Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I hope you read the whole article, but here are a few key excerpts:
Quote:
Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas that is crucial for converting food into energy, or storing that energy for later. (Translation: it stores that energy in FAT cells.)
When your blood glucose levels rise after a meal, the pancreas responds by producing insulin. The insulin, in turn, helps cells use the sugar and brings the amount of glucose in your bloodstream back to a normal range.
When you are insulin resistant, your body does not respond to insulin after meals as effectively as it should. This means your cells don’t take in enough glucose. The pancreas then produces more insulin to help the process along. Eventually, the pancreas becomes unable to keep up.
“After a number of years, your blood sugar starts to stay high after you eat and that ultimately leads to what we call pre-diabetes,” said Dr. Ruchi Mathur, an endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
A fasting blood glucose level between 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered pre-diabetes.
Since the link will get you past the paywall, be sure to check out the comments from readers, especially those under "Reader Picks" as these usually are outstanding comments.
A key culprit is consuming sugar, in any/all of it forms, especially high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks and sports drinks. Many kids today have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as sugars destroy the liver just as surely as alcohol.
See this YouTube video: Sugar, The Bitter Truth, by Dr. Robert Lustig; it's quite convincing.
__________________
- Please follow our TOS.
- Any Questions about City-Data? See the FAQ list.
- Want some detailed instructions on using the site? See The Guide for plain english explanation.
- Realtors are welcome here but do see our Realtor Advice to avoid infractions.
- Thank you and enjoy City-Data.
And Doctors still push the food pyramid whereby your core foods are supposed to be bread, rice, cereal, and pasta. Never mind the people who live on fast food or canned food.
A high carb diet is probably fine for anyone who is an athlete or engaged in hard physical labor all day for work. That is a good energy source to keep you going all day. Burning off all that converted sugar keeps you from developing insulin resistance.
For all of those many millions of office workers and those working from home, sitting on their butts eight hours a day, five days a week -- a high carb diet is a certain prescription for diabetes and insulin resistance, which is why they are achieving epidemic levels world wide.
Nobody tells you that if you are not going to be burning off massive calories with daily physical activity, you need to limit carbs. The food pyramid is upside down for most of us who don't engage in much daily physical activity.
A fasting blood glucose level between 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered pre-diabetes.
I just got my lab results from yesterday. My fasting blood glucose level is 132, and I just don't understand why. My last test was 123, in April. THIS TIME I actually fasted 12 hours before the test, unlike the 8 or 9 of last time (They used to say don't eat after midnight, now they say "12 hours".)
If somebody says "sugary drinks", I'm going to throw something at you. I don't drink any soda or even juice. Lots of water, coffee, and some wine, but not every day, and only dry red wine anyway. I don't eat cake or cookies. I rarely eat bread, pasta, or rice. I am down to having pizza less than once a month, for Pete's sake, and I live in New Jersey, where you can't swing a cat without hitting a good pizza place.
I am not doing keto or anything crazy, just more protein, lots of vegetables, low dairy and low carbs. What the hell is going on????? To top it off, my a1c went up a tenth of a point from 6.0 to 6.1. Oh, and I've lost 15 pounds since I last saw him in April. My blood sugar should be LOWER, not higher.
Before I went to the lab, I went to Planet Fatness, where I did their thirty-minute circuit (ten machines with weights and step exercises in between). Could that in some way have raised my blood sugar? I would think the opposite.
Now I'm dreading my doc appointment tomorrow. I'm afraid that he's going to want me to go on meds for my blood sugar. I'm doing what I can to avoid going on meds, and it seems to be having the opposite effect.
I just got my lab results from yesterday. My fasting blood glucose level is 132, and I just don't understand why. My last test was 123, in April. THIS TIME I actually fasted 12 hours before the test, unlike the 8 or 9 of last time (They used to say don't eat after midnight, now they say "12 hours".)
MQ! My doctor found a trick that works to keep blood glucose levels down. (NOTE: this is to be done in combination with a low-carb diet. It's not a trick that allows you to eat whatever you want and get away with it!).
My pre-diabetes is tied to thyroid disease, FYI for anyone here who happens to be hypo-thyroid. Thyroid abnormalities can predispose you to diabetes. So anyway, I was doing everything right: low carb diet, working out at the gym 3 times/week (to build lean muscle mass, which helps the body manage glucose) plus walking daily. But those A1C numbers kept ticking upwards, along w/fasting glucose level. So my doctor beat the bushes to see if there was any remedy out there that would help keep the blood sugar under control. She found something!
1/2 hr. before your two main meals of the day, whichever those are, take 600 mg of Alpha-Lipoic Acid with a B-vitamin complex (because A-L acid draws B-vits. out of the system).
After I started doing that (and continued with my exercise regime and low-carb diet), my A1C and fasting glucose dropped down to within normal range. A high normal, but that's good enough. And it has stayed there. I take these supplements religiously, and maintain the diet and exercise regime. The A-L acid mitigates the insulin spike that occurs whenever you ingest food of any kind. You get an insulin spike even when you only have a protein snack, or, say, a salad with protein.
