Hba1c 8 is it normal?

[Lispuhiza]

Hello.everyone,my mum is 74 and is diabetic,in the morning her blood sugar is 7.8 , 8,5 sometimes 6 very rare is higher than 9. She is taking METFORMIN (GLIFOR) twice,and DIABOS (drug to decrease sugar) once in the morning,she also suffers from hipothyroidism,and takes levothyroxine 100,feet neuropathy numbness on feet and fingers,especially on toes,for neuropathy she uses acid alpha lipoic (Ala) and AMYZOL (antidepressant) for nerve pain relief,but not happy,a lot of aches,swollen legs and ankles, unbalanced while walking maybe it's from brain atrophy,all the time constipated,bloated,sometimes she has high acidity (from dozen of drugs perhaps) she vomits, feels tired,dizzy,whose symptoms lasts 7 days then again to normal life,any advice please!

[TheAwfulToad]

Unfortunately neuropathy is inevitable and progressive unless glucose is properly controlled (metformin etc don't actually do this - they just mask the symptoms for a while, and usually end up causing more problems than they "solve").

If she isn't doing so already, you mum needs to drastically reduce her dietary carbohydrates (starches) because a diabetic body is unable to do anything useful with them; they're just toxic. The good news is that all bodies - including diabetic ones - can fuel themselves just fine from dietary fat, so life carries on as normal. The effect of switching to a low-carb diet is often immediate (days) and dramatic. My partner's aunt has just done exactly this, with (originally) similar symptoms to your mum. Nerve damage can't be reversed, but it can certainly be stopped.

You might be able to get more information on this from the Diabetes Prevention Programme, or failing that there's a lot of useful stuff on diabetes.co.uk. It's really not difficult, but it has to be done in consultation with your doctor so he can reduce (or stop) your mum's medication.

[Lispuhiza in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Thank you for advices the AwfulToad,is there any link for diabetes prevention programme that i should check? Can you please finding it? Thank you again!

[TheAwfulToad in reply to Lispuhiza]

england.nhs.uk/diabetes/dia...

There's a contact email at the bottom, but your best bet would be to talk to your GP first (or whoever prescribed the metformin). He can refer you on to them. Or he may simply be able to advise you straightaway on a low-carb switch. It depends if he's had any prior experience or not; some simply refuse to get with the programme.

There's a slight problem with the DBPP: the service varies across the country depending on local political beliefs (as with GPs and diabetes consultants). Some of them have an ideological bias against low-carb treatments and will attempt to talk you into low-GI high-carb diets - which in your mum's case are physiologically useless because she already has the full-blown disease. Others are much more informed and will give you a lot of help. It's just pure luck who you get.