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Dawn Effect in the Afternoon?

Inchindown

Well-Known Member
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Location
Highlands
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Tablets (oral)
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I tested my BG after lunch today and got a reading of 5 mmol/l.

I had no further food until I did a reading before dinner and found the reading had risen to 6.5 mmol/l.

I did have an afternoon nap for about 90 minutes.

Is it possible the same process that causes the dawn effect could have caused an increase in my BG between lunch and dinner, despite not having eaten any food?
 
Mine does this sometimes . I've even fasted all day and after an initial drop into the 5's it popped back into the 6's. If I exercise a lot with no food it will go up. Is it our livers making sure we don't hypo ?
 
You can experience a dump anytime. Fasting causes a lot especially on starting fasting programmes. Once the body realises its getting food afterall it settles down. So I've heard/seen.
I get a dump if I don't have a breakfast as soon as I wake. It can go up by 4mmol/ls.
 
Mine does this sometimes . I've even fasted all day and after an initial drop into the 5's it popped back into the 6's. If I exercise a lot with no food it will go up. Is it our livers making sure we don't hypo ?
So would you say this temporary rise is not something to worry about ?

I did walk the dog for about half an hour before my afternoon nap, so maybe that stimulated my liver to release some sugar.
 
So would you say this temporary rise is not something to worry about ?

I did walk the dog for about half an hour before my afternoon nap, so maybe that stimulated my liver to release some sugar.
Next time, If you remember test before sleep and then after. You could see a similiar rise to mine. Walk may have lowered bg, then nap gave a dump.
 
So would you say this temporary rise is not something to worry about ?

I did walk the dog for about half an hour before my afternoon nap, so maybe that stimulated my liver to release some sugar.

It seems to be a very fine balance. With the small rises I don't really worry now. I take almonds to nibble if I'm dancing for 3/4 hours as extended exercise like that can put it into the 8's. I've also read there can be a small margin of error on the meter readings, so as long as I'm on a steady trend I'm happy.
 
You can experience a dump anytime. Fasting causes a lot especially on starting fasting programmes. Once the body realises its getting food afterall it settles down. So I've heard/seen.
I get a dump if I don't have a breakfast as soon as I wake. It can go up by 4mmol/ls.

I've suspected my liver has been dumping on me for some time now
 
I got regular late afternoon dumps when I was ill for a bit and sleeping or resting most of the day - I'd get up to feed and entertain the dogs at their normal evening meal time, and my dumps would occur just before this. I don't think it's anything to be particularly concerned about as your liver's just doing it job, and everyone will get similar dumps diabetic or not, but most people who have no need to test their glucose levels probably won't ever know about them.

I'm on an LCHF diet and I find that because my body's now using fat for fuel my liver tends not to need to dump so much as we can store far more fatty fuel than we can carb based fuel to sustain us over night. But I'll still sometimes see a little 6am-ish spike.

Robbity
 
I might be irritated, but provided I felt fine, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It could be either your lunch causing a delayed rise (if it contained a lot of fat, say), or, as others have suggested a liver dump.

@Inchindown - The way I view liver dumps is a bit like how a rechargeable battery works. Our livers store some glucose to help us out if we need additional energy, for whatever reason. As you appreciate, that can be getting up from a rest, strenuous exercise, just as examples.

When we are trying to bring our numbers down, we can have more liver dumps than later on. Our bodies like to work to a routine, including blood numbers, and will try to keep us in it's established comfort zone, so if that comfort zone is too high, we want to reset that comfort zone to a lower, healthier level.

When our livers make a contribution to our energy requirements, it's resources get a little depleted (like a battery), but as soon as we eat something, the first our body prioritises is replenishing that charge, making it available for next time.

Personally, I don't feed my liver dumps, provided I feel fine and I'm comfortable that a meal will be along relatively soon. If, on the other hand, I just know I'd have to gnaw on a chair leg if I didn't eat something, I do just that. I either have a few nuts or a cup of tea.

I see liver dumps as actually very healthy, and when our liver make a contribution, then recharge, that's healthy too. In my visualising mind, I see it a bit like having a spare carton of milk in the fridge. I make sure I cycle that, to keep it fresh. When I buy milk, I will put it into the fridge in such an order that means I will use the older carton first.

That's just the way I look upon it.
 
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