Blood sugar levels

[Gary.Blanche]

Hi just wanted to ask if anyone can give me ideas why my blood glucose levels are going to around 14 after eating and can take up to 4 hours or more to start coming down. I am type2 always watched what I eat and kept levels down. Then I started falling asleep uncontrollably doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing and realised my bloods were high when this happed. The Dr wasn’t very helpful and has asked me t record levels for a few weeks and I go back to see him this Wednesday would like some ideas before I have face him! Thanks

 

[LittleGreyCat]

"Always watched what I eat" doesn't really tell us much.

Can you give us a typical menu for your average day?

 

[Rachox]

Hi Gary and welcome to the forum,
So we can try and help you can you let us know any diabetes medication you are on and also can you write out a typical day’s food and drink.
Also check out our useful info. post here:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/basic-information-for-newly-diagnosed-diabetics.17088/

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi just wanted to ask if anyone can give me ideas why my blood glucose levels are going to around 14 after eating and can take up to 4 hours or more to start coming down. I am type2 always watched what I eat and kept levels down. Then I started falling asleep uncontrollably doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing and realised my bloods were high when this happed. The Dr wasn’t very helpful and has asked me t record levels for a few weeks and I go back to see him this Wednesday would like some ideas before I have face him! Thanks

Hey Gary,

Watched what you eat... Yeah, that doesn't tell us anything, really... The standard advice is low fat, high carb, while the exact reverse is needed for T2 bloodsugar control: practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, while fats are a glucose flatline. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ might help a little. Dietdoctor.com too, as well as diabetes.co.uk. (Not.org!!!).

If you tell us what you eat in a typical day, like the others requested, we can help you suss out where things are going wrong.
Good luck,
Jo

 

[Gary.Blanche]

Hi sorry I should have been more specific. I have been type 2 more than 4 years on 1000mg metformin a day 500 morning and night. I try and keep low carbs don’t eat anything sweet or put sugar on anything. My diet has kept my blood fine until a few weeks ago yet nothing has changed I’m not perfect but who is. I don’t eat much bread I don’t often have potatoes or pasta have porridge for breakfast. No juices or full fat drinks and have done so for many years. My mobility is not good as I also have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis but have been for over 20 years. Thanks

 

[Resurgam]

Ah - so some high carb foods some bread, some potatoes and pasta, and oats too.
You have been managing to cope for a few years, but now something is changing and not for the better.
It could be that you now require more insulin to cover the carbs you are eating and that could be from pancreas pounding drugs, or injections.
Reducing your carbs until you see better numbers could be an option, as it does seem to work quite well. There are still some options in your diet you might try.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi sorry I should have been more specific. I have been type 2 more than 4 years on 1000mg metformin a day 500 morning and night. I try and keep low carbs don’t eat anything sweet or put sugar on anything. My diet has kept my blood fine until a few weeks ago yet nothing has changed I’m not perfect but who is. I don’t eat much bread I don’t often have potatoes or pasta have porridge for breakfast. No juices or full fat drinks and have done so for many years. My mobility is not good as I also have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis but have been for over 20 years. Thanks

Hi Gary,
In general for Type 2's all carbs are the enemy, and all traditional fats are good (i.e cream, butter, cheese, lard , coconut, olive, avocado).
So for T2 at least, there is no reason to avoid full fat drinks - quite the reverse i.e Cream is much better for a Type 2 than Milk and the lower fat the milk the worse it is , because milk contains sugars and little fat!

Have you got a meter and tested your Blood Glucose reaction to different meals?
Now in your case, you can't go very low carb because of the Metformin you are taking, but if you get the BG spikes under control then you should be able to convince your doctor to reduce the dose. At least you aren't in Gliclazide which can cause dangerous hypos in T2's trying to reduce their BG via low carb.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi sorry I should have been more specific. I have been type 2 more than 4 years on 1000mg metformin a day 500 morning and night. I try and keep low carbs don’t eat anything sweet or put sugar on anything. My diet has kept my blood fine until a few weeks ago yet nothing has changed I’m not perfect but who is. I don’t eat much bread I don’t often have potatoes or pasta have porridge for breakfast. No juices or full fat drinks and have done so for many years. My mobility is not good as I also have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis but have been for over 20 years. Thanks

