I've written in the past about how useful I've found these in learning to control my blood sugar levels without having to take diabetes meds given the increases and spikes we get from steroids.
You can just buy a Libre2 monitor directly from Abbott, the first is free then if you want to continue learning they're about £50 each and each one lasts for 2 weeks. freestyle.abbott/uk-en/home...
Another option is this co who have have various options including support and coaching such as for a monitor and a month of support and coaching for £149 or other options up to 4 monitors and 3 months support. I haven't used them but assume they're legit as I followed a link from the website diabetes.co.uk
These are an absolute have changer. I’ve gotten my type 2 diabetes within normal range with this monitor. On the NHS you can get them for free for Type 2 diabetes if you’re using insulin.
Hi Bramble, not everyone with type2 diabetes and taking insulin is eligible for a free monitor. I’m not eligible. The NICE guidelines state that:
- you have recurrent or severe hypoglycaemia
- you have impaired hypoglycaemia awareness
- you can’t monitor your own blood sugar levels but you could use a scanning device or someone else could use it for you
- you should otherwise be advised to do a finger prick test at least 8 times a day
I don’t fit into any of the above categories (thank goodness!) I would like to be able to use one to keep a check on which foods cause me to spike but the cost is so prohibitive (£100 per month)🌸
I don’t understand why it was prescribed for you if don’t meet the criteria. As with a lot of medical stuff it’s not a level playing field and very subjective. I haven’t spoken to a doctor about my diabetes for 8 years. My gp practice has a specialist nurse who deals solely with all diabetes patients. She can prescribe but adheres to the guidelines and is very strict.
If you go to Abbott you get a free trial that lasts 2 weeks which is enough time to learn about how different foods affect your blood sugars, and you can always buy another at about £50 if you want to continue the experiments or wait a while and have another go later. I'm just trying another one because I haven't lost weight for ages and I thought it would make me focus. It's working, if I watch what I eaat stay in the green zone (between about 4 and 10 mmol/L) I lose weight, if I eat too many carbs I don't. Simples.
Thanks tangocharlie. I might contact them to see if I can do the free 2 week trial. I’m just recovering from a bad bout of Covid so it would probably be wise to wait a bit as my BS has been all over the place.
You can order one now and then decide when best to use it like when you have a stable 2 weeks with not much in the diary, they have a long expiry date. Then again it can be interesting to see what one-off eating binges do to your body, like I was shocked at the effects of a toasted sandwich and an afternoon tea.
Thanks tangocharlie. I’ve made a note of the website and will certainly contact them when I’m feeling stronger. My only concern is that they might give me the hard sell after I’ve had the free trial. What has been your experience on this please ?
No they didn't they left me alone entirely and I contacted them when I needed another one. Maybe I opted out of any marketing except emails I can't remember
I filled in the form then somebody rang me back and I said Iwasn't sure if I had diabetes or pre-diabetes and I was worried about it getting worse and that was enough. They will ring you first
Note do not confuse websites. There is also one called diabetes.org.uk which gives the official but probably incorrect advice given out by the NHS to eat starchy carbs with every meal and that you are fine with fruit. Why doesn't the NHS keep up to date with its advice?
No, I haven't tangocharlie! When I started at 125mg a day and did monitor daily, it was the old-fashioned 'prick-your-finger' type. I rarely take it now, but I watch my blood tests and painfully gave up ice cream 🥹🥹and carbs, which keeps it under control. I've just dropped to 40mg and am hoping to be at 30mg in 4-5 weeks.
My brother was a diabetic and petrified of needles. He'd have loved it.💞
Well done you and that willpower! It is hard to control blood sugars through self control but the consequences of not doing so are so dire. I strayed last night and had fish and chips (a traditional English takeaway). My glucose shot up to nearly 15 mmol within about 10 minutes and stayed high for hours. I couldn't sleep and this morning im a pound heavier. Hopefully I've learned my lesson but as I say just wish I had your self discipline. Do you feel hungry on the high dose of steroids or does the low carb eating help hunger pangs?
Yes thanks, I suspect that's going on with me too , think steroids and other meds might also cause water retention? I know when I occasionally take Furosemide for my swollen legs, I can lose up to 4lb in a day
Also according to various scientists, like Jadon Fung, if I've understood it correctly, glucose causes weight gain. Give somebody insulin and they put on weight. So it figures if you have high levels of insulin in your body for a long time that will also cause weight gain? Or are you saying it cause water retention weight gain?, this is all a bit complicated for me
Almost certainly fluid. Though with excess insulin floating around pred causes excess glucose to be deposited as fat stores in the specific places seen in Cushingoid syndrome.
Only had a quick look - but they do mention timing of eating as significant, There is increasing evidence of TRE influencing the Hba1c anyway, would also fit with the CGM info you and others found, Koalajane's non-eating window and so on.
My GP referred me to a pre-diabetic group, we meet twice a month for six months. Our very enthusiastic coach is guiding us through diet and exercise advice and giving us useful tips. I was a bit sceptical but she is making the course informative interesting and enjoyable. Fingers crossed it helps me to stave of diabetes!
