Suddenly high sugar levels (T2 diet controlled)

[SheilaCanning]

I've been managing my Type 2 diabetes with a low carb diet for the last 3 years. I finger prick at least twice a day - morning before food and evening before dinner and then if I feel a bit low or high I will check. My morning read is always high between 7.4 and 8.4 and my pre-dinner read is usually between 6 & 7. My last HbA1c was 6.2 on thise readings so I know I am keeping steady. I haven't had an HBA1C for two years though so I am going to call the GP and ask for one.

The last few days my morning reading has been really crazy high. This morning it was 11.5. Yesterday it was 10.5. Yesterday I ate a plain greek yogurt and went for a 2 mile walk. When I got back and retested it had only gone to 9. Often, if I do a 1 mile walk it will shift down to 5.4 from 8 so I really don't know what's happening. I did not eat anything "bad" yesterday. I exercised. I drank water. I figured it was high because during the week I celebrated my son's birthday with dinner out and birthday cake (such a teeny bit of cake). It should have normalised by now.

Also, I have been getting aches in my arms and legs - I assumed related to hormones as I'm in the midst of menopausal madness. Is tehre any connection to diabetes?

Grateful for your thoughts and advice.

 

[MissMuffett]

Hi @SheilaCanning do you test as soon as you get out of bed before you do anything else? Just a suggestion. I wash my hands and test within a minute of getting up. If I leave it 10-15 minutes mine goes up by at least 2 mmols.

Exercise can stress the body and so raise BG and as menopause is hormonal it might be a reason for a rise. Just a couple of thoughts. I’m sure someone with more experience will be along with more suggestions.

 

[AndBreathe]

I've been managing my Type 2 diabetes with a low carb diet for the last 3 years. I finger prick at least twice a day - morning before food and evening before dinner and then if I feel a bit low or high I will check. My morning read is always high between 7.4 and 8.4 and my pre-dinner read is usually between 6 & 7. My last HbA1c was 6.2 on thise readings so I know I am keeping steady. I haven't had an HBA1C for two years though so I am going to call the GP and ask for one.

The last few days my morning reading has been really crazy high. This morning it was 11.5. Yesterday it was 10.5. Yesterday I ate a plain greek yogurt and went for a 2 mile walk. When I got back and retested it had only gone to 9. Often, if I do a 1 mile walk it will shift down to 5.4 from 8 so I really don't know what's happening. I did not eat anything "bad" yesterday. I exercised. I drank water. I figured it was high because during the week I celebrated my son's birthday with dinner out and birthday cake (such a teeny bit of cake). It should have normalised by now.

Also, I have been getting aches in my arms and legs - I assumed related to hormones as I'm in the midst of menopausal madness. Is tehre any connection to diabetes?

Grateful for your thoughts and advice.

@SheilaCanning - have you perchance just started a new pot of strips? It is possible they are a bit off. It has been known.
Are you feeling unwell, or stressed or anything? Loads of things can impact blood sugars.

 

[Melgar]

Hi @SheilaCanning the same happened to me the other day. I checked My BS just before I got up and it was 7 . Got out of bed and within minutes it whizzed up to 10.
This morning both readings were lower. I think just one off oddities happen. If you see a change in your BS patterns over a few days then maybe mention it to your Dr. As @AndBreathe says there can be many things that influence your blood sugars. I use a CGM to monitor mine. I am also really into my fitness. I use it to keep my blood sugars down. A useful statistic to remember is that your muscles use around 70% of your total glucose intake. I find if I don’t exercise or do less then my following morning blood sugars rise like they did yesterday for me.

 

[SheilaCanning]

Hi @SheilaCanning do you test as soon as you get out of bed before you do anything else? Just a suggestion. I wash my hands and test within a minute of getting up. If I leave it 10-15 minutes mine goes up by at least 2 mmols.

Exercise can stress the body and so raise BG and as menopause is hormonal it might be a reason for a rise. Just a couple of thoughts. I’m sure someone with more experience will be along with more suggestions.

Thanks for replying. I don't usually test as soon as I get up but assume that as I test at the same time roughly every day a big change is significant. I tried your method yesterday and today and it actullay didn't make much difference. The good news is that a couple fo days of being very strict and exercising has got it back to normal which is a big relief. I was worried it had gone wrong for good.

I suspect hormones have played a part.

 

[SheilaCanning]

@SheilaCanning - have you perchance just started a new pot of strips? It is possible they are a bit off. It has been known.
Are you feeling unwell, or stressed or anything? Loads of things can impact blood sugars.

Thank you. No, I was mid way through a pot. I was feeling unwell with menopausal symptoms so I suspect a bit too much sugary food combined with hormones and created the situation.

 

[SheilaCanning]

Hi @SheilaCanning the same happened to me the other day. I checked My BS just before I got up and it was 7 . Got out of bed and within minutes it whizzed up to 10.
This morning both readings were lower. I think just one off oddities happen. If you see a change in your BS patterns over a few days then maybe mention it to your Dr. As @AndBreathe says there can be many things that influence your blood sugars. I use a CGM to monitor mine. I am also really into my fitness. I use it to keep my blood sugars down. A useful statistic to remember is that your muscles use around 70% of your total glucose intake. I find if I don’t exercise or do less then my following morning blood sugars rise like they did yesterday for me.

I've just started strength exercises and learned that they are great for helping regulate sugar levels. I didn't know muscles use 70% of glucose intake! So it makes sense to "build" muscle? Thank you.

 

[Melgar]

I've just started strength exercises and learned that they are great for helping regulate sugar levels. I didn't know muscles use 70% of glucose intake! So it makes sense to "build" muscle? Thank you.

You are welcome. Yes strength training increases your muscle mass and therefore you use more glucose. I do have to be careful with weights, I stick to lower repetitive weight training because if I go too heavy then my blood sugars shoot up, but we are all different.

 

[Robbity]

I was lucky enough to have a GP who encouraged me to try the Arkins diet after my T2 diagnosis and gave me a meter and pot of strips though this was just a one-off. Since then I've eaten a low carb/ketogenic type diet for over 10 years, and manage to reduce my glucose to pre-diabetic within the first few months. I've funded my own testing, and something I discovered fairly quickly - thanks in part to our forum - was that as well as indulging in a few extra carbs many other issues can definitely raise my glucose levels - usually more so. The blips I've seen in my HbA1c results have mainly coincided with either feeling poorly, being in pain, or taking certain medications. e.g. statins , and in particular on several occaions one-off steroid jabs have kept my glucose raised a few points for 3-4 days.

So @SheilaCanning I think what you have been seeing is more than likely your body working a bit harder to "fix" things....