My dad was type 2 diabetic in his later years, and so was his dad.
I am now 64 and for the last 3 years my A1c has been 5.7 and recently I had one blood glucose of 100, and my sister who is 4 years younger than I had an A1c of 6.0.
Last year my doctor put me on metformin extended release 500 mg
This year my blood glucose tested 100 and after that my doctor put me on the metformin extended release 500 mg twice a day.
I found out that you want to spread out taking the metformin and take it with a meal or it will seriously upset your stomach. I take one with breakfast, and one with dinner, and my stomach is no longer upset from it.
I have been very busy the last couple of years, but now have some free time and decided to read up on pre-diabetes. I did some internet searches for books on pre-diabetes and there are several books available. I went to the library and oredered four of them.
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The best one I read was "The pre-diabetess diat plan how to reverse pre-diabetes and prevent diabetes through healthy eating and exercise" by: Hillary Wright
The front half of this book (before it gets into actual suggestions for meals) explained that when a person is pre-diabetic their body such as their muscles and origins are not using insulin as well as they have in the past to process sugars in the blood and that results in a higher blood sugar in the blood and the pancreas senses this higher level of blood sugar and puts out even more insulin. And that if this goes on for a long time the pancreas gets so over worked by putting out more insulin than it should have too and this damages the pancreas to the point that it can no longer put out enough insulin, and may damage it to the point that it puts out no insulin. When this happens the person becomes a full diabetic.
The book goes on to explain that by limiting the carbohydrates in each meal and snack to not exceed the recommended levels in the book, and also regularly exercise, and reduce their weight that a person may improve the bodies use of insulin, and prevent the pancreas from being damaged to the point that they become a full diabetic.
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Over the last 5 months I have lost 39 Lbs, and now my BMI is in the middle of the good range on the improved BMI scale. Do a google search for "BMI healthy weight forum" and enter your weight and height to see where you are.
I have also been walking most days of the week.
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I have been trying to figure out what foods are low glycemic and recently talked my doctor into writing a prescription for a FreeStyle Libre 14 day blood glucose monitor. I had to pay for it myself, my health insurance does not cover it, it cost me $108.01 for the reader and one 14 day sensor, the sensor is around $30 of that. It is a great unit that takes your blood glucose every minute and displays a graph so you can see how long it takes your blood glucose to peak, and to return to normal after a meal or snack. One thing I have learned is that bread, even whole grain bread that is supposed to be good, causes big spikes in blood glucose. I have only been using this monitor for three days and have learned a lot. I will test more foods for their blood spike response in the next 11 days before the sensor wears out.
So far, good things I have found to eat are blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, Greek yogurt, eggs, apples (I look for small and medium size apples), nuts (Walnuts, Cashews, Almonds, and there are several more). Walmart sells nuts at a low price.
Good foods are foods that release their carbohydrates slowly. Ami's black bean chili is a little pricey but I have a scale that measures down to a gram and eat half a can as the main course of a supper so a can last two days.
A scale that measures down to the gram is a great help in limiting the portions sizes and amount of carbohydrates of many foods. I have a biggest weight loss loser scale that measures down to one gram and it is great for weighing food. I use it for many of the things I eat. I modified the scale by adding a radio-shack 4 AA cell battery holder in place of the two small expensive button cell batteries that cost about $7.00 every couple of months, and the 4 AA cells are now a couple of years old and still going strong. I will replace them soon just to prevent damage to there holder from them getting old and leaking.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One other good book I found is "The diabetes weight-loss cookbook" by: Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi
While this book is for diabetics, it show the much stricter lower carbohydrates menu a diabetic should follow, and gives recipes for diabetics to follow though the recipes are complex.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do not know If I can slow down or prevent pre-diabetes from becoming diabetes, but I am going to give it a good try.
_______________________________________________________________________________
If you are pre-diabetic and decide to read up on it and try to prevent it from becoming diabetes, please post things you learned and can share with others on this thread.
