Thank you all.

LisaN, my FBG was 16.5 (I guess that is 297 in US meaasurements?), haemoglobin was 0.115 (2.07 US?)

Cholesterol - Total - 295, Triglycerides - 504, HDL - 44.

And no Lisa, my doctor did not tell me to monitor my sugar levels at home on a regular basis. He just told me that he would have to start me on medication right away but that if I promise to try and control my diet and lose weight, he would give me a month to try before he made a decision to start me on medication. Plus the diet he recommended was to cut out fat, cut out red meat, cut out sugars and to start exercising. Funniest part is, before I met with the doctor, I never ate fat, red meat or sugars *LOL*. Now I have started on Atkins and eat exactly that, totally against my doctor's advice and without his knowledge.

Lisa, the Ketostix only tests ketones in the urine, not sugars. Are there strips for that too? And thanks for the info on the glucometers and how to self-test. I wonder why my doctor did not mention this to me. Maybe I should sue him for dereliction of duty *LOL*

WSGTS, thank you too for the info.

Cheers

Well...the diet your doctor recommended has two purposes. Cutting red meat and fat was (in your doctor's mind) the way to go to reduce your high cholesterol. Unfortunately, that method is ineffective with most people at best since your own body makes more than 80% of the cholesterol in your bloodstream and does nothing to address your very high triglycerides. Fats and proteins have very little, if any, effect on your blood sugars.
The part about cutting sugars is standard advice to diabetics. Again, unfortunately, largely ineffective because they forget or ignore that high glycemic carbohydrates such as those found in white bread, flour, rice, potatoes and pasta are pretty much the same thing as sugar as far as your body is concerned. Cutting sugar is only the tip of the iceburg.
By going low carb, you are addressing the root of the problem which is most likely insulin resistance and has a big impact on your total cholesterol, triglycerides and your blood sugars; all of them should come down with low carbing.



Yes. They're called KetoDiastix and test for both ketones and sugar in the urine. They are more expensive than the regular ketostix and largely unnecessary if you are testing your blood sugars with a glucometer on a regular basis. The only time I would use one is if I tested my blood sugar and found that it was over 250.



*sigh* I know that some doctors feel that diabetics testing their own blood sugar can stress and obsess over them, but study after study has shown that diabetics who monitor their own blood sugars are far more successful at controlling them than those that do not. You cannot make adjustments to your daily menus based on what your blood sugars are if you don't know what your blood sugars are! Personally, I would far rather know what my blood sugar is than sit around wondering how I'm doing...that would be way more stressful for me than knowing exactly what the numbers are and being able to do something about it.
Whether or not you decide to get a meeter and start testing is up to you, but I'd highly encourage it.

Just a note....the body prefers to make cholesterol from carbs if they are available. Limiting carbs therefore generally lowers chol, as the body's mechanism for producing it (with very few carbs) in all likelihood does not overproduce. Quite often l-c produces initial higher figures, but for most, they then reduce..........Eve