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I was diagnosed with pre diabetes ten years ago, and was able to control my glucose by walking and diet, but over the years, my intentions slid.

B

brooklyn odalisque

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
My pcp suggested a CGM, so I have been wearing a Freestyle libra 2 for about ten days.it’s clear I can not eat any starch. But my readings are very high in the morning. One night I went super low, down to 60, the meter woke me up. But even when I eat Protein, veggies, it can jump to 170, then drop 30 points in a half hour. I guess I am insulin resistant. How do I get more even readings? will continuing to avoid starch reset eventually?
the first night my glucose went to 230 and I had a panic attack, drinking tons of water, and doing free weights.
I swim and work out.
 
The nightly low may not have been an actual low. If you slept on the sensor it might've given a false warning. Reason to always double check a hypo with a finger prick, because nightly lows can't quite be trusted.

Keep in mind that blood glucose fluctuates throughout the day. It's supposed to. There is no flatline, or your heart'd be flatlined too. In the morning you might be a bit higher due to your liver dumping glucose to get you started, which is called Dawn Phenomenon and quite normal, and beyond that, well, yes, sugar and starches can up glucose, more in some than in others, but there will always be an upper before it comes back down as a body uses up what you've put in there. The workouts may affect blood glucose as well: strenuous exercise can make the liver dump glucose like it does in the morning, but something slow and steady like a walk (or a nice and easy swim rather than a competitive one) would bring numbers down. Just like a restless night might up numbers, or medication, or stress, or... You get the idea. There's lots of factors and lots of fluctuation going on.

When you ask about a reset, if you are indeed insulin resistant/insensitive, going low carb might improve that to some extent, but going back to carb-rich foods would nullify any progress made eventually. So low carb would be a way of life, not something you can do for a few months or a year, and be completely better.

You're going to be absolutely fine,
Jo
Edited because this stupid Dutch website I used, didn't convert numbers right... Sorry!
 
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Your rapid drop after eating shows a very good normal Insulin response, that is what is supposed to happen. With Insulin resistance that response would be much slower, that is why we type 2s, test 2 hours after eating, because the effects take longer to occur. It's not how high it goes up, but how long it takes to come back down, which is a diabetics problem. The level of 60 is fractionally below the norm, but again shows a very good Insulin response, it's slightly overshot the mark so to speak, but your liver will dump sugar to correct IF necessary, a fine balancing act, which our bodies are constantly doing, hence the variables all the time.
I am so jealous of your numbers, i could only dream of replicating them.
 
I don't think you have evidence at the moment to say you're insulin resistant. The key question (for me) is not how high your blood glucose level goes immendiately afyer you've eaten, but how quickly and effectively your system lowers blood glucose in the following two hours.

If you are going to monitor your blood glucose you need to understand what normal blood glucose changes (I mean for people who are not diabetic, as well as people who are) look like over the course of a day. And "even readings" would not be normal - everyone's blood glucose varies all day, every day, in response to food and to external stimuli - like exercise. Your liver will add glucose (which it makes itself, not glucose from something you've just eaten) when it thinks you need it.

Morning readings are for many people the highest of the day. It's also possible, in my experience, to have relative lows overnight. I know about them when they happen, because they wake me up, but these aren't hypos because my system will pretty quickly correct, by itself, by adding glucose, as above. This seems to happen to some non-diabetic people as well, and is only evidenced by a CGM.

The other issue is that CGMs are often inaccurate (in my experience). They seem to be about ~85% accurate

(https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/mib1...e-for-glucose-monitoring-pdf-2285963268047557)

which is considered good enough, by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK. They test interstitial fluid, not blood. They will sometimes read at best consistently higher or lower, so if you are going to use one you need to "calibrate" it by doing fingerprick tests. This is what is recommended for the Libre made by Abbott: https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/safety-information.html
 
Hi @brooklyn odalisque , welcome to the forum.

Let me first include a conversion chart from mg/dl, what you use, to mmol/l, what most on here use to prevent confusion:



JoKalsbeek said:
The nightly low may not have been an actual low. If you slept on the sensor it might've given a false warning. Reason to always double check a hypo with a finger prick, because nightly lows can't quite be trusted.
Click to expand...
Yes, this can happen when you sleep on it, but it can also be that the sensor reads slightly low, it's not as accurate as fingerpricks.
My sensor regularly shows me as being 3.3 (your 60) when I'm still well over 4 (72).
Sensors are invaluable for seeng trends but not as good for exact numbers, so it's always good to double check an odd reading with a fingerprick.
brooklyn odalisque said:
But even when I eat Protein, veggies, it can jump to 170, then drop 30 points in a half hour. I guess I am insulin resistant.
Click to expand...
The quick drop is good.
What are you eating?
 
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After I ate a gluten free muffin, my glucose spiked to 230/12.8. I am usually in the 120s when my glucoses drops, which is 6.7. My A1C was 6, but if my current numbers remain, I’ll be above that. Rarely in the 90s. Never in the morning.
I have celiac, So have to be gluten free, but my glucose jumps 80 to 100 points if I have any starch., so trying to eat protein, fat, and green veggies, and no rice or potatoes. Its disconcerting to see the rapid changes, especially if I haven’t eaten anything, or I’ve just been swimming.
when my number is high in the morning is it better to just skip breakfast so my body can burn off the sugar, intermittent fasting.
I definitely have metabolic syndrome. I’m heavy, and can’t lose weight, I think my blood sugar never gets low enough for my body to burn fat. pretty sure I have fatty liver.
not sure the best protocol to get in balance. Until recently, things were pretty stressful, so I’m certain I have way too much cortisol.
 
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