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Blood sugars 8.4 bedtime & 8.2 on waking?

tcamper1963

Active Member
Messages
39
Hi,

I have been diagnosed as pre diabetes BUT prior to my Hbac1 test I had been on a low carb diet for 6 months purely for weight loss.

By chance a friend of mine has a gluocose meter so out of curiosity we tested out bloods in the morning. Well, blow me down with a feather my bloods were 6.9 and my partners was 4.5!

So being curious and having diabetes in my family I did some research which culminated in me requesting a Hbac1 test and low and behold pre-diabetic!

So fast forward to 6 weeks ago, I travel through Vietnam by bicycle, can't avoid carbs, come back to discover my blood sugars are too high.

Back on the low carb diet, and now testing my bloods 5 times a day.

This is what I have discovered:

8.4 @ 10pm (bedtime)
8.2 @ 2am
8.2 @8am (on waking)

This has happened on the 3 nights I have been testing.

Additionally this was yesterday's food.

Dinner@ 7pm : stir fry veg with salmon
Lunch @ 2pm : chicken legs : Greek yoghurt with bluberries raspberries and a sprinkling of gronla (7.5 g of carbs)
Breakfast : coffee with milk and a few more throughout the day.

Similar food intake yesterday.

So why on earth are my blood sugars 8.4 bedtime and 8.2 on waking???

Any ideas would be gratefully received...
 
What veg did you have for dinner? If it was leafy greens, that was a bit high. If it was underground veggies like carrots etc, that might explain the rise. You might want to skip the granola and just have some nuts or shredded coconut, skip the berries for now and see what happens. Is the yoghurt full fat? (It should be).

You're relatively high considering what you're eating, and you have been low carbing for a while, after a big carb load in Vietnam... I think you might want to go see your doc and ask for C-Peptide and GAD tests to be on the safe side.
Good luck!
Jo
 
If you were eating a high carb diet (as you were in Vietnam) then your body is probably desperately trying to dump out the excess glucose generated by the carby food.
Your bloods will likely be high until you have reduced your glucose stores.
Carry on with the low carbing (maybe skip the granola) and they should start to come down. If they don't then see if you can get a c-peptide test to check you are still producing enough endogenous insulin for your needs.
 
Thank you... I have requested a blood test from the doctor via the receptionist but I didnt know about this c peptide test. I only asked for AC1.

They may refuse as they only have a test which says I am midly pre diabetic, they are not able to take on board that I started my low carb journey over a year ago!

They simply say to me, it's not that bad!!! Bit it seems obvious to me that I have so far been able to control the diabetes with diet, exercise and a loss of 10kg of weight.

I am very frustrated by their attitude. I feel like going back to my old diet fir 3 months just to prove or disprove diabetes!!!

The waiting time for an appointment is generally 3 to weeks!!
 
OMG..Yesterday's carb intake was less than 50g....the thought of, and I have tried it once or twice to go to 20g is alarming!!!
Thanks for your response though....Oh heavens above
 
tcamper1963 said:
OMG..Yesterday's carb intake was less than 50g....the thought of, and I have tried it once or twice to go to 20g is alarming!!!
Thanks for your response though....Oh heavens above
Click to expand...
Sorry. Bulkbiker has a point, your liver could still be shedding stored glucose... I sincerely hope that's the case.

There's plenty of people who do better with the assistance of metformin or gliclazide. There's no shame in needing medication, eventually. You're nowhere near that point yet, and may never be, but... Food is a rather big part of a lot of people's joie de vivre, and you do have choices here. Keto, carnivore and the like are diets that aren't suitable to some people purely because it makes them unhappy. If what you've got on your plate doesn't make you happy, (or to toss Kondo in there, "Spark joy"), it may be time to look further.
 
Thank you for that wisdom.
 
