Further to my post and the many responses about Type 2 diabetes, I was just digging out my blood test results for the last year, and I see that even before I started taking steroids last March my blood sugar was high at 46 and then three months later it was 48 and now it is 49. Maybe pred did not help but I obviously had a problem even before I started on the pred, so maybe I can't blame pred for it all. I can't remember my GP ever suggesting that I go on a diet. She did mention in June that my blood sugar was a cause for concern but then when she realised that I was on steroids she left it at that. I have taken up some of the suggestions from this forum - I downloaded the Diet Doctor app. The Zoe project is not available her in Ireland apparently. I have also asked the Diabetes Clinic in the Mater Hospital who run a day centre for people with diabetes, including the services of a dietitian, a nutritionist, and endocrinologist and other specialists if they would take me on to support me in my attempt to reverse the diabetes. They said to ask my GP for a referral. It is not free but would be covered by my Health Insurance and I have heard that it is excellent. I have also started following suggestions made by various people who responded to my post and am already following a low carb diet as defined here. I am currently looking to see if I can get Mr Mosely's recipe book. So thank you all. I will keep you informed! It is so good to have all this support online, from people who understand the complexities of PMR.
Following Up!: Further to my post and the many... - PMRGCAuk
Following Up!
If that was your Hba1c BEFORE pred I'd be asking my GP why they hadn't flagged it before!! It isn't a get-out to just say "due to pred", high sugar is high sugar and should be managed in some way whatever the cause.
I am sure you could get Michael Mosley’s recipe book second hand off eBay or some such.
Hi. As someone also with diabetes also on pred I’d say you are doing really well and not to feel discouraged. In old money your HbA1c of 46 equates to 6.4% and 49 to 6.8%. Even with pred you don’t appear to have had on average very pronounced control issues or it would be showing in your HbA1c. The target in the UK be as near to 40 as possible , though personalised targets are adjusted for the realities of control and for age. You really are not far away from that and assuming you have no complications now please don’t feel overly concerned .
Just to add to what I said. I see from your earlier posts you are not actually diagnosed with diabetes so my comment is only partially relevant . Given you are potentially in a pre diabetes position it makes sense to be rigorous about diet and lifestyle and to keep a close eye on your blood glucose. . A continual glucose monitor like Freestyle Libre can help with this if you can get it . One thing I would say is that I found metformin horrible to take. and eventually could no longer tolerate the side effects. because they would come suddenly without warning and were quite severe, leading to periods when I couldn’t take it all before then resuming. I suppose it affects people differently but given that unpleasant side effects are listed in patient info it does make sense to try to minimise or avoid those, so again diet and lifestyle can help with that.
Thank you for that! My friend who has diabetes for 50 years thought the same but I couldn't tell her the numbers in old many and she couldn't tell me in new!!
You can google conversions and get clever pages that work it out for you!
There’s a converter on the diabetes.co.uk website. You type the number you know in one box and it coverts it in another box so you know both.
Thanks for that as I my last blood test was 42 and I am signed up to Future Health (in UK) to prevent pre diabetes turning into diabetes. Given up bread (for Lent) but it is hard to stay full. None of my siblings have this trouble (all in USA). I do get lots of strange diseases (like PMR (off pred now), vestibular schwannoma, you name it). I always feel I can ask the specialists here at HU for advice so thanks very much. In it together. x
I find eating greek style yoghurt good for keeping hunger pangs at bay. nNot too much, mind, because does have higher fat content. I’ve also just found in the supermarket what are labelled high protein flavoured yoghurts which have zero fat and very low carbs, but high protein and about 150 calories. I was sceptical because I thought it might be a sales gimmick but gave them a go, and wow- game changer. The ones I buy come in a sqeezy pouch containing 125 grams, nice peach and strawberry flavours, squeezed into a mug or small dish, a few berries on top and they keep my glucose within its target level. I have them now every morning jut after taking pred and my glucose hardly moves. no hunger pangs or cravings for anything else. If you are in the UK they are sold in LIDL, which also exists in Europe as well, though what is stocked varies by country.
