Hi, I’ve just joined after reading about this since I was told I was prediabetic.

I need some advice please? I’ve tried to see if there is a search on the forums but Cant see one. I’ve researched the internet and even on the official UK diabetes sites etc there are no recommendations for a low cost, all in cost for a monitor and ongoing strips/lancets. I know that if you’re type 1 or 2 you get them free with the NHS but it’s a minefield if you want to get one to use every couple of days.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Damian.

Hi DamianC, I answered you earlier but the site has had a glitch which rejected all my posts. Hope it is sorted – anyway….

I am not sure you need a bg monitor. Even T2 are not given them on the NHS unless they are also on insulin. You have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic so you need to concentrate of getting rid of that. I have a very strict regime where I don’t eat any starchy carbs (potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals). However, in the first instance you don’t have to be quite so strict. First of all get rid of the obvious sugars like cake, biscuits, muffins etc. Then look at the amount of starchy carbs (as above) you are adding to your plate. Try cutting this by at least half. Hopefully, that is all you need to get rid of the diagnosis.

You don’t mention weight so I would say if you are seriously overweight or obese, cutting starchy carbs further would give you good weight loss in the early days. To find out the value of carbs have a look at thedietdoctor.com.

If you still want to use a glucose monitor I am sure someone will come on and advise you. I get mine on prescription from my doctor so not able to help except to say, without prescription it costs around £90.

Hi, Blood sugar monitoring may not be all you need to do, and in the early stages of changing your diet there are simpler tech solutions

What happens in T2D is that sugar in our blood is normally tightly controlled by our bodies, but if we eat too much sugar over time all the normal storage options become full and the cells are reluctant to accept more sugar from the blood stream. So the control system shouts louder by increasing insulin levels and keeping them higher for longer after a meal. If we continue eating badly this cycle continues until our cells are so resistant to insulin that it can not produce enough insulin to force the cells to absorb sugar from the blood and blood sugar levels rise – Getting blood sugar levels down to the point where they are no longer raised is just the first step in healing. Because Insulin is involved in the control of the rate at which our bodies clear out damaged cells and replace with new for our long term health reversing the Insulin Resistance IR which leads to raised levels of insulin is important.

You can get apps for your phone. Fatsecret is one I use that you can use to record what you plan to eat. It then breaks that down into carbs, fat and protein. – When you think of blood sugar levels in terms of teaspoons of sugar dissolved in the blood, normal blood sugar levels is equal to 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in an adult males total blood, the level at which you are diagnosed as being diabetic is equal to 2.75 teaspoons of sugar in the total blood. —— So you can see how important it is to control carbs. Recording what you plan to eat is better because you can see the carb figure and then change what you plan to eat if needed. This is a free app

Once you have got used to the change in eating then there are ways of using gadgets to monitor progress. – You talked about blood testing strips, a lot of people who buy a monitor of this type buy a keto mojo. For a while these were not sold internationally but I understand they are available widely now. If you want to use a blood testing system these are good because you have the option for testing not just blood sugar but the more important issue of Ketones.

A healthy way of eating, would have you having a mixture of times when your body is using sugar for fuel, and other times when insulin is low and the stores of sugar have been emptied it will turn to fat for fuel. Which is when there are ketones in your blood stream. If you don’t want to go to that expense a simpler method of testing is using a cheap breathalyser. An AT6000 if you search the old threat “take a look at this” you will find links to articles I posted a couple of years ago on how to use one to monitor for ketosis. I found that a useful tool because I could monitor what my daily limit of carbs had to be for me to achieve and stay in ketosis.

Hello Damian I use a sinocare system from Amazon. Many others are available but I agree with s-g I’m not sure you need one either.

My T2 is in remission/under control with diet alone. I test every three of four days or so. Remember that blood from finger pricks doesn’t measure your HbA1c which is an average of blood sugars over a period of 8 to 12 weeks. It measures your level at that precise moment in time. This measure is affected by so many things, time of day, when you last ate, what you ate etc etc. So as such it’s not really an accurate measure. The best suggestion I can make is, if you decide to finger prick, to do the test roughly the same time every few days, preferably before your first meal or two hours after you’ve eaten. You will then get to know your ‘average’. Try not to get too hung up on the number itself. If mine goes above 7 then I try to remember what I’ve eaten the previous day and if I’ve had extra carbs I cut back down. You will get to know you own average.

S-g has given you very good advice. The carbs are the secret to controlling blood sugar do take a look at the dietdoctor website.

Hi Verano, thanks so much for your reply.
That’s a really good point about the 3 month measure versus the at that moment blood glucose level.

Pleasure!
Let us know how you progress. You’re just pre-diabetic so you can nip this in the bud quite easily with some dietary changes.

Hi Sunshine Girl& JGwen,
Sorry for the late reply, I work 12 to 15 hour nightshift six days a week so sometimes it’s pretty hard to reply. But I’ve got a day off today great. Thanks so much for all your information, really helpful. I was a massive chocolate, dessert and had sugar in my coffee. I did it all in moderation, but obviously wasn’t been corrected by the other healthy food we ate, med style diet as wife is from Med. I’ve cut out absolutely everything like that now, as treats, I have things like berries or nuts. Been keeping a real close eye on the carbohydrate parts of my diet. Thanks again so much Damian

Well done in getting a grasp on things. Keep in touch.