Reverse My Type 2 Diabetes : Can I really do it?

I got a telephone call recently from my GP Surgery to let me know that my latest Type 2 Diabetes HbA1c test results were the highest they’d ever been and I needed to come in for a chat. The result was 80 mmol/mol, the normal range being 20 – 41.9. This wasn’t really a surprise to me as I knew my eating habits were out of control. Plus I’d been getting burning pain and numbness in my feet for a while, which I realised was probably a result of my poor blood sugar control. It was time to get it sorted out once and for all and see if you really can reverse Type 2 Diabetes.

Diagnosis

I’m 58 years old and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 2005, and in those 16 years I’ve never really had it under control. At my first diabetic consultation I was told to try and lose weight by eating a healthy diet. I’ve yo-yo dieted since I was 16. I’d lose a little weight, stop dieting, then I’d put more weight on than I’d lost. I’m sure that’s a familiar story. So I wasn’t very confident that I could actually do it. And I was right. After a year of trying and failing to lose weight my GP put me on Metformin.

You’d think that being told you have Type 2 Diabetes would be enough of an incentive to lose weight and get your blood sugar under control, but for me it wasn’t. The only symptoms I had were feeling a bit tired and peeing a bit more than usual. My Practice Nurse would tell me if I didn’t get it under control I could go blind, lose a foot, get kidney disease or even die. But this didn’t have any effect on me either. For me, because I couldn’t see or feel the effects right at that moment then her telling me these things just didn’t resonate with me at all. Maybe that’s stupid, but it’s a fact.

Over the following years my blood sugar test results would go up and down (as did my weight … mostly up). Sometimes I would stick to a diet such as Slimming World for a few months, which would help a bit, but then I’d come off it and the test results would again go up. But this last test result of 80, accompanied by the pain in my feet really seemed to hit me hard.

Time To Take Control

I decided enough was enough. I really needed to try and reverse my Type 2 Diabetes. I’m married with two children and two grandchildren and I want to live as long as possible, and enjoy my life and my family to the full. I was scared by the feelings in my feet, and the fact it was taking about 10 minutes to get moving properly first thing in the morning. It’s taken actually experiencing debilitating symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes to give me the jolt I should have had when I was first diagnosed.

Unfortunately the Practice Nurse was still telling me to lose weight by eating a healthy diet. I was 16 stone and I knew losing weight was really important in helping to reverse my Type 2 Diabetes. But I was struggling to eat ‘healthily’. The NHS guidelines are really vague! The nurse advised me to try Slimming World. Like i said I’d tried this before but I wasn’t convinced it was for me.

Around this time I read a book called Downsizing by Tom Watson. Tom was an MP who lost 8 stone and reversed his Type 2 Diabetes by adopting a low carbohydrate lifestyle. I found the book quite interesting but felt Tom’s diet was a bit extreme for me. I think his carb levels were on the ‘keto’ side, meaning he ate very low levels of carbs, possibly less than 30 grams per day. That means cutting out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and all cakes, pastries, biscuits etc. It sounded a little bit daunting and impossible to stick to! But it did get me intrigued about the low carb lifestyle.

So I started doing a bit of research into eating low carb. I use the term ‘lifestyle’ instead of ‘diet’ because I think of a ‘diet’ as something you do for a period of time until you get to your target weight, then go back to the way you ate before. So lifestyle works so much better for the way my mind works as it’s something you do for the rest of your life.

I came across the Low Carb Program, an online program that stated it had “clinically demonstrated to help people lose weight, improve their HbA1c, reduce medications and place type 2 diabetes into remission”. So I signed up for an annual subscription at the price of £69.99. The program unlocks lessons each week that teach you about different aspects of eating low carb. It does it bit by bit so you don’t get overwhelmed with too much information. There are also discussion groups, cookalong videos, exercise videos and articles to dive into. Following the Low Carb Program guidelines I decided to try sticking to no more than 130g of carbohydrates per day. They have a food diary section so you can enter the foods you eat and it gives you detailed nutrition amounts so you know exactly how much carbs, protein, fat and calories you’re eating which is really helpful.

A Good Start

After 5 weeks of following the low carb program I have lost 1 stone in weight (28 July 2021). I have also been doing my own blood sugar tests with a blood glucose monitoring device I got from Amazon. My average blood sugar levels have gone from 11.5 mmol/l to 7.5 mmol/l. These ‘finger prick’ blood sugar levels are measured differently to the HbA1c test you get at the GP surgery. The HbA1c test is a blood test, taken from your vein, and takes an average of your blood glucose levels over the previous 3 months and is measured in mmol/mol. The monitoring device I use at home is a ‘real-time’ measurement that uses a finger prick and is measured in mmol/l. So the numbers aren’t the same which is a bit confusing. But I know that having my blood sugar levels going down is a good thing!

I thought I would struggle with no bread, potatoes or pasta but actually it hasn’t been that difficult. There is a huge range of recipes on the Low Carb Program site and I’ve joined a the Low Carb UK Facebook group where members also add some good recipes and low carb food suggestions. One of my favourites being the Low Carb Bread Rolls made with eggs, flax seed, coconut flour and butter – very tasty with some avocado mash on top. I’ve also found some really tasty low carb/keto treats which stop me feeling like I need to get a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps. And I’m not being too strict with myself. There’s been a couple of birthday celebrations over the 5 weeks and I’ve gone over the 130g a couple of times. But I’ve just got right back to it the next day. I think checking my blood sugar myself regularly really helps me get back on track if I can see it creeping up again.

So at the moment I feel everything is going in the right direction. I feel like maybe you really can reverse Type 2 Diabetes. Maybe I can get my blood glucose levels down to normal and keep them there. Which hopefully means I could come off my medication in the future and be as fit and healthy as possible. I’ve also recently read about intermittent fasting which sounds like something I’d like to try along with my low carb eating.

I’ve still got a long way to go and have a lot more to learn about the low carb lifestyle so I’ll keep you posted on my ‘journey’, bringing you reviews of products I try and letting you know how my weight and blood sugar levels are going.

If you’ve got similar issues I’d love to hear about them or if you have any tips or suggestions for me I’d love to hear from you. Just post your comments below.