My daughter in law has type one diabetes and found the monitor and now insulin pump she has a life changer, especially through a recent pregnancy and birth.
What diet tips do they give out? I worry when I see NHS advice as it is sometimes right and up to date and sometimes wrong like the carb heavy food plate
I'm just starting the course, at the last session she advised half a lemon squeezed into half pint of water to start the day. This will help flush out your liver and kidneys . She also seemed to love celery juice, but that is difficult to juice and very expensive to buy! This session was mainly about hydration, I have my second lesson next week, where I hope some more diet tips will come in, and hopefully some gentle exercises. If anything useful comes up I will spread the word!
Do keep us posted. Jessie Inchauspe 'The Glycose Goddess' says that a tsp of vinegar in a glass of water before eating supposedly lowers your blood sugar so maybe lemon works the same? Is this course evidence-based and did they say what book or study they are using?
If this is supposed to be evidence based and official NHS policy - I wouldn't be going back and I would also file a complaint!! The lemon juice in water detox is rubbish! Though to be fair, she is only saying once in the morning. Your liver and kidneys are designed by nature to detoxify your body - they don't need trendy celebrity woo ideas to help them. Just drink plenty of plain water.
Nothing wrong with tea or coffee - it is water too!!! The oft-quoted "tea doesn't count as it makes you dehydrated" is also debateable. If you drink equal volumes of tea, coffee or water, you will pee out the same amount over an extended period. You will just pee it out sooner with the tea or coffee. I did an experiment in physiology to show it.
Does beer count? That must be about 90% water. I don't drink much water, probably not enough, but I do have 6 or 7 cups of tea a day so glad that counts.
I think they have been indoctrinated! I went for my blood test today and told her I should be well hydrated as I'd had two large mugs of tea, she replied 'Tea and coffee dehydrate you' . That explains why I pee so often!
I will now listen with interest when we move onto diet.
Some of these 'experts' have only got an NVQ Level 2 in diet and nutrition or similar as it is a totally unregulated diet industry. I don't mean yours who may well be more knowledgeable or quaified for all I know, Question everything though, be like a 2 year old and say Why? all the time. I go to a Slimming world group but don't follow their diet as much of it is now outdated advice. It's fun though, some amazing and funny women and it keeps me on track knowing weigh-in is coming up in 3 days time 😆😆
I wish I'd known about blood sugar levels in the early days. I piled on the weight when I first started on Pred and my GP blamed me for eating too much because he said Pred increased your appetite. I denied it. So wrong, I know now, watch the carbs
Thank you TC. Intermittent use of CGM is a gamechanger for managing Pred glucose spikes for people who are predisposed to prediabetes and diabetes. You also found the spike zone seems to last from around 2 hours after taking pred for around 8 hours. After that the impact of food goes back to 'normal'. This pattern has been replicated by a few of us. Spikes reduce as we reduce pred and somewhere around 2mg are almost gone. It would be good if anyone using a GCM could see if this pattern applies to them. The practical application is that in the spike zone the diet should be very low carb but (dependent on the individual glucose situation) it can be relaxed at breakfast and evening.
My spikes start about 4 hours after taking pred and drop to normal after about 6 hours. I don’t use a CGM, and discovered this by multiple finger pricks. Now on 3.5mg and they are getting a lot better.
For those who, like me, are not diabetic (despite taking prednisolone for three of the last 5 years) I find it is much cheaper to reduce my risk of diabetes by keeping my weight down and eating a healthy diet full of fruit, veg and wholemeal, with very few fatty or sugary treats. There's a massive industry out there that is determined to profit by medicalising the healthy.
I have friends and family with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, so I know how cruel these conditions can be. The best we can do is minimise our personal risk factors.
Unfortunately, your approach will NOT work for people developing steroid induced diabetes and who can benefit from not adding to the pred-induced spikes of BS. Your diet of fruit and wholemeal is pretty high in carbs, exactly what they don't want.
I made perfectly clear I was talking about the medicalisation of the healthy by an industry flogging gadgets designed for the sick. Fruit, veg and wholegrains are an important part of a healthy diet. The demonisation of food groups is another unhealthy craze in the worried-well. Unlike refined sugar, rice and flour, wholesome foods bring with them important vitamins and minerals.
Fruit and wholegrains are healthy foods but they affect different people in different ways so you have to know how best to use them. Steroids raise blood sugar levels so eating things like that can push me into danger zones. If I ate say an orange or banana it would posibly cause a massive blood sugar spike, ditto a bowl of porridge. A small pear or a few blueberries probably wouldn't. So by choosing when to eat such things I can avoid that. That's a good thing, much better than putting me on diabetes meds which only make things worse in the long run. The gadgets are designed for pre-diabetes people to learn before the diabetes gets full blown so you are already 'sick' but getting to the root of the problem to solve it
It would be helpful if you Edited your OP (the original post at the top of this thread, and perhaps even the title, to make clear that "The[se] gadgets are designed for pre-diabetes people to learn before the diabetes gets full blown". This is a forum for GCA/PMR and you do not list diabetes as an interest in your Bio/Profile. Therefore readers are entitled to presume that your advice is targeted at everyone who reads the GCA/PMR forum. The problem is that buying expensive glucose-monitoring devices and/or services is not good advice for everyone with GCA/PMR, even if they can afford them. The best advice to those with GCA/PMR who are not yet at high risk of diabetes is to eat a balanced, healthy diet, and to keep our weight down.
