Newly diagnosed

Argh! Ok, then, you need to be your own advocate. (I think you are already.) Please learn all you can about controlling blood sugar and diabetes. Read the bloodsugar 101 site I posted about and also the two stickies at the top of our forum.

Good for you! This is the first step. If you're going to test once a day, please keep a journal everyday with what you eat at meals and any other time and also what your blood sugar is when you test.

about times for testing, here are when most people test. First thing in the morning when you get up. This is 'fasting' blood sugar. Right before a meal and then 2 hours after you start eating. This will tell you how the food you're eating is affecting your blood sugar.

So, since you would need to test two times (before and after a meal), then you might want to skip a day of testing so you can test twice on one day.

Morning fasting should be under 100 (or under about 5.5 using the measurement in Canada. Will-Sandy can correct me here.)

Before eating, this is variable but a non-diabetic's blood sugar would be in the 80's to 100 (3.9 to 5.5) and after eating it's best not to be higher than 140 (7.7). The reason you want to test before eating and about 2 hours after is to see how food you eat affects your blood sugar. The more carbs (potatoes, bread, rice pasta - anything made with flour or grains) you eat the higher your blood sugar will go.

Anyway, just one step at a time but do keep a food journal with times and what food you're eating.

Good luck and I'm glad you got your meter!

Do you make your meals from scratch or do you eat a lot of prepared food?

I take BP medication so I avoid too much salt. Since we eat from scratch and don't eat any packaged food or take-out, the only salt I get is from what I put in myself. You do have to be careful about avoiding salt altogether though. I've read that because a lot of people have started using sea salt that they're not getting the iodine they need (especially if they're not eating seafood), that some people have an iodine deficiency.

I also make up my own spice mixtures and use fresh herbs from the garden during the summer. One thing I found to give some zing in place of salt is lemon or lime juice. It seems to have a taste that can replace salt in many kinds of food.

If you're avoiding eggs because of cholesterol, you needn't do that. Studies show that eating eggs does not increase our cholesterol. If you have an egg allergy, that's another matter.

There seems to be soy in a lot of products now. I don't buy tofu or soy milk, the only products I might get soy in. On occasion, I might use soy sauce (the low-sodium variety).

I'm glad you're on top of things but I'm sure it can be frustrating. Have a nice dinner!

If your blood sugar is never above 6.5 mmol/L (about 119 mg/dL) after meals and never above 5.5 (99.11) when you wake up, then I would agree that you probably don't have have full-onset diabetes, and you can still control your blood sugar with diet and exercise.

However, if your A1c is higher than 5.5 (which is equal to 6.2 mmol/L or 111 mg/dL), then you do have problems metabolizing carbohydrates although you could probably still control your blood sugar with diet and exercise. They would probably say "borderline".

The only salt I personally use is bath salts (home-made concoctions due to allergies) and mineral salt on my driveway in the winter.

My A1C level was 7.2 at the last test.
Yesterday, Blood Glucose level was 6.5 in the morning and 5.4 after breakfast, 5.4 before lunch, 4.7 after lunch, 5.6 before dinner, 6.7 after dinner. I fell asleep reading a book and didn't take another reading. I was a little miffed that this testing actually messed up my timing on my heart meds.
I forgot to take my morning meds and got them 2 hours late. So I figured that I would take my evening meds 1 1/2 hours late and gradually work it back to the right time again. Then I ended up taking the evening meds 3 hours late.

For the next few days I have to concentrate on getting my heart meds back on track.

My A1C was taken after I was eating for the heart for a month.

I have an advantage when it comes to breads and deserts. Unfortunately I am also leery of salads and vegetables now. As far as I am concerned, all breads and desserts are cross contaminated with tree nuts, along with most salads and sometimes vegetables.
Eating away from home is always a gamble for me. Even the hospital caused an allergic reaction because of a cross contaminated bread product.
One goal I should have is to always have a dozen frozen muffins, made with multigrain, sugar free, salt free, and nut/banana safe. Just in case I end up in hospital again. My family can bring me food.

Also remember low sugar brings on chest pain, because of the stress your under and your arteries constrict, I usually but not always test when that happens

I think if a person already has some blocked arteries then maybe a real hypo could cause chest pain because of the stress but in a person whose arteries are not blocked or who doesn't have heart problems already, then I don't think the hypo would cause the pain.

And there's a difference between low blood sugar and a real hypo.

In any case, monitoring is important.

According to www.bloodsugar101.com/, blood sugar under 3.9 (70 in the US) is considered hypoglycemia and needs intervention or some sort of treatment like insulin or glucose. In type 1 diabetes, I think it's more critical because of the possibility of the blood sugar going even lower than that if nothing is done.

However, in a non-diabetic, blood sugar that low may not be critical and some simple source of sugar like orange juice can help bring it up as long as there are no other reasons to think the blood sugar would continue going lower. Usually in a non-diabetic, a low like this is caused by not eating. I don't know if it could be caused by stress.

If someone has a heart condition, I do think a low or hypo could cause chest pain. But if the heart and arteries are healthy, I haven't found any information online that says a low would cause chest pain. (Maybe I need to reword what I wrote earlier. It doesn't seem clear now that I reread it.)

rainbowpromise said...
I had a sugar low once a few years back. I don't remember chest pain. Dizzy, yes, but no chest pain. Amusement park lemonade is a real sugar rush.

But if you have a low now you might feel it in your chest, but it was just a warning because it happens to me it feels the same way as another heart attack, also remember Diabetics Heart attack symptoms are different then non Diabetics