\\\bg drops after eating

[juliekem]

I am hoping that someone can explain to me why my bg readings are lower if I test soon after eating - e.g. within half an hour. I understand that we should test 2 hours after eating when I find that they have risen as expected - what mechanism causes the drop?

p.s. - after 6 years with type 2 my dear GP has recently told me that I definitely should NOT test my bg as "some people become obsessed." I informed her that I wanted to be rid of the illness and that I was attempting to reverse it by low carb eating and fasting and she replied that I would NEVER be rid of it and that she did not agree with "eliminating one whole food group" (but I am sure I said low carbing not no carbing!) This is despite me now being on fewer drugs and my recent HBa1c having improved significantly to 46 from 54 some 6 months ago.)I do not have a cat in hell's chance of getting test strips from my GP let alone any real support.

 

[pleinster]

Hiya. I don't want to say that your doctor is talking rubbish (ie. general, less than up-to-date, sitting safely behind a desk spiel)..so I won't...emm...so...any chance of changing GP or seeing another one at that practice? Any chance of said doc setting up an appointment with a diabetes specialist/consultant? If so, if he is as good as mine was, he could pressure your GP to prescribe strips etc. My doctors are all renal or diabetic specialists (as I am post transplant) and they have approved my very low carb diet and say it is the way forward for Type 2 diabetics. I don't think you will actually reverse it..in the sense that it will go away...but I do believe you can reverse the impact and lower levels to normal if you don't go back to eating lots of crabs and rubbish once you've done so. I expect I shall be diabetic for life now but as long as I keep my levels normal through low carb eating..I may as well not have it...but it will require strict adherence to a diet that really needs to be sustainable and not a total pain in the backside.
As for your question...depending on factors like kind of food, activity/non-activity, personal digestive system etc etc..the BS can take maybe an hour to spike post meal and should return to the pre-meal reading around 2.5 hours post meal (otherwise carbs are too high). the systems involved in digestion, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidneys and blood vary person to person (obviously) and kick in as soon as you start eating but at differing rates... which can cause measurable temporary changes right away...see what it is around an hour.

 

[BooJewels]

I would guess that as your body starts digesting the meal and the various hormones start working to deal with the intake of fuel, your pancreas starts producing insulin to deal with the incoming energy and therefore your blood sugar lowers slightly at the point where there's more insulin floating round, but before the new food enters the blood stream.

"some people become obsessed."

I would suggest that for every patient that does become obsessed with their BG, there are 20 who just don't care a jot and have no intention of testing. On here we talk regularly about lack of test strip prescribing - but anyone who gets as far as joining places like this for information and support is probably pretty motivated to start with. There must be a significant amount who just don't bother with any testing between the doc/DN taking blood every 6 months.

Which is why you'd think that the medics would celebrate the small percentage who want to take ownership of their own condition and try to help themselves the best they can. You'd think the price of testing materials for a few would be offset by their reduction in meds and reliance on other forms of support from the NHS.

 

[Lamont D]

Your response after first bite is seen regularly as your body expecting plenty of nice sustenance and how the body digests it at the rate it takes for you. As it metabolises into glucose, it increases till it has a slight fall off, because of other hormonal responses, then increases again until it reaches its spike! Then drops back to your pre meal levels after depending on what you eat and the amount of carbs, fat, sugars, fibre etc.

I know this because I'm weird!
My meal turns into glucose very quickly, and then my insulin takes over.
I do not have a mid spike response, it just carry on up, and then drops towards normal levels but carries on to hypo levels.

That's without the science!

 

[Bluetit1802]

Often my level drops by about half a mmol/l in the first half an hour after my first bite, and then goes back to where I started about 45 minutes after first bite, then rises in accordance with what I have eaten. I have only just discovered this after 2 years of testing!