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How can I get my fasting blood sugar levels to come down?

S

SQ71

Well-Known Member
Messages
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My fasting BS has been consistently over 7 and as high as 8.8 every day for past 3-4 months.

I've read about dawn phenomenon, but not sure if that's the issue. For example here are yesterdays readings:

Fasting - 8.5
Before Brekky - 8.7
After Brekky - 7.6 (7 grams of carbs)
Before Lunch - 6.1
After lunch - 6.1 (7 grams carbs)
Before Dinner - 6.1
After dinner - 6.3 (17 grams carbs)
Before bed - 6.2

Woke at 00.30 and decided to check BS. It had jumped from 6.2 to 7.9 after 2 hours of sleep. Why this rise??? Does not seem connected to "dawn phenomenon".

This morning fasting (14 hours after last meal), it was - 7.9

Any ideas what's causing the jump up ? And how I can get this under control?

Diagnosis is pre-diabetes. No medication. Using lifestyle and dietary adjustments to manage.
Hba1c - 2 Jun 2000 = 51
Hba1c - 1 Sep 2020 = 40
Would like to get this lower but feel as long as those fasting levels remain high-ish, this is not going to be achievable.
 
Looks like you were diagnosed fairly recently if the June HbA1c was your first. The fasting BG level is often the last one to come down and is affected by many variables somI wouldn’t give up hope just yet.

In my own case it was at least 6 months before FBG was consistently in a similar range to my daily pre and post meal readings. As well as dawn phenomenon it is also affected by sleep (or lack of), stress and so on.

Personally I no longer focus on FBG as for me of I consistently keep my overall numbers where I want them, then the FBG follows. However there are a few things you could try which might help with fasting numbers:

- Have your final meal of the day as early as possible.
- Eat within a narrow ‘window’ - whether that’s 3 small meals, fewer larger meals, extending the period in which you’re not eating will help bring levels down overall.
- Experimenting with when you eat the meal with most carbs to see whether your body copes better with them at say lunch, rather than dinner.

One thing I would add is whatever you experiment or test with, do it over a period and be consistent. There are so many variables you need to understand which are having what impact. For example, if you always eat dinner at x o’clock and move it to y o’clock, don’t then drastically change what you eat at the same time.
 
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Diagnosis was June. Found during routine annual blood tests. Also diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia at the same time and started on statin medication.

Thanks for your suggestions. My current eating window is 10 hours. Breakfast @ 8.30 and dinner with family @ 6.30. Lunch usually around 1.30. No snacks. Protein and fat at breakfast time as fasting BS is already creeping up, and carbs raise it further. I seem to be able to tolerate carbs at lunchtime and dinner time, up to about 60g, but try to eat a lot lower than that. Is that too big a window?

I've just made a possible connection and am going to experiment with it. I've been taking atorvastatin (for cholesterol) at nighttime. I chose to take it at night due to the side effect of muscle aches, but wonder if that is messing up the blood sugars at night? Today I've taken it with breakfast alongside my blood pressure meds, and will see if that makes a difference. Will give it a few days before trying to make other changes.

Thanks
 
SQ71 said:
Is that too big a window?
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If you can, I’d be inclined to narrow it. An 18/6 (18 hours fasting, 6 eating) window is very common. Personally I try and keep to a 4 or 5 hour window, with dinner no later than 5.30 or 6pm. But don’t always manage it - life gets in the way.
 
I'm four months into trying to bring my FBG down into the normal range. My experience is similar to yours but running about 1.5 lower on average.

Long windows of fasting made absolutely no difference at all for me, in fact when I was actively trying to eat my last meal as early as possible (ie. nothing after 4pm - 15 hour fast) my FBG was then often at it's worst, up towards 7.

On average I now wake up around 6.3, and I spend the day beating it down by eating sub-50g carbs to get it down below 5.5. It's a slog and I'd like to think at some point FBG will stop tracking upwards and start coming down but I'm no longer optimistic.

Four months of <50g carbs a day, not overweight, active, etc., go to bed at 5.2 or something and every day it resets itself high like Groundhog Day. All you can do is keep going.

Nobody knows why the liver does what it does or how to control it. And you can't "run your liver out of gas" because it's not making it's gas out of carbs.
 
