How I reduced my blood A1C to 6.8

I have been a type-2 diabetic for more than 10 years. My blood sugar control was largely ignored when I was in my mid forties and until my body was hit with an incident of diabetic ketoacidosis and got hospitalized, then I started to exercise proper control over my blood sugar. At that time, I had a wound that was not healing and turning black, and so I was required to have a surgery to remove the black patch of flesh on my left leg (shin area) and to treat my diabetes more seriously.

(Photo by Olga Kononenko on Unsplash)

Initially, I was taught to inject myself with insulin to lower my blood sugar. That aggressive treatment went on for about two years, and my condition improved. So my doctor started to give me pills. I started to be watchful over my diet but I did not change it very much. I started to have regular exercise about two to three times a week and my blood sugar was cooperating for the most part. However, after about 2 years, the A1C level started to climb (to 9.3 in October 2022, and 8.9 in December 2022) and I needed to change medication. This happened a number of times and very soon my doctor warned me that if I am not able to improve my A1C reading, I would have to go back to insulin injection days. That triggers me to do something about my plight as I do not want to go back to the days of injecting myself in the car or in a small meeting room before I have my meals.

(Photo by Sweet Life on Unsplash)

For the next one year, I made a lot of changes and I managed to reduce my A1C to 6.8 (in October 2023 and June 2023; 7.0 in March 2023). And my doctor recently decided to reduce my medication. So, here’s what I have in my prescription currently:

• Atorvastatin tablet 20mg
• Empagliflozin tablet 10mg
• Exforge 10/160 tablet [ Amlodipine, Valsartan ]
• Janumet XR 50/1000 tablet [ Sitagliptin, Metformin XR ]
• Neurobion tableet [ Vit B1 100mg, B6 200mg, B12 200mcg ]

The difference from my previous prescription is one additional pill of Janumet. Note that the prescription provided here is for illustration purposes. Please do consult your medical doctor for further advice if you want to embark on similar activities.

Here is what I have done to achieve the reduction.

First, I have to change my diet. I cannot continue to eat the same way and expect things to improve. So, what’s wrong with my diet? Of course, it is easy to say that I am eating too much carbohydrates. Diabetes is fundamentally a result of over-eating and flooding our blood with too much sugar. So initially, I started eating less carbohydrates and sugar, but I compensated my reduction of food intake with more protein and fats, thinking that protein and fats are not the same as carbohydrates and so they would not affect my blood sugar level. I was totally wrong. The added protein or fats in my diet actually gets converted eventually into glucose and stored in my body the way excess sugar in the blood is stored. So I decided that I should eat what is enough for my body. I use hunger to determine if the food I ate is excessive and tracking my weight over a longer period of time (weekly). I take roughly 4 to 6 hours as the time required to fully digest my food and be ready to eat again. So, for the same food I eat, if I don’t get hungry in 4 to 6 hours, I’ll know that the food probably has something excessive and I need to change the portions the next time I eat them again. This results in having roughly the same meals in similar portions every day in the week to ensure I could maintain my blood sugar level.

(Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash)

Second, I eat more fibre. There are simply too many diet recommendations and nutritional research recommendations that it is hard to find the right one for myself. I believe that nature did not create glucose to kill everything that feed on it. Everything is made in a balanced way. When glucose is created, something else must have been made to help keep them in balance. And since all glucose is made from plants, I believe fibre is likely a key essential ingredient for glucose processing in the body. Now, there are studies that show the intake of soluble fibre to slow down the absorption of glucose from food. I do not know how much this contributes to my reduction, but this is one change that I have introduced in my diet: eat more vegetables. I have also stopped eating fruits, since many demonstrations by Youtubers with CGM (continuous glucose monitor) have shown that fruits essentially increase blood sugar pretty quickly. Although fruits provide many essential minerals and vitamin, and it also contains lots of fiber, I have decided that the impact of handling fructose in my system is not helping me. So, no more fruits for me (maybe one portion once or twice a month).

(Photo by Renith R on Unsplash)

Next, I exercised 6 times a week. I jog 2km once a week, swim 600 metres (12 lapses of 50 metres) once a week, play tennis for about an hour three times a week, and go for an outdoor walk in a nature park about three to four kilometres once a week. These exercises are not tough on my body, they were calibrated to have minimum chance of injury so that I could do them week over week. And the key change in my exercises is that I need to push harder and move faster. So, when running, I try to speed up. In swimming, I swim faster. In tennis, I hit harder and run faster. I used to think that I am soon retiring and could relax in my game and hence I did not think that I could hit harder and never tried. But now that I have a renewed focus on exercise, I realized that I could hit harder and run faster. This puts the enjoyment of the game back.

Lastly, I focus on my sleep. I often have sleeping issues from the dawn phenomenon. I could wake up around 5am with my pillow wet with sweat (even though I sleep in an air-conditioned room at 26C). The number of incidents has somehow been reduced since I focus more on sleeping at roughly the same timing each night. Also with the avoidance of eating supper and drinking alcohol, I often sleep with near-empty stomach. Maybe this helps too.

Well, I hope what I have shared above will also help you in reducing your blood A1C. I will definitely continue this journey and strive to reduce my medications and eventually to reach 6.5 for my A1C. Type 2 diabetes is not permanent. We got it from our bad life style choices and with good control and perseverance, we can all get back our health. Good luck to you if you need to embark on the same journey as me.