Still confused by my readings

[Chasida]

Watched the tv programme the other night about diabetes type 2 and it was mentioned on there about testing glucose levels two hours after the first mouthful of food.
Yes ... I always ALWAYS used to do this, and get readings no more than 7.7
However I have since found out that my high spike is around about three quarters of an hour after eating ...when it's often about 9.9 to 10.3 (depending on the meal) but rapidly decreases to no higher than 7.7 well before the two hours.
Is it just me who is odd? Ha ha
Does anyone else occasionally test early, just to check when their own spike occurrs?
Very interesting but certainly confusing!

 

[dbr10]

Watched the tv programme the other night about diabetes type 2 and it was mentioned on there about testing glucose levels two hours after the first mouthful of food.
Yes ... I always ALWAYS used to do this, and get readings no more than 7.7
However I have since found out that my high spike is around about three quarters of an hour after eating ...when it's often about 9.9 to 10.3 (depending on the meal) but rapidly decreases to no higher than 7.7 well before the two hours.
Is it just me who is odd? Ha ha
Does anyone else occasionally test early, just to check when their own spike occurrs?
Very interesting but certainly confusing!

The higher spike will be after about the first hour or so, before falling. 2 hour post meal figures are supposed to be less than 7.8 I think for type 2.

 

[sally and james]

Two hours is not usually the high point, unless the meal contained a lot of fat, which tends to slow down sugar absorption. I would expect 30 minutes to one hour to be the high point most of the time. Our easy to remember rule of thumb is
less than 7 at one hour
less than 6 at two hours
less than 5 at other times, ie fasting for before a meal.
The last one of these tends to be achieved 50% of the time. "Fasting" is the most difficult one to control, but the after meal readings depend on the meal, so it would be very rare to go over these figures.
Sally

 

[Pinkorchid]

Even non diabetics would have a sharp rise after 3/4 to 1 hour even the level you had or even higher As you are back to 7's after the 2 hours I would say no worries

 

[Bluetit1802]

You aren't odd at all. Everyone will rise after eating, and the peak can be anywhere depending on what you ate (the combination of foods and/or quick release carbs). It also depends on your own personal insulin response. With most of my regular meals I see a peak at around 90 minutes. The 2 hour mark is just a guideline. It isn't intended to catch a peak, it is intended to see if your insulin is responding properly to the meal you have just eaten.

 

[sally and james]

The following is taken from Richard Bernstein's "Diabetes Solution" (I have added UK units, using the converter on this site):

The nondiabetic ordinarily maintains blood sugar immaculately within a narrow range—usually between 80 (4.4) and 100 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter),*(5.6mmol//) with most people hovering near 85 mg/dl (4.7). There are times when that range can briefly stretch up or down—as high as 160 mg/dl (8.9) and as low as 65(3.6)—but generally, for the nondiabetic, such swings are rare. http://www.diabetes-book.com/nondiabetic-versus-diabetic/

I think we should be very careful about accepting high post-prandial numbers and brushing them off as what a non-diabetic would have. Non-diabetics rarely go out of range, certainly not after most meals and only after an exceptionally high carb intake. It is well worth following the link and reading the full piece. Bernstein is of the view that "non-diabetics", who frequently go out of range are simply people on their way to diabetes.

Despite the designation “normal,” an individual frequently displaying a blood sugar of 140 mg/dl (7.8) is a good candidate for full-blown type 2 diabetes. I have seen “nondiabetics” with sustained blood sugars averaging 120 mg/dl (6.7) develop diabetic complications.

Sally

 

[asparagusp]

The higher spike will be after about the first hour or so, before falling. 2 hour post meal figures are supposed to be less than 7.8 I think for type 2.

The two hour post prandial figure is less than 8.5.

 

[sally and james]

"8.5" is just a number plucked out of thin air, on a "that's good enough for a diabetic, they're all going to progress anyway" basis.
Why eat food which constantly exposes your body to harm?
Sally

 

[asparagusp]

Who has set "the target figures" generally for diabetics. I have heard of people having had the condition for twenty years and yet have had so symptoms other than "higher" than "normal" blood sugar. I agree with you Sally.

 

[Chasida]

You aren't odd at all. Everyone will rise after eating, and the peak can be anywhere depending on what you ate (the combination of foods and/or quick release carbs). It also depends on your own personal insulin response. With most of my regular meals I see a peak at around 90 minutes. The 2 hour mark is just a guideline. It isn't intended to catch a peak, it is intended to see if your insulin is responding properly to the meal you have just eaten.

Ahhh ... now you see I didn't know that, so thanks for pointing it out to me. I feel better knowing this fact

 

[Chasida]

The higher spike will be after about the first hour or so, before falling. 2 hour post meal figures are supposed to be less than 7.8 I think for type 2.

My bg reading an hour after breakfast today was 9.3. I re-tested half an hour later and it was 6.7 so I'm feeling happy that this is good? Perhaps I should give up taking the hour readings!

