# Nutribullet



## pat.y (Nov 30, 2015)

I've been type 2 for over 10 years and my medication keeps rising along with my blood sugar control. I don't want to go on to insulin and I have read that green smoothies made with a nutribullet for breakfast will really help. Anyone else us one ?


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## DeusXM (Nov 30, 2015)

I don't, but it's worth clarifying a few points.

Firstly, despite the marketing bumpf, there is nothing magical about a Nutribullet. It's just a blender with a shiny name on the front and a £100 markup. So in the first instance, don't feel you HAVE to buy anything other than a regular blender.

Secondly, it's worth looking at how a green smoothie could help with blood sugar levels. It all depends on what's in the smoothie. If it's all grapes, bananas, green apples, kiwis etc. then it's going to make your blood sugar worse because you're just getting a massive sugar hit without any fibre.

If it's broccolli and wheatgrass and sprouts etc., you're likely to be getting a whole bunch of vitamins in a fairly low-carbohydrate form, and THAT'S the secret - if you're having a load of ground-up green veg for breakfast instead of porridge for breakfast or a sandwich for lunch, then yes, you're going to get better blood sugars because you're placing less pressure on your pancreas overall. BUT, there is nothing 'special', diabetes-wise, about green smoothies. They won't lower your insulin resistance or make your pancreas more productive, they just reduce the load on your blood sugar overall if you have them instead of a meal, with the benefits of a load of veg. You could also equally achieve the same results by eating a bowl of sprouts and cabbage.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 30, 2015)

Short answer - No.

Longer answer - It would depend on what you put in them. A smoothie maker is only really 'pre-chewing' the food, so it seems likely to me that whatever you put in it will hit your system rather faster than if you just ate the ingredients. This is certainly what I see with hearty soups (I have to be much more careful of them than a similar plate of veggies eaten as part of a meal)

What have you done so far in terms of reducing/moderating/modifying your carbohydrate intake? This is by far the simplest and most effective strategy for most T2 members here. Just find what foods and in what quantities your body is able to cope with using a BG meter. Intensive at first, but after that phase you can eat pretty freely because you will have a good idea how different things affect you and you *won't* be guessing.

Incidentally - don't fall into the trap of thinking of insulin as some sort of Bad Thing. If your pancreas is wearing out, you may well need some additional support and for some people the earlier that is given, the better things work out long term as more home-grown production is retained to help smooth off the edges.


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## AlisonM (Nov 30, 2015)

I am always very suspicious of these things and take all such claims with huge pinch of salt. Also, anything containing fruit should be treated with caution for the sugar content. The first thing to do is look at your medications, are there any you haven't tried yet? Has it always been Metformin? What other meds have you tried? Also, going onto insulin may seem like a defeat but it isn't, especially if it can help. If your GP or specialist is recommending it then it could be that you are no longer producing enough insulin on your own, have you discussed their reasons for suggesting the move?


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## Mini-Vicki (Nov 30, 2015)

As a diabetic, always be careful with food that's not in it's 'whole form'. So if food is liquidised, the glucose from that food will hit your blood stream much faster, and give you a glucose spike. 
Personally, I can't eat/drink fruit juice or smoothies as it causes my BG to rise massively, so be cautious. 
A lower carb diet may go some way to helping control your BGs.
As others have said, insulin is not the end of the world. I was extremely resistant to going on insulin for years, and was on a combination of metformin/gliclazide/stitagliptin before starting insulin 8 weeks ago. However, I now feel much more in control of my diabetes, and life in  general. My diet is now more varied, and I enjoy food once again. 
Do you see a Diabetic Specialist Nurse? They tend to have more knowledge, and be more understanding of your needs.


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## pat.y (Nov 30, 2015)

Yes I see a nurse and up to now do what she says mostly. I don't have a meter, they won't give me one. I usually have porridge for beakfast. a sandwich for lunch and dinner varies. They tell me to eat pasta to keep me full but it doesn't, I am always hungry in the evenings. I don't think the pasta helps. I am on gliclazide, metformin and szitagliptin. I only eat a few small hard potatoes with a cooked meal but lots of veggies which I love. I don't eat fruit because I don't like it.  Finally I hate needles and have to have a sedative to take flu jab, but the thought of blood testing is worse than that. The nurse did it once when I was diagnosed and I went into panic and passed out.