Great. Thanks for the tip. Just getting on to them. I really have cut down on carbs and sweet things. Yogurt with some berries is it for me. My cereal is bircher muesli with hardly any sugar (Deliciously Ella) which I like but my daughter says tastes like wallpaper paste. Ha.
Thanks again. x
Forgot to mention that LIDL also sell low GI bread, which tastes very nice. Again Inwas sceptical but tried it and whilst obviously it’s a carb it doesn’t spike glucose like most breads and is much easier to incorporate in moderation. in a meal. You don’t have to deprive yourself of everything you like, just manage it. And finally, I used to get stressed if I had a bad daywhere my glucose was not where I wanted it to be until I realised it’s the overall trend that matters and one bad day or a meal out isn’t going to cause a catastrophe. (excepting of course an episode of diabetic ketoacidosis but that is usually an issue for Type 1 diabetic who lack insulin altogether).
I have given up bread for Lent. Haha.
What does the ingredients label say? Are you sure there aren't a load of additives hiding in there?
I use a Greek yoghurt made by Mevgal and it is far better than any of the others - not sure how available it is in the UK, Costco appears to have it and the Big A lists it. The 0% fat version tastes like most other full fat products!
I'll give you "LIDL also exists in Europe" - LIDL was founded in Neckarsulm in Germany in the 1930s!! It also exists in a lot of other countries now but the UK was quite a latecomer!!
Didn’t seem to be a load of additives, but I’ll scrutinise it again. I like LIDL not just for its prices but because it regularly has Italian weeks, Greek weeks, Spanish weeks, German weeks. It also carries quite a few eastern european lines and I’ve seen recently they are selling Japanese ingredients. Never heard of or seen Megval.
I will look for Mevgal on my next trip to the grocery store. Yes we have Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsburys. Thanks.
Bulk is important for the full feeling - lots of veggies and salad works for me.
I am trying! I might start to have a green cast to my skin I eat so many greens. Thank you. Roll on spring.
Just looking through your history, you appear to be on quite low levels of pred for pmr. I think it's the high levels for GCA where blood sugar goes crazy. Just for info, it's the information about diabetes on the zoe site that I was referring to. Unfortunately it is found in a range of podcasts you have to trawl through, but worth it when you get there. (Possibly they are more interested in flogging their supplements than presenting clear health info...)
Well done for really getting across this topic - it is fascinating when you get into it. I would recommend trying a CGM occasionally to identify your patterns. It means you can see what your blood is doing in real time - what are the main culprits and the role of exercise. For instance Tim Spector from Zoe found it was oats that sent his bs up - but many are ok with oats even though they are carbs - and t hey have so many other benefits. Exercise after meals has a big impact, though you have personalise it and the timing. Occasional CGM can help with this. X
Didn't tangocharlie find she couldn't eat oats in the morning without BS going up but it was OK in the evening - someone did.
"Possibly they are more interested in flogging their supplements than presenting clear health info" - there was a discussion about that the other week and I think a lot of us feel that.
Don't know about the oats, but I could eat pizza at night but not at lunch due to the pred spike zone - though this only applied at 9mg pred, when I tried at 12.5 no difference. However good news is I came in at 40 hba1c last week, and that includes christmas and time on 20mg when I wasn't even trying to cut carbs because of general despair.
That is brilliant!! I had a bad patch before and after Christmas - really haven't been "good" at all. I gained weight in the UK because of different food and haven't lost any of it as I intended to but at least I haven't gained any more. Is the cloud of general despair lifted - do hope so.
Does weight affect your blood sugar or are you ok that way? You're not back are you? It was just a hol?
Thank you, I'm not quite so low but, as we all know, it's a very long roller-coaster...
X
Interesting. I used to have porridge for breakfast every day for years. I thought it was healthy!
It is - but it can still raise BS in v=certain contexts that depend on the person.
Oats are healthy. It helps to have them with protein and/or fat to reduce the glucose spike. I sprinkle mine every morning with a handful of seeds and nuts. My elderly parents and in laws have theirs with cream. I would have it with yogurt but I've already eaten it with my pred first thing.
