawn P., that could be the reason your doctors raised
the night dose to 1000 mg.
It took about 6 plus weeks for the Met to start working for me, my BGL would not go below 170 and hovered around 200 all the time regardless of what I ate. It was stating to drive me a bit batty. So I agree that you have to give yourself and the medication a little time. You are an experiment of one and after awhile you should find the right balance of carbs, exercize, and medication for you.
I have found that a fiber supplement does a lot to mitigate the effects of the met, I try to drink at least a glass of metamucil a day and when I do there are no nasty GI issues, If I forget for a few days I get reminded. If you get a can of fiber read the label and make sure that it does not have any added sugar (some do) and don’t take it within 2 hours of your meds as it can interfere with absorbtion. The fiber may help you regulate your BGL too.
Met also interferes with your B12 and I’m taking a Super B supplement as well as extra B12, it makes a difference for me especially with a feeling of more energy. Carb tolerance is different for everyone, I count them loosely and I figure I’m at 135 a day or less
Thanks Dave for the heads up about the vitamin b. This is how my blood sugar looked today.
Fasting 145 2 hours after breakfast 141, a little while ago…145.
I am still eating very low carb. It’s been pretty strange. Seems my numbers go down after I eat half the time!
If the Metformin doesn’t lower you after you’ve been on it longer & the increased dose doesn’t help, you might do better with basal insulin. Would greatly help the fasting numbers.
I find that if my morning fasting test is above 110 (I used to have 130-150 all the time), and I eat an ounce of walnuts or cheese (i.e. high fat and protein but not carbs) and wait an hour to retest, my BG has dropped sometimes by as much as 20 points and then I can eat a low-carb breakfast w/o too big a spike. Try something like that and see what your body does with it. I was diagnosed in April, and have found that the longer my BG has been controlled, the better it gets – my body doesn’t respond as violently to minor insults (my son’s birthday cake for instance), and I know so much more about what I can eat that it’s less work to figure it out and track it.
When I was diagnosed I read 6-7 books right away, the most helpful one being Blood Sugar 101 that I got from Amazon for under $10. Bought/read the usual ADA books and went to the CDE classes and met w/the RD, but testing my BG constantly is what helped me find what works for me (tho I am still tweaking). What works for me is not necessarily what works for you, but Blood Sugar 101 explained for me that the four different ways to be a Type 2 (issues w/Phase 1, Phase 2, or basal insulin releases, and/or insulin resistance) are the reason for that and we can all figure out our own system if we pay attention, that is, test BG frequently and record food.
I figure when I have finished 10-12 months of logging everything (and I mean everything) I eat I’ll bust back to doing it only one week out of the month, just like there are some foods I don’t have to measure any more but I still do measure now and then to make sure my guesses aren’t creeping up. I also write down in my food/BG log what I think about why I had a certain result, and plans to test it or eat that food differently. For instance I discovered that I couldn’t just eat an apple in the middle of the day – 1/4 of an apple sent me up 60 points! – but I can eat half an apple w/a tablespoon of peanut butter an hour after a low-carb meal and it doesn’t spike my blood sugar AT ALL, in fact my BG is usually 5-10 points lower an hour later.
Donna,
Though I’m Type 1, I’ve also found that eating protein with high fasting helps. Eating works to help my dawn phenonmenon by preventing more liver glucagon dumping. Learned this the hard way because I didn’t want to eat anything with high morning BG & saw numbers getting really high without food. Like you, I eat very low carb breakfasts, basically all protein.
Are you sure the apple isn’t sending you high later? The fat in the peanut butter will slow digestion, but it can still hit later. This may be different for Type 2s. When I eat high fat meals, it takes many hours to see the spike.
The American Diabetes Assoc says 180 two hours after eating is good control, but the American College of Endocrinologists – the diabetes specialists’ group – says to aim for 140 two hours after eating.
