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1hr Spike - what is the consensus/view?!

L

Looseboy

Well-Known Member
Messages
196
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Diabetes
I am still very new to this and experimenting with foods and taking my levels pre/post eating.

I do take the occasional test at 1hr post meal for anything carb heavy.

On occasion this goes above the 7.8 marker but at 2 hrs I have so far always been under the 7.8 marker and within a 2 full units movement.

so my question is really about the 1hr spike and if over 7.8 is ok or not?! views /links for info appreciated.

Today was a test of baked beans on Low GI bread with Ham and Egg it went to 8.7 at 1hr down to 7.5 at 2 hr. Pre meal was 5.7

also attached are my bloods to date. I am newly diagnosed Type 2 with no meds

Any advice appreciated.


 
Long answer.
Keep up what you are doing, it is working for you. Testing at 1 hour can be useful to know how high you go but as you are in the excellent zone at 2 hours I would say relax a bit on testing, you know what meals work for you and which don't. If a meal is predictable great, you know what to do. If it's a new meal test, learn if it is predictable or not.

Build your food library up so you can have a wondrous variety in your food life. it will make you happy, it did for me.

Short answer
8/9/10/more at 1 hour is ok as long as it goes down to 8.5 or lower at the 2 hour mark, this is the goal.

Keep up the good work
 
Spikes are something we all experience, even non-diabetics in fact. Non-diabetics can go into double figures too...

Keeping spikes to a minimum can only be good for us, but you may be giving yourself a mammoth task in expecting to be <7.8mmol/l at 60 minutes if you're eating carbs.

You'd be deemed "non-diabetic" in a sense going by the NICE guidelines of <7.8mmol/l at least 90 minutes post-prandial. I'd think if you can do this consistently then you've nothing to worry about

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
 
I can't find fault with your numbers. You may be worrying for no reason. Have you actually been diagnosed with anything.
 
I think you will get lots of different answers. and you will have to take your pick, based on a gut feeling as to what suits you.

Having thoroughly read the Jenny Rhul (or Ruhl) website www.bloodsugar101.com I am happy to accept the idea that as T2s we need to preserve our the beta cells in our pancreases, otherwise T2 will be a progressive condition. Beta cells are the ones that produce insulin. So if we lose our beta cells, we lose our capacity to produce our own insulin, and will end up injecting the stuff.

There is evidence (shown on the bloodsugar101 website, in the form of studies and critiques of studies) that blood glucose levels in excess of around 7.8mmol/l actually damage beta cells. And the longer and higher the glucose, the more damage.

So my intention is to prevent that by staying under 7.8 at all times. Including during that 1st hour when the NHS says it is fine to spike sky high, so long as you drop to 8.5mmol/l by 2 hours. No wonder they 'know' that T2 is progressive, eh? They give people targets that make it progressive.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't achieve this all the time. It is a goal, not an absolute achievement. But it gives me a great incentive to control my carbs and keep my blood glucose low. And interestingly, I think my tolerance for carbs has actually increased in the couple of years that I have been doing this. Not much. But certainly enough for me to feel confident that my T2 is NOT progressing.
 
Your numbers on the chart are superb and all seems normal to me. I can't see anything to worry about although I do like to keep under 7.8. My personal target for all times is 4 to 7 with no rises at 2 hours above 1.5mmol/l. But that's me.

If your lunch today was a first experiment, you may have experienced the "last meal effect". When we are low carb our pancreases produce less insulin because we don't need anywhere near as much. Our bodies become accustomed to this. Then if we suddenly eat a high carb meal our bodies are taken by surprise. Not enough insulin is produced so we spike. I suggest that could have been a reason, but even so, the resulting levels were coming down again by 2 hours. (I would have kept testing after the 2 hours to see exactly when it came down to base.)
 

Thanks @Ross.Walker Good advice. I will keep going a little longer with the testing to make sure regarding the different meals and even the safe ones. I want to keep a good record up until i do my next HbA1c late July
 
Last edited:
Thanks @GrantGam. I know the 7.8 is the 2hr, I just was not sure if non diabetic also have these higher spikes art 1hr but then it is all about retuning to the 7.8 by the 2 hr marker
 
Squire Fulwood said:
I can't find fault with your numbers. You may be worrying for no reason. Have you actually been diagnosed with anything.
Click to expand...

Thanks @Squire Fuelwood I was diagnosed back in April and then went low carb almost immediately based on advice from my brother and finding this website. Purchased a monitor several days later and started to monitor.

By low carb i am probably middle carb off around 80-120 grams a day circa 16-1800 calories

Have seen the Nurse and she has booked me onto the courses etc.. but based on the initial readings I took to her she was happy to go without meds at this time

my HbA1c was 6.9%
 


Thanks @Brunneria I will follow the links and have a read
 


Thanks @Bluetit802 TBH portion was actually quite big so I will reduce beans a little and have half a roll to see how I get on

If you knew me that would sound very strange i.e me saying it was a big portion . Oh how our views change when things get serious
 
Some would say testing at 1 hour is to soon but your 2 hour tests are fine so nothing to worry about there
 

I was 6.6 pre breakfast and then 17.2 2 hours after breakfast - I wish I was getting your levels! Sounds like what you're doing is working.
 
When I still had normal glucose metabolism I rarely went above 6, if ever, as far as I know, and normal fasting BG was around 4 or 3.8-4.2. I have thus come to the conclusion it is normal for me to stay under 6, if possible. As I now have diabetes my goal is to never go above 7, at any time, and to be down to baseline at 2 hours. I manage this through LCHF, with carbs rarely above 30 grams per day.

If I want to understand what a particular food item or combination of several do to my BG, I do test series, testing every 30 min, until I'm back to baseline. In this way I have learnt that low GI and low GL is bad for me, with BG numbers above 7 for hours. I prefer low carb and no raise in BG.

Testing is a brilliant way to understand the relationship between food and BG and I think it's a good idea to test at 1 hour to catch a spike, but also to test more frequently now and then, like every 20 or 30 min to really see what happens to you BG.

As @Brunneria I find that now, three years after diagnosis, I can tolerate carbs a bit better so probably the pancreas can recover a bit, if ever so slightly. I still do very low carb though.
 
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