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Morning Figures -

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paulandbez

Active Member
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Hi all

I am desperate for as much advice as possible regarding my morning figures. I take my blood glucose reading within about 30 minutes of getting up and every morning I have between 7.5 and 9 mmol/L sometimes they have been higher but I guess the average is around 8.5. I have heard of the dawn phenomenon. I have hardly anything for supper at around 9.15-9.30. I usually have just a round of toast or a couple of sugar free biscuits. Even when I have not eaten anything my blood sugar can be quite high and on the rare occasion I have more than toast I have had my blood sugar at around 7.
Does anyone have advice, preferably if you have been or still have a similar situation. I have had a lot of stress over the last four years (that's another story) and I know this can, I assume, make the figures high. I honestly do not think though that this accounts for the figures all the time, especially as I am not always stressed. I have just started to take 200ug of Chromium Picolinate at lunch and I hope that might make a difference in the next month or so. As I've said, I would appreciate as much advice as poss. Thanks.
 
There are basically three options. You could try a ketogenic diet, other T2 medications or go back on insulin. Don't expect the chromium, or any other supplement, to make much difference.
 
My perfect bloodsugar where I feel 'normal' is actually 7 to 7.5. I can deal with around 6.5 too but if I go below that I can tell I'm creeping closer to hypo.
 
Thanks for your replies. Interesting regarding the ketogenic diet and certainly the better of the options but how does (I don't have enough info re this diet) this diet stop high morning blood sugars. As I've said, even when I've not eaten anything for supper my blood sugars can be quite high. Also, have you tried chromium picolinate? I would be interested to hear what doses you took and the effects, good or bad.
 
Just stopping the high carb foods will make a big difference. You can't really do very low carb as you could hypo due to the tablets you are taking, but swapping those sugar free biscuits for something lower in carbs should make a big difference, and using a low carb bread is an option. I use Livlife and a protein bread which has only 4 gm of carbs per slice..
 
Thanks resurgam
I've never heard of that bread, I'll try and get some. But I still don't understand how my sugars can be as they are in the morning if I've not eaten anything for over 12 hours? I would love to have some answers or ideas regarding this. Thanks again for the suggestion. I'll try that.
 
It is called the dawn phenomenon. Best ignored, it will come down when it sees fit. Annoying but true.
 
You may also want to try testing before you get out of bed- some people find that ....I think it's called feet on the floor syndrome causes the levels to rise. My other suggestion is maybe eat something and see what that does to your levels.

Good l.uck.
 
paulandbez said:
Thanks resurgam
... I still don't understand how my sugars can be as they are in the morning if I've not eaten anything for over 12 hours? ....
Click to expand...
The blood glucose you see in the morning comes from your liver. You don't need to have eaten anything. Eating keto retrains the body to use fat instead of glucose for energy and should reduce the DP effect too. But you would need to at least reduce the gliclazide as it could cause a hypo. Chromium Picolinate is usually used by people who are glucose intolerant but do not yet have T2. It doesn't work very well. See this study for the observed effects, or lack of them. Skip down to the Results section.
 
I usually do my FBG at 7am and was pleased the last two mornings to have a 5.3 reading.

Interested to see what I could see about my own Dawn Phenomenon so ...
Tested at 6.15am - 5.4
Tested at 7.30am - 5.7
Tested at 8am - 6.0 :arghh:
Tested at 10.30 am - back to 5.5 (had already had one keto-friendly coffee after 8am read, but no food)

Not sure I want to have a go at setting a 3am alarm for a few days, but the above was interesting enough.
 
Thanks OzBlossom. That's interesting but I've got to say I'm jealous of those figures. I'll have to have a look at this keto thing!
 
paulandbez said:
Thanks OzBlossom. That's interesting but I've got to say I'm jealous of those figures. I'll have to have a look at this keto thing!
Click to expand...

Ah, but see in my signature where I started :eek:! We've all got to start somewhere and I still have heaps of weight to lose but I'm on the right path now. Lots of variation in these forums about the exact way folk control their blood sugars, but common theme for sure is 'low carb, low carb, low carb' in combo with/without medication.

Best wishes for your journey!
 
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