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Problems with Post-Prandial blood sugars.

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philreeduk

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi All,

Wondering if anyone could help me with a small problem I have been experiencing post meal. Whenever I eat the slightest bit of carb (say for instance a sandwich) I will find that I will end up having vast swings in the four hours it takes for the insulin to do its thing.

Take for instance today, I have a ration of 1unit for 7g of carb, A sandwich which was 49g (therefore 7 units) delivered fifteen minutes whilst I ate. When I tested my sugars beforehand I was 9.2, an hour afterwards 15.2 two hours later 13.2 three hours later 10.7 four hours later at the end I am now a 7.5. What worries me is what is causing these great swings, not only has it caused great highs but the swing downwards has also caused great lows. I know I may not be on the right ratio but what would cause these vast swings? Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi @philreeduk - welcome to the forum.

First the good news. Your insulin ratio seems to be about right - after four hours, you are back where you started.

But you are seeing spikes of 6mmol/l to get there.

The best thing to do is to move your pre-meal insulin forward - many people find that to reduce post-prandial spikes, they need to bolus half an hour or more before eating, especially with a fast carb meal like a sandwich on most types of bread (about the only one that isn't all that fast is proper rye bread).

If you are uncomfortable moving in one big jump, take it in five minute steps and see how it affects your readings.
 
I learned from @azure that timing your bolus is almost as important as how much insulin I take.
I bolus 20 min before eating a no carb meal. Through testing I found my insulin starts coming in around 20 min.

It's important to match the timing of your food / eating to when your insulin is available. Especially when eating carbs.

Carbs can act different in the morning than later in the afternoon or evening when we're generally more insulin sensative.
 
You could Fiasp insulin by Novo Nordisk. Gets to work fast and has markedly reduced my post meal spikes. My ratio is the same as yours and I was finding a very similar pattern as you describe. I now use the same ratio and blood glucose rarely goes over 10 for a highish carb meal.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
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