Support Group for anyone with Diabetes

Hello,

My name is Michelle and about 7 months ago I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 2 and I take medication and check my sugar levels twice a day...Having diabetes is still fairly new to me along with the new lifestyle of eating...I still have my sugar cravings and some days are better than other's as they say...Anyone else want to join to give one another support against this horrible disease..Luckily with my current weight loss my Dr thinks if I lose another 50 pounds I can manage my diabetes without taking Metformin twice a day...So of course that is my goal..besides being at a healthy weight but getting of this medicine...I have seen too many loved ones struggle with the disease and I can not end up with complications....

 

I would like to join, but I have had Type 1 Diabetes for 22 years. I would love to have some people to talk to.

Hello Bulma_85_16,

Sounds good!  Btw, sorry to hear that you have Diabetes Type 1 I can not imagine the struggles you must have or have too go through?? I am hoping we can get more Diabetics to join so we can plenty of support : ) Especially, since weight loss is very important for us and our health literally!!

Welcome : )

Hello there!!!

Molly here, Type 2 diabetic since 2004. At my worst, my A1c was off-the-charts and my diabetes was very poorly controlled. Six months ago, I decided that I was tired of 4 insulin shots a day, having diabetic neuropathy, high triglycerides, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc, etc. etc. So I started eating healthy and joined this wonderful website to help me eat better and lose weight.

• In 6 months, I've lost 82 pounds. (That's about 3 sizes and 2 chins!)
• I've gone off short acting insulin (3 shots/day) and just take long at night.
• I've gone off 1 oral diabetes med (Glyburide) (Stll on Metformin)
• My last A1c was 6.3 ... yay! Finally controlled!
• My cholesterol is now in the normal range!!! Woo hoo!
• My triglycerides have REALLY come down.
• My blood pressure is near normal.... woo hoo!

My diet is now over-the-top healthy and I average over 10 servings of veggies a day! I eat your basic, low-fat, high fiber, veggie-laden, lean protein healthy diet ... about 1500 calories per day.  (I'm 42 years old and also have untreated hypothyroidism ... underactive thyroid .... plus chronic, severe asthma!)

=^..^= MOLLY

Hello Mollymouser,

Welcome! First can I say WOW!  That is some amazing progress within the last 6 months! I am sure without even saying it I know you are very proud of yourself and your accomplishments!! I bet your dr is quite pleased huh? I still need to work on my cholesterol errrr but hopefully the next 3 month visit will bring some good news!! I must add you have given me some inspiration to know that I too can take control of my levels and do not have to just allow the diabetes to take over my life!! Like I said it's all fairly new so I still have some learning and growing to do!! So what happened if I might ask that you decided to change your lifestyle?? Was it just your levels being off the chart which I am sure would do it : ) I am still in awe of you!! Keep it up!!

Your Friend,

Michelle

I'm not diabetic, but I am insulin resistant and I also know a lot of people with diebetes type I or II because of my mother's job (she's an endocrinologist). I noticed that it seems very important to you to go off metformin, so, if it's worth anything...metformin is pretty good not only for managing diabetes, it has other health benefits and may help lose weight since it's already hard thanks to hormonal imbalances that are part of diabetes type II (hyperinsulinemia). I take metformin too, but most days only once (at lunchtime). I must say it's helped me a lot with the "sugar blues" and has in general lines made my weight loss process easier.

From Wikipedia: "Metformin is the only anti-diabetic drug that has been proven to reduce the cardiovascular complications of diabetes, as shown in a large study of overweight patients with diabetes. Unlike the other most-commonly prescribed class of oral diabetes drugs, the sulfonylureas, metformin (taken alone) does not induce hypoglycemia. It also does not cause weight gain, and may indeed produce minor weight loss. Metformin also modestly reduces LDL and triglyceride levels."

and of course congrats on your weight loss :)

Hi, I've got Type 2, too. Since 2004.

I...struggle.  After being diagnosed I really got on the bandwagon, then fell off. Last year I swore I was going to do fabulously well (one step was joining CC) and by the end of 2007 I was in a deep pit. I can see the light at the top of the pit, but I'm still there. My blood sugar isn't off-the-charts, thank goodness, but it could be under better control. If I could just lose enough weight, I'd probably be virtually diabetes-free.

A note on Metformin - the weight loss part is great but oh god, the stomach issues it can cause! I was on it for almost 2 years and finally had to get my dr. to switch me to Glyburide because I couldn't stand the cramps and always having to carry Immodium with me!

And by the way, WOW Mollymouser!! Good for you - that is truly awesome.

