Hi All,
I am here to get your advice. My dad is diabetic and he is under treatment for the same. Though he is not taking insuline directly but he takes medicine which would help to generate insuline in the body(thats what doc says). For few days we observed that continiously his fasting blood sugar level is around 130 -150mg which is really high. He is not overweight, has high pressure. He also controls diet and also does exercise. Now Doc is saying that might be his body has become insuline registant. I am really scared about the same.
Can anyone tell me what exactly we can do at home (special diet etc) which will help my Dad to keep sugar level low ?

Looking for your expert comment
Thanks
Shree

Another thing I forgot to mention is he is having type 2 diabetes

He might be a candidate for insulin.

Can you do the following for one day:

Fasting blood sugar
1 hour and 2 hours after breakfast
Same for dinner: before, 1 and 2 hours
Then bedtime

It would be useful to know the drug. Glyburide/diabeta comes to mind.

It's important to be on Metformin/Glucophage.

I will ask that you go see an endocrinologist for the diabetes.

A diabetic diet is paying attention to what you eat.

Refined sugars should be eliminated.

Some foods that need to be restricted is pizza, potatoes (depends on how they are cooked), ice cream, juices.

Look for a chart of the "glycemic index" for foods. Those with a high index need to be restricted. The general idea is to limit food with a high index.

Get on insulin early and don't wait to see an endo. Those readings will help. If you can also put the foods that were eaten, it would help the endo even more. Doing it for a few days would help even better.

The STUPID thing that most doctors do is only pay attention to the fasting blood sugar. They may not even order a hemoglobin A1c blood work.

I have also had borderline high sugar levels, and my doctor told me the best ways to keep it under control. 1. Go for a 45 minute to one hour walk most days of the week. 2. Work out with weights two or three times a week. 3. Eat a high-fiber, low-fat diet with lots of fruit and vegetables and drink enough water. 4. Reduce stress. 5. The following foods help stabilize sugar when eaten with a meal. 1. Pickles, cinnamon, coffee, onions and garlic. 6. A drink of red wine or other alcohol with supper can prevent sugar from rising and also lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Anything your dad eats can contribute for the level of blood sugar; if he is eating something that is very easily (quickly) digested, he gets a sudden increase of glucose in his blood (peak); if he eats something that needs more time to digest, he can avoid those "peaks".

Fruit with seeds (berries - especially blue berries) and nuts are excellent for that reason, while sugary food, (even certain fruits like watermelon), and anything with starch (pasta, bread, etc) could cause a peak.

Also, eating just a small amount at several times a day (grazing) would even out those glucose supply to the blood.

Since he is already having problem with his own insulin (either not enough or not effective enough) he should do his best to avoid those "peaks" as he needs more insulin to normalise blood sugar.

There are many substances which actually helps his own insulin, like cinnamon which enhances insulin, also garlic which has a bit similar action on the liver like his Metformin, and others.

Moving, exercising is definitely helpful also for diabetics to such a degree that many otf them actually are able to control their blood sugar level by proper diet and exercise.It is also very important that he is not getting hungry, nor oevereat.

There are many useful ideas you could get from the Diabetic info lines.

One of them is

Diabetes Cure 101.com

Which also gives you some info on the newest stem cell implantations amongst a very wide range of useful informations.

Wishing you and him, too, all the best.

Liasdaughter is a Biomedical Science student and a Floating Supervisor for WikiAnswers.