Yeah... That's... Not exactly low carb. Porridge for breakfast, you're basically pouring carbs in when your insulin resistance is traditionally higher as it is and there's also dawn phenomenon to consider. You're better of with eggs and bacon/cheese/high meat content sausages or full fat greek yoghurt with some berries and nuts and/or coconut shavings. Potatoes, bread, pasta... Not often is still every once in a while. Better to nix them altogether. It's not a matter whether something's sweet or not, it's whether it's carby: starches are carbs too. And full fat drinks would actually be good for you. fats are a T2's best friend, as they don't raise bloodsugars at all, and mitigate the effect carbs you do take in would otherwise have had. They keep you feeling full, fats provide vital nutrients, and if you go for far free products, that usually means that put carbs in to enhance the taste. Not the best choice, that. Have you read the link I gave you? Just wondering, because sometimes, for some reason, it doesn't work. But it really is something to go over. What you're eating hasn't changed, but your body is, at the moment... And you need to do something about it. (Which could also mean more medication, but that's kind of a prayer without end when you don't add more diet stuff.)
Good luck!
Jo

 

[Fndwheelie]

Hi Gary, I agree that the adjustments to your diet might help, I will add that illness is enough to send sugar levels all over the place, if your MS has degenerated a bit recently, the less mobility might be all that it’s taken to send your numbers higher. Also bit personal I know, but if your MS affects your continence then get checked for a UTI, as I know using a SP catheter I’m high risk for infections and can see it in my sugar readings sometime 2-3 days before my body is showing symptoms.

 

[Gary.Blanche]

Hi thanks for the comments I have to apologise for my wording full fat drinks is a terminology locally describing drinks with no sugar. When I say about not eating potatoes pasta and bread often I actually am saying just that, perhaps I eat them once a month. Porridge was told to me to eat by the dietician at the Hospital diabetic clinic. She advised me it’s a complex carb good for diabetics. Lunch I would eat fruit and Greek yogurt. I am well aware of UTI’s and catheterisation and could make your hair curl from my experiences. All I basically wanted was a come back that I may not of thought of to reply to an obstructive Dr. I took him my testing results which clearly show my blood takes up to 5 hours after eating a balanced meal before it starts to come down hitting as high as 14. He basically told me if it was getting to 20 it would be a problem but mine are fine as they eventually return to 7 or 8. I said it wasn’t just the level it’s reaching worrying me it is the time it’s taking to come back down. I go for my diabetic review soo I will speak to the nurse. Thanks again everyone

 

[Fndwheelie]

All I basically wanted was a come back that I may not of thought of to reply to an obstructive Dr. I took him my testing results which clearly show my blood takes up to 5 hours after eating a balanced meal before it starts to come down hitting as high as 14. He basically told me if it was getting to 20 it would be a problem but mine are fine as they eventually return to 7 or 8. I said it wasn’t just the level it’s reaching worrying me it is the time it’s taking to come back down. I go for my diabetic review soo I will speak to the nurse. Thanks again everyone

I will tag @jjraak for some info on blood sugar spikes and the consequences, as I know he gave me some valuable links for reading on this not too long ago.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi thanks for the comments I have to apologise for my wording full fat drinks is a terminology locally describing drinks with no sugar. When I say about not eating potatoes pasta and bread often I actually am saying just that, perhaps I eat them once a month. Porridge was told to me to eat by the dietician at the Hospital diabetic clinic. She advised me it’s a complex carb good for diabetics. Lunch I would eat fruit and Greek yogurt. I am well aware of UTI’s and catheterisation and could make your hair curl from my experiences. All I basically wanted was a come back that I may not of thought of to reply to an obstructive Dr. I took him my testing results which clearly show my blood takes up to 5 hours after eating a balanced meal before it starts to come down hitting as high as 14. He basically told me if it was getting to 20 it would be a problem but mine are fine as they eventually return to 7 or 8. I said it wasn’t just the level it’s reaching worrying me it is the time it’s taking to come back down. I go for my diabetic review soo I will speak to the nurse. Thanks again everyone

There is no good carb when it comes to T2's. The information your nurse gave you is hopelessly out-dated, I'm afraid. The NHS does endorse low carb/high fat diets these days, but it hasn't trickled down everywhere yet. You could test before the porridge and 2 hours after, see what it does to your blood sugars...? So what do you eat, on a typical day? "Fruit" in yoghurt could be anything (berries are okay, others not so much), you know, that sort of thing. Maybe we can help sift through it if you get ridiculously specific. As for your doc... Organ/nerve/bloodvessel damage starts at prolonged blood sugars above 8,5, off the top of my head.
Jo

