When I began my diabetic journey – not so very long ago --I thought my perspective should be to get my blood sugar levels down to below 7.5 mmol.
There is some debate about where diabetes begins and ‘normal’ bood glucose levels ends.
Research conducted with human patients, mice, and pancreas beta cell cultures all point to a single threshold at which elevated blood sugars cause permanent damage to your body. What is that level?
140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L) after meals (ref)
140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L) after meals (ref)
The irony is that after a drastic shift to a low carbohydrate diet I'm now hovering below that figure. I test my blood sugar levels on waking in the morning and again two hours after each meal. While these may rise during the day to between 7 and 8 mmol -- depending on what exertion I've spent or what I've put in my mouth -- most of my figures now are between 6 and 7 mmol.
So there: What a difference a diet makes.
However, I'm a long way from normal and where I'm registering say 6.3 on waking, my household co habitee can bleed a low 3.3 mmol .
So I have to work out what my next move should be....
From my POV I doubt that diet alone can slash my figures much further.I can no doubt shave them a bit , par them down so that I can live my life in the fives (mmol) for part of each day. But to impact some more I think I need to reduce my weight --and that's proving not so easy to pull off.
10-15 kgms is at stake.
But hey! I've already surprized myself. I moved quickly on my diet and (don't try this at home) went off my blood pressure and pain medication inorder to weed out any consequential side effects that may impact on my primary pathology target.
When I'm reviewed, my work up is going to be interesting.
With the low carb diet, I take one diabetic tablet and a good hit of fish oil each day. I'm monitor my blood pressure -- just in case -- but my hope is that the other changes --as well as more aerobic exercise and more control of my diabetes-- will bring my BP down.
And who knows? A new me.