Old Hand Baffled

[srm100841]

I was diagnosed T2 in 2002 and prescribed medication from that date. Over the years my levels continued to be high and were increasing despite my following an agreed diet quite strictly. After a series of increased medication prescriptions I was eventually told that the next move was to be put on insulin.

At that stage I discovered this site and benefited from the advice of others with the same condition. The main advice I picked up was that I should try a LCHF diet which I did. As a consequence and within weeks my levels reduced substantially from say 11 to 5. I gradually reduced my medication to just 20gms gliclazide per day which is what I'm on now. This happy state has remained for the last 10 years or so but recently my levels have risen to an average of around 7. My evening levels are fine (just below 5) but my morning and lunchtime ones are averaging around 8 and this has been the case for the last 6 months or so.

My food diet has remained unchanged at about 50 carbs per day. I have though very over the last 3 weeks reduced my alcohol intake and cut out my favourite can of beer before dinner. Logically I would have thought that omitting the 10.1 carbs from that per day from my total count would have been beneficial to my levels but so far this has not been the case although it might be too early to tell.

Anyway I don't understand why my breakfast and lunch test levels have increased as they have when my circumstances have been unchanged. My latest reading today before lunch was 9.6 and I haven't seen a return like that for over 10 years.

Any ideas?

Steve

 

[Tophat1900]

It might be worth finding out how much insulin your pancreas is producing. I'm sure that hasn't been done. Gliclazide forces the pancreas to produce even more insulin then your body is already producing. Which can make insulin resistance worse and you've been taking it for quite some time now.

So it's possible this could be a reason why your levels are increasing, via increasing levels of insulin resistance. If you are already producing a lot of insulin and then being forced to produce even more by Gliclazide then eventually this may well work against you. It's a very unhelpfull drug if you are already producing a lot of insulin.

Perhaps you could see if your GP will do a c-peptide level. It would help to know what your pancreas is doing insulin production wise, good luck.

 

[HSSS]

Other potential ideas that struck me is that after 20 diagnosed years (+ an unknown number before that) most of which have been on a drug that increases insulin and insulin resistance maybe your pancreas is “worn out” and no longer producing the amounts it has in the past despite the whip cracking effect of the gliclazide. A c-peptide would establish this or overproduction.

Alternatively alcohol has a temporary lowering effect for bgl. The liver is busy dealing with the booze and doesn’t dump glucose whilst doing so. Mine is always a little lower the next morning. (I’m not advocating this as a dawn phenomenon control as long term there’s obviously a pretty high price to pay for daily indulgences). So maybe now it’s not clearing the alcohol the liver is dumping glucose instead.

 

[srm100841]

Other potential ideas that struck me is that after 20 diagnosed years (+ an unknown number before that) most of which have been on a drug that increases insulin and insulin resistance maybe your pancreas is “worn out” and no longer producing the amounts it has in the past despite the whip cracking effect of the gliclazide. A c-peptide would establish this or overproduction.

Alternatively alcohol has a temporary lowering effect for bgl. The liver is busy dealing with the booze and doesn’t dump glucose whilst doing so. Mine is always a little lower the next morning. (I’m not advocating this as a dawn phenomenon control as long term there’s obviously a pretty high price to pay for daily indulgences). So maybe now it’s not clearing the alcohol the liver is dumping glucose instead.

Thanks for the observations. My last 2 evening (pre-dinner) tests have been at 4.6 which is just about my normal reading for that time of day and is my current annual average. I'm not at all clear why my breakfast and lunch readings have been so much higher and out of kilter with previous years. I don't think that it is the gliclazide as this would affect my dinner reading also. I'll keep playing around to see whether I can bring my levels down as I'm loathe to visit my GP as the surgery always wants to take blood samples and I'm allergic to needles. Not helpful with the T2 condition!!!