prediabetes?

[Anonymous]

i thought i had already posted this question—buti can’t find it anywhere. does anyone know anything about prediabetes—-when glucose levels are above normal, but not high enough to be considered diabetes?

[Anonymous]

christine,

Whenever your blood sugar levels are above normal it isn’t a good thing. The best thing to have done to make sure it isn’t full blown diabetes is to have a hemoglobin A1C test done. This is a simple blood test that will measure blood sugar levels (an average) over a 3 month period. It is the test most often used to diagnose diabetes and I believe as long as you are below 6% (This test is a % number and not like blood sugar test where the norm is 70-110 or 80-120 depending on who you talk to) then you are fine, but the closer to 6% you are the more likely you are to end up with diabetes b/c that means your blood sugar is consistenly running in the upper end of the normal range. I hope that helps some.They may have changed some of the standard values and I am not aware as I don’t work clinically much anymore.

[Anonymous]

it’s actually kevin that had his glucose levels flagged when he had blood work done recently—-i wanted him to have his cholesterol checked—which runs borderline high. i wasn’t expecting the glucose to be flagged. i do the opposite—-i seem to have reactive hypoglycemia. i have a brother with type I diabetes—which is back-to-back on the celiac gene, but he won’t test for celiac. kevin’s mother is a a type II diabetic and he has another aunt with diabetes—-but i don’t know which type.

kevin is not a whole lot over the cut off to be considered prediabetes—so i am hoping that with a few changes, we can keep it from progressing any further. type II diabetes and high cholestol aren’t a good combo for heart disease. there seem to have been alot of young people we know having heart attacks at young ages—-younger than kevin.

kevieb2008-03-12 11:01:11

[Anonymous]

Christine,

Heart disease is a “sister” disease of Diabetes meaning that usually if you have one that isn’t controlled then the other is ineveitable. Some simple changes that Kevin can make is whole wheat whenever possible. Limiting intake of simple sugars (cookies, cakes, soda etc. ) and Also making sure he has some type of protein everytime he eats. This will help to slow down the absorption of sugar from the carbs and keep his blood sugars stable for longer periods. Keep in mind that cheese, milk and yogurt can be counted as combo foods meaning that they are both a good source of protein as well as carbohydrates. Also if he eats lots of fruit he needs to have cheese or nuts with the fruit or some other protein, but cheese and nuts go best with fruit. If you need any other help please pm me. I am a dietitian and did tons of diabetic teaching when I was working so this is a strong area for me. Best of Luck to Kevin.

[Anonymous]

he eats lots of chocolate—-that’s going to be the hard one to get him to quit. we don’t eat alot of wheat at our house——all of our meals are cooked gluten free so that we don’t contaminate the girls food—-it is alot easier to cook one meal instead of two!! i usually buy whole wheat bread when i buy bread for the rest of the family—-but our cold cereals could use some improvement. we end up with a lot of the sweet ones because they are the only “maintstream” glutenfree cereals i can get. there are some better ones out there—but i can’t get them locally.

kevin likes wheaties, so i can get him those. i don’t cook breakfast alot—i have a really hard time in the mornings with my fibromyalgia and it can take me awhile to get going.

all of our baking is gluten free and alot of those flours are mostly starch. i usually try to add sorghum flour to get a little more nutrition in and i sometimes add flax meal, also.

if i can get him to be really good about his diet, can we keep him from getting type II diabetes, or is it likely going to be inevitable eventually?

[Anonymous]

We’ve started to use alternative (but natural) sweeteners in our house a lot lately. Ones with lower glycemic indexes than sugar. We like agave nectar in place of corn syrup when baking, or instead of syrup on pancakes, etc. I’ve also started using xylitol as a substitute for some of the regular sugar in baking. You can substitute it 1:1 for regular white sugar.

Just wanted to get your opinion on sugar alternatives Beth – what do you recommend? I’m not crazy about artificial sweeteners, but really like the agave nectar and xylitol.

[Anonymous]

Christine – I’ve just recently tried the Mesa Sunrise cold cereal by Nature’s Path and it is really good! It’s gluten free and made from organic corn, flax, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth. By far my favourite “adult” gluten free cereal! And quinoa and amaranth are both good sources of protein. I’ve started to use both of those grains in my gluten free baking as well.

[Anonymous]

i sometimes add quinoa to rice when i cook it and i also add it to soup sometimes. we also used a quinoa pasta once and it was pretty good. we really like tinkyada brown rice pasta, but i could only get it out of town.

a couple of days ago i went into a store we don’t frequent alot, and my daughter pointed out tinkyada pasta to me and i just about cried in the store. they had quite a large selection of GF products that they have been getting in in the last month. i guess another lady in our little town had talked to one of the owners and got him to start ordering the GF foods.

does benjamin have celiac, or have you just learned that he does better off of gluten?

kevieb2008-03-14 20:01:29

[Anonymous]

Christine,

you can’t prevent him from getting to totally, but you can make it so that he doesn’t have to take medication and can be considered a diet controlled diabetic. There are many people who just by altering diet and exercising can keep from having to be on medication. So just make sure he eats as good as possible (I know with all of your celiac problems fiber is difficult) and make sure he exercises at least 30 min 3 days/wk (can be split into 3 10 min sessions each day if needed 2nd to time restraints) and then he should be on the right track.

Sheri,

I don’t do much added sugar (I don’t bake much) and I don’t drink coffee or tea, just water/milk occasional juice, but if I am going to use a sugar sub.. I use splenda which is considered an artificial sweetener but is “made” from sugar so I don’t feel so bad.

I am in SC visiting family so I don’t know how much I will be on until mid week, but let me know if you have any other questions.

[Anonymous]

i like to use stevia as a sweetener sometimes—it is considered a food supplement and it doesn’t have a funny aftertaste.

[Anonymous]

Christine,

We don’t think Ben has celiac, however the ped has only done the blood test which I understand isn’t 100% accurate. As well, he had been off of gluten for about 3 weeks at the time of the test, so I’m not sure if that would have affected the results, our ped didn’t seem to think so.

We have discovered that he does better without gluten. He is deficient in an enzyme critical for the breakdown of gluten, casein and soy (DPP4) and also has what is sometimes called “leaky gut syndrome” where his GI tract is more permeable than it should be, allowing undigested foods, toxins, etc. to enter his bloodstream when it shouldn’t. This seems to have really messed up his immune system, as it is now attacking everyday foods thinking they are “foreign invaders”.

[Author]

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