r/prediabetes

Has anyone tried different forms of berberine besides the pills? I have trouble with the big ones and don't know if the powders or liquid drops are as effective for people who've tried them

I started feeling off a few years ago. Thought it was stress and cortisol. Got my blood tested in January and was pre diabetic. Recently if I don’t have a healthy snack before bed I wake up jolted with an electricity feeling. Last night I had dinner later than usual and started trembling inside until i ate something. I cut out alcohol and coffee. But things are not getting better. I was taking a bunch of supplements (magnesium, electrolytes, b vitamins) that actually made me feel like crap (waking up un refreshed). Cut that stuff out and felt a little better. I’m now taking berberine only and thinking to cut that out too. I need help. Anyone else have this?

I’m a 66 year old female with pre-diabetes for about the past 10 years. For the most part, I have been managing it with diet and exercise. I’ve been under a lot of stress the past few years due to being primary caregiver to my partner, and his death 2 years ago. My A1C ranges from 6.1-6.3, but last one was 6.7.

In the past I have worked hard to stay off of Metformin. I think I viewed going on it as a failure. I also had some misconceptions about it, like it would cause weight gain.

Can any of you who are on Metformin share your experiences?

Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone,
I’m 33 years old and recently got some blood work done. My results showed:
HbA1c: 6.4%
Fasting glucose: 89 mg/dL
From what I understand, the fasting glucose is normal, but the HbA1c is right at the edge of prediabetes/diabetes range, which has me confused.

Hi all,

Info: 26 Male, 6’2, 180 lbs, no medication, don’t smoke.

I have been questioning my bloodwork results and am looking for some opinions and to see if anyone has been in a similar boat.

I have been getting blood work done over the last couple years with a focus to track my glucose levels. All these were done with over 12 hours fasting.

1st visit: Fasting glucose: 100; collected at 12:30 PM

2nd visit: Fasting glucose: 101, collected at 11:30 AM

3rd visit: A1C: 4.9 fasting glucose: 97; collected at 8AM

4th: A1C: 4.8, fasting glucose 102; collected at 7:20AM

These were over the course of 2 years.

While my A1C appears ok, the high fasting glucose is what concerns me the most as they are coming back as “high”consistently. Would these numbers indicate a problem based on anyone’s experience? Doctor brushed off my results, and I haven’t found a clear answer on why there is a discrepancy between the two.

Thanks

I was diagnosed with pre diabetes about 1 year ago. I did the research and changed my diet. While it hasn’t always been perfect, I’ve been able to lose about 20lbs and increase my activity level. I have pots and a toddler so extra movement has been very difficult. But I had recently turned a corner the last two months and I felt I’ve been doing very well. Got my a1c retested a couple days ago and my a1c didn’t budge. I’m still stuck at 5.7. I also found out that I’m extremely deficient in vitamin D and have very low iron levels (no anemia). My doctor just told me the same spiel. “Change your diet and exercise, and lose weight”. This might be reaching but, could these deficiencies be halting my progress?

I don't get it. How is this even possible? Which is more "important" - glucose or A1c?

https://preview.redd.it/sklwi2vyta2h1.jpg?width=1026&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=739a8a52c5ad497d6b5646435949f38bb4b7d110

I've been trialling low GI foods recently and thought I'd formulated a good breakfast, but I've still gone up to 8.4mmol like 10 mins after eating.

Here's the recipe:

2 tbsp whole organic oats

2 tbsp frozen blueberries

3 tbsp oat milk

1 tbsp mixed seeds

1 tbsp mixed nuts

2 tbsp quark mixed with peanut butter powder and about 1/8 tsp agave

Could it be the oat milk and agave? I had such teeny amounts. When I made this breakfast with pea milk it didn't spike. But I was really hoping I could tolerate a small amount of oat milk!! When I have a splash of oat milk in my tea it doesn't spike. What do you guys think?

Hi

I would really appreciate your input!!! Recent bloodwork came back with A1C 6.3 (prediabetes). I also have PCOS. I’d like to try a GLP-1 for blood sugar, PCOS, and metabolic health.