Gerri,
For months I tested at 1, 2, 3 hours after meals, and also at 4 or 5 hours after hign-carb dinners. Yes, fat delays digestion for T2’s as well, but w/testing I try to figure out how late my peak might be and be sure to test then to see what a reasonable serving for that meal might be. For me, wheat/pasta, rice, oats, other grains eaten w/fat can peak as late as 2-1/2 or 3 hours, but carbs from whole veggies and fruits eaten w/fat have a low early peak (usually at about 1 hour) and drift back down over several hours. I think that for me the reason the apple one hour after a meal works is that it appears to be my Phase 1 that is most dysfunctional, and once the meal stimulates Phase 2 I’m good – as long as I don’t wait too long and the Phase 2 for that meal shuts off. I’m sure I have insulin resistance as well, but have not been to an endocrinologist to find out.
I did find that when I overeat at dinner my peak is latest and my morning BG is highest. Any meal that makes me feel stuffed has a later peak, besides whatever other bad effects it has! I have lost over 30 pounds eating this way in the last 6 months and am feeling better than I have in years. I was really pleased to find a way to incorporate fruit back in to my diet, as I used to have it for breakfast and for afternoon snacks – which I now know are the WORST times for me to eat fruit. I also learned that berries and cantalope are easier on my BG than apples and oranges, so I eat more of those.
The ADA books, CDE and RD all gave me advice that was impossible to follow while feeding my family and otherwise living my life. But by testing I figured out a low-carb breakfast that I can eat after I get everyone else out the door, how to eat a lunch that gets nearly all its carbs from vegetables (a HUGE salad w/a few ounces of meat and cheese or nuts, usually), and a dinner that is the same as the rest of the family except in proportions: they get for instance 2 cups pasta and one cup sauce and I get 1/2 cup pasta and two cups sauce plus extra parmesan – and that 1/2 cup pasta is a small enough serving to have no late peak it just prolongs for another hour the peak from the rest of the meal.
Sorry so long! Got the newbie evangelism bug tonight I guess… It took me so long to figure some of this out, and I often wished someone else had suggested some of these things to me sooner.
Donna,
You’re amazing & kudos for figuring all this out on your own! Didn’t take you long to understand this at all. Hope other people read your great post & learn from your example. Unraveling the Phase 1 & 2 situation is important.
Info given by ADA, CDE & RD didn’t help me either. In fact, it was the worst advice possible. I rejected it all & started again from scratch. I felt terrible, BG was all over the place & I was in tears frequently from frustration. Jenny’s blog & book opened my eyes to a different way, too!
Too much for dinner, or a very late dinner, has bad effects on me also. The lighter I eat in the evening, the better morning fasting. When I told my first endo this, he said just to take more insulin. That’s the usual answer.
Happy you’re doing well!
Gerri,
Thanks! Mostly I’m doing well, but sometimes it still seems overwhelming. I have read Jenny’s book four times now and gotten something different out of it each time, something I wasn’t ready to hear the first/second/third time I read it. Have re-read a couple other books too, mainly patching together an eating plan, and am finally starting to venture into the diabetic internet community to glean what I can from the experience of people like you! The support I have felt here in even just the few days I have been a member has been really heartwarming.
I am fortunate in that my insurance pays for as many strips as my doc prescribes, but it was 2 months of results and weight loss before he would write a scrip for that many strips so I bought most of them myself during that time. He’d sent me out of the office on Diagnosis Day w/a scrip for Metformin and no other info. I wanted to see what I could do without meds, though I am not opposed to using them later if I can’t make my goals any other way.
My older sister was Type 1, but died from complications of flu many years ago before there were so many tools in the hands of the patients. I feel so lucky to have a meter at all. And when the huge volume of information available about diabetes doesn’t seem COMPLETELY overwhelming, it can sometimes seem like a treasure trove…
Goodnight,
Donna
It is overwhelming!
Wonderful support & info here.
I’m constantly dismayed that doctors don’t encourage, & often discourage, more testing for Type 2s. A good friend’s Type 2 husband was told to test a couple times a month. His strips expire before he goes through one container. His A1c is not good, yet his doctor tells him he’s doing fine.
Your experience of an Rx for Metformin & little else is far too common, sadly.
Have you read Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution?
I’m so sorry about your sister.
Keep in mind that your brain needs a certain amount of carbohydrates to function. You’re a newly diagnosed diabetic and you’re recovering from surgery too. Give yourself some time to adjust and keep meeting with your RD. If you have any concerns, ask your MD for a referal to an endocrinologist. Also exercise, such as walking also helps to lowers blood sugars. Good luck and “Welcome”