Two slices of organic wholemeal toast at breakfast, plus a walk, takes my blood sugar to around 6.7 mmols. If I had that at lunch in the pred glucose spike zone it would go up to around 9 mmols. I have been in pre-diabetes twice while on Pred. Using a CGM occasionally allows me to keep blood sugar down. We are not the 'worried well' we have an illness and are taking a drug with serious side effects.
The OP (original post at the top of this thread) does not say it is aimed only at diabetic and/or pre-diabetic (high risk) readers of the GCA/PMR community. It struck a chord with you because you say you "have been in pre-diabetes". Most of us have not, and hopefully never will be. Therefore, I was simply pointing out that readers of this GCA/PMR Forum who are not diabetic or at high risk of diabetes should not think that taking corticosteroids brings with it advice to buy expensive glucose-monitoring gadgets or services. Best practice for minimising the risk of steroid-induced diabetes is still to eat a balanced, healthy diet, and to keep one's weight down.
I certainly did not imply that you are a member of the worried-well. The worried-well are the increasing number of people who have never had diabetes, are not at high risk of diabetes, but who now choose to monitor their glucose levels, and obsess over the results, some even posting them on social media!
BTW I notice you haven't completed your Profile/Bio, so there is no mention of you having CGA/PMR or an interest in diabetes. Any feedback you might receive might therefore be out of context.
If you bothered to read the member's previous posts you would see that she has had GCA, has been diagnosed as prediabetic and has had an interest in BG management for some time. I have also told you before that "a healthy diet" doesn't always cut it in patients on high dose or long term corticosteroids. Quite a few members of this forum have been engaged on management of high blood sugar levels without more medication for some considerable time and a few have investigated the information they can gain from using a CGM. With very useful and interesting results.
It certainly isn't a recommendation from any of us to buy one but it has provided some really useful insights into when and what to eat to avoid worsening BS spikes and like everything else on this forum they have shared what they have found out.
If you stopped making patronising comments and spent some time looking up the background behind some of the posts and replies you might not offend other members as you often do, even if they don't reply to you.
Useful video explaining the pros and cons of using CGMs, their uses and limitations, benefits and caveats, warnings etc etc. Worth watching for the explanations (you can ignore the plugs for things she’s selling as sidelines, although her book sounds like it could be a good introduction to how blood sugar levels work if you don’t know much about how low carb eating).
Essentially to sum up, trying a CGM can be a good motivation to learn what habits work for you to control your blood sugars aka glucose but don’t get hung up on the tiny details. It explains a few things that puzzled me from looking at my readings
You make my point for me. That YouTube channel and the "GlucoseGoddess" website is targeted at the worried-well, not sufferers of diabetes or those at high risk of diabetes. Her name is Jesse Inchauspé and she is not a doctor. She has a BSc in maths and an MSc in biochemistry. She worked for the genealogy company 23&Me before making money from YouTube videos, gadgets, books and dubious supplements instead.
Prof. François Jornayvaz, who specialises in diabetes and endocrinology in Geneva, has said, "She hides behind a pseudoscientific appearance to advocate a method which, in my opinion, doesn't work and is based on very little evidence. The scientific studies she cites are highly anecdotal, or seemingly not applicable to what she proposes... it is better to be wary of diets that come and go, but rather adopt a healthy diet in the long term."
A French public broadcasting service called France Info recently reported on Jessica Inchauspé's nutritional advice. The report featured health specialists who were critical of her claims. They agreed that reducing sugar and ultra-processed foods is good advice for everyone, but not her broader statements about nutrition and glucose levels. In particular, they criticized her use of a study involving just 11 patients with type 2 diabetes to claim that altering the order of eating can reduce blood sugar spikes by 75% in the general population.
Jessie Inchauspé profits by marketing "Anti-spike" supplements to the general public, which are supposed to mitigate blood sugar spikes when consumed prior to less-healthy treats. Medical experts have pointed out the lack of proper clinical trials to back up the claims made for the supplements, or even for the ingredients within them.
Thanks for posting the video link. I found it interesting and feel I might benefit from trialing one. I try to eat low carb when I can but I have a sweet tooth and the biscuits/cake /chocolate appear in my diet too frequently. Seeing how sweet foods affect my immediate blood sugar levels might be the kick I need to curb my cravings and manage my Hba1c better.🌸
Yes it's shocked me into changing my ways. I can try and tell myself 'one won't hurt me' but then I look at the consequences, it's clear in black and white. Or rather red amber and green 😀
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Sky high hba1c
Going round in circles!
Well something has to change...month 4 update. 
Dickensian gruel and a medium lettuce leaf ... Hard Times indeed
