Hi, I have only just started testing my blood sugars this morning. This morning before breakfast 11.5 and tested again 3hours later and it's gone upto 13.6 is this something I should be worried about? I have been a diabetic for 7 years now, but I have only just started testing my blood sugar levels as my diabetes is not under control at the moment. Just looking for some advice please if anyone has any.
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Newly started testing blood sugars
- Thread starter Becki85
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Mr Hairyman
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Generally if it goes up by 2.0 or more then whatever you've had to eat/drink has caused a spike.
It's a useful way of figuring out what causes a spike and what doesn't.
It's a useful way of figuring out what causes a spike and what doesn't.
Thank you. Is 11.5 for first thing in a morning high?
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Hi @Becki85
Start by taking a look at our information page here.
and this one too.
These numbers are NICE (National Institute for health and Care Excellence) guidelines and not everybody achieves them but there are probably things you can do to improve your numbers.
Don't panic, we can (probably) help.
Dancing Badger
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Would you like to tell us what you had for breakfast? (Those pesky carbs hide in the most unexpected places.)
JoKalsbeek
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It is a high-ish starting point, and you should test two hours later, not three... But hey, you're just starting out. Everyone here had to start at some point. After lunch I hit 22, waaay back when, meaning seven years ago. So no worries as yet, eh. You could be doing worse.
What's your plan with the testing? Just seeing what you're up to, or checking which foods agree with you? Anything we can help with?
Jo
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Hi and welcome. I'm not surprised that your diabetes isn't controlled if you've only just started testing. While I think there are limitations to testing, it's essential for getting an idea of how you react to and deal with the food you eat, and that has a huge impact on your blood glucose.
Yes, 11.5 is a higher reading. My Bilous and Donnelly textbook says that diabetes would be automatically diagnosed at that reading for anyone with "typical symptoms of diabetes". As one of the "typical symptoms of diabetes" is high blood glucose, open and shut case.
It's standard for blood glucose levels to rise after eating anything with carbs in, so a later level of 13.6 is to be expected assuming you ate carbs at breakfast. It's probable your BG was even higher in between. The big question is how quickly your blood glucose levels return to where you started from.
The testing before and two hours after food is not to see "how high you go" - the high point often occurs after 30 or 60 minutes. Testing is intended to find out how well your system coped with what you ate. The idea is that you then exclude the food causing the biggest problem, and your blood glucose levels overall should start to fall.
I cut out all bread, pasta, rice, fruit, potatoes and root veg, sugar, pastry and 95% of what come out of a packet. That worked very well for me, and sim,ilar approaches have worked for many others - you might have a read on the "Success Stories" part of the forum for many more examples.
best of luck. This forum is a wonderful source of support and advice, and the people on here helped me enormously in my early days. You'll find you can ask about literally anything, and someone will generally be able to help.
Mr Hairyman
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As others have said - yes, it's certainly high enough to suggest you are diabetic. The aim would be to get below about 8.0 (prediabetic) and then try for below 6.5.
When I was diagnosed back in May 23, I was testing at about 12.5 and now in the mornings before food, I'm about 5.9
I cut out sugar and most carbs. No pasta/Flour/Rice/Potato/Cereal etc. It's certainly do-able
