So, I’ve been put in the "pre-diabetic category. Would love to meet others that were also told you were in the early stages of diabetes or have had high FBG numbers and high post meal glucose numbers. Are you currently using a monitor to check your numbers and were you put on Metformin?
Just saw my Endo today and would love to swap stories to help one another out!
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Along with David, Brian (I believe) and quite a few others, I believe that there is no such thing as “pre-diabetes.” It’s like being pregnant: you either are or you ain’t. I realize that doesn’t answer your questions, but it does address the not-too-uncommonly held belief that nothing anyone can do will prevent them from becoming diabetic if this going to happen because of your genes or because you were dealt the “D-card” by fate…
All anyone can do is live as healthy a life as possible, and hope for the best.
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Interesting, I dont believe that at all actually. There are many that their numbers are high but just under what the doctors will treat you with insulin. Still, some of us have fasting glucose at 115 and an A1C at 5.7 or 5.8
So, some of us are given metformin (like me) and try to get exercise in our life a long with better diet. I can honestly say that me eating big bowls of pasta, brownies at night and sodas didnt exactly keep my numbers down. But at the same time when I take metformin, my fasting glucose is 95 instead of 115. On a daily basis, monthly, turning into yearly, constant high sugar does prove to change your organs, tissues, what your body needs to be healthy. Ok, so they put a name for it now “Pre diabetes” just like they didnt always have “type 1” understood, and just like they changed the numbers of whats considered to high glucose. Evrything changes with more information and research. So,you can either slip into Type 2 and not take something like metformin and a better diet plus exercise or ignore that you’re at an early stage and do nothing. I mean some of us at an early stage, like me. I realize of course some are just type 2 and type 1 and there is nothing you can do!
I dont know if Metformin will last for me, maybe its just slowing the inevitable, but its worth a shot. There are others that have written me, that they too are not on insulin but have to work really hard with diet and Metformin to accomplish low numbers, better numbers.
What I’d love to know is, did they feel better on Metformin ER or regular Metformin? Because the metformin has killed my stomach!!!
I guess I’m just not understanding the point you are trying to make. Are you saying that one can prevent Type 2 by exercising and not eating junk food, and that Type 2 is caused by poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle and can be reversed or cured? Or that Type 1 can be prevented or reversed? Or that diabetes is caused by a poor diet, and therefore PWD are responsible for causing their diabetes? Or that taking Metformin prevent one from developing diabetes? Please elaborate.
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Nope not saying any of that. I was just saying that I was told I was pre diabetic based on constant high numbers NOW, even though I eat good. High numbers being constant fasting of 110-115, even though now I eat good, work out and very slim. Cant quite keep that A1C at 5.6 its always borderline but I didnt make those rules, someone else did. I didnt say borderline is my numbers, someone else did based on research of people with diabetes or constant high sugar.
You cant ignore that as a doctor. What I was posting was I wanted to meet others that were told the same. We all have different issues but SOME OF US are borderline and will try anything not to become full blown diabetes. I think there is some that cold change their numbers (like me) that I would love to meet. Swap stories, numbers, meds whatever it may be to help us through OUR situation together.
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here’s my original post
(So, I’ve been put in the "pre-diabetic category. Would love to meet others that were also told you were in the early stages of diabetes or have had high FBG numbers and high post meal glucose numbers. Are you currently using a monitor to check your numbers and were you put on Metformin?
Just saw my Endo today and would love to swap stories to help one another out)
Diabex ER was kinder on my stomach than straight Metformin.
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http://m.care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/Supplement_1/S36.full
Regardless of our opinions on the existence of prediabetes, the ADA recognizes it as a condition. Since they set the Standards of Care, our opinions are just that. I only wish more doctors would actually follow the Standards by prescribing Metformin much earlier. Considering how few will even prescribe testing supies, it’s not surprising.
I have tested my own BG on a regular basis for 18+ years, since being dx’d with GD during my last pregnancy. My OB/Gyn never recommended it, nor did he mention that I was at higher risk for T2. When my annual labs showed FBG >100 the first time 7 years ago, I was told it was nothing to worry about. I began testing in pairs before & after meals, & culled a few more foods from my diet. (At 5’9" & 130 lbs, weight was never an issue. I’ve also always been very physically active, although I’ve added in an hour of walking in the evenings now.) In Feb 2015 I received my official dx. I refused to try regular Metformin first after hearing so much about the side effects. Metformin ER seems to be working well for. My last 3 A1Cs have been in the upper 4s, & FBG (by lab draw twice now) have been <90. I am negative for T1 antibodies, but I do have 3 autoimmune disorders including Hashimoto’s.
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How long have you been on the Metformin and what is your dose?
Generally doctors start at a very low dose of 500mg 1x a day (sometimes 2x a day) and then ramp up from there. Some people find that the ER is easier on their digestive tract than the regular. I was actually the other way around. When I first started taking Metformin, I found that taking it with a meal of yogurt with active cultures helped keep my gut flora balanced and reduced some of the gastric distress that it can cause. The side effects do usually subside after about 3-4 weeks as your body gets used to the medication.
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I’m so happy to hear from you tiaE. First question that comes to mind is what were your numbers when put on Metformin and weight. Sounds like me a little if I read correctly, I’m thin use to always work out and ate pretty healthy. My fasting has always been high and A1C. Negative for the type 1 antibodies taken although today the Endo called and said she has one more type 1 test to give me (bloodwork) and was thinking maybe MODY.
She says you’re probably not type 2 because you dont look it. But I wondered are type 2s always overweight?
How do feel now?