Your Statin could also be affecting your BG's overnight, they have been proven to raise BG's, just something to consider
 
Mine still rises too, I shifted my meals and daily exercise to the morning, BG is normal from about lunch on. I’ve been skipping or just having something light for dinner, like a shake.
 
lessci said:
Your Statin could also be affecting your BG's overnight, they have been proven to raise BG's, just something to consider
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Yeah I suspect this is the problem. Switched to taking it with my first meal of the day instead of bedtime and my fasting BS levels are still high and its making it harder to keep BS within range during the day even on very low carb. Would like to toss it in the bin, but concerned about what Doc would say.
 
Starting to suspect that I'm fighting a losing battle too. Going to request the complete set of blood tests - fasting, Glucosr tolerance and hba1c at my next review as I think the doc is missing something simply going on hba1c.
 
SQ71 said:
Also diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia at the same time and started on statin medication.
Click to expand...
SQ71 said:
Would like to toss it in the bin, but concerned about what Doc would say.
Click to expand...

Its your body so you choose what to put into it.

out of interest what were your cholesterol numbers that led to your diagnosis of hypercholesterolemia?
 
Hi @SQ71.

Yes, dyslipidemia - when your blood lipids get dysregulated - is often a part of insulin resistance based type two. (Some pretty complex graphs and processes explain it!) I also have too high fasting blood glucose and high cholesterol.

If your insulin resistance is particularly resistant to change for the better, this can be a sign, according to my understanding, that you have a particularly high number of sick fat cells, and it may just take longer for the higher number of sick fat cells to be replaced with healthier ones. The number of fat cells is forever, but not the state of them.

I deal with my own T2D profile by low-carbing (of course!), and intermittent/fasting, and keeping as cardio-vascularly healthy as possible, by being as fit and as strong as possible. I bring up the HDL/trig ratio importance,and importance of having blood lipids done in a fasting state (for better comparison purposes), constantly, when being tested.

I am currently deciding whether or not to go on a course of metformin to bring my fasting blood glucose down, and to see if it gives my dysfunctioning liver a hand in not creating and spurting out all that glucose of a morning.

I chose not to take a statin, after first a cursory reading online as to the benefits and the side effects/downsides, and talking about it with my high-cholesteroled but long-lived father. Now I am, I believe, very well informed and have read a lot, and watched a lot of docos and youtubes to boot. This was a good idea as for many medical practitioners lowering our blood cholesterol is their first equal port of call, as is it is their guidelines to do so - and I do believe they sincerely believe they are saving our lives by it! The very best of intentions, for sure.

But wrongminded? Imho - absolutely yes.
 
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bulkbiker said:
Its your body so you choose what to put into it.

out of interest what were your cholesterol numbers that led to your diagnosis of hypercholesterolemia?
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These are my cholesterol numbers for the past 5 years. I have never been told I needed meds until now.
 
I found that eating at 12 hour intervals was a good thing, as eating in a narrow time slot meant higher BG in the a.m. and rising until I ate. If I eat breakfast with about 10gm of carbs the rise stops and subsides fairly quickly. I then stay fairly level all day.
 
bulkbiker said:
Yes but that doesn't necessarily mean it was.. hence my question.
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Not with that last test, I definitely had not fasted. My numbers were slowly coming down each year through dietary adjustment only, and then rose up again this year. So, was told I had to have the statins as diet alone was not cutting it. However, the test was taken early June.
 
I'm the same. If I stay below 10g carbs at the first meal of the day, I can keep it within range for the remainder of the day. It's just that fasting one that is high. However, it does not continue to rise until I eat my first meal - its been dropping by about 1 - 1.5 mmol in that window from when I get up until I eat.
 
Past few days my fasting levels have started to come down a little. I've had one at 6.9. My lowest ever in 4 months. This is only my 2nd week of intermittent fasting. Fingers
it's helping.

As far as the statin goes, I'm not sure what to do. If I stop it whilst I'm on a HFLC diet, its likely to raise cholesterol numbers even higher, but if I keep taking it, then I'm increasing my chances of not being able to reverse the insulin resistance.

My mother died in December from heart failure, as a result of underlying hypertensive heart disease and diabetes. She was only 68, so heart health is a concern for me.
 
I would consider that a good sign - I don't check my levels much these days as I think I have done all I can at the moment and just need to keep going. I find I forget how old I am these days and I have few concerns so just don't go looking for problems. I feel fine, so just allow my metabolism to bumble along as best it can for as long as it can, and enjoy the ride.
 
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