Hi Michelle,

I'd love to join. I have just been informed by my doctor that I am borderline diabetic and border line hypothyroid. My sugar was at 9.7? If I were not dieting and exercising already he would have put  me on medication but because I am already losing he is going to check me again early June. My problem is I know very little about diabetes other than someones sugar levels can either be too high or too low. I have never been one to eat a lot of sugar or drink pop or juice, but I know that certain carbohydrates and starches can be turned into sugar. The diabetes association doesn't really give any daily target #'s for sugar or carbohydrate intake so any help or suggestions anyone can make will be greatly appreciated. I know this will be chasing me forever, but the longer I can stay out of the danger zone the happier I'll be. I'm 40 somthing,  female with approximately 30 lbs to lose.

Kristy

krisdiet.

Carbohydrates, fats and protein can all be turned into glucose by the body. carbs the body cannot use is called "fiber", fats get broken down into fatty acids and sugar, proteins,into amino acids and sugar. It is just that carbohydrates are the first choice for a glucose source by the body. the more refined the carbohydrate, the faster it gets absorbed as glucose by your intestines- processing breaks down the carbohydrates into smaller chunks, therefore easier to digest leading into a faster spiking of your glucose. the body breaks down the carbs into glucose,the form it gets asorbed into the body, one in the body the glucose is either used by the body for energy or it is stored or used to build cells. That's why relatively unprocessed foods like large rolled oats compared to instant oatmeal, brown rice compared to white rice, whole grains compared to ground grains like white flour are preferred choices for a diabetic diet.

 

try  http://www.mendosa.com

I got the following from a diabetes education program, and did not really find this aspect about diabeties clearly written out elsewhere. Most stuff was the problems of out of control diabetes- not about the long term effects of poor control as compared to what happens when very out of control. 

 

  The why of diabetes long term problems.   In long term problems, the problem is the damage to the blood vessels - the smaller they are they more likely the damage. (Blood vessels provide transportation-capillaries are the term for the smallest diameter blood vessels.)  Red blood cells that flow along the blood vessels along with the glucose are what causes the long term damage to the capillaries. Because red blood cells carry oxygen to cells and remove carbon-dioxide they go all over the body is why diabetes damage is so wide spread throughout the body. When glucose levels are high, glucose can “stick" to the exterior of red blood cells. The higher the glucose levels, the more glucose floating around in blood vessels that can attach to red cell walls.  This attachment makes the red cells stiffer, harder etc. and more damaging when they hit blood vessel walls (which they do all the time with the heart's pressure moving the blood flow). Over time the capillary walls can get so scarred (narrowed) they slow down or even block passage of red cells. The blocked blood vessels cause poor transportation of cellular needs.  The cells start function poorly and may even die (starve). If enough cells die, the organs cannot function well.  The more the damage - the greater the "illness' of the organ, and the more complications that arise from diabetes. Finally one dies an early death because out of control glucose levels have damaged too many essential organs in the diabetic's body.   This is a simplified explanation.

 For a slightly more complicated one that explains nerve damage- nerves do run next to blood vessels. It is felt that the damage to the blood vessel walls is sometimes so extensive that the myelin sheath cells that surround the nerves also get damaged when they lie next to the badly damaged blood vessel.

 There are other things that can happen to make things worse- high blood pressure for example will make the stiff glucose studded red cells that hit and damage cell walls hit more often and harder, than would happen with a normal blood pressure.   There is high cholesterol - cholesterol tends to stick to damaged blood vessel walls-so a combination of high cholesterol and high glucose means damaged walls will get blood vessels blocked faster. There is problems associated with heavy abdominal fat that seem to stress the function of the pancreas. No explanation for this but since one cannot spot reduce, one has to lose fat all over the body in order that the pancreas start to function better. And so on.

 

Now a quick going over of the basics.

Diabetes is high levels of glucose in the blood.

The higher the amount of glucose floating around red cells in the bloodstream, the more likely they will attach to a red cell.

The more glucose attached, the "stiffer" and "rougher" the red cell becomes.

This stiffer Red blood cells impact on the blood vessel wall can cause damage of the blood vessel walls.

Too many such impacts and the damage cannot be easily repaired

These rough up areas can collect debris and in the smallest capillaries can easily block off transport to cells causing cell death.

Enough cell deaths and organs cannot function well 

Some organs cannot replace the damaged cells (or cannot replace them fast enough).

Over time the organ (eyes, kidney, etc) "fails".

If enough organs fail the result is early death for the diabetic.

