Hypos, diet and carbs!!!

[IanDH]

Today I attended a presentation at my local hospital, the Countess of Chester, which was given by a Dietician who works there. She covered areas such as Hypos and ways to overcome them, diet and carbohydrate numbers of certain food groups. She also handed out an excellent textbook which contained the carbohydrate levels of almost every food you can think of.

She also asked if anyone wanted to complete a food diary for a week and then go back to the hospital and go over the foods you have eaten and the carbohydrate content of these foods. I welcome this invitation and agreed to return to see her with my diary next Thursday. This is a great opportunity to get some professional advice on your diet.

As for hypos which she also covered, I experienced one this tea time, with a reading of 3.6, which was not a pleasant feeling. This is only the third hypo I have had since been diagnosed a type 2 diabetic five years ago. I took the advice given by the Dietician to eat something containing sugars like biscuits, fortunately I had some shortbread to hand and ate some of these, it did ease the symptoms of weakness in my legs and tingling in my feet quite quickly.

I hope no one minds me sharing this thread with you and would welcome hearing from anyone who has experienced any of the items contained in my thread.

I hope you all well.

Ian

 

[Lamont D]

I have a food diary from 2009!
It is an excellent idea as long as you use a glucometer or a cgm (continuous glucose monitor) to give you the results of your meals.
It is of little benefit without testing.

Knowing how carbs and sugars effect your blood glucose levels, is the first step in managing your diabetes.

Do you know why you are having readings of 3.6, is it meds?

 

[IanDH]

I have a food diary from 2009!
It is an excellent idea as long as you use a glucometer or a cgm (continuous glucose monitor) to give you the results of your meals.
It is of little benefit without testing.

Knowing how carbs and sugars effect your blood glucose levels, is the first step in managing your diabetes.

Do you know why you are having readings of 3.6, is it meds?

I agree that it would be pointless to check the carbs without doing blood glucose monitoring, as for the level of 3.6, this was an isolated reading and is not anywhere near my normal readings. I had taken my dog out for a walk and had not eaten for a while (a bad slip-up, I know) and I will definitely aim that this does not happen again. The presentation did show me some new facts that are important to follow.

 

[Lamont D]

I agree that it would be pointless to check the carbs without doing blood glucose monitoring, as for the level of 3.6, this was an isolated reading and is not anywhere near my normal readings. I had taken my dog out for a walk and had not eaten for a while (a bad slip-up, I know) and I will definitely aim that this does not happen again. The presentation did show me some new facts that are important to follow.

Hi, again, it is important to find out what has caused this below normal blood reading. However, I doubt it was a full on hypo at that level, it was as you say an isolated or rogue reading, always retest if you get one. A glucometer can be a few decimal points out, it is only a snapshot of your blood levels.
The real reason for a food diary is to see if you are getting better or worse results, from certain foods, which will show if your insulin resistance is getting better and the level of your diabetic levels are going lower, trends, seeing fluctuations after food at one hour and two hours.
What did your dietician tell you about how your lifestyle, diet should change to improve your blood glucose levels?

 

[bulkbiker]

I had taken my dog out for a walk and had not eaten for a while (a bad slip-up, I know) and I will definitely aim that this does not happen again. The presentation did show me some new facts that are important to follow.

Had you taken insulin though? i.e. was your hypo self created?

 

[IanDH]

I have a food diary from 2009!
It is an excellent idea as long as you use a glucometer or a cgm (continuous glucose monitor) to give you the results of your meals.
It is of little benefit without testing.

Knowing how carbs and sugars effect your blood glucose levels, is the first step in managing your diabetes.

Do you know why you are having readings of 3.6, is it meds?

Had you taken insulin though? i.e. was your hypo self created?

I had taken some insulin but it clearly was not enough, so I did take more insulin and as I am the four times a day insulin regime, which is a recent change in my insulin regime but I am getting used to it and have still to take the final insulin dose of 50 units before I go to bed. I have already taken the three previous doses, one was the first long-lasting insulin this morning and the two fast-acting doses this lunchtime and then the second fast-acting dose this afternoon. As I said earlier, having a hypo is a very rare occurrence for me.