• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Adjustment period for lower BG

F

farmerfudge

Well-Known Member
Messages
80
Location
Leicester
It varies but mainly speaking when my BG gets to around 7 0r below I start to feel shaky, hungry and generally just not right. These, for me are the early signs of a hypo. My BS has been on the high side since diagnosis and it's only in the last couple of months that I've stepped up my efforts to start getting my sugars down to the 4-7 target. So now I get this early hypo feeling more frequently now. As I say it can happen from around the 7 level & my immediate instinct is to treat a hypo. If I'm to acheive the 4-7 range I'm hoping that these early symptoms fade so that my body get's used to operating at the lower BG. Does anyone else get this and does it go away? I know we all have an internal thermostat which over time gets set higher as it were if you constantly have high bg?
 
hya,
when my numbers were higher i used to be the same, but after getting my numbers lower i now feel nothing until im about 3.2mmol, your body will regulate itself :D
 
I'm with totsy

Your body will get used to this, it is just the body getting used to better BG's and it does settle..

Tip, if you get this feeling, try a non-carb snack i.e piece of cheese etc, this sometimes can get the body to think that the hypo has been treated, and settles these symptons..

IF a person is experiencing no hypo warnings, sometimes moving your control range to a higher one for a couple of weeks, then lower then to normal ranges will kick in the hypo warnings again
 
This should settle, or at least become much less troublesome, after a week or three. After that, it may still happen after even a single high reading.

Even with much improved control and little need for extra corrective doses, I often 'feel the drop' as my bs returns to baseline after eating. (But this is less intense than you probably get atm, doesn't feel like I'm actually hypo, its more subtle than that.) Typically happens to me after breakfast, but rather annoying if I've had a bedtime snack and my body wakes me 2 hours later just to tell me I'm back to baseline... though I suppose thats an improvement on sleeping through hypos :roll:
 
Hi, thanks for responses. Like the term 'feel the drop' , that's probably a more accurate description of what's happening. Not so much feeling the onset of a hypo perhaps more experiencing the shift as body 'feels' the lower sugar levels. Definitly a roller coaster anyway. Have always had this experience since diagnosis but in recent weeks it's been pretty much everyday as I force myself to go lower than what was previously comfortable for my body. Hope these weird feelings end soon though as it has been a couple of months now of sustained effort.
 
Hi Farmer Fudge, Your rollercoaster experience reminds me of how I felt on Lantus and Humalog. I felt like I could feel every high and low so intensly, and I felt hypo when I was not. I'd not had this experience till I was on put on Lantus, despite being on synthetic insulins for 15 years. I've read other forums when people describe having a feeling of anxiety on Lantus- I also suffered from that as soon as I went on Lantus but didnt make the connection until 5 years later.
Due to my ill health, unpredictable BS control and realisation that I had been ill since been on Lantus, I switched to Pork insulin last May.
I'm now in good health, good BS control & I feel normal (remember that?) :(
Until I read your posting I'd forgotten about the "hypo when not hypo" feeling.
If the weird feeling you describe does not settle down, consider a change of insulin. I'm sure you are aware that you are not actually on ' insulin', but an insulin analogue. True natural insulin has functions aside from lowering blood sugar. Highly purified pork and beef insulins are available. :D
Jus
 
Hi,

Do you measure your ketones (via ketostix, which have a 2- hour lag time, or via a BG meter which also measures blood glucose?)

I have had the 'shaky etc' feeling for a while now and since the consultant suggested I check my ketones, I realise that it is associated with high ketones rather than blood glucose (in my case anyway).

Hope you figure this out.

Regards
:?
 
Increasingly cynical,
I don't think ketones cause the"shakes". It's the low BG compared wwith what you are used to.
ketones with high BG are a symptom Of DKA and I don'tt hink that includes the Shakes. It does include feeling VERY ill and is dangerous. Ketones with low BG isn't threatening.

MANY yeara ago, I was trying to lose weight and had the "shakes" regularly just from too little food. I wasn't diabetic then.
 
In general it is thought that a T1 can start having the on set of DKA when the BG is 14mmol/l and above, this is really only a guide line so yes we need to be weary…

I’ve not suffered DKA for 17 years, but did spend most of my then pregnancy in and out of hospital being treated for DKA and its effects, amazingly for me my BG’s would only have to hit around 9-10mmol/l before I started to hit trouble with DKA showing the symptoms and becoming very ill very quickly indeed. Fortunately this was linked to the pregnancy as since having my youngest I so far never had a problem with DKA...

So if ketones are showing at a lower level, then a T1 needs to ask themselves several questions..

1, are these remains of the last of Ketones being flushed through after being produced by higher BG levels?

2, do they feel unwell in a shape or form?

3, do they actually have a lower threshold, so increased danger of full blown DKA?

4, what diet have they been following or have they been in a period of fasting?

This will give them guidance to whether these ketones are harmful or as Hanna has pointed out, that they are related to your diet…

But as with everything if you are in any doubt, seek further medical professional advise…
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the continued responses to this. When I've checked for ketones it always comes back negative so it's not that. I'm increasingly thinking that janabelle could be right that it's the Lantus. It could be time for a change (if they'll let me).
 
Hi Farmer Fudge,
Hope u don't have trouble with your doctor over this issue. I was at our local diabetes group committee meeting last week. One of the other committee members told me a type-1 friend of hers, who wanted to change back to animal insulin, was told by her GP that it wasn't available! I was not surprised, as a pharmacist told me same thing the previous week- when I told her she was mistaken and that I have been on it since last May, she looked at me as if I was mad!

You may also want to look at the recent issue of the IDDT newsletter, it's not online at the moment, but if you ring them, I'm sure they'd be happy to send u a copy. There's an interesting letter from one of the 85% of type-1 patients forced on to "human insulin" in the 80's-interesting reading.

You've probably gathered that I feel very strongly about this issue. When I was diagnosed in the late 80's I was told that WE are the experts in our condition -insulin regimes were tailored to suit individual patients with different lifestyles and needs. Back then there was a huge range of different insulins available. Now newly diagnosed patients are only given the option of analogue insulins. After my awful experience on Lantus, it angers and scares me that choice is being taken away from us, not only by healthcare professionals but by pharmaceutical companies. A lot of "human insulins" have recently been discontinued and patients, as in the 80's, are being forced onto the new analogue insulins. It's important that choice remains for patients. There are many people reporting problems on analogue insulins, doctors are not listening and not making the link.
Jus
 
Back
Top