Worried about T2 daughter, need advice.

[abouttoturn50]

Hi there, my daughter is 29 and was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in Jan. She is very overweight and has a very unhealthy relationship with food. I'm trying to support her and have dieted with her but she can't stick to it for long and has been referred for talking therapy. She is on Metformin but she's hit and miss, stopping and starting.

Over the last few days she consumed far too much in the way of takeaways and sugary food! And took no Metformin over the weekend.

My worry is that today she felt really shaky and like she was going to pass out feeling she needed sugar. She checked her blood sugar and it was 5.3 which I believe (from googling) to be normal. She had a Mars bar and the symptoms passed after 5-10 mins. Why would this have happened??

Is it just the drop from what she ate over the last few days to starting back on slimming world today?

It’s more likely to just be her appetite rather than anything to do with her diabetes. 5.3 is a normal reading, not hypo and no need to supplement with a Mars bar. I often fancy some chocolate and feel better after having some, it’s not low blood sugar it’s just a craving

5.3 is a normal reading, hypo is anything under 3.9 That was diabetes related.

It's more than likely she was hungry.

You need to tell her she needs to take her medication& cut out the crap before she ends up on insulin. My son is type one and believe me he'd rather take a pill over multiple injections every single day!

It may be that she is used to running at really high sugar levels - so dropping into normal range can make you feel like your sugar is low. If you google False Hypo you can read a bit more about it. A mars bar is def not the solution though!

If you have been running at high blood sugar levels, 5.3 could feel like a hypo. It’s about finding foods that keep her blood sugar steadier and stop the cravings, but she’s got to want to do it and from the sounds of it she doesn’t - unfortunately you can’t want it for her, sounds like you are doing your best to support her.

She isn't on any medication that could cause a low blood sugar.

A lot of people associate diabetes with 'hypos' but actually they only affect people on insulin and particular sorts of other medication.

Unfortunately any health professional will have dealt with someone with very poorly controlled diabetes, who has never had a hypo or been at risk of them, arguing they need a Mars Bar before going to bed because of 'hypos'.

If you always eat and always have high blood sugars it's easily to interpret feeling hungry, or having a normal sugar for a change as 'a hypo'.

Why it is always Mars bars I don't know but it always is.

Mars bars are terrible for hypos, takes ages to bring up sugars.
It has to be juice or similar.

False hypo sounds like what happened!

Mars bar was what I had on hand, it wasn't a full size one. But she was fine 10 minutes later so I think I did the right thing as she was very upset and anxious about how she felt. Tbh it's a drop in the ocean to what she can eat in a day. Until then she'd only eaten a wholewheat pasta dish, cheese, salad, a little fruit and a skinny crunch bar.

I'm hoping this has given her the kick up the arse she needed.

She needs to check out the advice on the Diabetes UK website. Do low carb, lose weight and get the diabetes under control. If she doesn't it will be onto insulin, constant checking of blood sugars, injections, diabetic neuropathy, retinopathy and all that entails. She is young enough to turn it round.

That sounds like quite a lot, if she needs a small sugar fix get the lift glucose tablets there only 3.6g of sugar but do the trick!

Some diabetics do hypo at 5.3 or higher as they're used to running their sugars high.
Rather than asking for advice here OP I suggest she does as a PP suggests and speaks to Diabetes UK and maybe her GP too.
She obviously needs to take better care of herself but it's a choice she'll have to make for herself.

I was asking on here as I was worried. I've told her to speak to the doctor tomorrow but I think we know he's going to tell her to do the obvious, eat better and take the Metformin. She's had a look on Diabetes UK when she was first diagnosed. The GP told her they would retest in 3 months and she did really well and got her HbA1c from 72 to 56 with just dieting.

I think that many people feel that because insulin is readily available then it's sort of OK if they have to start using it. It seems to be inevitable to them that they will. But it's really not fun and diabetes often causes so many issues. My oldest has had T1 for 25 years and its not something I would wish on anyone. The great thing is that T2 can be reversed but it does take effort.

Is it possible that the mars bar treated her anxiety rather than corrected her blood sugars?

I say that because I am T2 and have horrible anxiety and sugar calms me down and stops me panicking. It's a habit that has taken a lot of hard work to break for me.

Has she seen a diabetes dietician or diabetic nurse? GPs are often not very good at diabetes care.

p.s. ignore the virtue seeking T1 or relatives of people with T1 telling you how lucky is to only have T2. It is still a really difficult condition to live with.

It's not that, it's a warning that life on insulin really isn't fun + if you can avoid it, please do.

T2 is also really difficult & nobody is diminishing that.

If your daughter doesn't want diabetes (testing, insulin, diet, carb counting etc) to control her, she needs to control it. It's really hard & also particularly hard on relatives x

T2 diabetes is really difficult to manage however it is absolutely possible to reverse it using a low carb ( not no carb) diet.

There will be a short period of 'withdrawal' when your body really does do its best to continue the supply of sugar (drug) and then all those cravings just melt away and life goes back to normal.

www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html

or MN's own low carb boot camp.

Just to be clear, I am NOT virtue signalling as the mother of a T1. I am trying to warn/ advise from experience. FWIW my late husband had T2, it was a contributing factor in his death. Diabetes is a very serious illness and as such should be treated, in all senses of the word, as such.

Ask the GP to switch her to slow release metformin. It doesn't need to be taken with meals, can be taken altogether and at any time of the day.

Thank you so much for this. She spoke to the GP this morning asking for the slow release and he has issued it. He also told her she needs to take the diagnosis seriously and that she can still reverse it with hard work!

She does know what she should be doing so hopefully whatever happened yesterday will give her a kick up the arse!

Since supporting her with diet etc I've lost 2 stone and went from being just on pre diabetic (42) to normal within 3 months so she can also see first hand what sticking to it can achieve!

I think that at 29 you need to leave her alone to manage this.

Sometimes support is not actually helpful - it removes the responsibility from the person who is in charge of the illness.

Her decisions are her own. Good and bad.

I agree with you, I just support in the sense of dieting and buying in the right foods. I really needed to lose weight anyway and hoping she'll now see the results she could achieve.

I'm currently not working due to MH so I do the cooking and shopping as she works full time. I've also stopped taking her to work everyday and making her walk the 25 mins walk 3 times a week. (She doesn't drive and also has Fibromyalgia so couldn't physically walk there and back everyday)

I’m T1 but before being diagnosed my BG ran very high and just like PP have said if you’re used to running high getting back into range can make you feel like you’re too low. A Mars bar is really rubbish though as a hypo treatment, the fat content will stop the sugar from giving an instant hit, chances are it would have taken at least 30mins before she would have felt the effect not 5-10.

Sounds like a placebo effect. She wasn’t hypo and a Mars bar wouldn’t fix an actual hypo in 10 minutes anyway. She was just hungry / craving something and felt calmer for satisfying the cravings with a Mars bar.

Missing the odd couple days metformin isn’t an issue, it takes weeks to build up to the right dose and doesn’t work on blood sugars themselves, it just helps you to use the insulin your body makes slightly better

The GP said the same, false hypo due to her blood sugar running high. It was 25-30 mins before the shaking stopped. I think there was an element of anxiety/panic there too.

It definitely gave her a kick up the rear though. She's on the slow release Metformin now and she's lost 6lb this week already by low carb/calorie counting/walking! 😊