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BG Drops after Breakfast

Kaz261

Well-Known Member
Messages
413
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi Guys, I hope you're all keeping well?

I haven't been around for a while and have been doing pretty good, however the last couple of mornings I have had a drop in BG 30-40 mins after breakfast.

This morning I was 5.3 before eating and then felt low while on the school run (I drove today so hardly any walking involved). Tested and was 4.2. A similar thing happened yesterday but I dropped to 3.8. This has happened to me in the past, but not for a long time.

I have a theory and wanted to run it by you as you're far more knowledgeable than I. This weekend was my Daughter's Christening, so I was very much out of my usual routine on Sunday. I also shared a little pudding after lunch and later in the afternoon tried a very small piece of Christening cake. All of which I have done before with no ill effects!

Is it possible that my over indulgence
has triggered my pancreas to release too much insulin and it's accumulating and sitting in my blood overnight? When I eat breakfast, although my level is perfectly normal before eating, could that excess insulin be getting to work immediately, therefore my low GI/low-ish carb breakfast gets dealt with too quickly?

Also, is it reasonable to assume that after a day or two of eating normally again, my insulin could level out again?

I'm thinking of going back to see my GP and asking him to check my fasting insulin level. I presume there is a blood test that check this? I have never had this checked by my GP or Endo as far as I am aware.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. I've come so far and my confidence has grown considerably. I'm determined not to take a step backwards!

Many thanks
Kaz
 
Are you a type 2?

Are you on medication?

I would think its very unlikely that insulin produced would sit in your blood stream in waiting.......

Insulin doesn't actually work like that.....insulin allows the glucose in the blood stream to pass in to the cells of your body.....some of that glucose will go towards storage in muscle and the liver as well...

So once its been released into the blood stream, thats it....so you would go low before the next morning....

if your not injecting insulin or on oral meds then a low isnt an issue....well, you can get a low level, but you will recover....
 

Kaz has Reactive Hypoglycaemia, so things work very differently than you would expect for a T1 and most T2s.

@Kaz261
Good to see you!

i think your ideas about the extra carbs over the weekend make a lot of sense. When i mess up (too many carbs) it can take several days before my blood glucose levels go back to their usual patterns.

I expect, if you give it a few days, everything will revert back to normal.
 
Years ago, I had a machine hooked up to me that allowed my dsn to see what my bloods were doing while I was asleep. Maybe if u speak to ur endo this could b something to consider for you?

Hope you get to the bottom of this phenomenon!
 

I'm not diabetic, I have reactive hypoglycaemia. No medication, just controlled by a reduced carb diet.

Basically RHer's have an overshoot in their second phase insulin response, which makes us hypo. The general theory is not to hyper and therefore avoid the hypo. For me this usually happens anything between 2-3.5 hours after eating carbs. Therefore, my breakfast (which I have perfected over many months to suit my bodies response) shouldn't drop me 40 mins after eating. It makes no sense....to me anyways!

As you say, I'm sure if I did nothing and sat it out, I would recover, however this is a little tricky when I have two young children in tow and I'm driving.

I'm just trying to understand what could be happening so I can make some changes to overcome it if necessary
 
AFoxy74 said:
Years ago, I had a machine hooked up to me that allowed my dsn to see what my bloods were doing while I was asleep. Maybe if u speak to ur endo this could b something to consider for you?

Hope you get to the bottom of this phenomenon!
Click to expand...

Thank you. I was discharged from my Endo over a year ago, so I have to go it alone unfortunately. I use the Freestyle Libra periodically which does the same thing. Generally, my BG remains at a steady 4-4.5 for most of the night. I'm going to order another sensor now, so I can see what's happening. It's just a shame they are too expensive to use all the time. Would make life easier for all of us I'm sure!
 

OK. I'll share my own visualisation of what may be happening to you. Please note, I'm neither an HCP or RH'er, so it is a straightforward hypothesis/idea.

On Sunday you gave your system a bit of an unexpected (to it) assault, by eating more carbs than usual (and who could blame you on a big family day like that).

The thing is, our bodies like to work to a routine. The way our digestive systems work is they work to a bit of a benchmark routine. That's why if we have the odd carb hit, we can sometimes see it bit of a reading that just makes us thing,....... "Eh?!!??" It might seen very high for what we've had, by comparison to when we might have eaten those things more routinely.

