Walking for my life

[Glenng]

I had a blood clot in my leg 18months ago with diabetes I have changed my life around eating as best as I know possible and walking everyday too get my circulation better all ideas are gratefuly taken on board to help myself thanks

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not sure what you are asking. And do you also have PMR?

[HeronNS]

Try this search. healthunlocked.com/search/d...

[BonnyQuine]

It sounds as if you are going along the right lines to improve your health, Glenng. Walking every day is great.

This is a forum for people with GCA (Temporal Arteritis) and PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica).

The main treatment for these is Prednisolone, a steroid. And some people get steroid-induced diabetes.

I am one of those. I did answer your other post. Here is a copy of that reply, in case you didn't see it.

- "I have GCA - started on Prednisolone 40mg about a year ago, now down to 9mg.

Within a few days of starting Pred, I had steroid-induced diabetes. It was quite severe at first, but is more manageable now - probably because of the reducing Pred dose.

I found it quite tricky at first, but got the hang of it after a while. Am on tablets - avoiding insulin because of the ramifications of that, and because I expect the diabetes to improve as the Pred dose reduces. Started on three meds including Metformin, which was quite good for control. But had to stop the Metformin because of side effects, and am now on Repaglinide, Alogliptin and Dapagliflozin, and managing ok.

When the diabetes was bad at the beginning, and my blood sugars were sky-high, I discovered that it was essential to adopt a minimum-carbohydrate diet. Carbs include sugar, so, NO (or very little) sugar, potatoes (esp chips), rice, pasta, bread, cereal, cookies, biscuits, cakes . . . et al. It seems impossible at first, but you do get used to it, And once you're used to it, it's mostly fine. (You might have to avoid temptation!) Remember to avoid sugary drinks too.

You need to eat lots of protein and veg, and some fruit but not too much. At first it seems almost impossibly hard, but once you get used to it, you wonder how all these podgy people can bear to to go on stuffing stodge to the extent that most people do. Eating out becomes tricky. But once I get rid of the GCA, I've a feeling I might be healthier than I was before. Something to hope for, anyway.

I have banana (for potassium) and blueberries with bio-live plain Greek yoghurt for breakfast most days. You can eat cheese freely, and also butter and cream if you want. (Fats are ok - they're not carbs. Olive oil is good.) I eat loads of avocados, as they're v rich nutritionally and do not sent my blood sugar up at all. Maybe one a day, sometimes more. After that, as big a variety of veg as possible - instead of stir-fry rice, try having a big mix of veg, w plenty of garlic and chilli and added fish, chicken or the like. Be careful of sauces - many of them are full of sugar. Get into the habit of checking labels. Then have plenty of fish, meat, eggs, peas, beans, lentils . . . Maybe stick to non-processed meat? A good steak, roast beef, pork chops, lamb curry, chicken, turkey = all ok . . . mmm. Cauliflower cheese is useful, and I eat 'lightly dusted' cook-in-the oven fish quite often. Avoid loads of batter.

After that, it helps if you are able to get a reasonable amount of exercise. I have trouble with this at the moment (gone are the days!). But if you can just do some walking, that will help a lot." -

Hope this helps.