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## pat.y (Nov 30, 2015)

Oh I have to add that when I started the szitagliptin in June my blood sugar dropped to 5.8 and she was happy. Last time I went aafter 3 months it was up over 8 again.


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## AlisonM (Nov 30, 2015)

It sounds to me as though you're possibly not producing enough insulin on your own nowadays, hence the need for injections - probably. Have you tried Byetta or Victoza yet? If you do go on insulin they will be obliged to give you a meter and repeat prescription for strips but, in the meantime here's one our members approve of that's cheap to run: the SD Codefree, it does the job.

As to the diet thing. Pasta is possibly one of the worst things to have regularly, along with potatoes, bread and rice. These are all heavy on carbohydrates and convert to glucose in your body with frightening speed. If you try restricting your carb intake and bulk out meals with veg for a while, you should see a big difference in your readings. Sadly, the tale went round thirty or more years ago that carbs were 'good' for diabetics, and it's proving impossible to shift the myth even though research and personal experience prove it just ain't so. There are types of bread, such as Burgen bread that are low on the Glycaemic index and you can replace spuds with sweet potato (you can do all the same stuff with them as regular spuds).

I suggest a chat with your GP or specialist to see where they are going with your treatment before you make any final decisions. But, in the meantime, try the change in diet and see if it helps.


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## pat.y (Nov 30, 2015)

Thank you.


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## trophywench (Nov 30, 2015)

Thing is you know - when you self administer the finger pricking device - it doesn't hurt HALF as much as when a medic does it.  They have a very very nasty habit of a) turning the lancet up to its maximum depth which is far far too deep for most people esp those who aren't engaged in hard manual work so haven't got hardened, thick skin on their hands (and girls use hand cream too, which helps softening the finger skin so it gives in a lot easier than your average bricklayer's!) and b) firing the lancet right into the middle of the PAD of your finger - that ruddy well HURTS! you should use the side of the fingers perhaps half a centimetre away from the side of the nail.  You only need the teensiest droplet of blood - not a gallon!  Then - suck your finger, the hole seals and Bob's your uncle.

Look - I've been self-bodging my fingers for nearly 40 years now and you honestly wouldn't know looking or touching my paws - still as smooth as a babies bum!   It really really isn't half as bad as what you've experienced so far.

The jabs also - are actually painless.  Flu jabs are what they term 'intra- muscular' ie they have to go in quite deep, deep enough to get into the muscle and muscles are quite tightly knot things so they need to make a space big enough.  They quite often hurt whether they are against flu or something else.  Insulin and most other 'diabetic' jabs are 'sub-cutaneous' which means just under the skin.  Now the outer skin is only an average of 2mm thick whether you are a great big person or a skinny one, a lady or a man.  So - the needles only need to be about 4 or 5mm long (ie tiny!) and very very fine - because where we are aiming for is 'loosely woven' so they don't need to bodge a massive hole at all - in fact - quite the opposite.  Seriously - unless you work yourself up into a frenzy before you stick it in, so your skin is all sweaty and damp - you can't even feel that the needle has gone in.  You know they say 'You'll feel a scratch' normally?  Well if they say that - they are doing it wrong!!  You SHOULDN'T feel a scratch!  In 1972 a nurse administered my first ever insulin jab.  I didn't look but I steeled myself.  She swabbed my skin, then I felt her hand, like it was flat, by the side of where she'd swabbed.  Then after a moment she was only swabbing my skin again so I opened my eyes to tell her to stop damn-well messing about, and just get it over with please! - when she said 'That's it - all over with!'  How glad was I, that she'd spoken before me?  WOW !

That was over 43 years ago.  Totally gobsmacked.

It REALLY isn't bad at all.


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## Northerner (Nov 30, 2015)

It might be worth asking to take a look at the pens and needles used - I'm not kidding, you have to look REALLY hard to even see the needles, they are that small and fine!