Anyway, so having given your body a bit of a yummmmmtastic hit, next day your body was anticipating it happening again, and was better prepared, so it delivered more insulin (and probably other digestive enzymes too) to your blood stream, except you had gone back to your usual way of eating, so your bloods overshot your new normal levels.

I would be curious to see how things go over another couple of days of reverting back to pre-christening eating and drinking. Hopefully, you'll get back into your groove promptly.

Like novorapidboi26, if you have too much insulin sloshing around in your blood stream, it wouldn't hold it, inactive for any length of time.

So, that's my theory.
 
it's horrible going low like that and definately frustrating when your normal meals give you unexpected results.

Although insulin does not sit around waiting, your pancreas does preplan and prepare for the carbs it expects. Hopefully a few days back on your routine will improve things.
 
Thanks for your responses. What you've all said does make sense and helps me to find a possible explanation for this madness!

It's so frustrating and disappointing as it's almost 12 months since I recorded a low. At least it wasn't the real crashing, horrible hypo like I used to have in the early days. Technically at 4.2 it wasn't even a hypo at all, but it's lower than my body likes to be.

Thanks again for you help and advice. I'm sure you've helped me make more sense of it than my GP ever could!
 
Perhaps eat very low carb and higher fat for a few days to stunt any extra insulin production?
 

Hi Kaz, great to hear from you and the way you are achieving normality, in our unique way! (Why is it, we only hear from you, when you are stuck?) Only kidding, I know how busy you are!

I think like the others, who have replied have given a reasonable answer.
Think it just the (sort of) morning after effects from the christening!

But I will add, that, having awakened the beast, it has carried on over the next day.
Because your liver got a call as well, it triggered the extra glucose in the morning and obviously the extra insulin. (A form of dawn phenomenon????)
If you remember it took days or a couple of weeks to get control when you initially started low carbing.
Us RH ers do not like to be disturbed by extra hormones, initiated by those carby baddies!

Hope that makes sense!

I had a recent out of the blue hyper, that I thought was a hypo, but for some reason a really small apple kicked me out of ketosis for a day or so. Why I don't know, as I always have one every day! It's never happened before or since!
It took a couple of days of fasting and ultra low carb to settle my bloods back to normal levels and ketosis. Our bodies like a smooth ride and prefer steady blood glucose levels!

Just for a day or so, if you can, until you do settle down, don't have breakfast, and eat a little later, see how it goes! Just a suggestion!

Hope you feel better soon and do keep posting and letting us know how you are!
 

Thanks. What you've said makes sense and I'm fully expecting things to take a few days to settle down again
.

I did think about missing breakfast but it's not something I've done before and I have to walk to school. At weekends, I don't always eat upon waking but don't usually eat later than 9am. I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Sorry I don't get on the forum so much these days. Life seems to get busier as the kids get older! At least I feel like I'm living and enjoying life again though. I do check in from time to time to see how you're all doing. There seems to be quite a few newbies. Our unique club is growing quite quickly!

I'll let you know how things go over the next few days.

Thanks again and all the best.
Kaz
 

It's a bit like the LCHF that is advised on the forum!
Little by little, we are seeing more and more people that have been diagnosed or think it fits there symptoms. It is growing and not as unique as we had believed.
We are still few in number, but growing! And within that uniqueness, is that everyone's RH is unique!
We have a treatment of a kind that works (for most!)
We know that it does help the longer we do it!
We try and help posters get there thinking in the right place.
Get them to fight and encourage to get referrals and get the tests necessary.
Information and education of how and why this unique condition can get our health and weight under control and as you say Kaz, get our lives back!
And that's the reason(s) why me and Brun started our forum.

A the best, Kaz, keep well.
Best wishes.
 
Just a little update. This morning is the first morning since Sunday that I feel my bg has behaved itself and I feel semi-normal. That's not to say it won't play me up later as I've been getting a few odd results throughout the day, but for now I'm doing good!

My New Libra sensor seems to have settled down and giving more sensible readings, so I can now monitor things closely for a few days. I've attached a screenshot of a scan taken an hour and a half after breakfast and after our walk to school.

Thanks again for all the advice, I'm certain you were right. Just goes to show that one day of overindulgence (if you can call 3 small spoons of ice cream, a taste of chocolate fudge cake and a small piece of fruit cake overindulgence!), can throw your system out for several days.

Another lesson learned for me and I hope by sharing my experience it might help others.

All the best
 
What a great flat line!

So glad you feel much better!

ATB.
 
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