After Eating evening meal blood glucose doubles?

[StuOnTwo]

I've not been eating well for the last few months, which i accept is my own fault. However recently the last few weeks I've really been trying to hard to get this under control.

Firstly in the morning my blood sugars always seem to be around 14 mmol. Tonight before dinner my BG was 8.7mmol and I ate a portion of couscous which had 32gm carbs. I had some canned chilli with it and now 3 hours later by BG is 16.7 mmol.

I have other ailments which make it extremely painful to excercise vigorously (arhtritis and fibromyalgia). Does anyone know of any ways that I can try to get my BG back under control?

 

[LittleGreyCat]

@StuOnTwo Sorry to have to say this, but don't eat the couscous.
The test implies that it is something that spikes your BG.
What was the carb count for the canned chilli?
Sometimes they can have added sugar to five them flavour!

Edit: what medication are you on?

 

[xfieldok]

Sounds like you are eating carby stuff. What do you eat in a typical day, we might be able tweak your diet?

 

[Hotpepper20000]

It not necessary to exercise to have good blood sugar control.
What you eat it much more important.

 

[miahara]

Hi @StuOnTwo. Your diet does seem to a bit carb rich. Couscous, uncooked is about 51g carbs per 100g and as already been said the chilli could also be highish in carbs if it's sweetened as many tinned items are.
I work on the basis that 10g carbs will increase my BG between 2 to 3 mmol and find this a pretty good rule of thumb.

 

[DumfriesDik]

Have a look at LCHF diet, see if it might work for you. Many people, including myself, use it to great affect. I am reading Dr Fung at the moment and that really helps. Giving up carbs seems really easy at first, but my body screams for them, which is strange since there is no benefit in eating carbs. Mind it doesn't impact on your other disabilities and talk to your HCP about it.

 

[ianf0ster]

I've not been eating well for the last few months, which i accept is my own fault. However recently the last few weeks I've really been trying to hard to get this under control.

Firstly in the morning my blood sugars always seem to be around 14 mmol. Tonight before dinner my BG was 8.7mmol and I ate a portion of couscous which had 32gm carbs. I had some canned chilli with it and now 3 hours later by BG is 16.7 mmol.

I have other ailments which make it extremely painful to excercise vigorously (arhtritis and fibromyalgia). Does anyone know of any ways that I can try to get my BG back under control?

Hi STuOnTwo,
As has already been said, no vigorous exercise is required to reduce Blood Glucose levels - some moderate exercise will help if you can manage to do it. But what you eat and when you eat it is much more important.

Speaking of which, you seem to have been misinformed (probably by your Health Care Professionals) about what 'eating well' means for a Type 2 diabetic.
I don't see any information to tell me if you are on Insulin or not, but you obviously have and use a Blood Glucose meter, which suggests that you may be on some sort of medication that could cause hypos - and thus be wary of eating to little Carbs for your medication.
Health care Professionals often tell patients on such medication to make sure that they eat enough Carbs with every meal and even as snacks also. - This makes sense if you take the view that Type 2 is inevitably progressive and remission is impossible. However accepting this advice means accepting no chance of remission. Because the meds need the carbs and the carbs are the reason you need the meds.

Several forum members have managed to reduce HbA1C and reduce their meds by persuading their HCPs to work with them in setting (and adjusting) the dose of medication in line with what is actually required for the lifestyle intervention they are undertaking, so 'medicating as required' rather that 'eating to the medication'.

 

[miahara]

I'm not sure I'm in complete agreement with @ianf0ster. I was on meds (gliclazide) and also ate low carb and after a year or a bit more, was "in remission". I stopped the meds and continued to eat low carb, but my HbA1c started to rise. My HCP then reintroduced the meds, then doubled the meds, but to no avail. Further tests showed that my diabetes had indeed "progressed" and I'd become insulin deficient rather than insulin resisitant. I'm now "insulin dependent" and inject 4 times a day, though can eat more or less what I like so long as I balance carbs with insulin; every cloud has a silver lining!
Ian is correct in that remission is possible, but any HCP I've spoken to holds that diabetes is a progressive condition.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi miahara,
I feel that we are splitting hairs here. If (longer term) remission is possible then Type 2 is not (inevitably) the progressive disease claimed by the majority oh HCPs.

