I was diagnosed as diabetic a little over 2 years ago. I had been experiencing some numbness in the balls of my feet, that padded part of the sole between the toes and the arch, that I later learned was due to peripheral neuropathy. At the time in the doctor’s consulting office I weighed in at about 182lbs (82 kilos), which for my height gave me a BMI of 27 putting me in the “Overweight” category. I did wear trousers with a size 36” waist and had a slight paunch, but I never considered myself to be fat. In general I had never been partial to desserts though like many I did enjoy things liked mashed potatoes and a soft drink like cold coca cola with a slice of lemon. But never to excess and never every day. Rarely did I drink alcohol other than a glass of wine perhaps once a month, and I don’t smoke.
The doctor sent me off to do some tests on 16 October 2020 all of which appeared normal except for my blood glucose level which stood at 229 mg/dl. This was almost double the maximum of the reference range of between 70 and 115. I didn’t know a lot about diabetes but knew people who had it and how they needed to avoid anything sugary. But it never crossed my mind that one day it would affect me too.
I also undertook a neurological physical examination of my feet. This is a procedure where a doctor uses electrodes to test the nerve sensitivity in the feet. Those results showed that I had a 50% reduction of feeling in parts of my feet.
Since creating this website, I have learned quite a lot more about diabetes and health in general. Western society in general, and in the US in particular, the numbers of people who are either seriously overweight or obese has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the fast food and soft drink phenomenon and a sedentary lifestyle. It has caused a crisis in health systems around the world about which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised a red flag about how endemic it has become.
You only need to look at the information on the side of a can of your favorite soda to see how much sugar you are consuming. A 16oz bottle of perhaps the most famous brand contains 52 grams of sugar. That’s the equivalent of about 13 teaspoons of sugar, which seen in the context of the American Heart Foundation‘s daily recommendations of no more that 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men gives an indication of the problem. Other health professionals recommend cutting out sugar and sugary products all together. Also, do some research and find out how many calories there are in a plate of chips to understand the inherent problems associated with the way in which so many people nowadays eat and drink far too much products made by industries which tend to focus more on taste rather than health. And they do this, perhaps unbeknown to consumers, by adding sugars, including High Fructose Syrup, to just about anything.
The net result over time is that people keep putting on weight as illustrated by a study published in 2012 in the journal BMC Public Health that ranked Americans as the world’s third-heaviest people. The study highlighted how men in the US had put on an extra thirty pounds when compared to the1960s.
Being overweight and obese are major causes of diabetes and even though I have never in my life been seriously overweight my doctor said that it was quite possible that I had been pre-diabetic for some years. According to the CDC, prediabetes is a condition where your blood sugar levels are slightly higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes (other health professionals assert that prediabetes is for all intents and purposes diabetes).
Sometimes there are no other symptoms of prediabetes other than milder forms of the symptoms that diabetics experience. When present, they can include tingling in the hands or feet, always being thirsty and wanting to urinate more often, feeling tired, unexplained weight loss, and even blurred vision.
Thinking back I couldn’t recall noticing any of these symptoms other than the more recent sensations in the feet. But perhaps not having been aware of what these were at the time it’s very likely I missed any of the early warning signs.
Naturally, the new findings had me worried. Stories of how serious and life threatening diabetes can be were disturbing. And another complicating factor was that I had had high blood pressure for some years and was taking daily medication which included a diuretic component. However, using a blood pressure monitor at home and taking the daily medicine, my readings were consistently below the 120/80, considered to be in the normal range. But when visiting the doctor’s surgery they always seemed to go up quite a lot. I’m told this is due to “white coat hypertension”, a phenomena that affects many people when visiting a medical facility. Nothing I try to do, like relaxing for 5 minutes, does anything to reduce the reading taken by the doctor or nurse, so I just accept it. I’ve even taken my blood pressure monitor to the surgery to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it. The readings both from it and the more accurate sphygmomanometer (example shown below) used by the medical professional are quite similar in showing unusually elevated numbers.
On seeing the high blood glucose level results my doctor put me on vitamin B12 (the first were of 4 separate injections, one each week, and thereafter tablets), twice-weekly folic acid, and one of the stronger doses of metformin (Glucophage 850mg) to be taken twice a day, at breakfast and at lunchtime. On 17 October I took another blood test to include the HbA1c level, which measures the average over the previous three months. My blood sugar level had reduced ever so slightly to 224 but the HbA1c recorded 10.1%, way above the normal level of 6.5% for a diabetic.
