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Blood Sugar - how long ?

mish1953

mish1953

Well-Known Member
Messages
87
Location
Ipswich
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi, Im fairly new at this , please forgive me if these are daft questions .

1) the NICE guidelines say
Fasting (waking and before meals).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l...(Type 1 & 2)
2 hours after meals........................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

I have only just started testing 2 hours after meals , the lowest I have got down to is 10.0 mmol/l .
This was mid morning to-day , breakfast was a 2 egg cheese omelette, coffee and 1x500 metformin ( only take one a day at present ) . As I'm new at this Im trying to do a lowish carb diet .

Should I be aiming towards getting it down to 8.5 mmol/l. to start with ?
( my Met will increase to 2X500 in a couple of days , one morning, one evening ) .
My early test on Monday was 13.7 , my DN tested me at 18.7 on Wed 2 hours after food .

2) Carbs I'm avoiding the usual , pasta bread rice and am loading up on veg , but veg must contain some carbs , My evening meal tonight was cauliflower with cheese and some bits of ham .
Lunch was carrot and celery strips with humous. I need to lose weight !
Are there any web sites that show carbs in food groups like veg ?

3) Sweating - I was sweating profusely at the back of my neck after meals before i started to look at carbs , I've noticed since trying to lower carb that the sweating has decreased, is sweating an indicator of high BS ?

Sorry if these sould a bit daft - I have been browsing the site to see if I could find the answers before posting ,

Thanks
Hamish - Ipswich
HBA1c 12.6%
Cholesterol 5.5.
BP 132/80
 
Hmm must have been adaft question then .

Ok Here's another - given what I have eaten to-day ie low carb you would think that there would be a reduction in my BS levels for this evening - assuming that the BG test is only showing your BS at the time that you take it , wheras Hba1c shows the levels over a larger period ( 90 days ?) .
BS level at 21:15 today was 12.8 .
I'm guessing that either the volume I ate ( whole medium cauliflower approx 16 g of carbs ) has an impact on BS or that low carb maybe isn't the best path for my diet.

cheers
Hamish
 
Hi mish

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to this but hopefully there will be someone along daytime tomorrow who will know.

I didn't have a meter when I was newly diagnosed and didn't start reducing carbs then.

Who knows what your BS levels would have been had you had a carby meal. I'd still go with reducing the carbs and give it a bit longer. I know it works for me.
 
I'm reasonably sure that 15g carbs from cauliflower is OK for a low carb diet. And you *did* get much lower readings than the previous 18.7 post meal.

And whilst I can't really comment on your levels (since I just change my Lantus dose to adjust fasting blood sugar - you might have to change your medication and/or diet) I'd tentatively say that 12.8 post-meal is reasonable given fasting glucose of 13.7.

Re 2: There's the Carbs and Cals book (also iPhone app), countless other books and websites, Google or possibly Wolfram Alpha.
Also, you mentioned hummus in passing - isn't that quite high in carbs as well?
 
For me since I went low carb (approx 30 gr per day) I definately feel the cold more. My hubby is a sweater and he also greatly reduced carbs which has reduced his sweating.
I encourage you to keep to it. It took me 5 months from being put on Metformin and going very low carb to reduce my 5.6 A1c to 5.0 and to stop taking all medication.
It may be prudent to work out exactly how many carbs are in the whole meal and record them.
Yes, there are web sites that give the carb content of vegetables. I took carrots out of my list as they were too high when I began. Humous also is too much for me. I found having a book with meal plans the best way to "see" what a low carb meal means and the best ones I had were "The Diabetes Revolution" - Atkins and "The Diabetes Solution" - Bernstein."
 
Hi Mish,
I'm sure lowering your carbs will prove to be beneficial for you. The amount you've lowered them by is substantial, but in my experience it takes a while for BG's to respond and settle down. I stayed in double figures for quite a few weeks then suddenly I got lower levels and they continued to drop. Now I'm rarely over 8, normally below 7, even after a fairly carby meal. My friend, recently diagnosed, had exactly the same response - a delay before levels started to reduce. One thing - don't just test after a meal, test before as well so you can see the amount your BG has risen as a result of the meal. It may be 12 after a meal, but if it was 11 before, the food hasn't done much to raise BG so is O.k
So stick with it, and I'm sure it will pay off.
 
