Advice please

Majii said:

I thought I’d posted this. Apologies if I’ve duplicated I can’t find it with threads.

Could anyone explain what this means?
C peptide 959 pmol/L
Consistent with pro-insulin secretion!

Also, my bloods are usually higher when I haven’t eaten for 5 to 12 hours than they are when I’ve eaten 2 hours ago - what does that mean? Please don’t say I’m not testing properly or at the right time. My GP kept saying that so I got one of those Libra things for a few weeks from the GP which proved my point.

I stopped medication for a couple of months due to reactions and my blood sugar increased by 10 I felt It wasn’t too bad as my diet is abysmal,
I’m now on a new medication
I am always really hungry, no matter how much I eat I’m hungry what does this mean if anything?

Thanks in advance

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VashtiB said:

Hi @Majii

In relation to bloods being higher when you haven't eaten- I find that my levels increase from when I wake up until I eat something. I usually go for a walk first thing (impatient dogs who do not believe in sleeping in!) and my levels rise until I get back home and actually eat something. I find it pays off later for me.

Our bodies are very complex and react to things differently so you may just need to experiment a bit. Also other things may be affecting the levels like exercise or stress. Some find coffee raises their levels. It can be tricky.

Being hungry all the time is not sustainable- what sort of things do you eat in an average day?

Virtual hugs

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Melgar said:

Hi there @Majii , C-Peptides are often measured to see how much insulin your Pancreas is producing. They measure C-peptide secretion rather than insulin itself because insulin has a very short shelf life, and so if insulin is not measured straight away it will likely give an inaccurate result. C-peptides on the other hand are more stable and are therefore the preferred measurement to see how much insulin you are producing. There is a direct correlation between insulin secretion and C-peptide secretion. Your 959 pmol/l result, if you were in a fasted state, means that you are producing relatively high amounts of insulin.

If you don’t mind me asking, what are your blood sugars like?

While in a fasted state, depending on the time of day your liver is likely dumping glycogen. This is more prevalent in the early mornings as your body prepares for activity. In a body that is metabolically healthy, the body deals very quickly with this liver dump. In someone with Type 2 diabetes the body is unable to bring those blood sugars down in a timely manner, so your blood sugars rise. Insulin resistance rises in the mornings in none diabetics too, but as already stated in someone with a healthy metabolism this rise is dealt with quickly, not so in type 2 diabetes, hence your fasting blood sugars can be elevated.

Insulin resistance is one of the main drivers of Type 2 diabetes , along with your pancreas’ inability to produce enough insulin to compensate for your insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when your body becomes insensitive to insulin. Insulin is the key to opening your cell doors, so to speak, allowing blood glucose to enter your cells for energy. When your body becomes insulin resistant your cells are not allowing insulin to open the door to the Blood glucose. This is one of the reasons why blood sugar rises in the blood because its got no where to go so it stays in your blood - type 2 diabetes.
When you become insulin resistant your pancreas has to produce a lot more insulin to compensate for this resistance, hence this is why your C-peptide results are highish.
Insulin resistance can make you feel very hungry because your cells are not getting enough sugar to convert to energy, due to you being insulin resistant. Your cells are likely signalling your brain to eat. Your brain thinks that you need to eat because your cells are telling the brain they need energy. Hence the hunger. I hope that makes sense.

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Melgar said:

Hi there @Majii , C-Peptides are often measured to see how much insulin your Pancreas is producing. They measure C-peptide secretion rather than insulin itself because insulin has a very short shelf life, and so if insulin is not measured straight away it will likely give an inaccurate result. C-peptides on the other hand are more stable and are therefore the preferred measurement to see how much insulin you are producing. There is a direct correlation between insulin secretion and C-peptide secretion. Your 959 pmol/l result, if you were in a fasted state, means that you are producing relatively high amounts of insulin.

If you don’t mind me asking, what are your blood sugars like?

While in a fasted state, depending on the time of day your liver is likely dumping glycogen. This is more prevalent in the early mornings as your body prepares for activity. In a body that is metabolically healthy, the body deals very quickly with this liver dump. In someone with Type 2 diabetes the body is unable to bring those blood sugars down in a timely manner, so your blood sugars rise. Insulin resistance rises in the mornings in none diabetics too, but as already stated in someone with a healthy metabolism this rise is dealt with quickly, not so in type 2 diabetes, hence your fasting blood sugars can be elevated.

Insulin resistance is one of the main drivers of Type 2 diabetes , along with your pancreas’ inability to produce enough insulin to compensate for your insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when your body becomes insensitive to insulin. Insulin is the key to opening your cell doors, so to speak, allowing blood glucose to enter your cells for energy. When your body becomes insulin resistant your cells are not allowing insulin to open the door to the Blood glucose. This is one of the reasons why blood sugar rises in the blood because its got no where to go so it stays in your blood - type 2 diabetes.
When you become insulin resistant your pancreas has to produce a lot more insulin to compensate for this resistance, hence this is why your C-peptide results are highish.
Insulin resistance can make you feel very hungry because your cells are not getting enough sugar to convert to energy, due to you being insulin resistant. Your cells are likely signalling your brain to eat. Your brain thinks that you need to eat because your cells are telling the brain they need energy. Hence the hunger. I hope that makes sense.

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Majii said:

Lately I eat whatever is around (cold tinned peas recently I didn’t buy food thinking if I don’t have it can’t eat it)
My diet is mainly meat and dairy free but I eat too much bread and potatoes for anyone let alone a diabetic
My bloods get higher the longer I fast some days but others can go lower which is confusing
I am always high in night and morning it takes my body about two hours to lower first thing after I eat in morning
Then during day takes five hours or more for levels to go down after eating
I admit I need to do more diet wise but I was pre diabetic on same diet so maybe just getting older

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Chris24Main said:

That's a pretty complicated set of information.
insulin and glucagon are antagonistic - insulin reduces blood glucose (and does a bunch of other things - @Melgar 's summary above is one of the most concise descriptions I've seen on insulin resistance) and glucagon increases it (when your body detects that blood sugar is low) - so it's strange to think of something that stimulates both. It's your beta an alpha cells that do the production of these hormones, but usually it switches between one and the other, under enzyme control from the liver.

I've found over and over that this topic is so complicated that you can find you are told things which are true on their face, but utterly unhelpful. Type 2 diabetes is a condition of consistently too much insulin and glucose; there are circumstances when additional insulin can help, but fundamentally it's treating only one symptom, not the underlying condition. What you have been told is not untrue, but I don't think it's particularly helpful.

You're probably coming to the conclusion though, that anything you can do to make it easier for your body to cope with all of this should help. Biologically, anything close to glucose (sugars and starches) will trigger an insulin response (meaning your body will want insulin by some means to clear it out of your blood) and the end result will be hunger, so as @ianf0ster says - anything with more protein and fat will simply be easier to work with, as without carbs they don't require insulin (so less of an issue with the pancreas) to be digested.

If you've reversed it before, though, you are a whole step ahead of me; I'm only some way toward reversing mine.

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