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## pat.y (Nov 30, 2015)

You are all making me feel a bit better about it all.


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## trophywench (Dec 1, 2015)

Good! - and you don't even know yet that you are even on that route do you? - so wouldn't it be better to just go, get it over with - and find out?

Clearly - I think so!  Delaying it will NOT make it better, now will it?

(Hark at me! - yes, I definitely AM turning into my mother ....)


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## pat.y (Dec 1, 2015)

I have an appointment for blood test next week. Diabetic nurse wants to see me in January, told me to enjoy Christmas first.


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## Rosiecarmel (Dec 2, 2015)

trophywench said:


> Thing is you know - when you self administer the finger pricking device - it doesn't hurt HALF as much as when a medic does it.  They have a very very nasty habit of a) turning the lancet up to its maximum depth which is far far too deep for most people esp those who aren't engaged in hard manual work so haven't got hardened, thick skin on their hands (and girls use hand cream too, which helps softening the finger skin so it gives in a lot easier than your average bricklayer's!) and b) firing the lancet right into the middle of the PAD of your finger - that ruddy well HURTS! you should use the side of the fingers perhaps half a centimetre away from the side of the nail.  You only need the teensiest droplet of blood - not a gallon!  Then - suck your finger, the hole seals and Bob's your uncle.



In hospitals we tend to have lancets with only one length. I was on a different ward to my placement yesterday and the lancets used there you simply took the cap off and pressed it into their finger til it clicked. I've been on wards with all sorts of different lancets but they only have one length. I tested my BS using one of their lancets and their meter as mine was locked away and my finger bled for ages afterwards!!

I love healthcare assistants, without them, wards would probably collapse! However, they don't get much medical training, if any so they don't have the knowledge of where to prick fingers so you do see scars on pads of people's fingers. I was guilty of doing it before someone explained where it should be done! (Before I was diabetic)

I think we also have a tendency to squeeze a bit too hard!


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## Northerner (Dec 2, 2015)

When I was in hospital I got the impression that they were just determined to get some blood first time, come what may!  It was certainly a revalation to me when I got home and discovered I could change the settings on my Accuchek Multiclix so it was practically painless!


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## Lindarose (Dec 2, 2015)

I've been reading this thread with interest and have to say that when I was in hospital the finger prick tests really were quite harshly done. Nothing like the ones I do myself. I dreaded every one! Trophy your post above was so reassuring and if I ever need insulin Ile definitely feel better having read that. It's so often the pre conceived ideas that we have which are more scary than the reality. Good luck pat


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## trophywench (Dec 2, 2015)

Well - it's fear of the unknown isn't it?  I think absolutely everybody suffers from that - and if you happen to have a very vivid imagination to go with it ....!  LOL  (I have, but I am actually aware of it, so I have to just have a mad panic to let it out, then reason with myself.  Once I was actually in deepest doodah, depressed enough to think I think I'll drive the car into one of those big trees along so and so road on the way home - easiest way out ... and then in the very next heartbeat thought Nah - that's stupid in so many ways - all you'll do is total the car, not kill yourself and then Pete (husband) would just go mad at what you did to the car, so you'd be in even worse trouble than you are now! - I mean I'm ruddy sure actually that Pete wouldn't have cared less about the car, he'd have cared a lot more about me - but that's a prime example of how daft the inside of my head can be, and how I automatically counter it with opposite things when it is (plainly, if you are sane LOL) just being silly!)

Rosie - I did explain to her that sides were better - and also asked her if she knew why it was called a 'BM' when she knew she was actually measuring BG?  She said she had wondered, and concluded it must stand for Blood Measurement.  I said that was a really good guess - cos nobody in her position would guess at the true answer! they are all too young anyway!  ROFLMAO  So, Rosie -   Do YOU know?


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## pat.y (Dec 2, 2015)

Amazing how this thread went from nutribullet to finger pricking, I keep reading with interest.


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## AlisonM (Dec 2, 2015)

pat.y said:


> Amazing how this thread went from nutribullet to finger pricking, I keep reading with interest.


That's us, we always stick to the point.


