Is this an Error

[Grace04]

Hi,

I’ve decided to reintroduce some carbs to my diet. I was prediabetic but low carb, around 18 to 20 grams a day, got me back into normal figures.

Today we were out for lunch and my choice of food was a three bean curry, tho I opted not to eat the red kidney beans, and it was served with tortilla crisp. I ate a good handful or more of those.

Before eating my finger prick test was actually a little high for me at 6 mmol (I’m normally around 5ish), then two hours after it read 4.6 mmol.

I‘m am assuming one or the other readings was wrong, or possibly both. What do others, with more experience, think?

 

[lovinglife]

Did you retest? I always retest when I get a result I’m not expecting wether it’s a lower or a higher reading.

It may be that it was quite high in fat in the curry & also the crisps so that could have slowed down the rise, it may be worth testing again at 3 and 4 hrs to see if there is a trend upwards. I think there are some T2 & pre diabetics on the forum can tolerate some legumes so you may be one of those - sadly I’m not one of them

Finally did you have any alcohol with your lunch? If you did then your liver will deal with that first before the carbs so again I would test again to see if the carbs are now hitting your BG and giving you a later rise

 

[Grace04]

Did you retest? I always retest when I get a result I’m not expecting wether it’s a lower or a higher reading.

It may be that it was quite high in fat in the curry & also the crisps so that could have slowed down the rise, it may be worth testing again at 3 and 4 hrs to see if there is a trend upwards. I think there are some T2 & pre diabetics on the forum can tolerate some legumes so you may be one of those - sadly I’m not one of them

Finally did you have any alcohol with your lunch? If you did then your liver will deal with that first before the carbs so again I would test again to see if the carbs are now hitting your BG and giving you a later rise

Many thanks for your reply. No alcohol was consumed. On your advice I redid the test 3.5 after starting the meal and there has been an upward trend. It was 6.9 mmol. Interesting, but I still don’t understand the initial drop.

 

[lovinglife]

You are only pre diabetic it may be that you still have a good first phase insulin response so your body deals with it as it should but your 2nd phase may be less efficient - to be honest there’s no definitive answer we are all individuals and there could be any number of reasons why

 

[catinahat]

Before eating my finger prick test was actually a little high for me at 6 mmol (I’m normally around 5ish), then two hours after it read 4.6 mmol.

Remember that the meters are only accurate to +/-15% that's a 30% possible range.
Your result of 6 means the actual glucose level could be anywhere between 4.8 and 7.5
And your 4.6 means it's somewhere between 3.9 and 5.3
Our meters just give an idea of where our levels are, it's the main reason for the 2mmol rise we allow ourselves after food. The testing equipment available to us is just not accurate enough to be more precise.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose-meters/blood-glucose-meter-accuracy.html

 

[AloeSvea]

Yeah,@Grace04 . The blood glucose regulation system is pretty complex, and things can go right, or wrong at any or many, or even very few stages of the system . But, prediabetes, and able to be treating with diet with great results, usually - very little has gone really wrong? And lots of room to put things right, which you are doing.

For somone with prediabetes those numbers are good and normal, I would say. As Lovinglife says - a good sign that your insulin response is working really well, and has responded and is continuing to respond to the low-carbing very well.

A little high for you at 6.0mmol? Sigh. (Thinking of my own fasting blood glucose readings here and being envious of your way more healthy ones.)

Rather than wondering about errors, the readings spell good news for you and your functioning blood glucose system, from the outside looking in as it were. I see this at least as a - smile not a frown - situation.

But this of course, from all of us, is a non-medical opinion but an online understanding. (I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say what I have above.)

Text your medical centre/doc/diabetes nurse with these wonderings and hear what they have so say?

 

[Grace04]

Remember that the meters are only accurate to +/-15% that's a 30% possible range.
Your result of 6 means the actual glucose level could be anywhere between 4.8 and 7.5
And your 4.6 means it's somewhere between 3.9 and 5.3
Our meters just give an idea of where our levels are, it's the main reason for the 2mmol rise we allow ourselves after food. The testing equipment available to us is just not accurate enough to be more precise.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose-meters/blood-glucose-meter-accuracy.html

That quite a large margin for error. I will remember to allow for that when testing. Thank you.

 

[Grace04]

Yeah,@Grace04 . The blood glucose regulation system is pretty complex, and things can go right, or wrong at any or many, or even very few stages of the system . But, prediabetes, and able to be treating with diet with great results, usually - very little has gone really wrong? And lots of room to put things right, which you are doing.

For somone with prediabetes those numbers are good and normal, I would say. As Lovinglife says - a good sign that your insulin response is working really well, and has responded and is continuing to respond to the low-carbing very well.

A little high for you at 6.0mmol? Sigh. (Thinking of my own fasting blood glucose readings here and being envious of your way more healthy ones.)

Rather than wondering about errors, the readings spell good news for you and your functioning blood glucose system, from the outside looking in as it were. I see this at least as a - smile not a frown - situation.

But this of course, from all of us, is a non-medical opinion but an online understanding. (I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say what I have above.)

Text your medical centre/doc/diabetes nurse with these wonderings and hear what they have so say?

Many thanks for your reply. I’m only going to generally add a few carbs in. I feel fortunate that I’ve been alerted at this early stage that there is a bit of a problem and try to keep my figures down for as long as possible. This site and all the lovely, helpful people are very good for that