@KT53, so glad your wife's okay but not at all surprised by the explanation.
My own GP talked me out of taking statins last month. Apparently my risk would have gone down by as much as 1% over ten years if I started taking them so I declined.
My wife is still going to attend the session(s) suggested by the surgery, and I'll be going with her. Knowledge is strength. We think we follow a pretty decent diet in respect of what we eat, if not quantity vs amount of exercise, although that is being addressed now that my hip is in fully working order.
@alan clark2 in Liverpool, you should start advertising the Alan Plan diet. One bloke in the Jane Plan advert managed to lose 1 stone and 8 pounds in a year.
For anyone diagnosed as pre diabetic, can I also recommend the the Diabetes Uk forum. Michael Mosleys book, and the hairy bikers diet cook book are also useful. The low carb diet has been proved to change many from diabetic type 2 to pre or even remission. Doing something about it at that stage is far preferable to the slippery slope of tablets / heart disease increased/kidney disease/ diabetic neuropathy leading to bits of body being amputated. Thats apart from constant finger prick testing and the side effects of the tablets.
@Alan Clark2 in Liverpool that’s good news for you my younger brother was in a similar situation and lost weight, no more diabetes.
Unfortunately it’s not always possible. My fiancé has late onset type 1 diabetes and no amount of weight loss helps but I think he is in the minority.
Healthy eating is to be encouraged but I think the whole “pre diabetes” issue can be taken too far by some doctors. At the moment I know blood pressure is the latest health issue to be tackled. At the pharmacy we are being encouraged to test people if possible.
I've known plenty of type 1 diabetics (the first was a school friend who developed it at the age of about 10 or 11) and if I understand correctly it's a whole different disease process - an auto-immune process destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and then there's no going back . HI hope your fiancé is OK @debs64. As a sufferer of another autoimmune condition, I sympathise. We (as in humanity as a whole) don't yet fully understand the workings of the immune system and sometimes it just goes doolally and attacks things it shouldn't.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@JennyJ he is living with it. Daily injections and he tries to go to the gym, weight loss doesn’t affect it but it seems exercising does and regular checks keep it under control. He still works and lives a normal life but it’s a complicated disease, definitely seems to be genetic. Just the luck of the draw. My middle daughter has MS which is another scary one. I do wonder sometimes if these things are more common now or just better diagnosed.
If I were in your wife's position I think I'd be looking at whether I could make any small diet/lifecycle improvements to reduce the risk of it creeping up further. I did that when I was told last year that my cholesterol level was slightly elevated (similar diet changes recommended). Not enough to prescribe statins but not far off. I lost about 8kg in weight in about 2 months but then it levelled off so it'll be interesting to see whether the changes are having any effect when my next blood tests come around.
Look into eating a pink or red grapefruit a day to lower cholesterol. I'm giving it a go to avoid statins, but won't know if it's worked for a while yet. I enjoy grapefruit so it's not a bad thing.
Good point @floralies, grapefruit has to be avoided with some medications, although the poster won’t be interested, because he knows better than the medics.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
I tell you what, I didn' t even suspect that so many different medicines would react with grapefruit (or 'grailfrit' if you're a Fawlty Towers fan), not just by increasing the amount of chemicals in the blood but by decreasing the amount in some cases too. If I ever, God Forbid, have to take medicines for anything I'll be sure to read the label first !
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
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My own GP talked me out of taking statins last month. Apparently my risk would have gone down by as much as 1% over ten years if I started taking them so I declined.
I enjoy grapefruit so it's not a bad thing.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I tell you what, I didn' t even suspect that so many different medicines would react with grapefruit (or 'grailfrit' if you're a Fawlty Towers fan), not just by increasing the amount of chemicals in the blood but by decreasing the amount in some cases too. If I ever, God Forbid, have to take medicines for anything I'll be sure to read the label first !