Also, are you able to keep your thyroid under control? Mine is always crazy and sits now at TSH 0.25 obviously horrible. I wonder how much of that messes with my glucose problems
At dx, I weighed 122. My FBG from the labs that day was 134. My doctor still refused to prescribe Metformin. She believed the higher BG was caused by meds I was taking for other issues. Synthroid & one other med I’m on can elevate BGs. I went online & ordered my own labs, including an A1C, & had the results sent to her. I received my Rx without anymore arguments. I was shocked when my husband was dx’d T2 last July after a wellness clinic at work. She immediately prescribed Metformin ER, & even suggested trying Farxiga if the Metformin didn’t drop his A1C by the next visit. Seems she attended a conference & heard Defronzo speak on the ominous octet. She’s making progress, slowly!
My thyroid is controlled according to my labs, but I still have several symptoms…brittle & thinning hair, peeling skin on my hands, extreme fatigue mostly. My doctor says my symptoms are due to normal aging, being post-menopausal, my other autoimmunes & stress. I felt much better when my TSH was on the low end of normal, though still had minor symptoms.
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Mmm… Not sure I understand this question. I was dx “pre-diabetic” did the recommended DASH diet—which I trust we all know now is totally wrong for a diabetic—had major surgery (read: major trauma which can cause a tip over) and then was diabetic…That was a decade ago…
I stormed out of my doc’s office in a fury of betrayal, took out every book at the library on the subject, went low-carb, and am not yet on meds, though I know that could happen any time.
All I know about metformin is what I read here. Which has also convinced me that when the time comes, I will probably go right to insulin as a matter of choice…Blessings!..Judith in Portland…
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I think you might be interested in resistant starch, a type of dietary fiber that ferments in the large intestine and has been shown to significantly improve insulin sensitivity, especially in prediabetics. It shifts the composition of the bacteria in the gut, changes the expression of hundreds of genes, and essentially changes metabolism. The FDA is currently evaluating the potential claim “resistant starch helps to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes” and is expected to issue a ruling later this month. (Regulations.gov).
There are a couple of different sources - Hi-maize resistant corn starch was used in all of the studies submitted to the FDA. You can find it at www.kingarthurflour.com as Hi-maize natural fiber. Take 2 to 3 tablespoons/day anyway you can and many friends have reversed prediabetes and newly diagnosed T2D. Some Paleo dieting groups use raw potato starch from Bob’s Red Mill instead, but there is a lot less research on this type of resistant starch. Green bananas, beans and unprocessed grains are also great sources of natural resistant starch, but you really need to get a concentrated source for the benefits shown in the studies (30-70% improved insulin sensitivity in prediabetic, insulin resistant men and postmenopausal women).
Hope this helps.
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Thank you for that! I will look it up, is it ok for IBS individuals tho?
I only wish doctors would prescribe insulin much earlier. The Joslin Diabetes Center now starts every newly diagnosed T2 on insulin right away, sometimes only for the short time it takes to achieve stability. What’s tragic is, surveys show that a substantial percentage of doctors refrain from prescribing it because they believe patients are afraid of injections, whereas surveys of the patients themselves show that to be dramatically less true than the doctors believe. So large numbers of patients who could realize great benefit and stem the tide much sooner don’t even have it suggested to them.
Here’s my problem with the term “pre-diabetic”. It implies that you don’t “really” have a medical condition but are just “at risk” somehow. No. Either the body can maintain a normal blood sugar level without outside help, or it can’t. There isn’t any “in between” state. There are degrees, from extremely mild to extremely severe and every gradation in between, but you either have normal function or you don’t. It’s a semantic dodge.
Why care about a semantic dodge? Because it determines the level of care you will receive, and it’s an easy cop-out for (admittedly overworked) doctors. “This is only pre-diabetes, I don’t need to focus much attention on it until it becomes full blown.” Which, of course, practically guarantees that it WILL.
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More importantly, it also changes what insurances will, and won’t, cover. I know there’s at least one person in another thread who mentioned her doctor having listed her diabetes as “reversed” through diet and exericise - and marked it so on her charts, so her insurance stopped covering her testing supplies. Now her HbA1C is through the roof and she has the beginning of kidney damage because she didn’t notice her BGs creeping up.
Pre-diabetes is a dangerous label IMHO. As you said, your body either functions right on its own, or requires intervention. That intervention can be diet and exercise or it can be medication. I also fear that putting a “pre-diabetes” label on it, and telling a patient that they can “prevent full-blow diabetes” sets a patient up for feelings of failure and guilt if they aren’t able to control through diet and exercise, when its their body’s fault, not their own.
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I Really don’t believe in the term Pre-diabetic. You are diabetic or you’re not…And once you are diabetic—well, you are diabetic. Then it’s up to you to figure what to do for your very individual body to keep your numbers as controlled as possible…
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I completely agree prediabetes is a dangerous label, but it’s still only my opinion. Combine all of us in agreement & the value of our opinions doesn’t increase above its 2 cents. I encourage anyone I know with even the slightest elevations in BG to buy a meter & test regularly for themselves.
I’ve heard before about Joslin starting treatment for all new dx with insulin. Personally, that sounds too much like a one size fits all plan to me, so I can’t support it. Assembly - line treatment that ignores the underlying mechanisms at play is just as much a mistake as downplaying the seriousness of the early stages of disease.
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WHOA! If there is anyone on the planet who does not treat diabetes “assembly-line” style, it’s Joslin, one of the true pioneers in effective diabetes treatment. Just to pluck one example at random, they were among the very first to argue that controlling blood sugar reduces complications, years before the DCCT demonstrated it conclusively. If anyone treats diabetes assembly-line style, it’s the average everyday GP, not one of the world’s premier diabetes clinics.
Early intervention with insulin is not done to “ignore the underlying mechanisms”. It does not equate to, and is not done for the purpose of applying a universal solution. It’s done to get blood sugar under control and buy time to find out what really is wrong so it can be dealt with effectively.
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