The way I look at it using generalisations is this:
Type 1 is caused by lack of insulin production - depleted active Beta cells in the pancreas.
Type 2 is caused by Insulin Resistance - cells into which Insulin would normally 'push' the Blood Glucose saying 'I can't take any more!'

Most Type 2's have high Insulin production, since the body desperately works to try everything it can in order to reduce dangerous levels of Glucose in the bloodstream. Over time this can have the effect of wearing out the Beta Cells from overstimulation. This has the effect of making a Type 2 also Type 1.
Your medication Gliclazide works by getting the Beta Cells to make more Insulin - thus wearing them out faster. So it wasn't the Type 2 that was progressive as such, the failure of your Beta cells was partly due to the effect of the Glic that your HCP was using to treat it. Similarly when HCPs use Insulin to treat Type 2s who have good functioning Beta Cells, what they are doing will naturally worsen the existing Insulin Resistance.

Thus Type 2 isn't progressive when treated with lifestyle, but the HCP preferred treatment causes it to appear so.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi miahara,
since the body desperately works to try everything it can in order to reduce dangerous levels of Glucose in the bloodstream. Over time this can have the effect of wearing out the Beta Cells from overstimulation. This has the effect of making a Type 2 also Type 1.
Your medication Gliclazide works by getting the Beta Cells to make more Insulin - thus wearing them out faster. So it wasn't the Type 2 that was progressive as such, the failure of your Beta cells was partly due to the effect of the Glic that your HCP was using to treat it. Similarly when HCPs use Insulin to treat Type 2s who have good functioning Beta Cells, what they are doing will naturally worsen the existing Insulin Resistance.

Thus Type 2 isn't progressive when treated with lifestyle, but the HCP preferred treatment causes it to appear so.

@ianf0ster

You are contradicting yourself.

first you say:
Most Type 2's have high Insulin production,
Which suggests that you understand that not ALL type 2s have high insulin production.
This is definitely the case, since we have members on the forum who are in exactly that situation (with T2 and low insulin production)

but then you state:
So it wasn't the Type 2 that was progressive as such, the failure of your Beta cells was partly due to the effect of the Glic that your HCP was using to treat it.

This is a statement that you are not (that none of us on the forum) are in a position to make.
- none of us have access to test results showing that @miahara ’s beta cell performance deteriorated because of Gliclazide
- beta cells deteriorate for many reasons other than being prescribed Gliclazide, although they may deteriorate while taking Gliclazide, and Gliclazide may contribute to that deterioration, it is too strong a statement to declare that you know exactly what happened in this case.
- we have members on the forum who have taken Gliclazide for years without their remaining beta cells giving up the ghost.

ed. For clarity

 

[Brunneria]

I've not been eating well for the last few months, which i accept is my own fault. However recently the last few weeks I've really been trying to hard to get this under control.

Firstly in the morning my blood sugars always seem to be around 14 mmol. Tonight before dinner my BG was 8.7mmol and I ate a portion of couscous which had 32gm carbs. I had some canned chilli with it and now 3 hours later by BG is 16.7 mmol.

I have other ailments which make it extremely painful to excercise vigorously (arhtritis and fibromyalgia). Does anyone know of any ways that I can try to get my BG back under control?

Hi @StuOnTwo
Sorry for that minor derailment above.

in answer to your question, I am with the people who have posted above saying that carb control/reduction can yield huge benefits for type 2s.

do you know what your HbA1c result is?

 

[ianf0ster]

OK, I was generalising a little.Though if a Type 2 doesn't have high Insulin then their Beta cells are already partially compromised, so the remaining functioning ones are still overloaded.
However my point is that it is the compromised Beta Cells which is the main distinguishing feature in Type 1 where it is Insulin Resistance which is the distinguishing feature in Type 2.

I feel it highly unlikely that a strategy of squeezing the last Insulin out of already failing or overloaded Beta Cells can do anything other than make them worse - though perhaps somebody knows of some studies which show the opposite.

Fortunately miahara says they see a silver lining in the situation.

 

[Resurgam]

One downside to 'getting better' is the easy weightgain.
I am definitely able to cope with eating extra carbs these days - they show up on the scales for days after I indulge, even if I do the usual things meant to remove them, fasting and eating even fewer carbs - they hang on grimly and weight subsides painfully slowly. It is just like going back 30 years or more - and hopefully as more years pass I will find that 'normal' foods are less carb laden.
If only someone would design a motor which uses carbs as fuel.