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Blood sugar goes up in the morning on its own!

R

RJ84

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7
Anyone else find that their blood sugar can rise without having anything to eat or drink in the morning ?

If on waking up my blood sugar is say 5.5, if I don't have anything to eat or drink and check it again maybe about an hour later it will more often than not have shot up to about 12.0 or 15.0.

This has always been the case and not just started happening lately.

I'm type 1 and have been for almost 7 years.

My diabetic nurse doesn't seem to have any idea either.

Thanks
 
Try eating some breakfast! It may sound odd, but that's probably what you need to do (along with your normal insulin as appropriate). If you're up and out of bed charging around on an empty stomach your liver will compensate by releasing glycogen which raises your blood sugar. This used to happen to me, and still does occasionally as I really don't like eating much first thing.
 
kegstore said:
If you're up and out of bed charging around on an empty stomach your liver will compensate by releasing glycogen which raises your blood sugar. This used to happen to me, and still does occasionally as I really don't like eating much first thing.
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Shame the diabetes nurse couldn't give that explanation. Thanks.
There is no way I could go without breakfast :lol:
 
Thanks Jo, that makes sense.
I find it difficult to eat anything until at least an hour after waking up. I know I should and I'm going to start trying(soon anyway).

And concerning the diabetes nurse Chris. The last 4 or 5 times I've been to see one, it's been at my local doctors, and I think they are just normal(general) nurses, not specialists on diabetes. So I think I'll go and see an actual diabetes nurse at the local hospital next time.

Thanks
 
Hi RJ84

The reason blood glucose levels rise on waking is unfortunately a throw back to cave person days when the brain would initiate liver dumping of glucose basically to give you enough energy to go out and kill your next woolly mammoth :shock: :shock: :shock: for food.

I don’t know about you but I have never actually partaken of woolly mammoth. :lol: :lol: Unfortunately your brain does not realise that you will be getting food at some point. In some individuals this raising of blood glucose levels on waking is very pronounced.

As totsy posted it really helps to have your insulin & breakfast because this action halts the liver dumping glucose– if you cannot face food immediately on waking try the almond trick – that’s if you can eat nuts & you like almonds :lol: :lol: – eating even a couple of dried almonds can halt the liver dumping until you are ready to take your insulin & eat breakfast.

Best wishes

Txx
 
Brilliant, that explains what's been happening to me every day when I go to work! Thought my BI was running out but couldn't work out why it didn't 'run out' at weekends. I'll try the almonds. Thank you! By the way why is it almonds??
 
Hi

I am very newly diagnosed as type 2 and I have just started monitoring my own Blood Sugar level. I have a different version of this problem. Several times in the past week I have monitored immediately before going to bed and then again IMMEDIATELY on getting up, followed immediately by my usual breakfast, ie, no 'running around' before breakfast (other than shower, shave, etc), and no skimping on or delaying breakfast. My morning reading is always higher than it was the night before. My bed-time reading has always been under 7, my early morning reading is always 1 - 2 mm/l higher and usually over 7. So my Blood Sugar goes up while I am in bed asleep! Incidentally, I do not sleep too well and I often toss and turn quite a lot. Is this tossing and turning equivalent to others' 'running around'?
 


Plain and simple.....probably down to Dawn Phenomenon.
Read here, or look back in this thread at Kewgirl's post:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7885&hilit=+dawn+phenomenon#p73438

Ken
 
I was told by an endocrinologist that blood sugar rises when you don't eat because the body starts to digest its own fat supplies and it's this that causes a rise in BM. I've had it happen quite a lot and I still have problems eating breakfast but I've found that eating some fruit helps.
 

I suppose eating breakfast is akin to feeding the boiler, you may not feel it necessary to have heat at that moment but you have to keep the thing ready to go and it is undoubtedly best to make it a habit to keep the machinery (body) in good order.
 