 

[bigjim19]

just hurting your finger stick to the 2 hours

 

[sally and james]

The important thing is to learn from your readings, otherwise there is limited benefit. This morning, what was your reading before breakfast? What did you have for breakfast? 9.3 is higher than I would like to see, but if you started out at 9.0, it was a good breakfast for you, but if you started at 6.0, you may want to change what you eat. While you are learning, you should keep a record of before and after a meal and what that meal was.
Sally

 

[Bluetit1802]

I agree with @sally and james

Do you record all your levels next to a food diary? By record, I mean the before eating and any subsequent readings until the next meal, and work out what the actual rise is. You will learn better this way.

What did you have for breakfast?

 

[Chasida]

The important thing is to learn from your readings, otherwise there is limited benefit. This morning, what was your reading before breakfast? What did you have for breakfast? 9.3 is higher than I would like to see, but if you started out at 9.0, it was a good breakfast for you, but if you started at 6.0, you may want to change what you eat. While you are learning, you should keep a record of before and after a meal and what that meal was.
Sally

Ahhh well I didn't take a reading prior to breakfast as it is usually the same (6.2) and I didn't want to use up the few test strips still left. I've never been higher than 6.2 before breakfast though. I eat a concoction of flax,chia, pumpkin and sunflower seeds mixed with some oats, about five raisons, some walnut pieces and maybe a few fresh raspberries, strawberries or dried apricot (only one) and serve myself just three level tablespoons of this breakfast, together with almond milk. I leave it to soak in and it makes a delicious brekki PS An hour and a half after this breakfast my bg was down to 6.7 so should I just go by that?

 

[sally and james]

When we started out on this journey, we tried all sorts of fruit and cereal combinations and quantities. I started by picking the raisons out of muesli (how ridiculous can you get!), reducing counted and measured quantities of fruit (will four grapes, rather than six be OK?) and finally serving such small bowls of porridge that it wasn't worth getting the pan dirty. Our breakfasts are now based round eggs, cheese, meats, fish and mushrooms. We don't have a taste for the sweet stuff anymore. Only you can decide for how long you are happy to have your sugars raised and by how much, but I would want to cut out the raisons, pure sugar bombs, and see how that went.
Sally

 

[Bluetit1802]

I used to have a concoction of flaxseed, full fat yogurt and very few berries (3 small strawberries or 6 raspberries) for breakfast and wondered for a long time why I spiked and why my levels stayed in the 6s most of the morning after having started in the 5s. I blamed it on dawn phenomenon, shrugged, and carried on.

I then ditched all carbs for breakfast and just had an egg with a cup of tea. This worked. No more spikes and apart from a small rise due to the milk in the tea, stay fairly flat all morning. I believe this is because my insulin resistance is at its worst in the mornings, but gets better as the day progresses. I can have my berries, flax and yogurt after lunch or after tea without much problem. So, for me, it is a carb-free breakfast. Could you try that and see what happens?

 

[Chasida]

I used to have a concoction of flaxseed, full fat yogurt and very few berries (3 small strawberries or 6 raspberries) for breakfast and wondered for a long time why I spiked and why my levels stayed in the 6s most of the morning after having started in the 5s. I blamed it on dawn phenomenon, shrugged, and carried on.

I then ditched all carbs for breakfast and just had an egg with a cup of tea. This worked. No more spikes and apart from a small rise due to the milk in the tea, stay fairly flat all morning. I believe this is because my insulin resistance is at its worst in the mornings, but gets better as the day progresses. I can have my berries, flax and yogurt after lunch or after tea without much problem. So, for me, it is a carb-free breakfast. Could you try that and see what happens?

Yes I could try that/ I'm so reluctant to give up morning cereal though. I do have eggs for lunch ...either scrambled or asw a cheese omelette. Today I tried porridge ... make it in the dish you're about to eat it in by the way, not in a pan. Saves on washing up!!! Ha haa. Anyway my bg went to just 8, so it's an improvement! By two hours after breakfast it was 6.2

 

[chalup]

I do not like my BS going over 7.8 at any time and having a 3mmol rise would make me cut out out the food that caused it. A lot of people don't seem to care what the spike is as long as it comes down by 2 hours. It is true that there will always be a spike after eating even a small amount of carbs but controlling how high that spike goes is important in avoiding complications. The idea that if you don't see the spike and are back down at 2 hours that it is all good seems a slippery slope to me. Just my opinion.

 

[Chasida]

I do not like my BS going over 7.8 at any time and having a 3mmol rise would make me cut out out the food that caused it. A lot of people don't seem to care what the spike is as long as it comes down by 2 hours. It is true that there will always be a spike after eating even a small amount of carbs but controlling how high that spike goes is important in avoiding complications. The idea that if you don't see the spike and are back down at 2 hours that it is all good seems a slippery slope to me. Just my opinion.

Yes I think I have to agree with that actually. I just wonder why we are never told to test earlier ... just to check how high our levels rise by? So many of us could be unaware that we spike as early as three quarters of an hour after meals, and think all is fine because the two hour reading is a good one! This morning I had a shock to see that my fasting glucose was 7.6. It has NEVER been that high first thing ... and even had me reaching for a hard boiled egg instead of cereal ( quite something for me!)