Some oats are healthy. Very good podcast on oats from Zoe.com. Organic, steel cut, rolled are better. Chief nutritionist Dr Sarah Berry at Zoe gives clear and helpful advice on oats. Organic because non-organic are sprayed with a chemical spray including glyphosate to speed up drying process after oats have been harvested. The more processes/additives the less beneficial they become.
Yes you are quite right. Because just about everything I buy is organic I forgot. Mind you I buy organic mostly not for health reasons but to protect the environment.
Some in my family drink oat 'milk'. I don't get them the organic one because it isn't fortified. They all promise the levels are extremely low but I switched from Oatly to Alpo when Oatly started using British oats and now Alpo are doing the same! Very disappointed because UK regulations around pesticides and glyphosate are so much weaker than the EU now.
I’ve also understood oats count as part of my healthy diet. I use Scott’s Old Fashioned Porage. 100 % Rolled and no additives but it doesn’t appear to be organic as Palego suggests as best. The not so healthy side is probably that I do make it up with at least one third milk to water. Like Oh-my I sprinkle with some seeds and a few almonds. I find seed mix is great for sprinkling on all sorts of salads and various cooked dishes to give a bit of healthy bulk and when I had a short period of unprecedented hunger pangs on my Pred journey drinking water or having a few mixed seeds was enough to take the edge off to stop me eating when I didn’t really need to. Deciding on the most beneficial seeds I found these to be Pumpkin, Sunflower, Sesame, Flax and Linseeds but you can buy ready mixed packs of seeds. Always interesting to read the suggestion of others on this forum. I tend to have Greek Yoghurt with some berries instead of a pudding or cake rather than with breakfast but have stuck to the full fat version as the lower fat ones that I found all had increased sugar content so having first been told my cholesterol was over borderline and then my sugar levels had taken me into a pre diabetic stage I felt torn between the two.
What's unhealthy in using part milk for porridge? Always best to use plain/natural yoghurt and add your own flavourings - it has no rubbish in it though really you still need to look at the label!
I quite agree plain/natural Greek tends to be the only Yoghurt I eat so was surprised to find ones saying the sugar content was higher on the 0 fat version. The good thing is this post prompted me to look further when doing my on line shop this morning and I've found a zero fat one with less sugar content ( and it's on offer) so going to give it a try. In the past I have tried a flavoured yoghurt a couple of times - Yuk! I really don't like sweet things (invariably halve the sugar content of any baking recipe) I also detest having to chew Adcal-D3. However checking up when I received a comment that I shouldn't need it if i've had Zoledronic infusion (whereas it is still recommended) I did see there was a tablet form instead of the over-sweet chewy ones so I'll look into that. As for the Porage my husband makes his with just water but he then does add honey to sweeten it up.
Honey?? Philistine! Water only and salt on them ...
It is indeed still recommended - in fact, probably MORE necessary as the bisphosphonate sequesters calcium to the bones. Normally the blood level of calcium is kept within a quite narrow range and if you aren't absorbing enough from the gut (pred speeds it on its way) then the blood steals it from the bones. And THAT is what causes osteoporosis. With the bisphosphonate your blood level may get too low - and that is very bad for you. Even dangerous ...
I'm a GCA-er who has been on steroids since August of 2019. Finally, even though I had spikes in my glucose levels through the years, in November 2024, I was diagnosed with 'steroid-induced Type 2 diabetes.' My doctor assured me my pancreas was fine and it was all about the steroids but put me on Ozempic. I'm in the States so our 'numbers' are different. For the A1c, the desired number is 5 but they will be content with 6. The blood sugar level should be between 90-110. My A1c was 7.6 and my blood sugar at 176 last fall. Since then my sugar has remained between 90-94 and I will have another A1c in three months.
I just eat fresh fruits and vegetables along with chicken or fish and an occassional ginger snap..never was big on sweets. (Our prices in the states are nuts! One good thing about old age and few demands on the $$$) Whatever the cause, the proper diet and treatment is a must. Especially, since we are not 30 anymore....we have to protect our kidneys etc. My best....💞
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