 

[Gary.Blanche]

Thanks Jo this was my argument with him. I accept what you say about the porridge. I did put an earlier post that I had tested for a few weeks for the Dr and after most things I eat after 2 hours I start hitting 9.5 then up to 5 hrs it’s reaching up to 14 and it seems to follow this pattern each meal then anything above 11 I start falling asleep totally out of control. If I’m stood up I just go doesn’t matter what I’m doing no control. I have had single instances of this before but a few weeks before calling the Dr it was sometimes happening twice a day. Then I get a letter back from my eye exam stating I’m starting to show damage to the blood vessels. As the sleep episodes happened I started checking my glucose levels which made me go to see the Dr. I was met with being told off for testing to him saying high sugar doesn’t do that, a rather harsh belittling which I didn’t appreciate. I came on here after checking my facts on the website to basically prove to myself I was right before I went back for the follow up visit. I didn’t want to get too specific into each meal as I realise if I was right my diet that had worked to date was now not working and I would need to make changes it can get so in depth about diet and I would find out what would work for me by testing at home. I just felt he has given me such bad advice and just wanted something to take back to him. Not that I don’t appreciate the advice I have been given on here. With the MS fog and how fatigue I get I don’t always explain myself very well. As I have secondary progressive MS it has a slow progress unless you get any other illness then it goes haywire so I understand that thought. I wanted to be able to say to him I don’t agree if my levels are that high even after 5 hrs then I need to make adjustments and find out why. He did an HbA1c which came back fine which I thought it would as I had only been getting these levels for a few weeks. He has now tested my thyroid as he said the symptoms are more likely to point to that and he may well be right but if it comes back clear I will take it up at my diabetic review. I had all this going through my MS diagnosis was brushed off for so long by different Drs that by the time one did take notice it was too late for the drugs that can slow its progression and I had lost a lot of my mobility by then so I’m not letting it happen again. Gary

 

[Tophat1900]

Thanks Jo this was my argument with him. I accept what you say about the porridge. I did put an earlier post that I had tested for a few weeks for the Dr and after most things I eat after 2 hours I start hitting 9.5 then up to 5 hrs it’s reaching up to 14 and it seems to follow this pattern each meal then anything above 11 I start falling asleep totally out of control. If I’m stood up I just go doesn’t matter what I’m doing no control. I have had single instances of this before but a few weeks before calling the Dr it was sometimes happening twice a day. Then I get a letter back from my eye exam stating I’m starting to show damage to the blood vessels. As the sleep episodes happened I started checking my glucose levels which made me go to see the Dr. I was met with being told off for testing to him saying high sugar doesn’t do that, a rather harsh belittling which I didn’t appreciate. I came on here after checking my facts on the website to basically prove to myself I was right before I went back for the follow up visit. I didn’t want to get too specific into each meal as I realise if I was right my diet that had worked to date was now not working and I would need to make changes it can get so in depth about diet and I would find out what would work for me by testing at home. I just felt he has given me such bad advice and just wanted something to take back to him. Not that I don’t appreciate the advice I have been given on here. With the MS fog and how fatigue I get I don’t always explain myself very well. As I have secondary progressive MS it has a slow progress unless you get any other illness then it goes haywire so I understand that thought. I wanted to be able to say to him I don’t agree if my levels are that high even after 5 hrs then I need to make adjustments and find out why. He did an HbA1c which came back fine which I thought it would as I had only been getting these levels for a few weeks. He has now tested my thyroid as he said the symptoms are more likely to point to that and he may well be right but if it comes back clear I will take it up at my diabetic review. I had all this going through my MS diagnosis was brushed off for so long by different Drs that by the time one did take notice it was too late for the drugs that can slow its progression and I had lost a lot of my mobility by then so I’m not letting it happen again. Gary

Your doctor is wrong, terribly wrong it's not even funny. He also has no business telling you off for testing, you have every right to test and he has no right to tell you not to. Testing is very important. Being your doctor is such a poor supporter of you and so wrong on things, it makes me wonder what your hba1c is... doctors have a habit of saying things are fine when in reality they are clearly not. Did you get the result for your hba1c or were you just told it's fine? I'd ask for a print out of any results you get, they are yours after all and it enables you to keep track of your progress.Don't settle for being told all is fine. You will get good advice here from a range of people and you will get support.