reducing fasting / first BG level of the day

[MadMat]

Any tips on how I can reduce my fasting / early morning BG level - it seems to be the highest reading I get all day! often well into the high 7.x range. The rest of the day I seem to test at low 6.x apart from directly after meals!

I try not to eat anything high in carbs after my evening meal, but do often have a lowish carb snack in the evenings - nuts or strawberries being the main ones!

Mat

 

[viviennem]

You're probably getting 'Dawn Phenomenon' - as you're getting ready to wake up your liver gives you some extra glucose to get you going for the day. With non-diabetic people, who don't have insulin resistance, the pancreas copes with this by pumping out a bit of insulin and the BG level drops. In diabetics, our insulin/glucose metabolism is flawed, so the BG level stays high.

That's a bit simplistic, but pretty well it. So higher fasting levels are not unusual in the newly diagnosed.

You can get them down over time by losing weight (if you need to) or reducing your overall carb intake, to lessen your insulin resistance. Conversely, some people find having a small carby snack before bed (eg a couple of buttered oatcakes) helps by keeping the night-time levels a bit higher, so the liver doesn't give you so much glucose to wake up with.

NICE guidelines say fasting for a Type 2 should be between 4 and 7, so you don't have far to go. Persisting with the low carb will help - I think I took a couple of months or more to get mine under 7. No need to panic yet! :wink: :lol:

Viv 8)

 

[Bluefoxy]

NICE guidelines say fasting for a Type 2 should be between 4 and 7, so you don't have far to go. Persisting with the low carb will help - I think I took a couple of months or more to get mine under 7. No need to panic yet! :wink: :lol:

Viv 8)

I've been low carbing for about 4 weeks now and my fasting reading has come down from double figures (14/15) to single figures. It was 8.0 this morning and 7.1 yesterday morning. So yes it's working

Ray

 

[claymic]

Bluefoxy
that is great...I am in my 2nd week and as yet i am still seeing fasting BS in the teens, although the first few days it was 14+ and now the last three days it has been 10.4 - 10.3 - 10.4, so it is coming down but i have not breeched the single digits yet

 

[Bluefoxy]

Bluefoxy
that is great...I am in my 2nd week and as yet i am still seeing fasting BS in the teens, although the first few days it was 14+ and now the last three days it has been 10.4 - 10.3 - 10.4, so it is coming down but i have not breeched the single digits yet

It'll come Claymic and a lovely feeling it will be

Ray

 

[xyzzy]

Pain this DP thing isn't it. Took me around 8 weeks to get consistently below 7 and I remember asking the same question and getting the same reply from Viv. Patience is the key. Now at week 15 its consistently between 5.0 & 5.8. Seems to me livers are a bit slow on the uptake about how much they should dump in the night. Mine is gradually getting the message to behave and I'm now normally within 0.5mmol of where I went to bed the previous night.

 

[Grazer]

This is one area where we are all different. Viv's "have a snack mbefore bed" works for some. For me, it does the opposite. It puts my BG up before bed and there it stays 'till after breakfast. I find that if I have ANYTHING within 2 hours or more before bed, even a tiniest glass of milk, I have a high morning BG. My fasting BGs went down a point when I switched from this really small (about 2 gram carbs worth) of milk to a glass of avidlite no sugar soya milk (0 carbs)
Even my grazing on nuts has to be done more than 2 hours before bed.
You just have to try different things and find out what suits you. (meter to the ready!)

 

[suzie_girl]

This is a helpful thread, usually someone has asked the same question I came in to ask.

I have been every now and then absolutely pouring with sweat in bed, I used to NEVER get too hot I have terrible circulation. Yesterday I had to be up at 6am and I woke up sweaty, so I quickly tested and was mortified to find my blood sugar on 8. For the rest of the time I go no higher then 7 usually 2 hours after a meal, and am usually about 5 before one. I understand eye damage and all that starts at above 8 so if feel like its unacceptable for me to do anything that puts me over 8.

I'm thinking, perhaps its getting low and that's when I'm sweating buckets, then I'm getting a big liver dump. The only other time I had a high reading was because I left too long between lunch and dinner, I've never had the problem again as now I have a simple snack if I know I won't make dinner time.

My last meal is don't by 8pm, and then I eat nothing, until yogart and berries at like 10am. I'm thinking now I'm screwing up and this is far too long between food. ALWAYS my problems are caused by me not eating enough. I've had food issues with this for many years.

So now I'm thinking I should try a small snack at 10pm or something....... But downside is that's not good for my other condition lympheodema where I'm supposed to be low fat and avoid carbs after 8pm agggghhhhhhh!

Would something simple even like a clear soup help with this spike do you think? I'm going to have to ponder this one.

Anyways thanks you guys for the advice in this thread as it seems obvious to me now going 14 hours without food will be a fail, I feel a bit silly like I'm not sure why I ever thought it would be ok.........

 

[claymic]

Well i did have a fasting reading of 9.4 on saturday morning so yay...but i was thinking. on Friday night i was exceptionally hungry. so i did my +2hr after evening meal test about 10.00pm and it was 6.4 ( ) but then first i had some snacks and then i had 2 rice crackers with some cheese. I tested before sleeping (probably nearly 2 hrs later) and the BG was 7.5... i do not know if have those snacks helped with the 9.4 reading on Saturday morning.

I might try and see if it works again if i have a small carby snack before sleep - but i need to try it during the week when my routine is more stable.

if i do so i have a question.... do i have snack just before bed, then take BG before bed OR

do i test before bed, then have a snack...then sleep ???????

thanks

 

[Defren]

Well i did have a fasting reading of 9.4 on saturday morning so yay...but i was thinking. on Friday night i was exceptionally hungry. so i did my +2hr after evening meal test about 10.00pm and it was 6.4 ( ) but then first i had some snacks and then i had 2 rice crackers with some cheese. I tested before sleeping (probably nearly 2 hrs later) and the BG was 7.5... i do not know if have those snacks helped with the 9.4 reading on Saturday morning.

I might try and see if it works again if i have a small carby snack before sleep - but i need to try it during the week when my routine is more stable.

if i do so i have a question.... do i have snack just before bed, then take BG before bed OR

do i test before bed, then have a snack...then sleep ???????

thanks

Before this horrid loss of appetite, I used to have one slice of Burgen bread, with a spread or butter, and then peanut butter, it worked an absolute treat for me, and my fasting numbers were always low (I am newly diagnosed, 1 month on Monday) after initial much higher numbers after fasting. However, now I am struggling to eat, and don't have the peanut butter any more, my levels are still around the same. DP seems to be the cause of a lot of high fasting readings. The point I am making, for me, eating or not eating before bed doesn't really make much difference. But, there again each of us are so different. Try things out then test, I'm sure you'll find a way to get lower fasting levels.

 

[claymic]

I wish i had loss of appetite... today i am really really hungry due to well....stuff....and i find that very hard to control...hopefully i ll be better tomorrow

saying that yesterday we went out for a meal and after a bowl of salad i struggled with to finish the main meal....

 

[Unbeliever]

I hink it is abou finding the righ level before bed.Too low and you will ge higher reading wih the Dp too high and it will still be high - or even higher the next morning.
Bedime snacks are no good for me I test a couple of hours before going to bed.and again shortly before bedtime. That gives me some chance o adjus hings. if oo low maybe a small - very small- snack two hours before or even a few hot drinks. if too high then some exercise helps.
For me anything from the high 4s to low 5s is ideal and sometimes I even wake with a lower reading. More often it is the same as the nighime reading or within a point or two. I took quite a while o figure this out and get to this stage.