Advice please. I need to lower my fasting BG

Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I have been diagnosed for 2 years and my HbA1c is 51 (it was initially 65). I eat a low carb diet (about 50g carbs per day). My BMI is 25.
I have not been completely focused on diabetes management in the last year due to a cancer diagnosis, but have kept to a low carb diet.
I don't regularly test, and I was shocked to find my morning fasting blood glucose is 9.8. I need to get this down asap to be able to take part in a cancer clinical trial.
What is the best way to tackle this?
Go lower carb?
Fasting?
Exercise ?
Lose weight?
And is there any benefit in eating/exercising at different times of day?
I need to lower it quickly, within a week or 2, is it possible ?
Thanks in advance
 

PenguinMum

Expert
Messages
6,782
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I am sorry to hear you are dealing with cancer but I am not really qualified to advise you. I hope that my reply will bump your post up the list and someone more experienced will reply to help you. I wish you all the best and hope you get your clinical trial.
 

STEVENEBURNS

Newbie
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1
Do not eat carbs after 5 pm or 1700 hours. Snack with high protein such as peanut butter as protein reduces carb uptake. Exercise late.. Corn products are notorious for releasing energy over time and overcoming your insulin levels thus raising your glucose..
A small amount of extra insulin... If you take insulin can overcome the energy (carbs that are being constantly released from your intestines).
Reducing the carbs being digested overnight is the best way to reduce fasting glucose. Complex carbs are best such as whole wheat bread green beans and cabbage as opposed to white bread, potatoes and fruit. I use boiled cabbage with a lot of broth I drink because you cannot eat enough to raise your blood sugar..
Hope this helps...
 
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Guzzler

Master
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10,577
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Do not eat carbs after 5 pm or 1700 hours. Snack with high protein such as peanut butter as protein reduces carb uptake. Exercise late.. Corn products are notorious for releasing energy over time and overcoming your insulin levels thus raising your glucose..
A small amount of extra insulin... If you take insulin can overcome the energy (carbs that are being constantly released from your intestines).
Reducing the carbs being digested overnight is the best way to reduce fasting glucose. Complex carbs are best such as whole wheat bread green beans and cabbage as opposed to white bread, potatoes and fruit. I use boiled cabbage with a lot of broth I drink because you cannot eat enough to raise your blood sugar..
Hope this helps...

Whole wheat? The member wants/needs to lower her levels, whole wheat will not help, neither will wholegrain. A carb is a carb, it doesn't matter what colour it comes in or whether it is simple or complex.
 

AloeSvea

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,051
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
@Claire chachacha I absolutely would not take insulin when battling cancer, either. You don't want to take anything that could or would help a tumour grow, I would expect.

Your body weight and hyperglycemia (was) very similar to mine. I have significant Dawn Phenomenon (DP) like you,which reflects malfunctioning signals in the liver/pancreas/fat cells in the abdominal cavity, where they should not be in a healthy body, according to my understanding.

There are basically three ways to normalise your FBGs with DP/blood glucose dysregulation caused by impaired fasting blood glucose. Three key methods are care of Dr Sarah Hallberg, when lecturing on reversal of type two, which for those with impaired fasting blood glucose means 'fixing' the fasting blood glucose issues, imho.

I would add a fourth - fasting! But that is not a Dr Hallberg. That is from the pro-fasters, but if you look at below, you can see how fasting fits in with all three...

1. Bariatric surgery! They now think it is because it deals immediately with two incretin hormones that we have in our intestinal system, one, the upper intestine one (GIP) gets deactivated and your body starts using the healthier GLP in the lower intestine to better deal with carbs, is the idea on that one. I cannot explain the science behind why GLP is better for us than the GIP - it's something to do with simple carbs and overprocessed carbs in food, in comparison to slower digesting, less lectins etc and which get dealt with my GLP. (And why getting rid of processed food sees pretty much immediate BG improvement results for just about everybody if not everybody.) (Info on this by expert Erdosi)

Good thing you can do things with your diet to emulate/stimulate the bariatric surgery plusses! And you want it to be quick, as time is at a premium.

Yeah - cut the carbs even more. As in very very very low carbs. Your cancer cells need glucose to reproduce, so the lower glucose you go the better. I would say - as in ketogenic diet, but I would say that wouldn't I? Basically you need your life and eating plan to be maximum-ally handable - so whatever way of lower carb eating works for you of course.

Which brings me to

2. Cut the carbs, even more than you have been.

See exercise as an 'extra boon'? for this one. in terms of getting excess glucose out of your system and increasing your insulin sensitivity, and therefore also promoting healthier levels of insulin, as in lower, to meet your BG regulating needs and health generally. as above poster said, for improving FBGs my own experience has been in a post dinner walk being good for that. (Haven't been able to do that without a flashlight for years, so don't do that any more. But it did work well when I did do it.)

And 3. Very low calorie intake as in lessening the energy you get from food. Basically means starving a little.

I would go for number 2 every time! Just going even lower carb and boosting healthy fat intake. Because number two works, for a lot of people, and you can keep your nutritional needs being met and yourself happier. Which is good when battling cancer.

And. And 4. Fasting. Immediate results during the not-eating, but not easy. And maintaining it (as in improved FBGs) post fasting, in my experience has not been great. But that may just be my lack of health status and metabolism. It does work for others, as in a cancer treatment, but you would need to find a medical practitioner who would oversee you doing this for sure! As you have bigger health issues to fry as it were?

I'm sorry you are going through this. Good luck with it!


 

AloeSvea

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,051
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
OMG - I forgot to say! Metformin will in all likelihood lower your FBGs asap. But your doctor would have suggested that straight off? Taking metformin that is. One of the ways it works is by turning the 'switch' off for creating your own blood glucose, which those with too high FBGs do, erroneously, due to hormone/glucose/insulin/Free Fatty Acids signalling issues going haywire in your organs and fat cells, is the theory behind it. The other way it works is by increasing your insulin sensitivity. Both good things if you need to lower your FBGs quickly.

I would also add - eat and drink things which raise your AMPK activation - turmeric is one of many foods which aid this. Look it up and choose your food and drink of choice which does this - lots of food and drink does. Off the top of my head, red bush tea, grape skin/resveratrol, anything that raises your ALA. And of course - supplements for big quantities. Turmeric and ALA work for me, in terms of improvements in BG and wellbeing, but one just has to take such and see. Many such things, when it comes to T2D, do not make much of an effect at all, judging from reading the alternative therapies section of this forum. But it is great when you find something that does help.
 
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caroline_92

Well-Known Member
Messages
153
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Sorry about your cancer and having to deal with this on top of diabetes.

I think your question about how low carb to go could be answered by regular testing - what do different meals do your blood sugar? And therefore what can you change to reduce them? I realise this may seem like more fuss and stuff to do but it seems important. At least until you get your levels down.

Exercise after eating may also help as well as avoiding snacks and only eating 2/3 meals a day. This will give your blood sugar time to reduce.

Good luck :)
 
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