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Normal post-meal glucose levels?

P

pinewood

Well-Known Member
Messages
792
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm a little confused. As a newly diagnosed T1, I've read lots of different opinions about this. Some websites seem to suggest 8, 9 or even 10 mmol is perfectly fine after eating, so long as it then drops by itself within an hour or two (or you have a correction dose). What maximum levels do you tend to aim for? Can there be long-term harm from having levels in the 8-10 mmol range post-meals if it's only for a short time? I assume staying stable both before and after eating is the aim and the skill is obviously in working out the right insulin dose, but is that always realistic and should that be what I am trying to achieve?
 
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Pinewood, I think you will find wild disagreement in responses here.

Okay, so my two pennorth is, I'm aiming for near-normal blood sugars, so I'm not a happy bunny spiking over 7.0. In fact I'm not happy with spikes at all. I try to avoid them altogether by getting the timing of Novorapid right, and when I manage that, I am a happy bunny. (BTW, what helped with that was a good Libre sensor.)

Because my A1c goes up if I even breathe a spike, more than my average BG would predict.

Sometimes, of course, it's not like that, but more like King Canute and the tide. When that happens there's no point getting het up about it, only in working to get down again.

I think up to 8 is not too serious, tho of course it's better to minimise the spikes.
 
I wouldn't want to be as high as 10 if I can help it but do try and keep mine below 9, ideally below 8.5 mmol postprandial and down to 7 or below two hours after eating, I find by administering the insulin 15 mins before eating gives the insulin time to work to reduce postprandial spikes.

I'm not sure about long-term damage by having short-term spikes, there are type 1 diabetics who have lived with diabetes for 50+ years who have escaped complications (or have very few) and their Hba1c averages around 7% (Google the Joslin Medallist) so it's difficult to predict who will get complications, but overall the better the bg management the less chance there are of developing complications........ no one can argue with that.
 
Thanks Lucy. Interesting about the effect on your A1c.

I guess the question I should also have asked is what do NON diabetics typically spike to post-meals (if they spike at all?)? I assume that should be the standard I aim for.
 
pinewood said:
I guess the question I should also have asked is what do NON diabetics typically spike to post-meals (if they spike at all?)?
Click to expand...

I can tell you my non D wife spiked at about 7.4mmol post meal during an "experiment".. But she had also demolished a bag of chocolate covered raisins too... Where as my reading without the no nos was 6.8.

Personally I would not wish to go any higher than 7.5 post meal...

Hope this helps... Maybe not.!?:p
 
To put another take on this.... I am in my first year being diagnosed with type 1 and I eat 3 square meals a day never snack, very very rarely eat anything that I shouldn't and have tried a multitude of approaches to injecting insulin..... yet I still spike after every meal. My bg can go up to 14 plus after a 30 carb breakfast and so on. Whilst I think everyone should be doing everything they can to stay in range, the harsh reality is there are a lot of diabetics out there that rarely achieve it !
 
I am T2 and strive for less than 7 Fasting and under 10 postprandial (for me this is 2 hours after). < Canadian standards. I'm typically just over 6 in the morning (the last few have been off by a wee bit, not entirely sure why) and post meals below 8's, some 6's. I'm not low carb but I do watch them, likely about moderate carb.
 
pinewood said:
Thanks Lucy. Interesting about the effect on your A1c.

I guess the question I should also have asked is what do NON diabetics typically spike to post-meals (if they spike at all?)? I assume that should be the standard I aim for.
Click to expand...
There's a brilliant post on this on the Mendoza blog. I'll see if I can find it.

Victory! Here it is. http://www.mendosa.com/blog/?p=366
 
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