My plan is Anthem Blue Cross (Leading Edge Administrators) and it explicitly excludes weight loss programs , so Wegovy/Zepbound are likely out. Ozempic/Mounjaro probably need a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis for prior auth, which I don’t have.

Meeting with my PCP soon and want to walk in prepared. Thanks!

So a CGM has been an eye opener. It gives me a real-time window on glucose levels whereas finger-stick measurements gave me limited snapshots

I'm amazed at how quickly even light exercise after meals can bring down glucose. Only problem for me is the yo-yo effect.

I'd have lunch, then hop on the treadmill for 25 mins. Predictably, glucose drops from 160 to 72 during that time.

After I get off, glucose climbs back even higher to 164 before quickly falling off again to 123. All this in less than two hours.

This happens predictably, there's always a double peak. If I hop on the treadmill again, the second peak is smaller, but still there.

Glucose levels always drop below 140 within 2 hours. Can I ignore the yo-yo effect?

So i finally connected some dots on this that had been bugging me for months and I can't believe how little this gets talked about in the diet soda debate. everyone argues about whether artificial sweeteners spike insulin or not-and that debate is legitimately unresolved -but the more interesting mechanism is completely upstream of insulin. when you drink a diet soda your brain processes the sweet taste through the same cephalic phase pathway that real sugar uses. dopamine gets released in anticipation of incoming calories. your reward circuitry fires expecting a payoff. and then nothing arrives. no glucose, no energy, no closure on the reward loop. and instead of that making you less hungry, the incomplete reward signal may actually sensitize your dopamine receptors to keep seeking the thing that never came.

the cravings piece is where it gets really frustrating because people switch to diet soda specifically to avoid sugar cravings and the mechanism might be doing the opposite. there's decent rodent data showing that animals given saccharin-sweetened water develop stronger preferences for sweet tastes over time compared to controls, not weaker ones. the hypothesis is that repeatedly triggering dopaminergic anticipation without caloric fulfillment keeps the reward circuitry in a heightened seeking state-basically training your brain to want sweetness more intensely because it keeps getting teased without resolution. this maps onto what a lot of people anecdotally report: switching to diet soda doesn't kill the craving for something sweet, it just redirects it, often toward food later in the day in ways that are hard to attribute directly to the soda.

honestly the gut microbiome angle adds another layer that nobody in the diet soda marketing conversation wants to touch. some sweeteners-sucralose and saccharin particularly-have shown disruption of gut microbiome composition in human trials, and your gut bacteria are upstream of GLP-1 secretion from intestinal L-cells, meaning microbiome disruption could theoretically blunt one of your main satiety signaling pathways. so you are potentially getting dopamine teasing up top and satiety signaling disrupted downstream at the same time. the zero calories label is technically accurate but the metabolic context around those zero calories is anything but neutral. has anyone here actually gone completely sweetener-free including diet sodas and tracked whether sugar cravings changed after a few weeks

I CANNOT for the life of me get my fasting numbers below 100. I hover between 100-104 every morning. Doesn’t even matter what I eat at night.

For example last night, I ended up throwing up all of my dinner(a bunch of broccoli and a small amount of spaghetti). There was quite literally nothing in my stomach all night. Woke up, took sugars and it was 100.

I’m so frustrated. I was just recently diagnosed with pre diabetes, so I’m more in the testing out everything phase.

Yesterday I ate a chipotle bowl with a tortilla. Was at 90 before I ate it and 1.5 hours later I was at 111. It was nearly 100g of carbs in that meal and I handled it perfectly. I’m just so angry with the fasting level.

I’m not able to test first thing in the morning, usually about 30 minutes to an hour after I wake, due to being woken up by kids and having to go go go. Is this impacting my numbers?