As I said earlier, this is not a magic bullet that allows you to return to a normal diet. But it is kind of a magic bullet that works with your disciplined regime to keep your blood sugar relatively stable. They're finding that alpha-lipoic acid has a number of health benefits in addition to blood sugar control. It's a powerful anti-oxidant, for one thing.
MQ, maybe you could postpone your test by a week or two, while you try this supplement strategy? I don't know how booked up your doc is. Or you could at least try it today, not sure if 1 day will help, but if you can't reschedule, you could try it today and see what happens, then continue it until your next test.
MQ! My doctor found a trick that works to keep blood glucose levels down. (NOTE: this is to be done in combination with a low-carb diet. It's not a trick that allows you to eat whatever you want and get away with it!).
My pre-diabetes is tied to thyroid disease, FYI for anyone here who happens to be hypo-thyroid. Thyroid abnormalities can predispose you to diabetes. So anyway, I was doing everything right: low carb diet, working out at the gym 3 times/week (to build lean muscle mass, which helps the body manage glucose) plus walking daily. But those A1C numbers kept ticking upwards, along w/fasting glucose level. So my doctor beat the bushes to see if there was any remedy out there that would help keep the blood sugar under control. She found something!
1/2 hr. before your two main meals of the day, whichever those are, take 600 mg of Alpha-Lipoic Acid with a B-vitamin complex (because A-L acid draws B-vits. out of the system).
After I started doing that (and continued with my exercise regime and low-carb diet), my A1C and fasting glucose dropped down to within normal range. A high normal, but that's good enough. And it has stayed there. I take these supplements religiously, and maintain the diet and exercise regime. The A-L acid mitigates the insulin spike that occurs whenever you ingest food of any kind. You get an insulin spike even when you only have a protein snack, or, say, a salad with protein.
As I said earlier, this is not a magic bullet that allows you to return to a normal diet. But it is kind of a magic bullet that works with your disciplined regime to keep your blood sugar relatively stable. They're finding that alpha-lipoic acid has a number of health benefits in addition to blood sugar control. It's a powerful anti-oxidant, for one thing.
MQ, maybe you could postpone your test by a week or two, while you try this supplement strategy? I don't know how booked up your doc is. Or you could at least try it today, not sure if 1 day will help, but if you can't reschedule, you could try it today and see what happens, then continue it until your next test.
No, I can't reschedule the endocrinologist appointment. He's semi-retired, and I make the appointment six months in advance, when I have the last one. I started seeing him ten years ago when I developed a rare thyroid condition called Hashimoto's fibrosing variant, wherein a cement-like substance started growing off my thyroid, nodules on my thyroid grew huge and hard as a rock, and the substance grew around my carotid artery and my trachea, bending it to the side and causing me to have trouble breathing and gasp when I spoke. It was treated with prednisone and then Tamoxefin (even thought it was not related to breast cancer). My thyroid is now famous. There is a paper written about it, and a presentation was made at a medical association. I recently came across a picture of myself from that time, with my neck large and swollen.
But I am going to discuss this with him.
As for "returning to a normal diet", this IS my normal diet now. I did not go on a diet. I changed the way I ate. More or less Mediterranean.
During COVID, when my blood sugar and cholesterol went up (that's still high, too, but that's a different story), I asked the doc to please give me four months to try to get it down with diet and exercise. I lost 27 pounds using the Mediterranean way of eating, and the a1c dropped to 5.7 (cholesterol didn't budge).
Unfortunately, the last two years up until six months ago were full-time caregiving for my dying boyfriend, and there wasn't a lot of leisure time to worry about how well I was eating and prepare healthful meals, and of course there couldn't be unbroken sleep as a caregiver, which also affects weight. I gained some, not all, of the weight back and ate too much fried food and other stuff that was brought to the house or could be ordered and delivered.
Once I returned home after his death, I resolved to get back on the diet and exercise wheel, and I did, but this time the weight loss is going more slowly, and I'm not getting the same results with the blood sugar. It is puzzling.
Oh, by the way, I do take levothyroxine. My thyroid levels are very low in the normal range. Like at the bottom. My mother and grandmother and one of my sisters all had/have hypothyroidism.
Thanks for your suggestions. I am going to read more about these supplements.
And Doctors still push the food pyramid whereby your core foods are supposed to be bread, rice, cereal, and pasta. Never mind the people who live on fast food or canned food.
A high carb diet is probably fine for anyone who is an athlete or engaged in hard physical labor all day for work. That is a good energy source to keep you going all day. Burning off all that converted sugar keeps you from developing insulin resistance.
For all of those many millions of office workers and those working from home, sitting on their butts eight hours a day, five days a week -- a high carb diet is a certain prescription for diabetes and insulin resistance, which is why they are achieving epidemic levels world wide.
