DIABETES SPECIAL SECTION
Alice in weight-loss wonderland
Writer Alice Dogruyol shares her personal health story and how for most of her life she’s been trying to lose weight. This month, as part of our diabetes special section, she shares her own diabetes journey, how diabetes management has evolved, and how diabetic drugs and tech are becoming popular in the weight-loss industry.
According to Diabetes UK, the number of people with diabetes in the UK is estimated to be 4.8 million, which includes an estimated one million people that are undiagnosed. So, make sure you check your HbA1c, an important blood test that gives you a three-month average blood glucose reading, which is the standard way to diagnose diabetes. It is important to keep an eye on it, even if you aren’t overweight. There is certainly a strong correlation between being overweight and developing various diseases including type 2 diabetes, but age, genetics, race and other environmental factors are also thought to play a significant role.
In 2017, my HbA1c was creeping up into the pre-diabetic range so I went on a low-carb diet and started exercising and losing weight. By the autumn of 2018, to my devastation, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on metformin. I began living a ketogenic lifestyle and did everything I could to try to reverse the diagnosis. The weight was dropping off and I was looking great but I wasn’t feeling well. If I had a break from keto and had a handful of berries, my blood glucose shot up.
STILL NOT RIGHT
Despite my ultra healthy, carb-free, lifestyle, my HbA1c continued to rise. Something was not right. My symptoms worsened: extreme thirst, blurry vision, acetone breath, fatigue – by October 2020 I had lost five stone. Everyone was telling me how fabulous I looked but I was feeling like death. The doctors told me to keep going, that I was doing really well, and thought that my low mood and feeling unwell was probably “lockdown blues” and to consider anti-depressants. They also suggested I take another medication that slows down the absorption of sugar. I spoke to a diabetic nurse and explained that I hardly eat any sugar as it is so I didn’t think the new pill would work. She was the first person who suggested that for my own peace of mind I might want to consider testing myself for type 1 diabetes.
My GP wouldn’t test me for type 1 as they were sure I was type 2, so I got a private GAD antibodies test – these are autoimmune markers that diagnose type 1 diabetes. I took myself off to a local private hospital, paid for the test and forgot about it. Christmas came and went and a couple of weeks later it
