New to Blood Glucose Testing - Unexpected Result

Smileypigface said:

... I know I probably shouldn't get too tied up in knots analysing one meal - I plan to test on waking, before meals and 2 hours after each meal (3 meals per day) so I'll hopefully start to see a trend after a few days. ...

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Smileypigface said:

Today my Accu-Chek Mobile arrived - I tested just before lunch - 4.6 and then 2 hours later - 3.9. I was expecting the after lunch reading to be higher - did I leave it too long to test? My lunch was homemade mushroom stroganoff (mushrooms, minced pork and sour cream) and cheese containing 5.6g of carbs, 30.6g of fat and 25.6g of protein.

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Ronancastled said:

I did take me about 9 months however to recover my first phase insulin response.
I've seen 13's after testing at 1 hour after a heavy carb meal, nowadays I'd barely see a 7.
It takes time for your pancreas to recover & it's dependent on continued weight loss, exercise and low carb eating to give it a rest.

I reckon you've got this

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DanW13 said:

Hi,

Apologies for interjecting, but I’ve a quick question on this bit of your response.

I was diagnosed with prediabetes recently - Hba1c of 43. Since then I’ve lost weight, gone low carb & after 6 weeks & a retest my Hba1c is back to 37 so going well so far. I purchased a Libre & used it for a month & one thing I noticed was that spike after eating carbs, never really bad but for example eating 2 weetabix would take my BG up to nearly 10 after 45 minutes, though it would quickly drop back to normal levels. Other low carb meals produced a much less dramatic response.

Does this sound normal or is this illustrating Phase 1 insulin resistance? After 2 hours BG was generally back to baseline, circa 5.0 or <1.0 higher than prior to the meal. If it does is it worth my buying another Libre after say a year to see if my Phase1 response has been restored? Are you able to eat some carbs now you’ve restored yours, or is the reality that it would quickly be lost again if you did??

Sorry for all the questions, but trying to understand better my own body & had been wondering about what did or didn’t constitute a normal/non diabetic post meal (1st hour) spike, or if there shouldn’t be one at all? All the discussion is generally about the 2 hour point after a meal so wasn’t sure how important the initial spike was or wasn’t!

Thanks
Dan

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Ronancastled said:

Have a look at some of my recent posts where I quote a study of 57 healthy young Stanford University students who wore cgm's & were given a test meal of a bowl of cornflakes.
Many of them spiked like you with some going over 200 (11.1),
The old paradigm of non-diabetics never spiking has been severely questioned with availability of these real time glucose monitors.
They now propose up to 3 different glucose responses seen in the population called glucotypes.
Some have a flat response, some spike high then come down rapidly & there's a group in between.

As you were only a prediabetic your pancreas was obviously overworked but long term damage is less likely.
Now is the time to loose weight if you need to, up your exercise & lower your carbs.
What none of us know is how are body handled carbs before diagnosis cause we weren't pricking fingers or wearing Libre's back then.

Maybe, like the students, eating Weetabix might have been a bad idea.
The day your Fitbit or Apple Watch can read glucose will be bad day for the processed food companies.

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epiphany said:

Hello, I’m new to this community and would like to ask some advice.

I purchased a blood sugar monitor (pin-prick type) a couple of years ago but would question its accuracy as readings from the same sample can fluctuate somewhat. For example, in a recent test I measured 5.9, 6.6 and 7.4 from the same drop of blood.

I’ve been borderline diabetic for the last 5 years or so and have not been prescribed any medication as yet. My most recent formal Hba1c readings of about 47 – 48 were taken about a year ago. However, I have a feeling that this may have risen in recent months, as my mouth feels drier than it used to and I have a greater urge to urinate in the morning.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a more accurate and reliable device, or perhaps give me some other helpful advice?

Many thanks in advance.

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JoKalsbeek said:

Blood glucose devices have a 15% margin of error, almost never give the same result on the same drop of blood. Which is usually enough to let you know whether you're hypo, hyper or normal. There's nothing save a lab test that'll give a higher accuracy, and even then, test results from the same sample could vary from lab to lab. If you ever doubt a meter, check whether the strips are still in date (it really does make a difference!), whether your hands are quite clean and dry (no hand cream!), and that the monitor itself isn't too old. They kind of lose their knack for it after a few years. Mine are between 3 and 4 years old, which kind of means I'd better be on the lookout for a new machine, I suppose. In any case, if you feel like your blood glucose might be off due to symptoms, it might pay to get a new meter and fresh strips (The codefree or Tee2 are pretty good, from what i understand, and the strips don't cost an arm and a leg).

Good luck!
Jo

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