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As high BG is suposed to be so bad - why is there no help for dawn phenomenon

madusmacus

Well-Known Member
Messages
309
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Or am I reading the wrong information and GP's don't have a clue (no shock there)

Currently I am 6.1 morning - and 2 hours after breakfast 5.0 which stays stable as long as I use LCHF
but I spend 8 hours asleep with High BG in my system and no one seems to worry much about this
I DO :¬(
 
dawn phenomenom is something thats hard to control as its a natural and proper response from our livers, it basically means they are doing what they should so hard to uncorrect something working properly, the liver dosent know we cant deal with its good work properly i suppose, but with really good control the DP should get better, i stopped testing (when i tested) in the morning as it just gave me the hump for the rest of the day so in the spirit of not worrying about things you cant change, i didnt

edit: you dont spend the 8 hours with high bg, it happens at dawn hehe, your being prepared to get up and go
 
as Andy said, and dont feel alone there is no help for T1 DP either
 
Thank you for replying with good info :¬)

My point is...

"It should be something we can change"
There should be Medical Investigation into this with possible medical help

I cant stand the "its just Dawn phenomenon! nothing to see here move along" concept
It depresses me and im doing all the right stuff too with LCHF im down from 11mmol to 5.0 now during the day.

Its just spending 8 hours of uncontrolled BG madness seems counter productive

Sorry for the <Rant On> type thread but its how I feel :¬(
 
oh i agree when your bg numbers mean alot, its frustrating, but we should be glad in that in the whole we are in the fortunate position to be able to control our own condition, not many health issues can be controlled by will power, we should think ourselves lucky

and please dont apologise for ranting, it make us feel like we arent the only ones feeling like this, and its always nice to hear another LCHF success story
 
Andy12345 said:
edit: you dont spend the 8 hours with high bg, it happens at dawn hehe, your being prepared to get up and go
Click to expand...

SO the fix for this is wither don't sleep or put the alarm clock on and get up before dawn :¬)
Some how I don't feel this will work <Joke ya gotta laugh sometimes>

Seriously though im sure it starts at a bout 1-2 am so its a lot of hours anyways :¬)
 

Good point :¬)
 

Getting up before dawn doesn't stop it! Tried that one. MIne usually happens between 6-8 am. If I test at 5 am my BG's are fine. I find it quite useful to test at 8 am because it's my 'worst case scenario' and I need to know how I am doing. Having had a fatty liver for years, I actually love the fact that I can tell it is working properly. Then....... I always was a bit strange.
 
I
If you really want to know when it starts for you, you could test hourly through the night, for a couple of nights. That might settle your mind.







Alternatively, you might just be too tired to care any more.
 
AndBreathe said:
If you really want to know when it starts for you, you could test hourly through the night, for a couple of nights. That might settle your mind.
Alternatively, you might just be too tired to care any more.
Click to expand...

I might just do that but knowing my luck the shock of waking up/stress will cause false positives - so I've had my rant ill sink back into background :¬)

Thanks all
 
I did a number of tests and I found that not eating any carbs in the evening reduced my morning readings progressively over a number of days. Five days or so.

There is no theory for this so I made up a working one that seemed to work.

We all worry about the last mean we had and we measure two hours afterwards or so. What happens to that food then? I have about thirty feet of gut where this food is being processed and I am beginning to think that this is plundered for the dawn phenomena.

I never tried eating no carbs so that my gut was empty of them. I did try eating no carbs after 4pm each day and this resulted in a progressive drop in my morning readings. I could eat anything I liked which resulted in a morning reading of 8 or more and I could then eat no carbs in the evening and get a morning reading in the 4's. I repeated this experiment about six times and it worked every time. It still needs work.

No carbs in gut ........no high morning reading.

I overdid it of course and on a couple of occasions when I went to Tesco etc. I went hypo. Nursie is concerned how I did that without pills. She now says I should snack more.

This is my story and it may not work for everyone. Other cures are available.
 
Dawn phenomenon means that your blood glucose levels have dropped to something below 4.0 during the night and it is your body's homeostatic response to stop you going hypoglycaemic.

Without it, you might not wake up and simply end up in a coma.




It's prolongued high blood glucose levels that do the damage. It's when it goes up but your insulin doesn't bring it back down. I had a 9.3 last night after a cream bun but it was 4.8 an hour later. In both cases I tested 2 fingers and had similar results. Something is obviously working. It's when it is 9.7 and still above 9.0 an hour later and worse still, still high at 2 hours after. That's when it's time to get worried. That means your body can't cope with the extra sugar and it is that which causes the damage. Yours appears to be brought down to normal levels, not that 6.1 is particularly high. Keep doing what you have been doing and those 6.1s will be 5.5s and your 5s will be 4.5s eventually.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Squire Fulwood said:
I did a number of tests and I found that not eating any carbs in the evening reduced my morning readings progressively over a number of days. Five days or so.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I just checked my food log and found that my lowest morning readings were associated with eating some carbs the night before (not much, just peas or berries), and my highest readings were with no carbs to speak of. Just shows we are all different I guess.
 
Yorksman said:
I had a 9.3 last night after a cream bun but it was 4.8 an hour later.
Click to expand...

Yorks - How long after your cream bun did you have the 9.3 score? I'm still rather concerned by bigger numbers (albeit they're not that big in themselves), even when they drop fairly promptly. I'm adding back carbs these days and trying to strike a balance, but like most of us, I'm finding my personal "moderation" difficult to define.
 
While I said I had tried every thing to lower my DP I havnt tried testing at every hour through the night I think I may possibly end up in jail if I tried that one (I am evil when tired)
CAROL
 
carty said:
While I said I had tried every thing to lower my DP I havnt tried testing at every hour through the night I think I may possibly end up in jail if I tried that one (I am evil when tired)
CAROL
Click to expand...

Carty, that suggestion was in response to the suggestion to @madusmacus suggesting his dawn phenomenon began at 1-2:00.
 
AndBreathe said:
Yorks - How long after your cream bun did you have the 9.3 score?
Click to expand...

That was after an hour or so. I had other things as well, a large plate of wheat noodles, a banana, orange, and a rather nice orange liqueur it wasn't just the bun. The important thing is the big drop within an hour. No exercise, no vinegar, nothing to hurry it along. I was simply watching TV. The insulin reponse is working. Woke up to a 4.8 too. I've noticed similar when I have eaten some chocolates. I'm always OK after 2 hours irrespective of the high. That 9.3 was something I hadn't seen for the best part of a year now. Highest I've been in months is a 7.5 but I did push it. When I was first diagnosed I was still around the 9.0 12 hours after a meal!
 
Sorry just my warped sense of humour
CAROL
 
AndBreathe said:
I

If you really want to know when it starts for you, you could test hourly through the night, for a couple of nights. That might settle your mind.

Alternatively, you might just be too tired to care any more.
Click to expand...

Yes, but sleep deprivation affects by BG
 
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