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Is this worrisome?

G

godeh

Member
Messages
18
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hi All,

Just wanted to get some opinions from you guys on my situation, I'm 29 and my dad has type 2 and my little brother has type 1 (he's 15 now and had since 2).

I recently have been feeling a little weird especially after having carbs for breakfast (bread), I would feel fine and then 2-3 hours after I will feel shaky and hungry - this happens all the time and I put it down to reactive hypoglycaemia, I checked my sugars a year or 2 ago after I would feel like that and my sugars would be in the 3.4 region.

What I have been doing recently is testing randomly after meals and I've been getting some quite high readings, over the weekend I had a reading of 10.6 after having wheatabix and a salad with grilled chicken, I tested about 30mins after I ate. I tested again 15-30mins after and my result was 6.5.

Since those were a bit more random, last night I decided to check things properly, here are my results:

Tuesday - Didn't eat anything until 7pm!

5.6 - Morning,
4.8 - 3pm
4.6 - 7pm (right before eating)
9.8 - 30mins after food (rice and sweet chicken stir fry)
9.8 - hour afrer
6.9 - 2 hours after
5.2 - 3 hours after

Thank you for your time!
 
Hi Godeh

Everyone (even non diabetics) spikes after food. Since you have a meter available, do it again but without the carbs (so no bread, rice, sweet sauces, cereal etc).

If you are concerned though, get yourself tested properly.
 
I think I might be tempted to get a fasting blood test done at my docs. Normal is defined as 4 to 5.9
If you go onto the website part of this site it gives you the table for bs. It is important if you are diabetic, that you are diagnosed for T1 or T2.
Good luck.
 
sanguine said:
Hi Godeh

Everyone (even non diabetics) spikes after food. Since you have a meter available, do it again but without the carbs (so no bread, rice, sweet sauces, cereal etc).

If you are concerned though, get yourself tested properly.
Click to expand...
Hi Sanguine,

Thanks for your reply - I did actually have a day without any carbs, I had 2 meals of grilled chicken and salad and throughout the day my sugars was in the mid-high 5's - even shortly after eating.

The reading the concerns me most is the 10.6, surely a non-diabetic wouldn't spike to that level?
 
Your family history does not give you much of a chance. The numbers are probably a bit high but not a drama, you should probably get a lab test done or at least ask your doc.
 
I've been testing every morning after fasting for around 12hours and my sugars are in low 5's
 
Ask your GP to do a HbA1c test. If above 42, ask for an OGTT test.

Your post prandial readings are too high, but maybe not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. Keep checking.
 
HI. There is a hint that you may have very early diabetes but the readings are not conclusive. I might be inclined to keep testing every now and again 2 hours after a meal and check that you are below 8-9 mmol. Fasting tests can be unreliable due to the liver dump effect. If you go above the 8-9 mmol then you might want to ask he GP for an HBa1C
 
After checking frequently for the past week I seem to be hitting high 9's and once 10 30mins-1h after eating, but by the 2 hour mark it seems to come down by quite a lot - would that be a good sign or still a problem?

I will be seeing diabetic nurse tomorrow as I done a fasting test a month and a half ago which my gp said I passed with flying colours... lol

Also I gather that early diabetes is not pre-diabetes?
 
Your earlier test results look ok. The sweet and sour stir fry would push you up of course but you were back down to normal levels within a couple of hours.

Don't stress about one reading of 10.3. Start to think about investigating further when you get several unexplained high readings. One reading means nothing. Firstly, meters are not accurate and secondly, capillary blood samples from finger pricks are not that good either. Odd results happen. Only when you get lots of them do you think about doing something.

When glucose is produced by the body from its own stores, as opposed to eating something, it is released in a lump as it were. It takes an hour for it to spread uniformly throught the blood supply. In the first 15 mins, it is like you have sugar lump floating around. To ease my own mind, when I see one of these funnies, whicg are rare, I take a reading 30 mins and 60 mins after, without eating anything. That gives the glucose time to spread more evenly. Every time, it is much lower. You can also test another finger at the same time, preferably on the other hand. It is not unusual to have several points difference.

It is always normal for BG levels to go up after meals but the important thing is that they are below 7.8 two hours after, though personally I like them to be below 7.0. If you are worried, try cutting back on things like sweet and sour, in fact, all sweet stuff. Try taking some exercise too and see what the effect is on your BG levels then. They will in most cases be noticably lower.
 
Hi Yorksman, thanks for that!,

What about the readings in the mid 9's? I've had these on 3 different days after a meal with carbs, is that problematic or aslong as it's down to 6's after 2 hours is that regarded as fine?
 
godeh said:
Also I gather that early diabetes is not pre-diabetes?
Click to expand...

Type 2 diabetes is not as well understood as they would have you think. The difference between pre diabetes and diabetes is an arbitary number based on Mr or Mrs Average and a whole bunch of observations of people with different BMIs and on different diets. The one thing a newly diagnosed patient wuld benefit from is knowing what the level of damage is to your beta cell mass. They don't even measure that. It's just a blood glucose reading and there are a few reasons why it might be high. Without finding out why they are high, you get diagnosed as a diabetic. In reality though, it is not an on or off switch, despite what some HCPs state.
 
godeh said:
What about the readings in the mid 9's? I've had these on 3 different days after a meal with carbs, is that problematic or aslong as it's down to 6's after 2 hours is that regarded as fine?
Click to expand...

It depends on what carbs you have been eating. . Every food has a different glycaemic response curve:



The fast food breakfast here is up into the 9s but comes down nicely within a couple of hours. Physical activity helps insulin sensitivity so that brings things down more quickly and of course, eating more complex carbs will stop it going high in the first place.

The danger is that if it takes too long to come down, eg. 4 hours, you have your next meal which tops it up and then another after than so that your bG level is permanently high. That's when damage occurs.
 
That helps a lot, thank you!
 
Good luck godeh and all the best with your appointment tomorrow. take care RRB
 

Those readings are quite good really. The term 'pre-diabetes' is just a convenient term for HCPs as they love to categorise things as it's good for database recording. There is a continuum from those who always have really low blood sugar i.e. an HBa1C below 5 thru to seriously high level diabetes with HBa1Cs into the teens of %
 
9 and 10 are high enough to cause damage to your pancreas so if I were Godeh I would try to get it investigated. Normal normal people are down to baseline after an hour at the latest and usually earlier than that. And the rise will be only one or two mml.

The lower (as in normal low) you keep your bg the longer you will retain a good pancreatic function. Your father is diabetic so you may have inherited the genes from him and who says your mum hasn't diabetic genes too? Not to mention LADA as your brother is T1.

Low carbing might a good idea but get this checked first. Ask for a HbA1c test to start with.
 
Hi Again,

Went to see the nurse and I told her what's up and she basically looked at me like I'm being way over dramatic - she told me that even her sugar will go up to 9 after eating, it's a perfectly normal thing to happen after eating. She told me my blood test results for the fasting test which was done a month or so ago came back perfectly fine and that I am not a diabetic. She instructed me to stop testing and to stop worrying about it.

Does that sound like good advice for me to proceed from here?
 
It sounds reasonable to me, but maybe test once a week to keep an eye on your fasting, and also keep an eye on your diet.?
 
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