When does BG peak after eating & spill into urine?

DonutEnter

Member
Messages
10
Hi

a bit of background, I’m 39 weeks pregnant and passed 2 OGTTs at 30 and 35 weeks pregnant but I continue to get glucose in my urine, ranging from + to +4 depending on what I’ve eaten.
My healthcare professionals have now just wiped it off as “one of those things”. But it concerned me, so I bought my own glucose monitor. My readings haven’t been too bad, but I’m trying to follow a low GI diet. If I eat meals from my “normal” diet , 1 hour post eating readings are in the high 7s - would that happen to a non diabetic?

But my main question - I had a bowl of porridge for breakfast today with semi skimmed milk. I tested my BG 1 hour after finishing it (1 hour 12 mins after starting it) my BG was 7 mmol. Ok... but on a urine dipstick 30 mins later, I had ++ glucose. my understanding is that glucose spills into the urine at around 8.9-10 mmol - so does that mean that my BG reached that level at some point after starting my porridge? And I am missing the spike? As a test I did my BG 30 mins after starting my porridge yesterday and it was 8.2 mmol - if it continues to rise until the one hour mark , does that mean it could have gone over 9/10 mmol and therefore into my urine?

Please can someone explain if I have totally misunderstood. I know with women who have gestational diabetes they usually say test an hour after your first bite. But if BG peaks before then, then is it really accurate to do it this way?
 

sno0opy

Well-Known Member
Messages
383
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
From my initial discussions with the consultant on this some time ago, it was on average over 10mmol/l before you start dumping onto urine. However average is a very broad term and different people can have different levels. I may be that your body starts kicking it out of your blood at lower levels?

Your not on any medication for it are you? - some medication is designed to lower the level your body kicks it into urine to avoid getting high glucose levels.

Are just checking at 1 hour, or 2 hours/3 hours after meals? (Because as a general rule the peak is 2 hours after eating - especially after eating something carby rather then sugary to make the distinction)
 

novorapidboi26

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,828
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I usually expect the peak to happen round about the 90 minute mark.....

I didn't think glucose spilled over at such low levels......I think everyone is different......15mmol i think is my threshold.....but I don't test my own urine glucose....

Why are you?

Could the glucose in the urine be related to the late stages of pregnancy...?
 

DonutEnter

Member
Messages
10
I have been following the guidelines they give to pregnant women in my Trust with GD. They say to test after 1 hour and needs to be <7 mmol, pre meals 4-5 mmol and if you’re testing after 2 hours also, then <6.4 mmol.
ive done a mixture of testing times but usually after 1 hour. So with porridge, I tested after 30 mins and had 8.2. At 1 hour 7 , and I once tested after 90 mins and it was 5.7 mmol. Which tells me either my first wave of insulin isn’t great, and my BG is going really high really quickly? Or sugar is dumped into my wee at really low levels.
I test my urine out of curiosity alongside the blood sampling, because of all the high glucose readings in my wee at appointments. I was trying to see if there was any correlation.
I know in pregnancy the renal efficiency is reduced , so maybe my kidneys are just dumping tons more sugar than they should into my wee..
I just feel anxious as undiagnosed GD can cause issues , and I wanted to get to the bottom of if it really is just “one of those things” for me in this pregnancy.
 
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DonutEnter

Member
Messages
10
Not on any medication. I once had 4+ in my urine and in brackets it said (28 mmol) All id eaten that day was a whole meal cheese sandwich, so it seemed a crazy amount of glucose to be in my urine.
I know pregnancy can do strange things but I wish I could understand it.
 

Cocosilk

Well-Known Member
Messages
818
Type of diabetes
Gestational
Treatment type
Insulin
I have been following the guidelines they give to pregnant women in my Trust with GD. They say to test after 1 hour and needs to be <7 mmol, pre meals 4-5 mmol and if you’re testing after 2 hours also, then <6.4 mmol.
ive done a mixture of testing times but usually after 1 hour. So with porridge, I tested after 30 mins and had 8.2. At 1 hour 7 , and I once tested after 90 mins and it was 5.7 mmol. Which tells me either my first wave of insulin isn’t great, and my BG is going really high really quickly? Or sugar is dumped into my wee at really low levels.
I test my urine out of curiosity alongside the blood sampling, because of all the high glucose readings in my wee at appointments. I was trying to see if there was any correlation.
I know in pregnancy the renal efficiency is reduced , so maybe my kidneys are just dumping tons more sugar than they should into my wee..
I just feel anxious as undiagnosed GD can cause issues , and I wanted to get to the bottom of if it really is just “one of those things” for me in this pregnancy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your 1h readings of 8 mmol may not get you a diagnosis of GD but are slowly slowly on the way to trouble and you can take the warning as a gift because it's early in the game and you can do something about it.

I had GD and porridge would put me at 9s and 10s at 1 hour but still 8mmol by 2 hours. Recovering to 5.7 at 2 hours is pretty good still. In fact, many will tell you your readings are completely normal.

But I have read that because our bodies are naturally insulin resistant during pregnancy, healthy women have a lower blood glucose than normal, so if your numbers stray outside of 4 - 6 mmol at any time, you are slowly beginning to show signs of metabolic disorder. BUT I wouldn't panic about it. Just educate yourself (this forum is fantastic for that) and slowly tweak your diet in a direction that will allow your body to heal and slow down any further progression towards insulin resistance.

Very low carb eating during pregnancy can be a challenge if you are used to eating a lot of carbs so take it gradually. You may in fact be just fine eating as you are currently for the rest of pregnancy but after you give birth, consider eating fewer carbs as a lifesyle change. This is what I have done to try to avoid heading straight for T2 diabetes.

I was grateful for the warning. But don't panic. Your baby probably won't have any problems if you remain under the threshold for diagnosis. I ate low carb with GD from 28 weeks and my baby was fine.

You could give it a go and eat 1/2 cup portions of your usual carbs with each meal and increase your low carb vegetables, proteins (like meat) and if you've been avoiding fat, start reintroducing some to replace the carbs you would have had. For example, instead of a large plate of pasta, have a 1/2 cup of pasta and use zucchini or cauliflower for the rest of the dish and then your usual sauce (but check carbs if it's store boight) and have a bit of extra cheese on top.

It's taken me about a year (while breastfeeding) to get used to eating differently. And I was forever in and out of the keto flu, dehydrated and dizzy probably because you need extra fluids while breastfeeding and I wasn't keeping up so mu electrolytes were out. But the baby weight came off super fast while eating low carb so that's also good motivation!
 
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