Range of blood sugar levels

Hotglove said:

Hi
I was on Metformin until 2 weeks ago, I was having one blood test per year and one checkup per year. Now my doc has put me on Gliclazide, one 40mg tablet with breakfast and told me to check bs before and after each meal.
I seem to follow a pattern of reading about 7.8 in the morning, dropping to around 4.8 lunch time/early evening and back to 8.0 at bed time.
The highest reading I have seen is 11.1 and the lowest is 4.1
In early Jan I was 13st 11 (I am 5’ 6”) and felt very fat and unfit, then in late Jan I caught Covid, 10 days intensive care and very nearly died, when I came out of hosp I weighed 12st 5.
I signed up with a health coach and now weigh 12st 0 but have added a significant amount of muscle, I am 71 and have a full time job that involves some heavy manual work, but have been shielding for most of the last year, I will be returning to work in 2 weeks.
I am trying to follow a low-carb diet, but have not really studied nutrition, or Diabetes in general since I was diagnosed about 7 yrs ago, I was not aware of any symptoms, the diagnosis came about by way of a regular checkup at work.
So now I am making up for lost time and learning more about diet, exercise and bs management.
It seems to me that I need to lower the higher peaks per day, but not to lower the lowest dips, which is a bit of a puzzle.
All observations and advice very welcome, thanks.

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Hi and welcome to the forums.

Carbohydrates can have a significant effect on blood glucose levels as you have already observed.

In an ideal world you would try to keep the rise in your rise in blood glucose from pre meal to post meal to 2mmol/l.

This is easier said than done but cutting down on carb"s will (probably) help enormously. However, your Gliclazide can cause hypoglycaemia (low blood sugars) so be careful what you do with carbs and speak to a medical professional if in doubt.

Most of the T2's in THIS forum are advocates of a low carb high fat (LCHF) lifestyle and some have managed to ditch medication completely.

This page will show you the NICE recommendations for glucose levels. The numbers you have provided above are OK apart from the 11+ reading. But look at timings of testing to see if you are catching glucose spikes, normally 90 minutes to 2hrs after eating.

A diagnosis of diabetes is usually made as a result of an hba1c blood test. This looks at how much glucose you've had in your blood over the past couple of months. In the UK, the threshold for diabetes is 6.5% but the result may be expressed as 48mmol/mol or higher. You have not mentioned whether you've had this test?

Hi @Hotglove

a rough ride since jan,
congrats on getting back to better health.

also seeing as you were on Met, that your T2D ?

if i understand correctly, you have been DX'd over 7 years
and have now moved on from metformin to Glix.

If you haven't been making any major dietary changes and been following the usual mantra of Eatwell,
then i'd say that progression, is the norm.

Although the impact of post covid could have a major influence on that for you.

For clarity i am Diet controlled and Metformin

as for finding your feet Re: low carbs,

Sadly the advice IF you have been following the Doctors advice of Eatwell, to carry on eating carbs but at a lower level then pre DX, IS the problem.

A bit like filling a bath.

Too much water flowing in, it can spill over...which was the 1st warning sign at dx that your were approaching that marker.

Sadly the Eatwell, brown bread, Brown rice etc, isn't great advice for a T2D, nor is the eating fruit etc, imho.
and doesn't tackle the issue with sufficient force.

so while a T2D may have slowed the 'flow' it is still trickling in at a higher rate then they could perhaps manage,

The Eatwell scenario has T2D's baling out 2 pints with one hand, while the other hand is pouring 2 1/2 pints back in,
so we're always in deficit, and that keeps on climbing until the next intervention level is called for....

The advice i noted and used on here.
was, using the bath example, to let as much out as possible WHILE adding as little water as YOU can allow into the bath., while you're trying to drain it...Made great sense to me.

Just as we are vessels filled with glucose, the idea is to reduce the intake as much as possible, within our own boundaries,
and use up as much as we can , with the call of the muscles groups for energy, exrecise, etc (glucose)

i'd say your task here is to level that wave/spike.

Too many carbs and you'll spike then once they are exhausted you'll drop back down again.

the spikes are followed by the lows.

The carbs cause the issues, so maybe reducing the carbs will help in creating fewer spikes and thus smoother BG levels

while the Glix does make it harder, ( you will be balancing the food v meds so do seek a doctors advice )

the LCHF part, while seeming like the krypton factor,
it can be brought down to a reasonably simple level of diet.

For me that's become,

Meat that looks like meat.
veg that looks like veg
and spices added by me..
all cooked by me.

Everything else is just a nice add on.

No saint, but it's the majority of how i eat.

i was very naïve about carbs etc pre DX
i found this site useful when deciding if a food was a good choice for me or not

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/visual-guides

You have a meter, so you'll hear
"Eat to the Meter" frequently in posts.

Simply because what each of us can eat or how much of it, is so individual.

the meter really is your guide to how any food can affect your blood glucose levels.
nothing else comes close to helping you sort out that conundrum you speak of.

Good luck on the journey.
if you can get back from covid, tackling T2D, should be well within your grasp.