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Confused with sugar readings

markb40

Active Member
Messages
33
Location
Cambridgeshire UK
Type of diabetes
Type 3c
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
After spending the last 14 day constantly testing before seeing the GP next week I have discovered that foods and drink with high sugar content has little or no effect on my readings but if I have something with low sugar but high carb then the readings are high. I have been testing different types of foods to prove a point to my GP that my diabetes is not normal. An example is yesterday for dinner I had full fat coke, 2 bars of chocolate and a caramel mcflurry, readings were 6.3 before and 5.2 two hours later, the previous day I had boiled egg and 3 slices of brown toast readings were 5.9 before and 10.8 two hours later.

For me adding instant sugar works better than metformin and I can control things that way but it isn't exactly healthy.

Has anyone else experienced similar or possible explanation as to whats going on.
 
That'll be the bread not the eggs try the eggs without the bread......its the carbs in the bread that cause the spike......you may be able to tolerate 1 slice of bread but its one of the things most of us avoid because of the carb content, all you can do is test before eating then after to find out if and how much you can tolerate.
 
Have you tried testing earlier or later than the two hour mark? You may just be missing the spike.
 
I know it's the bread pushing it up but surly as a diabetic I shouldn't be able to sit here and eat huge amounts of chocolates and full fat coke with no rise?
 
You might just be missing the high point - sugars can be in the blood stream in minutes but starches are broken down after the food has left the stomach - they are acted on in an alkaline environment and the stomach is acidic.
The high carb foods which you are eating seem to be things most diabetics would avoid - so I doubt that many have made the same experiments.
Metformin doesn't act to reduce blood glucose, it isn't that sort of drug.
 
Whilst its not exactly the sort of thing I would do, stuffing myself with cake and coke, we are all different in how WHAT we eat affects us, full fat coke my not effect you but for me it would send me flying, but its the carbs that change into the sort of sugars our bodies can't cope with, but then what you eat is your choice.
 
Also the body varies in its ability to deal with carbs / sugars across the day - most people are better able to deal with them later in the day than earlier in the day.
To see if 2 meals affect you differently, you would need to test the meals at the same time of day over a couple of days.
 
Thanks for responses I will try different test times, I just wondered if the instant high sugar hit was stimulating the pancreas to work more, as I only half half a pancreas.
 
I have tried testing identical meals at the same time of day for months but I get wildly different readings that's the issue I have also I can eat loads of carbs providing I add high sugar content as well.
 
markb40 said:
surly as a diabetic I shouldn't be able to sit here and eat huge amounts of chocolates and full fat coke with no rise?
Click to expand...
Hi Mark, I agreed your results seem to fly in the face of every thing that is accepted about being diabetic.

Experience suggests that you are experiencing a bg spike before you are testing. Only way to find out is this is true it test earlier i.e on the half hour mark, than hour repeat for the 2 hours to find the spike if it exists.

Blood Sugar Spike bring about there own set of complications and IF this is the case you are spiking earlyer than expected you want to stop this as soon as possible!

It doesn't matter if your reading drop down just as fast the spike is harmful.
 
According to some yes but according to GP no, that's why I'm struggling so much no one has any idea and I'm left on my own trying to keep levels stable,
 
I will definitely try testing earlier, thanks.
 
Just to add this into the pot - although those numbers do seem peculiar, it’s worth noting that only 50% of sugar is glucose. The other half is fructose, which for the purposes of this discussion can be considered to not raise blood glucose. Fructose is unique in that it’s only metabolised in the liver and turned directly into fat if the bloodstream already has ample glucose. Although it may not raise your sugars as much you’d expect it should, it’s very likely contributing directly to fatty liver and insulin resistance ‘behind the scenes’, as it were. It’s not unusual for starches and flours to increase the postprandial glucose concentration more than ‘sugar’.

Your numbers do seem to take this principle to the extreme though, so probably don’t fully explain the incredulity. Most likely a combination of the above, and as others have said, your testing window missing the earlier spike.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Some good point made above.
I would just add one more : fat delays the digestion of carbs.
The fat in the chocolate and McFlurry could be delaying your BG spike to beyond the 2 hours.
 
@markb40 - Having list part of your pancreas, do you take and digestive enzymes or the like?

One general point I will add, and I add it from my personal standpoint - not in any criticism of you, but I had lost half the physical volume of my pancreas, my body could probably have a tough time keeping up with day-to-day eating and drinking. On that basis, I might try to keep some load off my pancreas, for fear of maybe exhausting it.

For me, I think I would be trying to preserve my remaining pancreatic function, rather than trying to see what it could do.

Are you under your GP's care for diabetes, or the hospital?
 
I lost 55% due to pancreatitis and necrosis however I can eat without enzymes, although I do still get a lot of pancreatic pain especially after eating carbs.

I do normally try to eat to preserve the pancreas but got to the point of experimenting myself to try and work out whats going on.

For the last two hours I have tested every 15 minutes after having a full fat coke, caramel mcflurry and a cappuccino with 4 sugars, I started off with a reading of 5.6 then 7.0 then 8.2 then 9.0 then 6.9 then 5.5.
 
I'm under the GP, sorry forgot to say.
 

Mark, I'm pleased your enzymes are being topped up top help things a bit at least.

I think some of your testing is confusing you as much as it is clarifying matters. When did you have your op?

In your shoes, I would consider buying one or two Libre sensors, which once applied to your arm, can track your blood sugars 24/7, so you really do get a proper picture, rather than lots of finger prick tests, which is a bit lick joining up the dots, with no clue what's going on, in between the dots.

I doubt you would be prescribed it. It's only rountinely prescribed to T1s at the moment, but as what looks very like a T3c, I might try to argue my case as being different. Many T3cs are misdiagnosed as either T1 or T2, and I can't diagnose you, but having had your pancreas resected, and having to take digestive enzymes, it sound like it to me.

Dr Google has quite a lot of information on T3c, and we have a sub forum on here too. It's not the most lively of the sub-fora, as there aren't lots and lots of T3cs, but you might find some of the reading interesting.

Have you considered asking your GP about seeing a specialist about your diabetes? In my experience, many GPs' knowledge and understanding of diabetes varies a lot.

I seem to have waffled a lot there, but there's probably quite a bit going of for you at the moment.
 
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