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Sarah69

Sarah69

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,512
Location
Hethersett, Norwich
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Anything healthy!
I had a 6 monthly check yesterday my hba1c is down a tiny bit to 7.5. I'm now trying to lose weight and I learnt yesterday that not only does insulin increase your weight it also makes you hungry! When the consultant looked at my readings she said that my bedtime level was too low, it's been around 6/7 she said it should be 8/10 what are other peoples levels when going to bed? Also what are people's thoughts about milk, is whole milk better than semi skimmed?
 
Hi Sarah,

I'm a type 1, but in some ways that helps as I'm using insulin as well. I know that my levels don't change overnight (well, as long as I've not eaten or done insulin in the 5hrs or so before bed), so I aim for 5-6 & then wake up within 1.5mmol/L higher or lower. I don't think you should be aiming for 8-10 before bed unless your levels drop overnight.

Have you done a test of your long acting insulin effect overnight? You need to start it 5-6 hours after your last food & fast acting insulin, test, then set your alarm to wake you every 2-4hrs overnight & test again. Then you can see if your BG is steadily, rising, steadily falling, or falling & then shooting up with the Dawn Phenomenon (usually from about 4-5am).
Most people find their BG rises a couple of hours before waking & again in the hour after waking, and here's not much you can do about that, but if you can see that your BG doesn't drop into hypo if you start at 6-7 overnight, then you know you're on the right track.
I've no idea about milk - in what way do you mean better? Taste, effect on BG or effect on weight? I don't think I've noticed any difference in effect on BG, suppose it depends how much you use.
 
Hello Sarah

Before I started using a pump, I always made sure that I ate some carb before going to bed. Failing to do so ended up with me having a badish hypo somewhere between the hours of 2am-4am.

Once I started using a pump, I also started to do basal testing hr by hr and realised just how low my bg levels went from the hours of midnight to 4am and so I then altered my basal rate settings to deal with the drop in bg.....

I now make sure that my bedtime bg level is no lower than 8.5mmol and if it is lower than that, I eat a small carb snack otherwise I'll be hypo at some time in the night. Although I could alter all my basal rate settings to suit... this would end up being done on a continual basis as my bg levels fluctuate a bit even with a pump.... So, I agree with your consultant in that your bg levels should be high enough not to put you at any risk of going hypo especially if your levels during the night fluctuate like mine do...
 
First well done on reducing your Hba1c Sarah :thumbup:

I strive to go to bed with levels above 5.5 but below 7, if it's slightly more then I just leave it be bit if its below 5 then I'll have a small 5-10g snack, generally my bg doesn't fluctuate much during the night and at best it will drop between 0.5 -1mmol.

That said I'm talking from personal experience and unless your basal insulin dose is set correct and you don't experience swinging bg throughout the night then 6-7 may be OK, if unsure and your waking levels vary every morning from your bed time readings then I'd be inclined to listen to the consultant, only by carrying out some night-time bg tests can you determine what your bg is doing in the early hours.

Not sure what your asking about with regards to milk, if its the fat content then there's very little between the two, I prefer the taste of semi-skimmed over full-fat so this is what I have in my morning porridge and hot drinks throughout the day.
 
I think for people who drive a vehicle during the day or (night ??) its somewhat important that they dont put themselves at risk of having a bad hypo while they are fast asleep which will then put their driving licence in danger of being revoked. It is wishful thinking for many diabetics to have their bg levels remain completely stable night after night. So..... I go with what Sarah's consultant has advised and not what some people might believe to be correct according to text books........
 
Thanks for your replies. Hopefully if I can stick to lowering my carbs my hba1c can come down further. I did think that 8-10 seemed high I might just try going to bed on 7 and see how that goes. I am a dreadful sleeper and use sleeping pills so Im not going to be waking myself up during the night just to check my bg levels, as I would never get back to sleep!

The milk question was because the consultant said to try low GI and whole milk was low GI, there didn't seem much difference in the carb value. I only use it on my breakfast and in tea. I'm a bit confused with low GI it said special k was low GI but when I looked at it yesterday it's quite high in carb!
 
Unfortunately special K is made differently in different countries.
Special K in Australia has a moderate GI of around 54, the French version has a high GI in the 80s and the US version somewhere inbetween!
I don't think the UK one has been tested but when I looked at the ingredients list sugar came higher on it than the Aussie variety so I would guess that it was higher GI

The difference in GI between full fat milk and skimmed is tiny and full fat has (surprisingly) a higher GI than skimmed

Milk, full fat 39
Milk, skimmed 37
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
 
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