 

Having the "mechanics" of the problem explained is great.  All of a sudden eating smaller amounts of foods that raise blood sugars makes sense (you can carefully spread the eating of that delicious slice of cake over 2 days instead of at one sitting) Eating every 4 to 6 hours to keep sugar levels steady makes sense, especially useful idea if you NEED to modify calories for an high activity lifestyle.  Having A1C test done ever 3 to 4 months makes sense, and if the A1C levels DO NOT match your records of your sugar levels you KNOW something is wrong. Etc.    The "good" thing that researchers have found is that if you can keep a good control the complications will "never" happen to you. (Never means you will die of something else!). If you can keep the sugar levels to “normal" it is possible the body may have a chance to heal. So some parts of your body may become as functional as they were before getting damaged by the consequences of a high glucose levels.  This means for the type 2 diabetic - one day’s lack of control will result in about 120 days of damaging red blood cells floating around. (And one's A1C levels revealing that lack of control for 120 days)

.  By the way the A1C tests for the amount of glucose that attaches to red cells. Since red blood cells only have a life span of 120 days at the most, having the test done gives your doctor an idea of how well you have managed to keep your sugars close to a healthy normal in the last three, four months.  This is a very important way to judge the possible long term damage. You should check to find out, (I forget) but there is an incredibly large link between having the A1C levels normal and avoiding long term complications. It may be an excellent way for you to find if your diabetes is becoming worse if you find you do not really need the finger prick test that often. Checking the glucose levels is more important the worse your sugar level control. At prediabetic levels, continuous finger pricks may not be that very useful if you are also getting regular A1C tests done. 

 

hi there! i was also diagnosed insulin resistant about two years ago. i'm taking metformin to control my sugar. when i was first diagnosed, i used metformin as an excuse to still eat everything i wanted, thinking hey, the meds would digest my sugar for me. of course i knew this was wrong, but i still didnt take my sugar intake seriously. at the time, i was also 230 lbs., hypertensive and lived a very stressful life. i was a walking time bomb, at 25 years old.

i lost some weight when i started with metformin (about 20 lbs.), but again stopped losing weight afterwards. i still didnt watch what i ate, drank, smoked and kept the very streesful lifestyle i had. it all caught up with me when two months ago i suffered a mild stroke. the uncontrolled diabetes definitely contriuted to it.

to date, i have lost an additional 20 lbs. (i am no 190 lbs. from the whopping 230 lbs. two years ago). goal weight is 127 lbs. by my birthday next year (july 25th 2009). it's ambitious i know but i need to do it,because if i don't i stand to lose more than just a few pounds.

i have limited my intake of sugar and carbs (which pains me to no end, having a sweet tooth), and once i get the go signal from my docs, i am going back to my daily gym routine, which i have started pre-stroke. hopefully, this will help me control the diabetes :)

wickedsis.

good for you. Its hard to lose weight, but there is noting like medical complications to motivate one. My husband is the one who is diabetic, recently diagnosed. He had been overweight most of his life and convinced he just had to look at food to gain weight. He was amazed that following CC's recommendations of keeping to certain calorie limits worked. He is sticking to it reaonably well, from losing weight  to plateauing when under stress (1 lb a month rather than 1 to 2lb's a week). He says the main motivation (he is 60) is that he cannot stand the idea of the complications like loosing eyesight.It will take him one to two years to be"normal" but he IS getting there, and the doctor is perfectly pleased that he is loosing the weight. (I remember him saying that she looked a little stressed when she gave him the bad news- later talking to her he found she has had people very unwilling to accept their condition.) The amazing thing is that he is doing it without increased exercisee.  Once school is over he is hoping to be able to incorporate more exercises that will hold over into the school year.

 

one thing I recommend you have if you do not have one is to get an electronic food scale- ones that measure in grams( CC's recipes,etc will always work with grams of food better than with cups,oz,etc). the electronic ones with tara function( you can zero between adding different weights- great for tracking food added to a plate, salad) and an automatic zeroing. The tara function helps with cutting down on adding and subtracting (mistakes creep in so easily that way).  My husband found by keeping close track with CC he could add his favourite end of the day before bedtime snack like ice cream- calculated to the nearest gram- and still lose weight. 

Krisdiet,

The American Diabetes Association and the Canadian FDA set the limit for added sugar consumption at 60 grams per day.

The USDA and the United States FDA set the limit at 40 grams of added sugar per day.

The British FDA has a maximum daily limit of 85 grams of added sugar.

