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How long to stabilize blood sugar?

R

Rick1318

Active Member
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Hey guys, I was diagnosed with T2 2.5 weeks ago at 17 bg after breakfast. It was a shock but I can't be too surprised given my high carb high sugar and no exercise lifestyle. In the last 2 weeks I switched to a LCHF diet and started exercising. Also taking 500mg metformin at breakfast. Presently my bg is around 7-8. I'm seeing a pattern where the morning reading would be high.. Around 7.5-8.5. Midday would be around 6.5-7.5 and it drops down to 4.5-5.5 after exercising after dinner. But the next morning it goes right back up to 8 which is frustrating. How do I deal with the morning highs? Should I give it more time before adding more medication/insulin?
 
You have only been doing this for 2 weeks! Your levels are nowhere near bad enough to warrant extra medication, and certainly not insulin - you clearly have enough of your own insulin.

Medication isn't the key to control. Diet is, and even on maximum medication it is still diet. This is not a quick fix. It takes time, frequent organised testing and learning from what your meter tells you post meal. The fasting BG is unreliable and not a good indicator of how well you are doing. It is a frustrating reading. The best indicators are the rises you see post meal (the difference between your pre-meal level and your post meal level) and normally our lowest reading of the day is the one before evening meal.

Morning highs - http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html
 
Many of us suffer from the same thing. The higher morning level is called Dawn Phenomenon and is basically where the liver gives you a helping hand first thing by dumping a load of glucose into your system, whether you need it or not.
I have managed to reduce the amount of times I get this by going low carb and depleting my body's store of glucose.
 
How would one control the dawn phenomenon? I eat very little carbs at dinner already. How long does it take for the bgs to become more stable in general?
 
Rick1318 said:
How would one control the dawn phenomenon? I eat very little carbs at dinner already. How long does it take for the bgs to become more stable in general?
Click to expand...
If I knew that I'd be a millionnaire! I don't have the answer and I struggle every day to find ways to battle it but the things that have worked best have been to eat no later than 7pm, eat or drink a bulletproof coffee pretty much as soon as I wake up before showers or anything. Some days it works, some days not. It is an ongoing fight. I'm hoping that eventually my liver will run out of left over glucose.
 
Rick1318 said:
How would one control the dawn phenomenon? I eat very little carbs at dinner already. How long does it take for the bgs to become more stable in general?
Click to expand...

You really can't control the dawn phenomenon, not entirely. Just about all of us have tried many different methods. Our livers just do what they feel is necessary. If you are low enough carb it will come down, in time. You just have to be patient. There are many, many threads on the forum about it if you have a search. It is a completely natural process and nothing to be overly concerned about. I believe the main trick is to make sure it doesn't continue throughout the morning, as mine used to.

How long does it take to stabilise BGs? We can't answer that. We all have different degrees of pancreatic damage, different amounts of weight to lose, different exercise regimes, and different medications, not to mention different methods of control. It is all trial and error with diet, and not just carbs but also protein and fats.
 
Okay thanks a lot. I will keep experimenting and try to get my levels to stabilize. I'm already pretty thin so I'm also afraid it could've been an incorrect diagnoses and I actually have LADA. Since switching to the new diet regime I haven't gained or lost any weight. I may go and get additional testing for LADA soon
 
Rick1318 said:
How would one control the dawn phenomenon?
Click to expand...

The DP is a result of your body working as intended.

I can't think of a reason you would want or need to 'control' it.

We get a number of posters on the forum who appear to get very upset and frustrated by the early morning "liver dump". In reality it is the least of your worries, so don't get disheartened and try to focus on getting your BG levels over the rest of the day down to normal levels.
 
Give it time.
I lost 2.5 stone in 3 months.
My fbg average 5.7mmol ,they were averaging 6.9mmol.
I personally believe that where alot of the fat has been burnt off my insulin is a little bit more proactive. Takes some getting your head round but one step at a time ,all starts to fall into place.
Keep calm and cut the carbs.
 
Sorry for the lack of knowledge but what is a "stone"? I don't have fat to lose so the only way I can improve insulin sensitivity is through exercise.
 
I found that on a LCHF diet my morning fasting blood glucose levels dropped to around 6.2 after a couple of months. It has got better since I started intermittent fasting (eating once per day) at the weekends. I think it takes a while for the body to adapt to burn ketones instead of glucose.
 
It's better to reduce the amount of insulin you use during the day. Tight control of carbs and frequent hydration should help to maintain glucose levels. Simply raising the dose can provoke hypos.
 
I am not using insulin atm just 500 MG met every morning. Not sure if it's having any effect or not...but no side effects so that's good. I want to invest in a CGM (Dexcom) is anyone here using that and can share their experience?
 
Although low carb is very effective - I think that two weeks might be too short a time to be seeing lower morning readings. You should see lower levels after meals and as time goes on the same amounts of carbs should hopefully have less effect as your metabolism improves its ability to cope with carbs.
 

If you are already pretty thin...don't worry too much about bringing down the fasting glucose level. You should simply focus on keeping your post meal glucose spikes low and maintain your weight. There is no rush to improve the fasting glucose level.

For those of us with excess weight to lose, intermittent fasting eg skipping a couple of dinner often helps...this is because the excess fats around our pancreas and liver seems to affect insulin sensitivity/signalling and we have a huge glycogen store to clear.
 
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