Hi Mish

Have a look at Viv's Modified Atkins Diet, which is a sticky thread on the Low Carb Diet Forum under Food and Nutrition.

This diet gives you between 25g and 30g of carb per day, and you have no need to worry about the amount of carbs in each food because it's all worked out for you. You eat just the allowed foods, keeping to the limits where any are given. I've been on it for about 18 months now (with a few slips over wine :shock: , and around birthdays etc :oops: ), have lost 4 stone, got my blood glucose down to near-normal levels (latest HbA1c 5.2) and my cholesterol is okay too.

It does take time for blood glucose levels to come down. You've probably got insulin resistance, which stops the blood glucose being used in the muscle cells, so it stays in the blood for longer. Don't expect instant results - keep at it and you'll get there!

Viv 8)
 
Hi

You seem to be doing all the right things with your diet and from what you say the carb level is quite low. You do need to allow time for your BS to slowly come down as someone has said possibly due to insulin resistance. Increasing the Met will help a bit and there are further tablets that can be added should they be needed. I found Met alone was not adequate but others find it keeps them well under control as we are all different. Yes, aiming for 8.5 or less 2 hours after a meal is a good target but in your current newly diagnosed state even going down to 10 will be good.
 
Hi
It took me 85 days of testing + low carbing to consistently reduce my BS readings so keep going.

I keep a food diary. I work out my main meal of the day first and then split the remaining carbs evenly.
Snacks maybe 20g nuts or celery spread with hummus.
I've become an adventurous low carb cook to keep food interesting.
Two of the best investments were:
the low carb bible and Collins Little Gem Pocket carb. One is easy to carry the other is definitely not.
I may be seen lurking in Tesco's etc clutching a magnifying class and comparing carbohydrates on food labels (I wish they would print them larger!)
I get a great buzz now when I know the hard work of carb counting is working and it does get easier.
I average out about 60g a day now.
 
mish1953 said:
Hi, Im fairly new at this , please forgive me if these are daft questions .

1) the NICE guidelines say
Fasting (waking and before meals).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l...(Type 1 & 2)
2 hours after meals........................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

I have only just started testing 2 hours after meals , the lowest I have got down to is 10.0 mmol/l .
This was mid morning to-day , breakfast was a 2 egg cheese omelette, coffee and 1x500 metformin ( only take one a day at present ) . As I'm new at this Im trying to do a lowish carb diet .

Should I be aiming towards getting it down to 8.5 mmol/l. to start with ?
( my Met will increase to 2X500 in a couple of days , one morning, one evening ) .
My early test on Monday was 13.7 , my DN tested me at 18.7 on Wed 2 hours after food .
Click to expand...

Fairly new to this myself Hamish and like yourself was a tad confused with the differing/contradicting recommendations on ranges and here was my take on it.

I took onboard everything I had read from various forums and drew my own conclusions.

I decided to move away from numbers & figures and adopt a more sensible initial approach of aiming for mmol's of 'single figures' thus avoiding been reminded repeatedly I had failed to hit a particular number, getting a semblance of control seemed more important and avoiding getting myself hung up on achieving 'a number'. Stage two being, once I'm attaining the single figures on a regular basis tweak my intake/lifestyle in an effort to zero in on that magical 4>8 zone regularly as well.

That was my approach Hamish, each to their own, hope it helps.

As to the 2nd question...

My advice is similar to Grazer, test test test, before and after using a BGM, you need to educate yourself as to what effect a particular food has on your BG levels, it has taught me loads so far, pain in the butt (finger actually) at the onset but it'll become less frequent to test as your awareness of food grows, yesterday I tested twice as opposed to 7, morning and night only, all the food I had that day was already tried and tested.

Another small point, eat things in 'vanilla' format, ie: get the basics correct first.

To clarify, I had a sandwich yesterday with ham, my wife had likewise but with beetroot on it, as much as I wanted to have beetroot I didn't, the bread was a new type I was trying and didn't want to muddy the results with two unknown entities. Today for lunch I had that very same sandwich but with the beetroot, .......we'll have the results of that shortly.
 