The natural sugars in fruit do not count toward the 60 gram limit, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Original Post by nsgardener:

wickedsis.

good for you. Its hard to lose weight, but there is noting like medical complications to motivate one. My husband is the one who is diabetic, recently diagnosed. He had been overweight most of his life and convinced he just had to look at food to gain weight. He was amazed that following CC's recommendations of keeping to certain calorie limits worked. He is sticking to it reaonably well, from losing weight to plateauing when under stress (1 lb a month rather than 1 to 2lb's a week). He says the main motivation (he is 60) is that he cannot stand the idea of the complications like loosing eyesight.It will take him one to two years to be"normal" but he IS getting there, and the doctor is perfectly pleased that he is loosing the weight. (I remember him saying that she looked a little stressed when she gave him the bad news- later talking to her he found she has had people very unwilling to accept their condition.) The amazing thing is that he is doing it without increased exercisee. Once school is over he is hoping to be able to incorporate more exercises that will hold over into the school year.

one thing I recommend you have if you do not have one is to get an electronic food scale- ones that measure in grams( CC's recipes,etc will always work with grams of food better than with cups,oz,etc). the electronic ones with tara function( you can zero between adding different weights- great for tracking food added to a plate, salad) and an automatic zeroing. The tara function helps with cutting down on adding and subtracting (mistakes creep in so easily that way). My husband found by keeping close track with CC he could add his favourite end of the day before bedtime snack like ice cream- calculated to the nearest gram- and still lose weight.

thanks nsgardener... i have been actually a good girl the past couple of weeks, since having given up most of my sugar... i now source it from fruits and carrots, can you believe it? i still eat rice (the philippines is a rice-eating country) every now and then but having cut if off breakfast and lunch has helped my sugar intake tremendously... i checked my fasting level yesterday and it was 109, today (after eating rice last night) it was 119 so yay.... i'm really motivated by the results :)

To nsgardener, prinz, Michelle

Wow, thank you, all. The info you have all shared is very helpful. I can see I have a lot of learning to do. CC has enable me to determine that my average intake of sugar of the past month has been 39 grams/day. I know that this has vastly improved since I've started with CC. 

I feel very fortunate that I have somehow stumbled into the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

Thanks again!

I am a 31 year old male who is also type II diabetic.  to put it bluntly it sucks.   the change in lifestyle is horrible.  However, i have focused my mindset on that of saving what is left instead of fix what is broken.  Dont get me wrong, I am trying to fix the damage that has been done. However, the battles that are being fought in the war not pretty.  the cravings, the scheduled eating, the not feeling full, never seem to go away.   I see a counselor for various reasons, and we have discussed the aspect of an " addiction to food ", or maybe something along those lines. 

 

Anyway, best of luck to all of you.........

 

Hi! I am new to this on-line weight loss stuff. I was searching for something concerning diabetes. I was VERY disappointed to see the last entry in this group was in May! I really need some people to talk to about this. I have been Type 1 for four years now. I always figured the meds would take care of it. Now I have more serious symptoms I have not told my husband or children about.

Everyone thinks I am serious about losing weight because my dau has lost at least 150 pounds in two years the old fashioned way. I have even considered lap-band. Am not sure I could live with that lifestyle change.

If there is anyone out there who is interested in maintaining this support group, PLEASE let me know!

Thanks!!!

This attempt at a support group seems to have fallen in on itself.

I was diagnosed with type 2 in 2007. I have a supportive family, but no friends in my area. Is anyone still interested in this group?

Hello.  I'm 48, and slightly over the border of type II diabetes, meaning I don't have to test my blood sugar and take insulin, but I take Metformin 2x a day and I'm on a diabetic diet.   I have about 50 pounds to lose, and I'm hoping I can do it.  I've lost 39 lbs just with calorie counting about 15 years ago, and it came back.  I lost about the same about 6 years ago after my divorce, and IT came back also.  Now I'm doing it to get off all the meds I'm on!  Levothyroxine for hypothyroid (which I know I'll be on for the rest of my life), Atenolol for high BP, Lipitor for cholesterol control, and of course the Metformin.  Everything is well maintained, all my numbers are good, but all these meds!  I need to do this for my health, for my appearance, and for myself. 

I discovered this website a few days ago and have already begun utilizing the food and activity logs.  Beyond that I'm still exploring.

hello my name is Fran and I have just been diagonosed with diabetes...as yet I don't reallt know what type....they have told me to test my blood a couple of times a day....I have no meds to take but I have to keep to a diet (I have not yet been to the diet doctor waiting for 16 april....till then I have to keep to my diet or change it a bit...I have been on atkins diet for four years......more or less

keeping to the rules no bread potatoes or rice..etc......I have lost over 20kgs and kept it off.....but I have to lose more and feel in a bit of a panic...,so many people telling me to do this and that.,,,add brown rice, add diabetic brown bread....,quantities I have no Idea... I am a chef by trade (used to have a French Restaurant in England) so I make delicious diet food....where am I going wrong......it seemd I have to snack....usually I go from around 8am to 2/3 till  I eat lunch.....,then eat in the evening something light around 7-8pm..,,,,and then take an apple to bed....I am reaching out for support because I feel so much in the dark....