I'll cut to the chase and possibly delete this post later. I just wanted to quickly ask this since me trying to get some lab tests done has been a process and nothing is gonna be done until June. I don't even know IF they will test me on June or some other month. But anyways, I've been worried for months about my health and I've been wanting to get twsts done on me to check my blood sugar, hemoglobin, etc., but I noticed that so many people who are prediabetic/have diabetes have craved sugar, including my grandpa who was recently diagnosed with prediabetes and my mom's boyfriend who found out some months ago.

Me personally, I don't get cravings. I don't feel the need to eat sweets or anything. But I've been feeling weird and I won't go into detail but you know... different stuff has overlapping symtoms, things could correlate or it could all just be in my head because of anxiety/stress. Plus there are some common symptoms I don't think I have and some symptoms that I don't feel as strongly as prediabetics/diabetica describe. I don't know, and I'll get some answers when I get my tests done. But I just wanna know, do all prediabetics/diabetics have sugar cravings?

Edit: I also ask to please not attack me for making this post because I legit am worried about my health and I have reasons for wanting to get tested...

My mom has a myriad of health issues and I honestly don’t expect her to live another 10 years if something doesn’t change. She had anorexia in her 20’s but is now obese, which is not helping her condition.

She wants to lose weight and eat healthier but is worried that if she starts monitoring her weight/counting calories, she will end up relapsing into anorexia. I have my own issues with food that have led me to learn extensively about nutrition and I want to help her reverse the prediabetes.

She’s about 5’4 and 280 or so pounds. I’ve offered to cook for her and count all of that calories for her. It worked for about a week but I found out that she was buying excess food, mostly pastries and I got upset. I was cooking all of her meals and counting all of the calories for them which I made sure to equal about 1300 a day. All of the excess she was eating would put her at about 1800-2500 a day, which I don’t think she would lose weight on.

I’m not a doctor or anything but I think she might have a food addiction. She knows she could die if she doesn’t lose weight but she is still unable to eat less.

She has a lot of severe allergies so I’m worried that she will be allergic to insulin (she has alphagal and I’ve heard it comes from horses) she is also very against using GLP-1’s. I’m feeling very lost, what do I do?

As the title says I managed to bring down my A1c. This is with the help of metformin 500mg once a day since Sept. Since diagnosis I have been walking every after meal, reduced snacking high carb foods. Strength training 3x week sometimes 4. Improving sleep, fiber maxxing, managing stress. I did a 180 lifestyle change. I lost 22lbs and seemed to hit plateau. Started my body recomposition, my arms are starting to show muscle.

Now my endo wants me to stop metformin. Im a bit scared honestly, bec I have healthy anxiety. Sometimes I cant stop checking my glucose, I dont use a CGM. But for those who have stopped. I need advise pls. I just want words of encouragement. I still have cravings of course of pastries ice cream and cookies. I eat them in controlled or small portions usually after a balanced meal

Throwaway because im embaressed to be here, still struggling

I got diagnosed with pre-diabetes when i was i think 14-15. I'm nearly 17 and i still struggle so bad
I live in the uk and haven't gotten a job yet, due to gcses, and so i have to rely on my parents buying food, which is a struggle, because i also deal with sensory issues.
I hate eating healthy. It makes me gag to eat some foods, and even if i do, ill end up still craving something sweet eventually, in a house where the range of foods go from dry ingredients to yoghurt i can only eat once in a while to caramel covered ice cream.
I want to say i try but i feel like i dont enough.
I want to eat better, but honestly, i cant stand being like this. If i eat unhealthily, i feel nauseated and my body hurts. If i dont, i still feel that (just slightly less) and my mouth feels gross.

I genuinely have no clue what to do. If anyone has any advice, i'd be willing to take it.

(sorry if this is all over the place, its 2am i just broke down sobbing and i dont really use reddit in the first place so i dont know how im supposed to format this)

edit: i kinda forgot to mention this but im already underweight, so losing more weight is probably not gonna help me with my blood sugar levels.

My post meal spikes have been around 130 give or take but usually hover around 130. Is this ok? What spikes should I aim for? Trying to get my 5.8 A1C down.