Diabetes?

Any diabetics here?  Type I or 2?  Older with Type I and needing to lose weight?

Hi mslile!!

 

I'm a 46 year old male diagnosed with Type 2 in December 2006 after my pancreas was damaged by an unrelated illness.  It's wierd.  My diabetes was brought on by an injury to my pancreas, not by diet, however now my body reacts to foods and sugars like a typical diabetic.  To be honest I probably was heading towards diabetes anyway.  I'm about 55 lbs overweight and not active enough.  As you know - all that has to change!!!

 I'm new to this site (Only about a week).  I'd be happy to keep in touch with you and offer support if you'd like!

I'm 38 and was diagnosed with Type 2 in December 2006.  I was already prediabetic and had to take steroids for a back problem which tipped the scaled into full diabetes.

My meal plan is tailored first for blood sugar control, then to be the appropriate calorie level for me to lose weight. 

The thing that really bothers me is that so much of the media talks about diabetes being related to diet and lack of exercise and COMPLETELY ignores the fact that those factors are secondary to having the genetic predisposition to diabetes.

 

I hear you.  People close to me know my diabetes wasn't triggered by diet and lack of exercise but as soon as I came back to work, they "forgot" about my prevous illness and talk to me/treat me as if I just ate cheeseburgers all day and never got any exercise. 

How hard is it for you to keep your glucose levels under control?  When I take my meds, stick to mostly fruits and veggies and keep the portion sizes reasonable I can generally keep my glucose at or under 100 within a few hours after eating.  I usually stop eating anything after 7:00 PM so my numbers in the morning are generally in the high 80's or low 90's.

Oh - Almost forgot - I really do need to start exercising more.  I do next to nothing other than the typical working long hours at the office.  That would really help.

I'm not any meds at the moment.  I go back next Friday for my next bloodwork.   I am exercising, 75 minutes in the water at least 5 days a week, and i'm seeing good results from that. 

My goal is an A1C less than 6.  As long as I can keep it there, I'll be able to hold off on meds.

No meds yet - thats great!!!  That would give me alot of hope if you can stay off the meds with the consistent exercise.  I have the eating part down.  I have to work on making exercise a priority.  My A1C last March 07 was 6.9 - down from 11.5 in December of 06 when I was first diagnosed. 

Keep up the good work.  I'd really like to get off the meds like you if its possible.

My A1C at diagnosis was 6.3, so very early.  I have one next Friday and I'm hoping to be under 6. 

I post on the American Diabetes Website and there are several people there who have managed to come off the meds and control through meal plan and exercise. 

Today was one of my off days...... I was running late this morning so I changed breakfast and that left me with higher numbers all day long......... but tomorrow is another day.

I look at the whole thing as a slowly but surely, be like the turtle and just keep plugging along......

I was diagnosed a little over 30 years ago with diabetes.  Along with my mom, dad, 3 brothers, grandparents and most aunts and uncles.  (guess they thought it might be in the genes huh?)

They (the doctors) thought that because I was only in my 20's that it could not be type 1.  Well, after numerous doctors, pills that didn't work and exercise that only put me in low blood sugars, they finally ran the right tests and found out I was a type 1. Maybe that's why my a1c's were always over 10!

 Now that my insulin is right and I am taking it when I should, they are ordering me a pump and I hope to have it soon.  But the weight loss is really slow.  I was getting really discouraged by how slowly I was losing until my husband showed me that I had lost 25 pounds in the past year!   Now the doctor tells me that insulin's side effect is weight gain, so I should be really proud of what I've done.

I've been on weight watchers and was really trying to stick to the points, however, when my blood sugars went to 40, points left or not, I had to eat.  Now I am staying on the diet the dietician at the hospital gave me and going to weight watchers for the support and the checking with the scale each week.

Any suggestions I can give, or anyone can give me will be appreciated.  If there's anyone out there who is on the pump and trying to lose weight, I would really like to talk to them.

Hello everyone!

I am happy to have found this thread on the forum.

I have been Type II diabetic since 2001.

I take oral meds.

Since joining CC on 10 Aug 2007 I have lost 21 lbs

My sugar numbers have been EXCELLENT. 

Prior to getting on a program my sugar numbers were always in the 175-280 range & my A1C test last time was over 8.

I usually stayed away from sweets & BAD carbs like white bread, white rice, etc. but now I am being extra careful because I am SCARED out of my mind. 

I am also not much of a "mover".  I like to read & do PC stuff in my spare time.  Therefore I have been too sedentary.  But I have added some exercise a few times a week.

After just about 4 weeks here I am very pleased with my progress & the main fact that my sugar numbers when I test at home are so excellent!  I have had reading never higher than 110!  It amazes me, really!

I would be happy to keep in touch with others who have Diabetes...perhaps we can motivate each other & share food diaries.

Good luck with your healthy lifestyle!!!

*hugs* & luv

Ciao,

           ~Vicki

 

 

Glad to find this thread.  I am 38 and not a diabetic, but my husband was just diagnosed two weeks ago today.  He seems to be type 2, but his symptoms came on all of a sudden, mostly the thirst and then the blurred vision. 

Wednesday two weeks ago he started on oral meds, by Friday we couldn't get his sugar below 550, so Friday evening, started on insulin (35 units in four hours) and by midnight he was in the hospital.   Doing much better now, he takes Lantos twice a day, and between that, diet, and exercise, he hasn't had to take any of his sliding scale in several days. 

This has caused us to make major food and fitness changes in our household, which is good for me, too, because my mother and grandmother are both diabetic.  So maybe this means my day won't come (or maybe will be delayed.)

The one thing I can say with certainty, in my 14 whole days of living with a diabetic, is EXERCISE IS KEY.  Everyone concentrates on diet, which of course is very important, but exercise cannot be an "optional item."  Do SOMETHING, it will help.  When my husband works out for even 30 minutes,  his blood sugar goes down markedly.  And it is an almost instant change.  The more you can get your muscles to open the doors to the cells, the less work there will be for medications to do.

My husband is a type 1 diabetic.  He was nearly 35 when he developed it (had a bad case of the flu and developed diabetic symptons over the course of the next month or so - weight loss, constant thirst).  At first they thought he might be type II because of his age and he was a little over-weight (but not enough that he should have been diabetic by age 34)....long story, short, but they ran blood tests that indicated that he did not have sufficient insulin (and he has none now). 

He does really well controlling his carb intake, but he over-eats fats and proteins.  He's always been a big eater, and now he has extra meat instead of a slice of bread when he's hungry....(I can't convince him that he has to cut his meat portions back)....

Mslile - I really appreciate that it's even harder to loose weight when you have artifical insulin in your system....it's a tough balancing act to keep your sugar levels even.

Stellajo - how old is your husband?  Did he have a recent serious infection?  Are they sure he's type II?

It is hard for sure to lose weight while on insulin and others on some of the pills have a hard time too because of side effects, of which is weightgain.  I am finding though that it can be done with being honest with myself about my food choices and diligence on my part.  I take "Human" insulin and it has worked well for me.  My son takes Lantus, plus some pills, but he is a Type 2.  Whether it is Type I, what they used to call "Juvenile" diabetes or Type 2, adult onset as it was called.  They are finding more and more that diabetes just happens in some people.  Children no longer just get Type I, but Type 2.  It is all deadly and will kill us if not taken care of.  I used to play the denial game and wouldn't tell others of my diabetes.  I called it diabetes "tendencies".  A young doctor faced me down and told me, "You have a disease that WILL KILL you!!!"  That statement got through to me.  I started taking care of myself and that was 30+ years ago.