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Hello all.
I found this forum while searching for more information on the Dawn Phenomenon. A few months ago in July, my GP told me to watch my BG, because my fasting BG was too high.
At that point, I was already fooling around with the ketogenic diet but decided to make an earnest commitment to address not only the BG, but also weight, and blood pressure. ( have hypertension and take meds for this).
Got my myself some blood meters for both BG and ketones, and began testing and dieting in earnest. I also added moderate exercise to help lower liver glycogen levels.
What I found through testing several times a day, is that in the early morning right after I awoke, my BG would be around 6.54 (I used a calculator to change DLs to MMLs for you Europeans) and would persist for several hours in the morning, and would normalize later in the day to about 4.4 (these are all fasting or before meal levels). So, I realized, after some research, that I was suffering from the Dawn Phenomenon, which I now believe to some degree is normal. The body goes through a wake-up cycle according to your Circadian rhythm. Part of this cycle, involves your liver dumping glycogen into your blood, to help you wake up and provide energy to begin your day. And of course, this is when the doctor tests you. They want you to fast after dinner the night before, and not eat anything when you come in early in the morning. So, my doctor gave me 3 months to "fix" this, or he was going to put me on drugs.
So, with my meters and my diet, I did some testing on myself to see if I could address the dawn effect. The diet was able to lower my overall BG to about 3.8, but I still woke up with the elevated BG, that I was sure my doctor would call me on.
One thought was to change my appointment to the afternoon when my BG was in the normal range. As a keto guy, fasting is not difficult for me, and I had already done several 24 and 48-hour fasts as body hacking experiments. But still, the dawn effect persisted.
I finally hit upon the formula, I was able to completely deplete my liver of glycogen with a 72 hour fast. Now my waking BG level was like 3.8. Armed with this information, I fasted for 72 hours prior to my October deadline appointment with my Dr. I was feeling good, I knew my BG was down, and I had also lost a few pounds down from 185 to 165 Lbs (sorry I did not convert this. I'm a yank)
So, of course, The Dr did do the full pallet of blood tests. He called me up the following day with the results, he was ecstatic. "Your BG looks great! You don't have to worry about your blood sugar any more" (Not sound advice, we all know we need to keep doing what we are doing to stay healthy, not forget about it like my Dr. seemed to imply). He went on "Your weight is great, you've reached your target, but your cholesterol is through the roof!" Great I thought, just frigging great. " I'll give you three months to get it down or I'm gonna put you on statins. Back off this keto thing, eat less fat, go more like a Mediterranean diet".
OK, I get it, this is diagnosis by numbers! So, I did some research in the Keto community, Did more reading, books like Cholesterol Clarity, Jimmy Moore, and Dr. Fung's books. There is much evidence that weight loss during Ketosis will increase your LDL cholesterol, as you process your own body fat. This condition should be temporary and should subside after about 6 months of a stabilized weight. In fact, your HDL should go up, Triglycerides should drop. But my Dr, was only giving me 3 months! What was I going to do? I did not want my Med records to show a statin prescription because here in the USA, your insurance company will hound you to take the meds forever!
Solution,
Change Doctors! I found a Dr in my area, that is Keto savvy, and has experience with Chinese medicine. He had no problem ordering me the advanced Lipid test Jimmy Moore talks about, as well as a CT scan to see if I actually have any buildup in my heart.
So, That's my story.
Thanks for listening.
I found this forum while searching for more information on the Dawn Phenomenon. A few months ago in July, my GP told me to watch my BG, because my fasting BG was too high.
At that point, I was already fooling around with the ketogenic diet but decided to make an earnest commitment to address not only the BG, but also weight, and blood pressure. ( have hypertension and take meds for this).
Got my myself some blood meters for both BG and ketones, and began testing and dieting in earnest. I also added moderate exercise to help lower liver glycogen levels.
What I found through testing several times a day, is that in the early morning right after I awoke, my BG would be around 6.54 (I used a calculator to change DLs to MMLs for you Europeans) and would persist for several hours in the morning, and would normalize later in the day to about 4.4 (these are all fasting or before meal levels). So, I realized, after some research, that I was suffering from the Dawn Phenomenon, which I now believe to some degree is normal. The body goes through a wake-up cycle according to your Circadian rhythm. Part of this cycle, involves your liver dumping glycogen into your blood, to help you wake up and provide energy to begin your day. And of course, this is when the doctor tests you. They want you to fast after dinner the night before, and not eat anything when you come in early in the morning. So, my doctor gave me 3 months to "fix" this, or he was going to put me on drugs.
So, with my meters and my diet, I did some testing on myself to see if I could address the dawn effect. The diet was able to lower my overall BG to about 3.8, but I still woke up with the elevated BG, that I was sure my doctor would call me on.
One thought was to change my appointment to the afternoon when my BG was in the normal range. As a keto guy, fasting is not difficult for me, and I had already done several 24 and 48-hour fasts as body hacking experiments. But still, the dawn effect persisted.
I finally hit upon the formula, I was able to completely deplete my liver of glycogen with a 72 hour fast. Now my waking BG level was like 3.8. Armed with this information, I fasted for 72 hours prior to my October deadline appointment with my Dr. I was feeling good, I knew my BG was down, and I had also lost a few pounds down from 185 to 165 Lbs (sorry I did not convert this. I'm a yank)
So, of course, The Dr did do the full pallet of blood tests. He called me up the following day with the results, he was ecstatic. "Your BG looks great! You don't have to worry about your blood sugar any more" (Not sound advice, we all know we need to keep doing what we are doing to stay healthy, not forget about it like my Dr. seemed to imply). He went on "Your weight is great, you've reached your target, but your cholesterol is through the roof!" Great I thought, just frigging great. " I'll give you three months to get it down or I'm gonna put you on statins. Back off this keto thing, eat less fat, go more like a Mediterranean diet".
OK, I get it, this is diagnosis by numbers! So, I did some research in the Keto community, Did more reading, books like Cholesterol Clarity, Jimmy Moore, and Dr. Fung's books. There is much evidence that weight loss during Ketosis will increase your LDL cholesterol, as you process your own body fat. This condition should be temporary and should subside after about 6 months of a stabilized weight. In fact, your HDL should go up, Triglycerides should drop. But my Dr, was only giving me 3 months! What was I going to do? I did not want my Med records to show a statin prescription because here in the USA, your insurance company will hound you to take the meds forever!
Solution,
Change Doctors! I found a Dr in my area, that is Keto savvy, and has experience with Chinese medicine. He had no problem ordering me the advanced Lipid test Jimmy Moore talks about, as well as a CT scan to see if I actually have any buildup in my heart.
So, That's my story.
Thanks for listening.
