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Blood sugar spikes

Isobel123

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
What's the best thing to eat to help control your blood sugar. For example, for breakfast I generally eat toast that's around 17.7g carbs each slice of bread, branflakes or porridge. I get quite high sugars up to 24mmol and then coming back down to my original number, say 7mmol after about 5-6 hours. I want to avoid that spike as I always have shakiness after or tiredness. Anyone else get this or any suggestions on food would be great?
 

Firstly, when do you inject in relation to eating? I assume you do.

You are choosing foods that are bad for blood sugars as they contain fast burning carbs. A simple egg or some bacon would be much better if your insulin is not doing its job for some reason.
 
Isobel123 said:
I get quite high sugars up to 24mmol and then coming back down to my original number
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That is one big bg spike, do you inject ahead of your food to give your insulin time to work?

Insulin's like Novorapid & Apidra take around 20 mins to work so injecting ahead gives the insulin a head start to match the digestion of the food, I inject 20mins ahead for my breakfast (porridge) but some members say they have to inject 30-40mins before to reduce the postprandial spikes.
 
urbanracer said:
You are choosing foods that are bad for blood sugars as they contain fast burning carbs.
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Not only that, but it sounds like it's ALL carbs and nothing else (protein or fat). That's almost certainly going to yield a quick sharp spike.

While I'm not going to throw out the low-carb diet idea just yet, I will say that it's important to understand how a carb-only meal can potentially effect you compared to a balanced meal of carbs, protein, and fat.
 
For breakfast time, I'm already on 1.5 units to 10g of carbs as the 1-10g wasn't enough. Now that it's eventually coming down the ratio is correct. I take my insulin right before or right after eating. I've only been advised by the specialist nurses to do that. I could try take my insulin 10-15 mins before hand. I do like eating things like porridge ect.. As its slow release carbohydrates
 
Right after is definitely not the way to go if a meal typically spikes you. You may actually need to move your injection to twenty minutes earlier than the meal in order to hit the spike for a carb heavy meal (unless you are already at hypo levels).

Noble head's suggested reading matter helped me to strike the spike.

If you are recently diagnosed and still producing insulin sometimes, you do need to be careful.
 
I always take NovoRapid 15-20minutes before I eat. Found tjat taking it after not ass effective.
Cereals I find are tough on BG so I take a lot more insulin.. Usually 30-35 units. Rarely do I spike over 12 BG.
I've only had a hypo about 4 times in the last 2 years. One woke me up and I was shaky and thirsty. Had 2 chocolate eclare and some diet caffeine free coke and felt great. BG went to 9 an HR later.
 
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but if you're spiking to 24mmol/l, your current approach is obviously not working. As others mentioned, it may be necessary to inject earlier before you eat.

You hear a lot of people with type 1 say "I can eat whatever I want, I just have to give myself insulin." While that's technically true, it's never that easy.

I'm not saying that you have to give up eating the things you enjoy eating, but you may have to make some adjustments if you want the best of both worlds.

There are a lot of foods that I enjoy eating, but they raise my blood sugar and/or make me fat. I don't avoid them entirely, but I do limit myself to enjoying them only on rare occasions and in moderation. It's not that I CAN'T eat them. It's just that it's no longer worth it to me to eat it and then have to deal with the massive blood sugar swings for the next three days.
 
I only eat a small amount for breakfast, a small yogurt and I inject just before the meal I am going to eat. Unless( not often) it is a bigger carb meal and I may have 1/2 before and the rest later. Remember one size doesn't fit all. If I injected 30 minutes before, I would be hypoing all the time. Also, it depends on what type of foods you are eating, a lot of carbs can give a big spike. You will probably need to some testing and tweaking and hopefully you will get into much better figures soon.
All the best.
 
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I completely agree. You (we) have disease that revolves around food. Pumping yourself full of insulin is not the way to go. Not only is that unhealthy but you risk going hypo. We all love carbs, who doesn't, but with this nasty disease they should be minimized. As mentioned, try eggs and bacon or sausage. Unfortunately with diabetes we should be making adjustments to our diets regardless of what we like to eat. Fortunately for me there are tons of low carb foods that I like so I just chose to eat those and forget the rest.
 
I too eat a very small BF and a small piece of lettuce is the only carb. If I injected early I would hypo as well so I inject right before and all is well. If I get preoccupied with something after I inject I feel ithe insulin starting and need to start eating within 5 minutes
 
If I have egg and a couple Zero yogurts, I never have to inject before I eat them Things like salads I also never inject.
 
True that.
Saturday I had my usual salmon and mayo mashed together on a wrap with a side of guac and celery. Took my usual 1/2 unit. Left the house and 2 hours later felt funky so took my bs 57! Went and got a Caesar salad and just ate the lettuce with zero carb dressing and went to 98 in 1.5 hours. Crazy. Then ate reg dinner with regular 1/2 unit and all was well. If I'm slightly on the low side one radish will raise me 7 points. No need for juice for me haha
 
Thank you everyone, I had my breakfast this morning and had my insulin 15 minutes before I ate it. I do understand that everyone's body will react differently as said before that this can cause hypos for some. I woke up at 7.7mmol and checked 3 hours later and I was down to 15mmol. This is great I still felt a bit ****** but no where near like I would at 24mmol! Will try 15-20 minutes tomorrow and hopefully have a better reading!
 
If you are eating carbs injecting early can help but I am basically on,y eating fat and protein which are much slower.
It will probably make a difference too if you are having toast, porridge or some other carb. They all can act different. I think a lot of us eat the same BF almost everyday. Takes a lot of guess work out at the time of day we are most insulin resistant. Takes the thought off of food too.
 
Hi there Isobel
another factor that you mentioned was I:C ratios.
it might be that further tweaks may be needed there as well.
My ratios are different at different times of day.

Really the only way to figure this out is trial and error after talking to your DSN .
you could also ask your DSN about getting a half unit pen as that will help getting doses matching carbs a bit easier

I always like to try change of dosage when I know I am going to be at home .

as others have said adjusting the timing can help a lot too.
 
Hi Isobel

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a terrible time of late. It's hard to plan your life around when you eat and sometimes you are just going to eat and inject at the same time. However, if you can wait 20 to 30 minutes it'll really help your blood sugar spikes settle a little bit.

I've found that by waiting at least 20 minutes after injection, sometimes up to 40 if I'm having something very carbohydrate heavy, that the spike is lessened a great deal.

Like some have said, your ratio for pre-meals might be off. I'm currently trying to work them out myself but it can vary at different times of day. My diabetes specialist said that I might be insulin resistant in the morning or when my sugars are high so it might take me more insulin to get down than normal.

Lastly, go cautiously with your correction doses. I know that it worked for you and took you down to 7mmols but I'd rather you were a little higher than you wanted than crashed later on in a dramatic fashion and spent all day correcting the high.

Good luck!
 

That is a big reduction in bg levels, perhaps injecting 20-30 mins before you eat will reduce the spike considerably further

Just a word to the wise, if the porridge you eat is the instant/quick cook variety like Readybrek then think about changing your porridge to a one that isn't as highly processed as this will have less of a impact on your bg levels, I use Jumbo or Pinhead oats but also add some fat to the mix in the way of seeds and natural greek yogurt, it adds a little more carbs to the meal but the fat content helps to reduce the spike which results in more stable postprandial bg levels,
 
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