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BS spikes

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Gilly M-S

Newbie
When people say something has spiked their BS level, does that mean the BS level has risen and gone above the normal band 3.9-10. And then come down. Does it still count as a BS spike if levels go up but remain in normal band. I'm trying to get my head around what ingredients seem to raise my levels more or quicker than others and it seems like wheat is a buggy for me.
 
As I understand it a spike is when you eat something your BSL goes sky high and then goes down just as quickly. The two red lines in these graphs are spikes (hospital infusion of glucose with a lot of insulin on board; they go up and straight back down). This is an artificial, kind of, situation because I'd had too much rapid acting insulin but the same thing can happen if I have a high-carb meal. Straight up and straight down. That's what I call a spike anyway. If I have weetbix for breakfast my graph will look similar. Sky high, down.

Edit: there are no "spikes" on Sunday's graph. It's just high
 

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Gilly M-S said:
When people say something has spiked their BS level, does that mean the BS level has risen and gone above the normal band 3.9-10. And then come down. Does it still count as a BS spike if levels go up but remain in normal band. I'm trying to get my head around what ingredients seem to raise my levels more or quicker than others and it seems like wheat is a buggy for me.
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Blood glucose rises and falls happen to non-diabetics as well - the main difference seems to be that the rises may not be quite so high and the falls happen more quickly, but it can be hard to tell a well-controlled diabetic CGM result from a non-diabetic one.

There's no accepted definition of "spike" . However I see people taking about normal and predictable rises in BG as a "spike" when BG has gone from (eg) 5.5 to 7.5 and back again.

That's almost within acceptable error for glucometers. And it depends at what point you take the second reading - if after 20 minutes, you may be close to peak BG: if after two hours, your system may have already returned you to baseline. I would consider a reading of 10 (especially at +2 hrs) to be well out of normal range.

To me a spike is a sharp and unexpected rise to a high level. My judgement of what is "high" in my case has altered. If it comes down quickly, that's good. I'd be much more worried about something that elevates BGs quickly and keeps them high for long periods.

I tested for pastry once in the early days and went from mid fives to >13. That was high then and would still consider it high now. But I'm Ok with a single latte that will take me to over 9 in 20 minutes as I'll be back at baseline after 60 minutes.
 
I should mention that I don't consider total BSL as "spikes". As can be seen on my Sunday graph I was high all day. I don't consider any of that a spike because although not very good it was steady. It wasn't going straight up and down. But those two peaks on Monday I certainly call spikes because even though the peak BSL wasn't very high they dropped back down so suddenly. That's what a spike is to me, not how how high the BSL is.
 
I think that Type 1's, Type 2's and people with RH differ somewhat as to their definition of a BG spike because of the different nature of their conditions.
To me, anything going high enough, fast enough to be a concern is a 'spike' - even if it takes its own sweet time in coming down again.
 
ianf0ster said:
I think that Type 1's, Type 2's and people with RH differ somewhat as to their definition of a BG spike because of the different nature of their conditions.
To me, anything going high enough, fast enough to be a concern is a 'spike' - even if it takes its own sweet time in coming down again.
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I have to respectively disagree. A spike has nothing to do with type 1, type 2, type 3c, RH or any "type". It's an abrupt elevation in BSL that comes down just abruptly. Before CGMs spikes probably weren't even noticed in normal circumstances
 
@plantae I suggest that your view (above) is more typical of somebody with RH or Type 1.
For a Type 2 a 'spike' is only of concern if it lasts more than 90 min or so (still high at 2hrs after first bite). Because otherwise (for a Type2) it's just a 'normal non-diabetic' response. Since we are (usually) in no danger of Hypo.
But that wouldn't be a 'spike' at all by your definition.
 
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