How to deal with post carb crash

[empedia]

Hi,

I am 51 yo male just under 70kg now and have been diagnosed Type 2 for about 2 years - taking 500 Mg Metformin SR once a day in the morning with breakfast.

My last A1C was in October last year and was 44 mmol/mol advised to continue on the Metformin at the time and I have had reasonable control since then through a low carb diet.

Anyway, I have been wearing a Libre 2 sensor for the past 2 weeks so I could see what my system could tolerate and have been trying a few different things out food-wise with reasonable results for upto about 50g carbs per meal.

Yesterday I made a big mistake of having a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast - BG spiked to just below 13 mmol/l and very quickly crashed down to 2.9 and I had a hypo.

I had a few jelly sweets and blood sugar went back up to around 5. However since then I've been unable to keep the BG levels up for very long - they keep dropping back down to about 3.

Today at lunch BG went up to about 6.5 and then came down immediately - and the rest of this afternoon I am still struggling to maintain normal levels.

I assume this behaviour is because the high sugar from the Shreddies caused a large dose of insulin to enter the bloodstream and the insulin levels are still too high.

I also think this is not the first time I have had this but it is the first time I've been able to monitor it with the Libre sensor.

I intend to try and have something for dinner which is about 40g of carbs with some protein and leafy vegetables in the hope this will stabilise the blood sugar levels. Does this seema reasonable idea?

Also is this something other people have experienced and does anyone have any tips for handling this kind of situation (not that I intend to repeat this particular experiment!).

Many thanks in advance,

Matthew.

 

[Antje77]

Yesterday I made a big mistake of having a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast - BG spiked to just below 13 mmol/l and very quickly crashed down to 2.9 and I had a hypo.

I had a few jelly sweets and blood sugar went back up to around 5. However since then I've been unable to keep the BG levels up for very long - they keep dropping back down to about 3.

Have you confirmed those hypos with a fingerprick test?
Libre is a very useful tool but they can read lower than blood, they always do for me.

BG spiked to just below 13 mmol/l and very quickly crashed down to 2.9 and I had a hypo.

If this hypo is confirmed with a fingerprick it seems you're going low after eating high carb meals.
So avoiding high carb meals seems to make more sense to me than eating a high carb meal again and start the rollercoaster of going high first and dropping afterwards later.

You might like to have a look at this subforum, still provided that the hypos are confirmed with a fingerprick.

Reactive Hypoglycemia

A forum to discover and discuss blood group disorders where hypoglycemic episodes are symptomatic.

www.diabetes.co.uk

 

[empedia]

Thanks for your reply. I confess I didn't check with fingerprick tests because I could feel the symptoms of a hypo coming on anyway.

Thank you for the other forum link as well, I will check it out.

 

[Resurgam]

@empedia your symptoms are not at all usual with type 2 diabetes, more like reactive hypoglycaemia.
We can't 'do' diagnosing or medical advice - but I would really advise showing your readings from the monitoring device to a doctor or nurse to get their opinion on going so low when only taking Metformin.

 

[HSSS]

Thanks for your reply. I confess I didn't check with fingerprick tests because I could feel the symptoms of a hypo coming on anyway.

Thank you for the other forum link as well, I will check it out.

It is possible to feel hypo with a fast drop rather than a low result if you get what I mean. Just as another piece of the jigsaw.

Insulin doesn’t normally remain in the body circulating for days after a single spike so if you are still bouncing around to extremes/low it would seem there’s an ongoing trigger for that.

Also be aware RH isn’t that well known about by drs so it’s worth asking your GP for a endo that deals specifically with it if your research makes that seem likely.