One thing that we can share is good low glycemic foods and recipes.
I am now 64 and for the last 3 years my A1c has been 5.7 and recently I had one blood glucose of 100, and my sister who is 4 years younger than I had an A1c of 6.0.
Last year my doctor put me on metformin extended release 500 mg
This year my blood glucose tested 100 and after that my doctor put me on the metformin extended release 500 mg twice a day.
I found out that you want to spread out taking the metformin and take it with a meal or it will seriously upset your stomach. I take one with breakfast, and one with dinner, and my stomach is no longer upset from it.
I have been very busy the last couple of years, but now have some free time and decided to read up on pre-diabetes. I did some internet searches for books on pre-diabetes and there are several books available. I went to the library and oredered four of them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The best one I read was "The pre-diabetess diat plan how to reverse pre-diabetes and prevent diabetes through healthy eating and exercise" by: Hillary Wright
The front half of this book (before it gets into actual suggestions for meals) explained that when a person is pre-diabetic their body such as their muscles and origins are not using insulin as well as they have in the past to process sugars in the blood and that results in a higher blood sugar in the blood and the pancreas senses this higher level of blood sugar and puts out even more insulin. And that if this goes on for a long time the pancreas gets so over worked by putting out more insulin than it should have too and this damages the pancreas to the point that it can no longer put out enough insulin, and may damage it to the point that it puts out no insulin. When this happens the person becomes a full diabetic.
The book goes on to explain that by limiting the carbohydrates in each meal and snack to not exceed the recommended levels in the book, and also regularly exercise, and reduce their weight that a person may improve the bodies use of insulin, and prevent the pancreas from being damaged to the point that they become a full diabetic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over the last 5 months I have lost 39 Lbs, and now my BMI is in the middle of the good range on the improved BMI scale. Do a google search for "BMI healthy weight forum" and enter your weight and height to see where you are.
I have also been walking most days of the week.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been trying to figure out what foods are low glycemic and recently talked my doctor into writing a prescription for a FreeStyle Libre 14 day blood glucose monitor. I had to pay for it myself, my health insurance does not cover it, it cost me $108.01 for the reader and one 14 day sensor, the sensor is around $30 of that. It is a great unit that takes your blood glucose every minute and displays a graph so you can see how long it takes your blood glucose to peak, and to return to normal after a meal or snack. One thing I have learned is that bread, even whole grain bread that is supposed to be good, causes big spikes in blood glucose. I have only been using this monitor for three days and have learned a lot. I will test more foods for their blood spike response in the next 11 days before the sensor wears out.
So far, good things I have found to eat are blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, Greek yogurt, eggs, apples (I look for small and medium size apples), nuts (Walnuts, Cashews, Almonds, and there are several more). Walmart sells nuts at a low price.
Good foods are foods that release their carbohydrates slowly. Ami's black bean chili is a little pricey but I have a scale that measures down to a gram and eat half a can as the main course of a supper so a can last two days.
A scale that measures down to the gram is a great help in limiting the portions sizes and amount of carbohydrates of many foods. I have a biggest weight loss loser scale that measures down to one gram and it is great for weighing food. I use it for many of the things I eat. I modified the scale by adding a radio-shack 4 AA cell battery holder in place of the two small expensive button cell batteries that cost about $7.00 every couple of months, and the 4 AA cells are now a couple of years old and still going strong. I will replace them soon just to prevent damage to there holder from them getting old and leaking.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One other good book I found is "The diabetes weight-loss cookbook" by: Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi
While this book is for diabetics, it show the much stricter lower carbohydrates menu a diabetic should follow, and gives recipes for diabetics to follow though the recipes are complex.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do not know If I can slow down or prevent pre-diabetes from becoming diabetes, but I am going to give it a good try.
_______________________________________________________________________________
If you are pre-diabetic and decide to read up on it and try to prevent it from becoming diabetes, please post things you learned and can share with others on this thread.
One thing that we can share is good low glycemic foods and recipes.