My blood sugar is lower in the morning than when I go to bed..... but, it starts rising in the morning the minute I step out of bed - in the first 1/2 hour after waking it can go up by 3 mmol/L and stays up for about 3 hours - REGARDLESS of whether or not I eat - If I exercise before eating, that makes it even worse. I have tried eating a protein/fat breakfast, and then exercising, didn't stop the spike. I tried a small carb amount with protein/fat, then exercise - didn't work..... actually made the spike much worse by adding int he carbs.....I am going to try the apple cider vinegar tomorrow a.m. and see if that helps. Thanks everyone on here for sharing your experiences. I am determined to beat this Type 2 with diet and exercise. I started a Ketogenic Diet 33 days ago and my Blood Sugars (within 10 days) went down from a high of 23 mmol/L (414) to an average of 7.2 mmol/L(130). One morning this week it was 4.9 mmol/L (of course, then it went up to 9.5 mmol/L - but I WILL overcome this).
 
Also..... I have recently read that making sure your Omega 3 levels are high enough could stop these morning spikes - so I have today started an Omega 3 supplement - after a week or so I'll see if that is helping....
 
JanDor said:
Also..... I have recently read that making sure your Omega 3 levels are high enough could stop these morning spikes - so I have today started an Omega 3 supplement - after a week or so I'll see if that is helping....
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Ciao, did you see any effect with the Omega supplements? Thanks!
 
cocacola said:
Shame the diabetes nurse couldn't give that explanation. Thanks.
There is no way I could go without breakfast :lol:
Click to expand...

I asked my DN about this and she just said 'I don't know anything about the scientific aspects of diabetes' ! It's hardly a rare occurrence and ALL diabetes medical people should know exactly what it's all about!
 
diabela said:
Ciao, did you see any effect with the Omega supplements? Thanks!
Click to expand...
I just started today - so I don't think there will be a noticeable effect (if any) for a week or so --- I am assuming it takes the body a little while to adjust to a supplement?
 
you may need to a change of insulin
to me it looks like you need a longer lasting basel
may be Levemir spit morning and night.
but test every few hours in morning about 6 am
and if you can do a 3 am test.
the more test you can do from midnight to dawn the better
give this to your nurse
if she still has no idea
shot her.
 
We are gong to try Tresiba to reduce ipo and ideally solve the dawn effect.
Had anyone tried it yet?
Do you guys do the cho counting?
 
I never eat breakfast, my BG does rise, but usually by 2-3mmol by lunchtime. If I upped my basal I'd hypo during the night, so just need to take corrective doses of Novorapid as needed.
 
If I have sugar (carb) treat this happens to me for at least 3 days.

I have to really cut back on food and drain my liver. I get a very high before bf reading (this morning 7.6 because yesterday I had a cheeky nibble of cake!) After just a cup of tea and small lump of cheese (just in case) bgl went to 8.6 after 1 hr then 8.1 an hour later just waiting to do the 3 hr check which I know will be in the 7s.) This happens regardless of exercise. After lunch and dinner would be fine, but because I don't want this to happen I will skip lunch and dinner for a couple of days and bgl will be back to 5s before bf and 6s post bf!

I know you won't be able to do that being type 1 and on insulin but it may explain why it keeps happening... it seems the liver just wants to be up there in the morning so the only way for ME to counter that is to get rid of my body's ability to get up there by not having any glucose stores in my liver.
 
In answer to the original poster's question this is almost definitely the 'Dawn Phenomenon'. It is generally talked about as occurring between 4-8am, but actually it's quite specific to the person and their lifestyle and is the process (very simply) by which the body generates hormones to generate energy from reserves to wake up and go hunt There are methods for bringing it down such as time specific basal rates on an insulin pump or smaller breakfasts to reduce impact, etc. But this demands a very, very regular lifestyle... and who has that?

Avoiding breakfast simply reinforces the process as the body then becomes used to the pattern. Took me about 6-12 months to bring this down with increased time specific pump basal rates and before the pump injections on a different carb/insulin ration. However, it still regularly trips me up as you can't really control your hormone levels and the myriad of other everyday life things that can cause swings.

Hope this helps!

See: http://www.diabeticconnect.com/diabetes-discussions/general/7109-the-dawn-phenomenon-explained
 
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