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Not Absorbing Food

liamthorpeyoung

Member
Messages
11
Location
East Sussex
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
So, has anyone experienced eating but their BG level doesn’t increase?

Last night I ate dinner and bolused, within half an hour BG was dropping very rapidly. So took on glucose to prevent hypo. Then stabilised to a sensible level.

Have experienced on numerous occasions where have eaten but BG doesn’t go up. I have to leave it 20-30 mins after eating to check BG is on the rise before I then have the confidence to bolus, last night I was brave and bolused straight away and nearly paid the price for it!

Basal is holding BG levels vary stable, so very confused!
 
Hi @liamthorpeyoung it would be interesting to know what your blood sugar is before the meal. In my days as a type 1 I found that nothing would raise my blood sugar for at least 20 minutes if I was hypo, even Lucozade (liquid glucose acts faster than any solid, but pineapple juice was fastest of all in my expeience). If your levels are less than 5 and you bolus immediately after eating, the food may not have had time to counteract the insulin perhaps. This makes sense with you saying that you have to leave it 20 - 30 minutes after eating. I hope you sort this out easily. Good luck
 
The delay is either from a very complex carb meal (which I personally avoid) or gastroparesis (which I have).
 

Thanks, @Grant_Vicat. Unfortunately can happen no matter what BG is, in this case it was 8. Your thoughts definitely make sense for when BG is low though.
 
I have this same problem. I used to eat a snickers or something similar, but have had to change to jelly beans. Nothing else works. My hypos can last up to 66mins according to my pump download yesterday. I wish I could discuss with a consultant but have been waiting for a call since October. I have considered it might be gastroparesis.
 
Hypos that long are worrying. Have you tried rubbing glucogel or even honey onto your gums. That way you get glucose into the bloodstream but completely bypass the gastroparesis/digestive system.
I used to use chocolate too, but for one thing I got really sick of chocolate, and I realised the fat in the chocolate slowed down the glucose release. It's jelly beans, jelly babies, lucozade or honey for me now.
 

Hi, that happened to me back in 2012, I became Coeliac. The Villi in the small intestine can't absorb the nutrients in the foods, so I would have lunch, carb count and dose with Insulin, 10 minutes later, a big hypo.
Not everyone gets symptoms, but I had a few, also, Coeliac disease and Type 1 are linked.
 

I’ve had it happen when BG low too, @lindaburner. It can be really scary to be taking on sugar but BG not rising.

I never use any kind of choc to treat hypos, it’s not fast acting enough. Before stomach issues lucozade used to work a treat. Then they went and removed all the sugar to avoid the sugar tax too! I find GlucoTabs, GlucoGel, or even Kendal Mint Cake works well for me, most of the time!
 

That’s really interesting, @Robinredbreast. I wasn’t Coeliac at last test a few months ago, but then it can be missed sometimes too! One to think about. There’s definitely something gut funny going on!
 
liamthorpeyoung said:
@Jollymon that’s really interesting, gastroparesis is something I have been considering. Does it affect you randomly or is it fairly consistent?
Click to expand...

It’s consistent for me. I have changed how I eat, what I eat, show much I eat. I really avoid eating big amounts of carbs to avoid taking big doses of insulin. It’s working for me, so that’s my path.

If you find It’s only consistent with a meal, then analyze the meal itself. Or avoid it. It’s probably a very complex carb.
 
Hi @liamthorpeyoung - I have experienced this a few times. Most often this can be linked to how I active I have been during the day. If you have had a busy day (been moving a lot, exercising) then the amount of insulin that you will need at a mealtime can drastically reduce.

Alternatively, if you had a high fat meal then you could need to split your bolus to manage.

If you have potentially taken too much insulin, then you are treating a hypo with active insulin on board which is difficult. I have had this panic so many times of seeing sugars drop and drop even after treating the hypo.

The worst instance I ever had of this was on a city break (prior to completing DAFNE, so I didn't know the rules around exercise). We walked all day after I bolused for dinner, I went low during and after the meal. Then I took my normal evening basal and went low ALL night (couldn't get my sugars above 3 for many hours). It was a really frightening and exhausting experience.

Have you done DAFNE? It really opened my eyes to insulin management.
 
I have been trying to get on a DAFNE course since last October, but can’t due to where I live. Postcode lottery. It’s all online now anyway, so it should be accessible. I’m 47 yrs with type 1 & never done a course! I think it would help massively, as high fat evening meals can take me into the high teens overnight (maybe 6hrs after eating). I understand the effect of exercise, which I do daily, & have reduced meal boluses beforehand to reduce the chance of hypos. Stacking & suspending was a problem when I was using CGM, so I ditched that completely & now maybe have 1 hypo a day compared to 6-7 last year.
 
Keep on trying to get on to one! I think I was on the waiting list for 5 years.

It’s quite a lot of maths and also trial and error, but once you understand the principles it really demystifies things. I do think that the group interaction in the DAFNE program helps. It’s nice to meet people going through the same stuff and you can really learn from each other. My DAFNE group is still in touch and we have a group that we can discuss diabetes with which is great.

I love my cgm and think that it helps to understand my control (especially overnight). The DAFNE nurses did acknowledge that cgms/over-testing can lead to more hypos. Our sugars will rise and fall during the day, if we test whilst insulin is working then we’ll always be tempted to correct. Then the result is generally a hypo!

For me, dose-splitting really works for high fat meals. I calculate the carbs in the whole meal and then take half a dose when I eat and then watch my sugars for the hour or two after eating. I take the other half when I notice them creeping back up. Hope that helps!
 

It says you’ve been a member since 13/01, I assume that’s 2021, my assumption would be you’re a newly diagnosed type 1 or 1.5?

If yes then it is likely that you’re experiencing the honeymoon period where your pancreas partially works and partially doesn’t. What you need to do is change your insulin to carb ratio so you account for both the insulin you inject and the insulin you produce.

If you are on a standard bolus insulin like NovoRapid or Humalog then the insulin shouldn’t be that fast and should actually take minimum 1 hour to peak
 
Hi, I suffered this problem during my honeymoon phase? Where I found regularly I wouldn’t need any insulin at all for my nightly meal.. my pancreas would cover it.. then as I came out of the honeymoon phase I noticed I started to need bolus for that meal.

speak to your diabetes team to see if they can offer you a half unit pen or help you re-adjust your bolus doses throughout the day to help with the problem. I used to get so scared when I would go severely hypo 20/30minutes after a meal. But it’s an easy fix with the right help from your team x
 
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