Paging the Sugar Mongs

I had a wierd infection of some kind in April, blood tests came back
inconclusive but with high blood sugars. Doc says "see nurse for a
starving blood test". Results today - scraped in just under the
magic 5 limit - come back next year.

Phew - YAY.
I can still apply for a JAA flight medical under the 10 year rule at the
end of July if nothing else goes wrong.

 

<waves broad brush>

 

What's a high risk lifestyle for becoming a sugar mong? I do **** all
exercise, drink a lot of fizzy drinks (all diet variants), don't do much
chocolate or other sugary stuff but drink a load of alcohol - twice the
weekly recommended limit according to a calc I just filled in. I get my
eyes tested annually and nothing has ever cropped up yet.

High risk?

 

Are you overweight? That's the single most significant factor. Diet
and exercise are generally seen as contributing to obesity, rather
than being directly linked in themselves to diabetes.

 

Good oh. I'm 2 stone away from being classed overweight I think.

 

Erm genetics is the most significant factor shirly?

 

Tricky question - every nanny-knows-best with a pet agenda claims that
something is bad for you. Another theory will be along tomorrow.

In general the "experts" agree that obesity (and thus all the causes of
obesity) is a major risk factor and that some people are genetically
predisposed to greater risk anyway.

Current thinking:
Sugar is not a cause, it is a symptom of the body failing (dangerously)
to produce the hormone (insulin) which should regulate the sugar levels
in the bloodstream.
Cutting out sugar will not protect you from becoming diabetic, it will
only make the symptoms less obvious. Sugars are, however, carbohydrates
which can lead to obesity and thus onward to a high risk of diabetes.
IOW - if you are not overweight and do not already have diabeties there
is no good reason not to put sugar in your tea.

 

In type 1, yes. Not sure if that's true in type 2, and CBA to google
right now. But in any case I was thinking more of 'factors I can do
something about', which was implied by the question.

 

Delicately, I trust?

 

The magic 5 limit is actually 6.2 for a fasting test. A 5 means you'ere
nowhere near having a sugar issue.

 

Being a fat **** dun't help, but you've still got to have the gene. Without
it, you don't go mongy.

 

Oh it's you!

I wouldn't worry about diabetes getting *you* Mike, not with how you're
built. Well not T2 diabets anyway

 

Indeed it is.

 

More fucking tripe. This is Type 2 diabetes under discussion here and Type
2's can produce many times more insulin than normal and in fact, most T2's
have an excess of insulin, often leading to insulinemia. They have a
resistance to insulin though and that's why their sugar levels go high. It's
got **** all to do with a lack of insulin.

Other than it making tea taste like shite, you mean.

 

I don't drink tea. Or coffee. Only water (occasionally diluted with
some form of fruit laced concentrate) or alcohol.

 

Who knows.
Interstingly - for very interesting values of it - the diabetic nurse
informed me that some people can be diabetic for seven years until the
symptoms force them to seek out a doc.
Today, and for the next fortnight I'll be eating normally and taking
readings just to see what my normal lifestyle (hah!) readings are.
I expect to be shocked.
For the fortnight after that, I'll be attempting to eat more healthily.

This little exercise is entirely for my own interest - not much point
immediately leaping into a diabollock regime if I don't know how bad it
was before.

 

What are the symptoms, anyway?

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=diabetes+symptoms

 

Heh.

<Quick browse>

None of that, really. I've had a couple of blood tests in recent years
and they havem't thrown up anything either. Hmmm.

 

I know another bloke like you in that regard. He's tall and skinny, going
bald, used to ride a motorbike and comes from darn sarf, but he's also a
right fucking nancy boy