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Testing after eating

sheil19

sheil19

Well-Known Member
Messages
54
Location
Ireland
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm recently a DAFNE graduate which has be amazing and in think all type1's need to do this. Just wondering about after meal readings. I know we aren't suppose to check between meals but I did and I've a question on it. Levels were perfect this morning and 2 hours later they are are at 12.7. I know that before my lunch they will be in target again but just wondering does this high number cause any damage to HBA1C or health overall?? Thanks


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Yes it will, but it all depends what hba1c target you hope to achieve. Those who follow low carb diet avoid those spikes, read Dr Bernstein's diabetes solution. If you follow what he suggests you will avoid the carb spikes and your levels should remain near 'normal'.


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Hba1c is currently 7 and I'm 23. I'm big into my sports and exercise so don't think the low carb option it me just yet as I need those carbs for fuel. Thanks for the reply
 
If you eat carbohydrates and try to cover it with insulin, you’ll get a postprandial (after-eating) increase in blood sugar, eventually followed by a decrease as the fast-acting insulin catches up. This means that you’ll have high blood sugars after every meal, and you could still fall prey to the long-term complications of diabetes. If you try to prevent the inevitable postprandial blood sugar spike by waiting to eat until after the start time of your insulin but you may easily make yourself hypo.


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Thanks for the help. So I think it's going to take a bit of trial and error and some time and I'll eventually get there.
 
Hi Shell from a fellow DAFNE graduate :)

The 'don't test between meals' is at odds to what I think and it's only by testing do we know what effect food has on our postprandial bg, yes correction doses between meals can have the opposite effect and lead to hypo's but this isn't always the case and although I rarely inject between meals there is times where it is necessary if bg is too high, I think we all know our bg well enough to determine when to correct or not.

I don't know if you've read the book Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner but he goes into detail how you can prevent postprandial spikes and have smoother bg levels between meals. One suggestion is to inject ahead of the meal allowing the insulin to work as the food is digested, although the QA insulin's now are much faster at working than the Human and Animal insulin's they are not fast enough and depending on the food eaten it pays dividends to inject 10-20mins before eating (As many of us have found out on this forum). Another suggestion is to look at the food you eat and switch to foods that are lower on the glycemic index, without saying any more have a read of Gary's book or Google 'Strike the Spike' by Gary Scheiner.

Good luck and pleased you enjoyed the course!!!!
 
Ooooh I didn't know about the spike book! I'm reading his accurate carb counting book at the moment. It's being taken to Portugal with me next week!
 
The last few days we have found injecting 30-40 mins before breakfast extremely helpful .my daughter loves weetabix and rice crispy but I stopped the because of the spike then the hypo following them but now I inject her before and by the time there being digested the insulin is kicking in stopping the spike and she only rises by 3 which is recommended and back to normal for her lunch .


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Sheil, if your 2 hour post-meal reading is 12.7 and it will come back to within normal range without any short acting insulin, then I'd suggest that your basal insulin is incorrect. Before and after meal readings should be consistent with each other; and your after meal reading and the next before meal reading should be broadly consistent too. To figure out if your basal is correct you need to look at your overnight readings. You say that your pre-breakfast reading was perfect. Was there a difference between your bedtime reading and your breakfast reading?

Also, what was it you ate for breakfast? Could be that the food you had was high in GI, but by 2 hours a high GI meal should have been taken care of with your insulin and your levels should have been ok by this point.

Could be that you are experiencing the dawn phenomenon, which means that you need more insulin for breakfast - more than you would have calculated for your insulin:carb ratio on the DAFNE course.

In answer to your question regarding HbA1c, then yes, spikes do cause damage to HbA1c readings. Unfortunately, persistent spikes like this will certainly adversely affect your HbA1c.
 
Hi. I agree with SamJB. I would add that you can test whenever you want to but the important thing is knowing how to interpret the results depending on the timing etc. Yes, 12.7 is getting too high. BTW you don't actually need carbs for energy as you can train the body into ketosis where it burns fat (the Brick-wall phenomenon in marathons). However having some carbs is wise overall but don't believe all that you read that carbs are essential for energy; they aren't but can form part of your energy input with fat and proteins. Go for low-GI carbs when you can to reduce spikes. Taking them with some fatty food will also smooth absorption.
 
Shell1 said:
The last few days we have found injecting 30-40 mins before breakfast extremely helpful .my daughter loves weetabix and rice crispy but I stopped the because of the spike then the hypo following them but now I inject her before and by the time there being digested the insulin is kicking in stopping the spike and she only rises by 3 which is recommended and back to normal for her lunch .]
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Whatever works Sheil, if she only rises by 3mmol/l and is within range before lunch without hypo's then that's a result, just don't take it for granted that this will always be the case as insulin ratio's can change as we can all testify to.
 
Thank you everybody for your reply's, all a huge help. 2 hours after my breakfast today and I'm 7.2 which I'm very happy about and now know my half to one ratio is working. I'm putting it down to the breakfast cereal I had the past couple of days which was oatabix and have now reverted back to shredded wheat. Cheers
 
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