Nobody tells you that if you are not going to be burning off massive calories with daily physical activity, you need to limit carbs. The food pyramid is upside down for most of us who don't engage in much daily physical activity.
This is so right! Not only doctors, but the federal government devises those food pyramids. Sometime in the 90's, they released a revised food pyramid that had vertical columns instead of horizontal, that emphasized protein sources and veggies, cutting back on starches, and including healthy oils as a category. I wasn't able to find that one just now, but I found others in the same vein. See below. What really got my attention re: how upside-down the usual food pyramid is, was a book I read long ago about low-carb eating, that said, a diet high in grain or other starch is what farmers feed their cattle to fatten them up. This is not the way humans should be eating! Especially those living a more sedentary lifestyle, as is the norm in most of the Western world (including Eastern Europe. I recently saw a map placing Russia among nations with high rates of obesity).
There's another version of the "healthy eating pyramid", that places vegetables at the bottom, and protein next up from there. Either way, grains/starch is minimized. And here, fruits, which generally speaking are high-glycemic, are at the top. So a diet with a healthy foundation is mainly protein and veggies. This one neglected to create a small space for healthy fats. Oops.
I just got my lab results from yesterday. My fasting blood glucose level is 132, and I just don't understand why. My last test was 123, in April. THIS TIME I actually fasted 12 hours before the test, unlike the 8 or 9 of last time (They used to say don't eat after midnight, now they say "12 hours".)
If somebody says "sugary drinks", I'm going to throw something at you. I don't drink any soda or even juice. Lots of water, coffee, and some wine, but not every day, and only dry red wine anyway. I don't eat cake or cookies. I rarely eat bread, pasta, or rice. I am down to having pizza less than once a month, for Pete's sake, and I live in New Jersey, where you can't swing a cat without hitting a good pizza place.
I am not doing keto or anything crazy, just more protein, lots of vegetables, low dairy and low carbs. What the hell is going on????? To top it off, my a1c went up a tenth of a point from 6.0 to 6.1. Oh, and I've lost 15 pounds since I last saw him in April. My blood sugar should be LOWER, not higher.
Before I went to the lab, I went to Planet Fatness, where I did their thirty-minute circuit (ten machines with weights and step exercises in between). Could that in some way have raised my blood sugar? I would think the opposite.
Now I'm dreading my doc appointment tomorrow. I'm afraid that he's going to want me to go on meds for my blood sugar. I'm doing what I can to avoid going on meds, and it seems to be having the opposite effect.
Your A1c increase matches the blood fasting increase. Ordinarily I’d say he may continue to hold off on the meds, as neither of those numbers are scary high, in the hopes that they can be lowered by lifestyle choices, but it sounds like you’ve already done an admirable job addressing that. Contrary to what some try to imply, Type II diabetes is not always a result of the person’s choices, sometimes it is just our bodies. Hashimoto's (which you mentioned in another post) is probably contributing to your slow increase, as do most chronic hypo thyroid diseases. Long term stress does not help, either.
Fortunately your numbers are not in insulin territory. If he does start talking meds, I know you don’t want them, but at least a lot more is known about medicating diabetes these days than in the past. I am sorry you are going through this, hopefully whatever path you and your doctor take quickly addresses the problem.
__________________
When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
^Thank's, OH. My father developed Type 2 diabetes in his 50s, and he was never overweight, so I may just be doomed.
One note: You picked up on the Hashimoto's, but not the two subsequent words, "fibrosing variant", which is what I had. It is similar in that it is an immune system disorder attacking the thyroid, but in this case, it nearly killed me by turning my thyroid into a rock and invading the tissues in my throat. My thyroid hormone levels, however, always remained in the low-normal range, unlike regular Hashimoto's. My doctor, who is near 70, only ever saw one other case, 30 years before me. They actually tried to remove my thyroid, were stunned when they saw what it looked like, cut out 7 pieces of the "cement" and sent it to the Mayo Clinic for identification. It looked very much like a rare and aggressive thyroid cancer, but it wasn't (or I would have been gone ten years already!)
The thyroid likely will crap out anyway, so I am on the levothyroxine as a precaution. But even on the meds, I am at the bottom of normal now, so maybe something is going on there, too.
No doctor has even hinted that there was any relation to diabetes in my future. . . . (Not saying it isn't possible).
But I think I'd have found out by now on my own if it was . . .
BTW I live on carbs. Crappy carbs too. Primarily because I like them but also because I am hungry if I don't eat them.
A lot of this is not so simple as people try to make it out to be.
Last edited by ihatetodust; 10-10-2023 at 05:34 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is not the way humans should be eating! Especially those living a more sedentary lifestyle, as is the norm in most of the Western world (including Eastern Europe. I recently saw a map placing Russia among nations with high rates of obesity). 
Crappy carbs too. Primarily because I like them but also because I am hungry if I don't eat them.
