A few points in passing:
- I certainly favour T2 testing being recommended to everyone from 40 onwards. I was diagnosed with severe diabetes at 43: doc reckoned I'd been diabetic for at least 10 years beforehand.
- A while back the WHO raised the upper norm for fasting blood-glucose from 110 mg/dl to 127 mg/dl (/18 to convert to mmol/L, ICBA). I don't know, though, if this value reflects the level at which the effects of diabetes begin to appear, or if it's simply a bell-curve derived figure reflecting the fact that a significant portion of the world has become obese - I rather suspect the latter.
- They also raised the norm for HbA1c in well-controlled diabetics from 6% to 7%, and changed the guidelines for treatment away from keeping within the norms to giving priority to the patient's well-being - whatever that means. In later years, too, it has emerged that whereas HbA1c was previously thought to reflect mean BG levels over the past three months, the value is mainly determined by the mean over the past three weeks.
- T2 patients can have hypoglycaemia at "normal" blood-glucose levels. I certainly feel wonky if mine drops into the lower half of the normal range.
- During endurance exercise your metabolism acts like that of a normal human being, so CRAP is sort-of OK if you're in the middle of a ride and possibly just afterwards, in fact it's one of my main motivations for riding long distances. You can skip the medication, too. Doesn't hold for doing a flat 10k to the CAEK shop, though.
- even if you've skipped it, if you're usually on metformin and then eat like a yuman bean on a ride you'll be farting like a wind tunnel for 24 hours afterwards. Rough old stuff but a life-saver. And hell, the dogs fart so why shouldn't I?* "Free as the air" applies to humans as well.
- my cardiologist's definition of endurance exercise is whatever makes you sweat for 45 minutes.
- Don't see why someone prescribed metformin should be denied a meter - in the US the pharmacies often give them away free with the first pack of testing strips (paging Mr. Gillette). Our health service gives me a new one every 5 years, or if the manufacturers discontinue supplies for my current model - a favourite sport.
- my current meter & testing-strips, from a reputable German manufacturer, have a margin of error of ±18%
- generic metformin's dog cheap. Most of it comes from India or Israel.
- you can't win
* our parrot has been known to greet me with a beauty