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## Rosiecarmel (Dec 2, 2015)

trophywench said:


> Rosie - I did explain to her that sides were better - and also asked her if she knew why it was called a 'BM' when she knew she was actually measuring BG?  She said she had wondered, and concluded it must stand for Blood Measurement.  I said that was a really good guess - cos nobody in her position would guess at the true answer! they are all too young anyway!  ROFLMAO  So, Rosie -   Do YOU know?



Ooh people in healthcare shouldn't be calling them BMs anymore!! BM stands for Boehringer Mannheim which was the original company that produced strips. They should be calling them BGs!


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## Northerner (Dec 2, 2015)

Rosiecarmel said:


> Ooh people in healthcare shouldn't be calling them BMs anymore!! BM stands for Boehringer Mannheim which was the original company that produced strips. They should be calling them BGs!


Hehe! Confused me for ages when 'old timers' (sorry! ) referred to them as BMs!


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## Annette (Dec 2, 2015)

Northerner said:


> Hehe! Confused me for ages when 'old timers' (sorry! ) referred to them as BMs!


I'm pleased to report as such an 'old-timer' who does remember not only using BMs but also cutting them carefully in half, that you, Northerner, are older than I am


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## grovesy (Dec 2, 2015)

Those strips weren't always easy to define the result.


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## trophywench (Dec 2, 2015)

Well - they obviously do still use the term at UHCW, QED !! - and you've just won a gold star, Rosie, for proving me wrong!  LOL

It's only recently that my 'Diabetes' GP (younger than me, must be, hasn't retired yet! LOL) has ceased using the term Glycosulated Haemoglobin!!!!  (I never see him for it, by the way - he's always had less of a clue than me and trotted out the message that I just need to try harder - though apparently this works for all my ailments LOL  Wonder if that will be his reaction to the letter he's going to get shortly from my optometrist telling him I need referring to the hospital for my cataracts now?  Oh to be a fly on the wall !)


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## KookyCat (Dec 3, 2015)

Well that solved a mystery, the BM thing has had me wondering for months, I just thought it was code for blood monitor!  I also assumed that the GP was a bit daft when rattling on about BM.  To be fair he is daft in many ways, mostly ways that make me wonder if he's really qualified so I don't feel quite so guilty about judging him


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## pat.y (Jan 15, 2016)

Back to my insulin and needle fear from the start of this thread. Finally got to see my nurse and she told me straight that I cannot carry on with the tablets alone my blood sugar juts keeps on rising. She was great and I used up someone elses appointment time as well as mine. She showed me all the equipment in detail and how to use it including the adjustable lancet on the blood testing thing. I agreed to let her test my blood and she used the setting one above babies. It was after my breakfast and meds and my reading was 18.3 which shocked me as I feel fine. So I came home with the kit and a prescription for finer lancets. I have to start keeping a record of readings at different times of the day for a month so that she knows what type of insulin to give me then etc. She was really good and I feel much happier about it all now.


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## Northerner (Jan 15, 2016)

pat.y said:


> Back to my insulin and needle fear from the start of this thread. Finally got to see my nurse and she told me straight that I cannot carry on with the tablets alone my blood sugar juts keeps on rising. She was great and I used up someone elses appointment time as well as mine. She showed me all the equipment in detail and how to use it including the adjustable lancet on the blood testing thing. I agreed to let her test my blood and she used the setting one above babies. It was after my breakfast and meds and my reading was 18.3 which shocked me as I feel fine. So I came home with the kit and a prescription for finer lancets. I have to start keeping a record of readings at different times of the day for a month so that she knows what type of insulin to give me then etc. She was really good and I feel much happier about it all now.


Ah, I'm pleased to hear that you had a good appointment with an understanding nurse, and that some of your concerns have been addressed. Let us know how you get on, and if you have any questions, and we'll be more than happy to help


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## Lynn Davies (Jan 15, 2016)

Sounds like a very positive appointment Pat.y - you will soon get very blase about finger pricking


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## Cowboy Bob (Jan 15, 2016)

As a guitar player I need to set the lancet depth to maximum and even then I still find myself having to squeeze quite hard to get any blood out. Calloused is not a strong enough word for my fingers...


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