Update: doctor has come back with 'you are due a blood test once a year, your next one is due December 2020!!
 
tcamper1963 said:
Update: doctor has come back with 'you are due a blood test once a year, your next one is due December 2020!!
Click to expand...
Well 'd certainly carry on monitoring your blood sugars and if you see no improvement then go and batter down the docs door. Ideally with a record of your observations.
 
Diabetes doesn't operate on a daily cycle. It doesn't reset overnight. Your body is full of excess glucose that has been accumulating for decades. If beating it were as simple as watching what you're currently eating, then it would be reversible within 48h. To liberate and burn off all this stored glucose can take a long time.
 

OK. .. thats useful information, I have been low carbing for over a year and have lost 11kg....had to eat rice and noodles in Vietnam but did cycle for 5 hours a day for 5 days per week with 2 x rest days..for 4 weeks in total (1300km) suppose therefore that I could have been diabetic for a number of years without the health professionals taking any notice of me when I say to them I have been feeling tired!! And that I have a family history of Diabetes!!!

So do I need to push for some extra blood tests...??
 
bulkbiker said:
Well 'd certainly carry on monitoring your blood sugars and if you see no improvement then go and batter down the docs door. Ideally with a record of your observations.
Click to expand...

Yes thank you... I have been recording what I eat and taking lots of blood measurements and will see if the GP will take notice this time..

It's a learning curve and I suspect I have had insulin resistance for a good number of years prior to it becoming more noticeable as diabetes....

But to be honest I have had to dig down and do the research myself...the GP have been pretty poor. I have very little faith.

For example I go to docs 2 years ago with an ever expanding waistline and tiredness, they tested me for thyroid only. They said all was fine no further investigation, 6 months later it was discovered I had a 23cm Ovarian cyst ( I looked 7 months pregnant!) Emergency hysterectomy here in the UK after having cycled 600 miles in Sri Lanka!!!

I now do research myself and with the info and support from this (new to me ) forum I am hoping to get to the bottom of my blood sugars....
 
tcamper1963 said:
So do I need to push for some extra blood tests...??
Click to expand...

I can't answer that question, but the advice I always give is to seek an avenue whereby you can have your insulin production tested. Fasting and/or c-peptide. Insulin profiling is the single most important measure of metabolic health, and provides a clear roadmap of how to move forward, yet it's treated by most doctors as some kind of black magic mumbo jumbo. You may struggle to get a doctor interested in this, in which case it's not especially expensive to have done privately.
 

Hey....Thats good info....I will get it done privately...do you know where? What do I search for on the net? Any idea of prices?
 
tcamper1963 said:
Update: doctor has come back with 'you are due a blood test once a year, your next one is due December 2020!!
Click to expand...
Did you explain things appear to have changed for you?

Alternatively, you can have a private test done for £29, or thereabouts. (Although would have been cheaper in Vietnam!)
 
tcamper1963 said:
Hey....Thats good info....I will get it done privately...do you know where? What do I search for on the net? Any idea of prices?
Click to expand...

This discussion may be of interest if you intend to pursue insulin testing. It should be noted that Medichecks will now only accept blood samples taken at the clinic in London. When I had mine done they were still operating the postal service. Link below;

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/medichecks-fasting-insulin.160959/
 

I’m surprised at these levels if you are low carbing. Are you sure you aren’t consuming other carbs somewhere? Fruit juice and smoothies are both out. Look at all product labels as some bought items can have a lot of carbs in them.
Also your liver will deliver glucose to your body in the hours just before you get up so a similar morning reading to your evening reading wouldn’t surprise me.
Download the app MySugr when you have entered at least 4 readings a day, and done that for a week, it will give you a pretty good estimate of your HbA1c.
 

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tcamper1963 said:
I am midly pre diabetic
Click to expand...

Hi there, just to add don't be put off by being told it's 'pre diabetes'. It might well be but that's what they said to me before diagnosis and 3 years later I was type 1. I still think the pre diabetes was actually the onset of it all. Good idea to get your tests done now, I wish I had back then. x
 
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