Blood Glucose and missed meals

[Molly0]

Over the last 2 or 3 days I have eaten very little. No particular reason - I just haven't felt hungry. I never encourage myself to eat as I am overweight and am trying to lose quite a lot. Anyway, I decided to take my blood glucose reading. I take it sporadically rather than regularly about once or twice a week. It was about 3 hours since I had anything to eat at all and t hat was just a plain soya yoghurt. My blood glucose is normally pretty good. In fact, I often think that I don't even have diabetes at all because the levels are between 4 and 7 which is normal I believe. Imagine my shock to find that the reading was 8.5. It hasn't been that high since I have been testing it myself. Can eating too little actually increase blood glucose levels?

Another thing, my nurse tested my feet and foundd that I hadn't a lot of feeling in my right big toe. She is arranging for me to go to podiatry. I have trouble looking after my feet because I am disabled and can't bend my knees sufficiently to deal with my feet. Anyway, I've been waiting since March for an appointment with podiatry so far. Is this problem with my toe something I should worry about? The nurse said I need to look after my feet - I think I need that appointment! My toenails are growing in!

Anyway, can anyone tell me about the skipped meals and problems with blood glucose?

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I assume you're type 2? Anyway, I do intermittent fasting (on purpose) - skip breakfast most days, occasionally breakfast and lunch and, once every few months, 1 to 3 day fasts. I've never had high blood glucose levels while fasting, unless I've been exercising vigorously. High blood glucose can be caused by lots of things other than food (like an infection), but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say maybe it was the yogurt. I would recommend that you do some testing on the common foods you eat: before, 1 hour after and 2 hours after. Keep a log and you'll see what foods to avoid or eat in reduced amounts.

Definitely get your feet looked after!

 

[BooJewels]

I was going to post that all diabetics are very different and it's a very individual condition with no set patterns of response. NoCrbs4Me has illustrated my point perfectly in that he doesn't experience a rise in BG with little food - but I tend to. I posted this comment in another thread earlier - if I miss a meal, or have one delayed, where many diabetics might have a hypo, I tend to find that my BG rises instead. I think my body panics that I'm about to starve, so dumps more glucose into my bloodstream.

There are of course many reasons why you could have had an unexpected high reading - soy yogurt is high in protein (I think) and that acts a little like carbs in raising BG, but at a slower rate - so your peak could well have been 3 hours later, or you could be sickening for a cold or something which might raise it too.

You'd need to keep a close eye on your diet and readings for a while to establish for yourself what your own patterns are and what effect certain foods or activity have on BG - those are very individual too. So anyone else can merely speculate as to the specific cause.

And please do attend to your feet - if you can't groom your own, please ask someone to do it for you or avail yourself of the diabetic services offered - although I think you might have to pay for nail trimming etc. these days. My husband had a hip replacement last year and whilst it was a great success and he's fully fit again, the one thing he can't do is get his left foot to the correct angle to trim his nails, so I now do them for him. I should have checked those marriage vows more carefully!