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Newbie - higher morning reading

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Fatbird71

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Hi.
Sorry for asking what may be a stupid question.
I'm pre diabetic and bought myself a blood testing monitor. Yesterday late morning, my reading was 8.3 mmol so I thought that this morning the reading would be lower but came out as 11 mmol.

I hadn't eaten anything since last night and took the dogs out first thing before doing the test. Would the dog walk have had any effect on the reading. I'll try again later but just wondered whether I should have done the morning test before the exercise.

Thanks
 
Google dawn phenomenon, it may be applicable in your case.
Exercise throws in so many variables, HIT is known to raise blood sugar temporarily, slower cardio like walking should lower BG, especially after eating.

Next variable is your meter, what was your last official lab blood fasting ?
Officially FBG >7mmol/L can be indicative of diabetes but lets not jump there yet.
 
Fatbird71 said:
Hi.
Sorry for asking what may be a stupid question.
I'm pre diabetic and bought myself a blood testing monitor. Yesterday late morning, my reading was 8.3 mmol so I thought that this morning the reading would be lower but came out as 11 mmol.

I hadn't eaten anything since last night and took the dogs out first thing before doing the test. Would the dog walk have had any effect on the reading. I'll try again later but just wondered whether I should have done the morning test before the exercise.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Just about everything influences blood sugars. In the morning we have a thing called Dawn Phenomenon: the liver starts dumping glucose when we wake, so we have energy to get the day started before we have a meal. Usually a walk would bring levels down, but as it was a fasting walk, it's also possible it "asked" your liver to dump a little more for the sake of the stroll. We're all different, and our livers work in mysterious ways, to put it nice and vaguely, but at this point there's no telling whether it made your blood sugars go higher or lower. The next time you take the dog out while fasted, you might want to test before and after the walk, that'll tell you what's true for you.

I'm a little surprised at your numbers though. When were you diagnosed as prediabetic, and has anything been done since? You're a tad high to be pre. Did you change your diet, and if so, how, and were you perscribed metformin or..? Sorry about the 20 questions, just trying to figure out whether we can help.
 
Sounds like it could be the dreaded dawn phenomenon , This morning I woke with a high of 12.7 and gave myself myself an extra 2 units of fast acting insulin and went for my usual two mile walk , 2 hours later i'am 17 it's not good but i've been like this for years .
 
Ronancastled said:
HIT is known to raise blood sugar temporarily, slower cardio like walking should lower BG, especially after eating.
Click to expand...
It is not the speed of HIIT which causes blood sugars to rise - it is the stop- start nature.
A 30 minute strenuous bike ride would drop my levels but interval training of short 20 second sprints with 2 minute recovery would raise it.
 
In Response said:
It is not the speed of HIIT which causes blood sugars to rise - it is the stop- start nature.
A 30 minute strenuous bike ride would drop my levels but interval training of short 20 second sprints with 2 minute recovery would raise it.
Click to expand...

For me, vigorous bike riding in the morning sends my BG through the roof.

I have some kind of Dawn Phenomenon where my BG usually rides until noon, then drops rapidly in the early afternoon.
Exercise encourages the liver dump; strenuous exercise more so.
It certainly doesn't reduce BG.
Neither does gentler exercise.

We are all different.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
For me, vigorous bike riding in the morning sends my BG through the roof.

I have some kind of Dawn Phenomenon where my BG usually rides until noon, then drops rapidly in the early afternoon.
Exercise encourages the liver dump; strenuous exercise more so.
It certainly doesn't reduce BG.
Neither does gentler exercise.

We are all different.
Click to expand...

In that case, I had better not look after my spin class on Saturday morning!!
 
JoKalsbeek said:
Just about everything influences blood sugars. In the morning we have a thing called Dawn Phenomenon: the liver starts dumping glucose when we wake, so we have energy to get the day started before we have a meal. Usually a walk would bring levels down, but as it was a fasting walk, it's also possible it "asked" your liver to dump a little more for the sake of the stroll. We're all different, and our livers work in mysterious ways, to put it nice and vaguely, but at this point there's no telling whether it made your blood sugars go higher or lower. The next time you take the dog out while fasted, you might want to test before and after the walk, that'll tell you what's true for you.

I'm a little surprised at your numbers though. When were you diagnosed as prediabetic, and has anything been done since? You're a tad high to be pre. Did you change your diet, and if so, how, and were you perscribed metformin or..? Sorry about the 20 questions, just trying to figure out whether we can help.
Click to expand...
It was 3 or 4 years ago and they check it every 6 months or so.... It had been late 30s/early 40s for ages and then it went up at the last one. Nothing has been prescribed yet although if they do it soon, I would imagine that will change.
 
If you don't want to end up on metformin then try low carb - it's worked for lots of pre-diabetic and type 2s.
Loads of information about it in here.
I did find my morning BS was the last to drop into the normal range, and cut my carb limit down further to reduce my dawn phenomenon.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Exercise encourages the liver dump; strenuous exercise more so.
It certainly doesn't reduce BG.
Neither does gentler exercise.
Click to expand...
Exercise has two diabetes related affects
- our livers dump glucose to give us the energy to do the exercise so our levles rise
- our bodies become more efficient at using insulin so our levles drop
Typically, the former happens first which is why short/HIIT exercise raises blood sugars.

There are also things like stress which can raise blood sugars. If we are not used to the exercise, our bodies get stressed.
For me, I will see this when I am doing a strenuous uphill cycle ride in the rain against the wind. My discomfort causes my levels to rise even though I could put in the same amount for the same amount of time on a flat sprint on a cool day and see my levels fall.

As you say, we are all different and we react differently to different types of exercise - my blood sugar reaction to cycling is different to that for running because I am not as fit at running.
 
Fatbird71 said:
It was 3 or 4 years ago and they check it every 6 months or so.... It had been late 30s/early 40s for ages and then it went up at the last one. Nothing has been prescribed yet although if they do it soon, I would imagine that will change.
Click to expand...
If you want to stop the decline into diabetes, you might indeed want to try low carb and avoid complications all together... Just an idea. You don't have to wait to become officially diabetic, you could just try and head it off, avoid it altogether. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ might help a little in that regard. Keep in mind medication can only do so much, and why wait until it gets bad enough for that?
 
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