Terminator 2 said:
Another small point, eat things in 'vanilla' format, ie: get the basics correct first.
Click to expand...

Good advice here. One more thing along this vein; HOW you cook something can change results. For example, if I have a good old king edward spud boiled or mashed, or cooked in the jacket, I'll go into double figures. If I parboil it for just a few minutes then slice it and cook in the oven with a bit of fat or olive oil, I get much better results. This is because the fat slows down the conversion of carbs to sugar - it effectively lowers the "GI" of the spud. Also, time of day is important. If I eat lots of carbs in the morning, I'm O.k. The same amount in the evening sends me high. Most people seem to be the other way around! So make sure you compare like with like before you draw conclusions; the variables are:_
what is the food?
How did I cook it?
What did I eat it with?
When did I eat it?
On Andy's "vanilla" theme, remeber that alcohol will have a massive effect on your readings, so don't compare a result without alcohol with a result with it. If I eat pasta after a couple or three of Riojas, my BG will be in the 6's. With no wine before, it will be in the 8's! Not telling you to become a plonky, just compare like with like.
Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice and encouragement everyone.

I was diagnosed in Aug 2010, and followed the NHS guidelines as I was on diet only, I had no ( zero ) follow up from my gp's surgery . Having had multiple infections this year, including hospital overnight on one occasion . I decided to confront my GP abou the reason for lots of infections, only then was a blood test done, and here we have a result BS gone nuts . Could be the infections that sent it up or that the diabetes resulted in lots of infection or a combination.
In any event your advice is invaluable .

Tea tonight - lettace, cucumber, tomato, and cold ham ,water .. test at 21:15 .

Thanks
Hamish - Ipswich
HBA1c 12.6%
Cholesterol 5.5.
BP 132/80
 
A quick update ..

These are my blood sugar levels taken 2 hrs after a meal .

Wed 05/10/11 18.9
Thur 06/10/11 13.5
Fri 07/10/11 12.3
Sat 08/10/11 12.5
Sun 09/10/11 10.0
Mon 10/10/11 11.2
Tues 11/10/11 6.0
Wed 12/10/11 6.3

So the answer to how long to reduce BS figures seems to be 7 days :shock:

Ok I know full well that the figures will bounce around and I expect them to go up and down but I'm really surprised , I tested twice last night to make sure that it was 6.0 , and fully thought that the BS would be back to around 10 tonight .. wow .

No exercise as such, work full time in IT at a desk.
Breakfast 2 wheat bisks ( aldi's ) , a wee bit of full fat milk, a few grains of white sugar.
Snack a few nuts and raisens
Lunch sandwich ( 2 slices ) multigrain wholemeal bread , thick ham , mustard
Cereal bar ( aldi's cranberry 21gm carb )
Snack apple
Dinner prawns, and loads of veg stir fried/steamed with chilli flakes

I'm only testing once a day in the evening but this lowish carb thing seems to work .

Thanks folks :D I now need to keep this going , stabilise the BS and lose weight .. when I get down to 20 stone I can start to exercise too ..

cheersly
Hamish - Ipswich
@ October 2011
HBA1c 12.6%
Cholesterol 5.5.
BP 132/80
 
Just one thing mish, the cereal bar isn't great. I know it sounds healthy, but lots of carbs and sugars. Sainsburys do an Atkins daybreak bar (boxes of five) that are similar but virtually no carbs or sugar
Good luck on the weight, and well done on the blood sugars.
 
Hi Mish,

I think this more or less agrees with my experiences after a holiday or a lapse in that it does seem to take about a week of close control to bring the numbers down. In my case, the fasting numbers take longer, maybe two weeks and are less consistent.
 
A few days further on ..
My figures now seem to be fairly consistent at 4.7 before a meal and 6.1 or 6.2 two hours after .

This is on a lowish carb diet , max two slices of burgen bread a day , 2 weetabix , meat , loads of veg, and a treat of 2 rich tea biscuits :)

Now to lose 6 stone :shock:
 
Wow! Wish I could get my levels to go that low. I'm just happy if I stay within the 4-7 range before I eat and under 8.5 2 hrs afterwards.!!!
 
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