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Sugar levels in the morning

Scoobmeister1

Scoobmeister1

Member
Messages
21
Location
Kent
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi

I have raised this before and have seen many posts on this discussion, but I still have a few frustrations having tried a few different things!

A typical morning would be as follows:

Sugar level shows 4.7 in morning. Inject Novorapid 5.15am. Have breakfast at 7.15am(2 Weetabix, raspberries and a banana) 45 mins later levels can be up to 12!! 45 mins after this high they are back at 5.5!! Why does this happen? Do I need to inject 2.5 hours earlier? I am hoping the Humalog will sort this out.

Sugar levels fine throughout the day and evening with the exception of breakfast. I am on Lantus and Novorapid. I am to change to change from Novorapid to Humalog as Humalog peaks about 70 - 80 minutes earlier than Novorapid.

Any advice would be most welcome!!

Cheers :)
Ashley
 
Hi Ashley
I suffer in the mornings too, carb free breakfast but still bolus is the only thing which works for me. Weetabix and banana are both very carbs, banana spike me very quickly and very high. Could be a case of changing your breakfast choices
 
I have to agree with Type1Bri, your breakfast is both high in carbs and sugar. I am very new to all this, but I have been diligently researching and testing out different foods, and most all fruits are high in fructose (sugar) and carbs, it's best to pick low GI fruits. Add to this, that your body is depleted in the morning, and your liver has been compensating during your sleep, so when it gets hit with a new load of carbs/sugar, the spike is more prevalent.

I do not eat any fruit, at the moment, until I can figure out which ones work for me.

I hope this helps.

DanteNXS
 
Do you inject 2hrs before every meal? Just wondering if you're in fact going low before you eat breakfast and your liver is dumping just as you're eating, giving you a double high shortly after?
 
Thanks for the advice. I have basically been going by the carb content. I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I calculated a banana is 20g, 2 Weetabix are 26g and raspberries seem to have no effect for me but only have a handful. I have been injecting 9 to 10 units so felt this was more than enough as an experiment.

Type 1 Bri - thanks for the advice I will give the banana a miss first and see what happens.
Slip - I don't really understand the liver dumping glucose concept, do you think if my morning level was higher the effect may not be quite so bad?

I don't normally inject so early just at breakfast. As an example I can eat a large curry meal with 90 carbs injecting an hour beforehand and my level 45 mins after is about 6.5 to 7.5. Still trying to come to terms with types of food eaten and the effect it has on my levels.

Also I am really worried such a spike will affect my long term health.

Apologies for not replying earlier i am still working how to receive the alerts!! Not very good at this.

Thanks for the advice all is very welcome.

Cheers

Ashley
 
Alerts are the little Box next to the little flag top right of screen on the bar. turns green when you have alerts and gives the number of unread notifications.
 
High levels again this morning for a short period of time. Say 45 minutes. now back to normal levels. Banana cut out and no difference. I guess it is the Weetabix! I have downloaded the GI index and it has made me realise I have been a bit of a fool. Never realised how high Weetabix and all cereals are. Will try raspberries and bananas and natural yoghurt next. I guess I just have to watch out at cereal times and hopefully this will work. :)
 
@Scoobmeister1 I'm mildly concerned about the time between injection and eating, yes novorapid isn't as rapid as it's name suggests, but certainly I and most T1Ds would drop very low if we didn't eat for 2 hours. But I know we're all different!

The liver dump is when your BS is low, and to stop you going into a coma the liver dumps a load of glucose it has stored into your blood stream. Once the danger has past your liver will grab back glucose to top up it's store. It can cause wild swings in BS as you bounce from one episode to the next, especially if by mistake you're correcting a liver dump high.

As for your examples, hopefully you tested before injecting and before eating, and after to see what results, with the curry example 6.5 is a good result but where was it before injecting and eating? Also where did it go after that, curry tends to have a long lasting affect on BS due to high fat content etc. I feel you might be missing some important timely numbers but I can only go by what you have said.
 
Thanks slip. My levels before injecting before all meals tends to be between 5 to 5.5 and i tend to inject one hour before eating with the exception of bfast. I will now change my type of food at bfast and hopefully this will improve. I have become so concerned with not going above 7.8 post prandial, as a few posts on here have suggested that is not good, despite my consultant and diabetic nurse stating up to 9 is fine. Also i am hoping humalog will help to bring the injection times closer to when i eat. I only rarely dip below below a level of 4 and my body lets me know when that is, as i feel a bit light headed. Couple of belvitas and right as rain.

Really hoping the bfast situation will sort the only issue i seem to have of the high bs in the morning. No weetabix tomorrow morning and see what happens. :)
 
After a few days testing. I managed to get a reasonable sugar level of 6.8. The result was having a slice of toast 30 mins after injecting and then an hour later having 1 Weetabix with milk and raspberries. Highest reading at 9! It would seem you were right Weetabix is probably too high a GI. Also probably a bit of a liver dump too!! Just over 3 hours after injecting my level was down to 4.9. This was alos using NOvorapid. Hopefully Humalog will hep further and I can inject a little less insulin!! Thanks for all your help. It has been fantastic advice. :)
 
On the Humalog now. First test this morning and injected just before eating and went back to 2 Weetabix, banana and raspberries to get a comparison. The level after one hour was around 10. Not brilliant but certainly better than 12. Also the period it was higher was much shorter and returned to a level of 4.9 about two hours after eating. The results are so much better than Novorapid. Just need to change the breakfast eaten now hopefully!! Happy days
 
I'm not on Humalog - but could try injecting just a bit earlier and stick with your usual breakfast just to see if you can reduce that 10?
 
slip said:
I'm not on Humalog - but could try injecting just a bit earlier and stick with your usual breakfast just to see if you can reduce that 10?
Click to expand...
That's the plan Slip - Just checked level after lunch and already at 6.6. Much better!! :) :) Breakfast is the dodgy one probably coupled with the liver dump, so will eat 20 mins before eating and see what happens?
 
As it's a new insulin I'd do 10mins first and then 20 if theres no difference.
 
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