Dawn phenomenon potential solution

One of the best ways to counter DP is to change your body's energy demands. If you live a low carb lifestyle, you tend not to get DP as your body doesn't demand glucose as energy on waking. If you're trying to get a pump it's a good idea to swap to a non low carb woy of living for a bit to demonstrate DP.

DR_Hornet said:

Maybe that's why mine starts to rise at 8!

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Yep, two things go on. DP, which typically starts somewhere about 3am and is hugely reduced with low carbing, and "waking phenomenon" which usually happens when the alarm goes off and seems harder to reduce with low carbing.

DR_Hornet said:

And I'm not worried about them making me fat.
Sent from my iPhone using DCUK Forum mobile app

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I find DP harder to control when I'm overweight. Being optimal weight really helps with DP along with exercising daily and not eating anything (carbs or low carb alike) after 8 pm. I experimented with various things to help with DP but not walnuts. I'm currently experimenting with pickled onions......

I am beginning to think I may have the dawn phenomenon - planning on setting the alarm tonight to wake me in the early hours and doing the blood glucose test to find out as I am so disappointed with myself, I have been trying hard to stick to low carbs for weeks now (around the 30g per day) but it is not really showing in my overnight testing.
I have another HbA1c in a couple of months and I really want to get into the 5 zone - I am on 2000mg Metformin a day and just added Sitagliptin each morning and the readings are still in the 8.1 zone - so I want to test to find out if it is the DP or I still have a long way to go before I can learn how to get my numbers down.
I am also going to increase my exercise, ordered a machine to help me and waiting on it arriving - I do dance twice a week and I walk to and from work 5 days a week, which is only a mile each way but I do it and whilst at work I use the stairs several times a day so I am doing some exercise but have accepted recently that I need to increase this and hope that will help with the losing weight and the sugar levels.

I am considering going totally carb free for a time to see if that helps but I am finding it hard to keep carbs as low as I am but I really want to get this under control and I believe my diabetic nurse and doctor think I am not taking my health situation seriously, which I am just not the way they want - as in they want me to lose weight as fast and as much as possible and I want to do it slowly and keep it off - which has worked for me over the last 2 years where I have lost approx 3 stone.

Sorry moan over just you guys are the only ones that really understand

DR_Hornet said:

Fortunately mine starts at around 7.30/8 and I keep an eye on it with my Libre. The easy solution (not on a pump) is to counter it with Novo Rapid.

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There's a few members on the forum like @robert72 who counteract it with a bolus dose.

I think in the book Think Like a Pancreas or Pumping Insulin one of the authors says that DP can occur anywhere between the hours of 2-8am, l find my bg levels are fine on waking around 6.30 but gradually increase within the hour, 2-3 hours after my bg levels can be in double figures if I didn't act upon them, I find this to be the case when I've fasted for a cholesterol check.

What I find works is pre-empting the bg rise, I find if I bolus and eat soon after waking it shuts off this mechanism or slows it down and I have much better and predictable bg levels than if I didn't eat.

I am type 2, low carbing, used a libre for 2 weeks and found that BG was usually about 5.0 on waking, but crept up to 7.0 even with no food/drink. Alcohol the night before definitely helps, but cider vinegar did not help. Love the walnuts idea.........will definitely try it.

I drink the night before helps me as well as a bit of almond or peanut butter. But I mean a bit, not a tablespoon, more like a tsp.
I also counter it by eating and bolusing right when I get up. It might sound weird but I feel like I need insulin more than food.

Wow, thanks all, for all the sharing and suggestions. I have just started to be a member. I will try the walnuts too. As DP is not caused by the food we eat but by the liver function, has anybody ben given anything to address that rather than the effect of liver not functioning properly? I was diagnosed with fatty liver last week, am I right in thinking that DP might be connected to that?

juliagc said:

Wow, thanks all, for all the sharing and suggestions. I have just started to be a member. I will try the walnuts too. As DP is not caused by the food we eat but by the liver function, has anybody ben given anything to address that rather than the effect of liver not functioning properly? I was diagnosed with fatty liver last week, am I right in thinking that DP might be connected to that?

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Here's some info:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html

Fatty liver does not cause the Dawn Phenomenon. It's caused by hormones in the body : )