what natural treatment works well?

Hi,
I've been around HW for a while on the colitis board. I've known for years and years my blood sugar was the high end of normal. Doctors said exersize more and left it at that.
Last year when I bombed a blood sugar screen, I cut out grain, starch and sugar and went on 2000 mg metforim er.
My A1c went from 10.5 to 6.1. Later after the holidays, it went up a bit to 6.3.
I have glipizide, that I take when I cheat, but it makes me gain weight. Sadly I've eaten wheat, and potatoes. While my bs is good, I've gained 20 lbs back from my loss last summer. Boo.
Fasting is 120
pm is 120 to 140ish.
Sigh a few short years ago with gestational diabetes it was sooo much better. 80s fasting, 110 post meal. I could eat a bit of pasta and potato with supper without any insulin producing drugs, so I last weight,
Is there any supplements that help metforim work? I'd love to have a bit and not raise my insulin levels?

Thank you. Do you use coconut and almond flour? Recently, it has really come down in price. Bread and coffee cakes have always been my weakness. I got this swerve powdered sugar at the health food store that is sugar free, but acts like powdered sugar. For the first time ever, I made cream cheese frosting that looked and tasted like cream cheese frosting, but was sugar free.
I made my own cake for a b day party and had sugar free ice cream.
Pasta and rice aren't problems for me since cauliflower rice is amazingly good, better than real rice, and if I cook cauliflower in broth, I don't miss pasta.
My goal is to be med free, but before the sweet treats got me. I'm hoping finding these alternatives that I can afford now changes things.

Awesome! I've followed Dr Sarah Hallburg, Jason Fung, and a few others. I know I've looked at some from that book as well.
These doctors saved my life by explaining why I must also keep my insulin down as well as my sugar.
I've read about people being in denial, not taking their meds, eating high carb, and now pay a terrible price.
I just can't wrap my head around that. They didn't take some pills?? It's not that hard. Sure, I cheated. Sometimes a lot, but I took glipizide to keep my blood sugar low, and the next few days I was super careful to keep my carbs really low. Still I gained weight though. I think glipizide hangs around for a while because I didn't have any High sugars for days like I used to pre glipizide.
I'll look at the stuff, cause like I said, I'd love to be strictly diet controlled.

Yes. Sadly I know several diabetics that take several different pills and still have high blood sugar. Every pill has side effects and I'd rather get good control through diet.
When I eat veggies, it's cauliflower, broccoli , turnips or salad. There are so many ways to prepare those.

I was pre-disposed to type 2, also, and so are my brother and sister. It's runs on my mom's side.

I don't think the comment was a criticism, just a statement. I was generalizing, too, when I said that many people are in denial when they are diagnosed.

Just trying to chip in.. No one in my family has it, but I'm type 1. I've had high blood glucose for awhile regardless of trying to eat less carbs than before but maybe I wasn't being diligent enough. I was unable to also lower insulin injections. I was actually also not eating enough greens regardless of thinking that I did. I was trying to lose weight but it just wasn't happening. But while eating little and maybe a bit unhealthy, I also wasn't doing any exercise. I wasn't feeling too good at the end of last year. No energy.

I've been taught that if eating only a little the body could enter a low-burn mode and it becomes more difficult to lose the fat in that state.

I don't believe much in supplements that could help keep blood glucose low after I've already tried some.. I'm not taking metformin though. I'm stuck with injections.

So, these days my approach is a bit different. I'm exercising few times a week and am seeing that the injected insulin has a lot higher effect after exercise than on other days. I can eat more without gaining weight. The morning insulin still has some effect during the afternoon exercise so my bgl drops, but it means I could inject less for dinner.

I'm eating healthier. I've doubled the amount of vegetables I eat. My nutritional therapists repeated this to me: "To lose weight, you must eat more vegetables. If that doesn't work, eat more vegetables. If that still doesn't work - eat even more vegetables." It also helps balance the BGL.

I'm paying more attention to the amount and type of salt, fat and fiber in my diet. I've dropped all microwave dishes because I can't affect the amounts in them. I also do not have cravings for any sweets but it still kinda happens if I'm served some. It's difficult to say no to people who are celebrating something at work and eating cake.

Regardless of all the recent developments, I still hit the occasional "very high BGLs". Sometimes it's because I've over-compensated a drop. Sometimes it's for no apparent reason and that alone still demotivates me from testing more after all these years.

Anyways, I was trying to say that instead of only trying to eat very little or trying to find supplements like I did before, I'm now looking at what I eat more carefully. I am eating very simple foods that I've prepared myself for the next few days. Some meat, something with carbs, with half a plate full of fresh vegetables on the side. On the days I'm not exercising, I take less carbs but try and keep the vegetables.

You might also look into resistant starch. When prediabetics added 15-30 grams/day to their diet, their insulin sensitivity significantly improved within hours. In December the US Food & Drug Administration approved a qualified health claim saying that "limited evidence suggests that resistant starch reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes". The clinical studies (all interventions - the highest quality clinical studies possible) did not require participants to exercise or lose weight, although those approaches are also beneficial.

Resistant starch is starch that resists digestion - it gets to the large intestine where it is fermented by the beneficial bacteria. It turns out that this fermentation is really important because it turns on and off more than 200 genes in the intestines. Some of these genes are directly connected to insulin sensitivity. You really have to use it as a supplement though. You simply cannot get enough resistant starch from green bananas, intact whole grains, or beans, to see these kinds of effects.

See www.ResistantStarchResearch.com for the data and links to the FDA health claim.

Research raw organic apple cider vinegar. Take 1-2 teaspoons full before each meal and it helps regulate sugar levels. Its recommended to start with a small amount at first then build your self up to 1-2 slowly to avoid stomach upset. Also I'm not sure about colitis but I have read multiple times that it can help with chrons too due to anti inflammatory properties.