Then on 19 October, I took another laboratory blood test and my blood sugar level had reduced to 180, still not good, but getting better. In addition to taking the Glucophage I had completely cut out sugar and all carbohydrates. Instead of my usual quarter teaspoonful of sugar in coffee (I love coffee!) I added tiny amounts of Stevia, which is a natural sweetener regarded as benign for people with diabetes. But after a few months of that I cut Stevia out as well and now drink coffee without any form of sweetener.
On 21 October my lab result was 156 and by 27 October the level had gone down to 127, so it was clear that what I was doing was having positive results. The blood sugar levels continued to reduce, and on 18 January 2021 the reading was 113, just inside the normal range of between 70 and 115. On 15 June my 3-month average recorded 5.1%.
Early on, I had bought a blood glucose monitor and since then I have taken home measures every couple of days. I have to say that my experience with these devices has been very positive as it has reduced the need to have so many blood glucose tests at the clinic. The process is simple and although they are said to be not as accurate as a laboratory blood test they are able to give you a reliable reading within a margin of 10%. Nowadays this is how I continue to regularly monitor my blood sugar levels.
It’s now not far away from the beginning of March 2023. I’m happy to say my readings have remained well within the normal levels. It has involved a lifestyle change in terms of diet and exercise, but it’s one that I have welcomed with open arms. My weight has reduced to 161lbs (73 kilos) and size 32” waist trousers are beginning to fall off me without a belt.
During the past two years I have watched countless YouTube videos on diabetes, diets, sugar, uric acid and many other issues associated with health. Some are really excellent while others less so. But they all contain some basic messages about how diet affects our health. Sugar and processed foods, at least for me, are a no-no, and should be for you too. While they are delightful to the tongue, under the hood they are doing serious damage to our bodies which may only become apparent over the long term. More modern medicine recognizes this and the newer research strongly suggests that as consumers we need to listen and heed the advice over the sorts of foods we need to consume to help ensure our lives are not cut short. Take a look at my article on anti-aging too as this looks into what’s happening in relation to research into living longer.
I want to write more about the kind of diet I now follow. But until I do, I’ll just say that I have adopted my own style of intermittent fasting. For example, I no longer have breakfast when I awake. Instead, around 11am I’ll have some yogurt (I avoid the low fat supposedly healthy variety like the plague) with a few walnuts and some sunflower seeds. And to give you an example of lunch, it can consist of a 3-egg omelet with broccoli or cauliflower one day, a steak with its fat with a very small serving of rice or quinoa and lettuce, or 3 chicken legs cooked with their skin in an air-fryer accompanied by a small serving of vegetables such as cabbage or beetroot, sometimes both. Avocado (called a superfood) and olives are some of my favorite snacks as well as walnuts, pistachios and unroasted sunflower seeds. For a while I also liked almonds, but after learning that they contain lectins which apparently cancel out the benefits of these nuts. I no longer eat dinner but will usually have a cup of hot full-cream milk before 8pm. So as not to become nutrient deficient I also take daily Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Calcium, and Omega-3 along with Vitamin B12.
I have noted that once my body adapted to my new diet I no longer had the hunger pangs of old and believe I’ve reached the levels of food and supplements needed by my body to function properly without any of the excesses that I may have been used to in the past. And that adaptation did not take a long time.
But that’s not all. I found that in continuing to take the blood pressure medication I would often experience dizziness. I discovered that they were causing my blood pressure to reduce to a point where I was no longer hypertensive, but hypotensive where low blood pressure can be quite dangerous. I stopped using the medication and my blood pressure has remained normal. But I continue to check it twice a day, as most people should.
And I have stopped taking the big doses of daily Glucophage and my blood sugar readings have stayed in the 85 to 95 range, sometimes even going a bit lower. The takeaway from this is that a change in diet really can have a huge impact on one’s diabetes. The thing is, one has to accept that the necessary changes need to be lifelong and not just for a while.
Unfortunately, the nerve damage to my feet is permanent but I do not experience the sometimes excruciating pain that some other people complain of. I would call it more of a discomfort and am sorry that I didn’t find out about diabetes earlier on in life.
My message to everyone is you need to be aware that no one is immune from disease. Diabetes is often something that creeps up on you, but you can do something to considerably reduce the risk by adopting an appropriate lifestyle. Reducing weight and staying away from sugar are two of the keys that are in you hands.
Get yourself a blood sugar monitor and test yourself regularly. My experience demonstrates that you don’t need to be overweight a lot to come down with diabetes. Any signs of an increase in your blood sugar levels should be a danger warning and a visit to the doctor a must.
Also, please note that today many more children are being diagnosed with diabetes largely because of the types and quantity of food and drink they consume, often to excess. They won’t be aware of how and why sugar is the major enemy of their health and you can influence their habits early on. It’s just a pity that governments don’t do more, but that’s due, apparently, to the power and influence of industry lobbying on our politicians.