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Highish fasting reading?

M

Martin R

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I've been type 2 for some time now. Diagnosed about 10 years ago but advised not to test blood sugars. I'm now on the maximum dose of metformin. My HB1ac was in the 70s in January and I just decided to start testing blood sugar. My first fasting morning reading is 13.3. Should I be alarmed and what should I be doing?
 
The fasting reading is an indication of how insulin resistant you are and how much glucose you have got stored away.
Getting it down is not easy and can take quite a while.
When we eat more carbs than our body's can handle, our pancreas is forced to produce ever increasing amounts of insulin to try and reduce our sugar level. With so much insulin sloshing around, our cells resistance to that insulin gets worse.
So in effect our diabetes gets worse and our blood sugar stays higher than it should.
Some of the sugar that we can't use due to insulin resistance gets stored mainly in the liver, when the liver can't store any more glucose it converts it to fat and stores it that way.
After your overnight fast, just as you are getting ready to wake your liver will take the opportunity to get rid of some stored glucose.
Its called the dawn phenomenon, its a natural process that has happened all of your life.
In the days before your diabetes arrived, you would have used the carbs in your diet for energy, so not so much excess to be stored as fat or glucose in your liver. And when your liver released any glucose, your insulin mopped it up before it could cause your levels to rise too far, because you weren't insulin resistant.
So reducing the carbs in your diet will mean lower daily sugar levels, less glucose stored in your liver and less insulin circulating, which should eventually improve your insulin resistance, and your fasting numbers, Definitely not a quick fix but doable.
 
Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense. My carb intake is a lot less than it used to be many years ago but it sounds as though it needs to be lowered even further and then maintained low for some time before there's an effect. Am I right?
 
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Thank you all. It's looking like some of the information I've been given over the last 10 years is in fact wrong. The balanced diet, 1/3 "healthy" carbs message hasn't really got me anywhere. Time to learn for myself, reevaluate and take charge, I think. Any more pointers and all information will be gratefully received
 
Martin R said:
Thank you all. It's looking like some of the information I've been given over the last 10 years is in fact wrong. The balanced diet, 1/3 "healthy" carbs message hasn't really got me anywhere. Time to learn for myself, reevaluate and take charge, I think. Any more pointers and all information will be gratefully received
Click to expand...
I'd say you're probably right there about the "1/3 healthy carbs message". I do think there is a fair chance you might see the effects of a lower carb diet on your blood sugar sooner rather than later. It was certainly pretty swift for me. Good luck!
 
Martin R said:
Any more pointers and all information will be gratefully received
Click to expand...
It's a big subject, with lots of conflicting information and opinions, but I think there are three simple facts that can help cut to the chase

1/ all carbohydrates turn to glucose when digested apart from the fiber which passes right through

2/ of the three macronutrients that make up our food carbohydrates are the only one we can do without. Fat and protein are essential but what little glucose we need can be manufactured by a process called gluconeogenesis

3/ your meter has no axe to grind, doesn't have any religious or moral bias and is not trying to sell you the latest book or supplements
It just shows you how high different foods send your blood sugar, what you do with that info is up to you.
 
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