Mother Diagnosed With Diabetes

hello everyone,

Last month my mother was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I have a few questions about the disease.

1. What are the best treatments/medicines for type 2 diabetes? My mother currently takes the medications Amaryl and Actos. Her glucose levels are stable during the day but they rise at night. Is that normal?

2. I'm not sure why my mother got diabetes. Non of her relatives had diabetes, she is not overweight (she weighs less than 110 pounds), and eats a balanced diet. What else causes diabetes? Am I at risk too?

3. Which is the best glucose meter/lancet device? She currently uses Freestyle Flash.

4. What do you think about insulin shots and pumps? Is it a good treatment for type 2 diabetes?

Replys are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

- Eugene

Umm, do whatever the doctor tells you? It's not that bad you know. My grandfather had that for decades and he lived healthily and happily until the ripe old age of 82.
Type 2 diabetes should not require insuline shots. That's why it's called non-insulin dependent yanno? My grandfather took like three pills at every meal but I don't remember the names anymore.
Don't let your mom eat sugary or starchy stuff, tell her to keep watching her weight and think positive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_diabetes

Sorry to hear that Eugene. To echo what Eggy said, if your mother watches her diet, she can live a long life with little to no symptoms.

She may want to look at when / how much she eats. Ideally diabetics should eat their food in smaller portions more often during the day.

Insulin should not be necessary as long as she's watching her sugar. (Which means too low, too - her doctor probably advised her to carry around hard candy in case her sugar gets low.)

Despite what Eggy said, occasionally type 2 diabetics do have to take a small amount of insulin, although I think that is unusual, and I think only happens with the clinically obese. The condition should be controlled by diet and, if that is not enough, then by medication. If your mother's blood glucose levels are rising to high levels at night, then that needs to be dealt with. What does she eat for supper? Blood glucose levels peak two to three hours after a meal. If she is eating a high-carbohydrate meal last thing at night, then changing that should change the blood glucose.

There is a genetic element to diabetes. You will probably have a slightly higher risk of suffering from the condition. The main difficulty with type 2 diabetes is the time it takes to diagnose. The following is my opinion only, and doctors might not agree. But I advise people with a close relative who has diabetes to buy a meter, and do a blood test once a month, three hours after their main meal. Meters are cheap, and it means that if it ever does appear you will catch it at the very earliest stage.

Having said that, there is no history of diabetes in my family, although I am a type 1 diabetic. One of the specialists speculated that the condition might have been caused by the cancer I suffered at 18, or the treatment that was given at the time. But little is known about the cause, and many things have been suggested.

So far as your other questions go, I can't help you, because I am in the UK.

Ick, good luck with that. I have a feeling I'm heading there myself since others have had it in my family and about the only exercise I get it is waking up (and that can't be good, even though I eat pretty damn well).

Here's some recent medical hope for you (but not your mom):
Drinking 6 cups of strong black coffe a day significantly lowers your risk of acquiring Type II Diabetes.

There is also some evidence that the (broiled) prickly pear cactus of species Opuntia streptacantha can help lower glucose in Type II Diabetes.

Wish I knew more, but that's all I've happened to come across recently. Hope it helps. Hopefully there are some doctors in the forums that can help you.

Research google. Research medical journals. It's fun and you'll learn things that are beneficial even if they don't necessarily help your mother.

Be really careful of her feet and hands. Makes sure she keeps a close eye on even tiny scratches and makes sure they heal. Tell her to get non-healing sores checked out right away even if they are small. I've known a few diabetics who've gotten gangrene. Old people are stubborn!

If she wants to sweeten things up but can't have as much sugar, you might try Yacon syrup, which is mainly fructooliosaccharides that taste sweet but can't be absorbed by the body (but consult with a doctor to be sure if the low amount of digestible sugars are acceptable).

Eugene

Both of my parents were/are diabetics. My mom was type 1 Adult (she got it at around 16 years old) and my father is type 2 Adult onset. (There are three types of diabetes (that I know of) juvenile, Adult Type 1 and Adult Onset Type 2).

Juvenile and Adult Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the body's immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, affecting 85-90% of all people with the disease.

This type of diabetes, also known as late-onset diabetes, is characterised by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. The disease is strongly genetic in origin but lifestyle factors such as excess weight, inactivity, high blood pressure and poor diet are major risk factors for its development.

Genetics play some role in juvenile and Adult Type 1 diabetes — but less so than in type 2 diabetes.

One strong risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes is a family history of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or a personal history of gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy).

Although the risk for the general population is about five percent, people who have a parent or sibling with the disease have an increased risk of about 10 to 15 percent.

Interestingly, one out of every seven Native American person has diabetes in America (one Native American tribe in Arizona (the Pima Indians) has a prevalence of nearly 50 percent), (both of my Grandparents on my Father's side had Type 2) . That's a pretty high percentage.

I'm one of the lucky ones, so far.

Having watched both of my parents here are some things that I would recommend:

1. Diet is critical - it sounds like she is a bit underweight, so perhaps she needs to see a nutritionists. That would really help.

2. I'd highly recommend the pump. Everyone who I know (including my Dad) that is on it says it has changed their life in how it has regulated their blood sugar. For some, it has saved their vision and in some cases their lives.

3. With regard to the medication, she will need to try them and see how she reacts. I don't think one is better than another on it's on accord, but they do act differently on different people. Some people metabolize medication differently, so she should note at first when starting a new medication how she is doing on it. If something does not seem to be working she should not be afraid to tell the doctor that it's not and to ask for something different. The reason that there are so many different ways to treat the disease is that there are so many different ways that people react to the treatments.

Also - did your Mom see an Endocronologist and was she diagnosed with Adult Type 1 our Adult Onset Type 2?

Just curious.

Rose

Because this diagnosis comes with the need to make great changes in lifestyle (monitoring, diet, and exercise), it can be really difficult for some folks. A way to motivate them is to tell them to keep in mind the quality of life in their final years before they pass away. The more vigilant they are with their monitoring, diet, and exercise, the higher quality their life will be at the end. So, one could forgo the rigorous dietary changes but it could be at the expense of losing appendages and mobility at the end of one's life.

In summary, near-term changes can be made to feel less burdensome when one sees them as an investment in their future quality of life.

~Ulrika~

Ack. I'm f*cked.

A story about stubbornness. My grandfather was in the hospital when he was diagnosed with diabetes. They told him he could either change his lifestyle or take an insulin shot for the rest of his life. Upon hearing this, he immediately called my grandmother and said, "Bring me a Cherry Pie," and said he'd rather take a shot than have bad food (true pie story, very convenient for this forum). He also drank 30 cups of coffee a day, each with cream and sugar, and chain smoked.

I never met him. X_X

I just moved her to a endocronologist. She was diagnosed with Adult Type 2 diabetes. However the endocronologist says she may have LADA diabetes (a variation of type 1 diabetes).

If she does have LADA i'll definitley consider the insulin pump as treatment. Also, can the insulin pump be used for type 2 diabetes patients?

Everyone - Thanks all for your help and feedback

LADA is what I meant by Adult Type 1, which is what my mother had. My father uses the pump (which was not available when my mother was alive many years ago), and he has type 2 but required multiple injections. With the pump, he no longer requires that and manages it much, much better.

Good luck to your Mom - this is a disease that they are making lots of good progress on and many people lead good, productive lives today as diabetics. They just need to be more careful about their diet and general health than others. My Dad is in his 70's and still works part time and is as almost wild as he ever was. Scares me sometimes - him and his damn motorcycles & guns.