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Try this Test...

W

witan

Well-Known Member
I am a newly diagnosed T2 (August this year).
I have been quite successful at getting my pre-breakfast BG down to between 5 or 6 over the last few weeks with 3 X Metformin and 2 X Clyclazides a day.
However last week I had one day that was abnormally high - strangely this coincided with a change in my routine, I was leaving home at about the same time as usual but without eating as I had a breakfast meeting planned. The only difference was that on that morning I cleaned my teeth before doing the morning test. (like most people I usualy do it after breakfast)
Now I didn't really believe that would make the difference, so yesterday I did a test before cleaning my teeth which came out at 5.5 and then just 20 minutes later (I didn't have time to wait any longer) the reading was 6.9! I wonder how much higher it would have gone?
Now in every single brand of toothpaste in our local supermarket SORBITOL is the second or third largest constituent. Sorbitol is 'sugar alcohol' typically made from the catalytic hydrogenation of Glucose/Fructose mixtures. Its use in toothpaste is as a humectant (stops the paste drying out) and as a texture and taste modifier. Although much study has been done on the absorption of Sorbitol in the gut I could find nothing on the likely effects of massaging it directly into the teeth, gums and oral mucossa as you do when brushing your teeth. The fact that some will be absorbed seems quite likely as this is a prefered route for administration of some drugs and Diabetes UK even suggest massaging honey or jam in the (inside of the) cheek as a recovery from a hypo. Of course its much more likely to get into your blood stream if you have mouth ulcers, damaged gums etc and I am sure a good number of diabetics suffer with these too.
This is based on just one experience, can anyone else out there reproduce this effect, how high might it go?
I remember going to the doctors for my first fasting glucose test, nothing to eat since the previous night - but like most people I did clean my teeth before going out!!
 
SarahQ said:
Sorbitol does not effect blood sugars. So no reason to stop brushing your teeth :)
Click to expand...
Sorbitol doesn't affect blood glucose in the way that sugar does, but it does have some effect. According to Dr Bernstein “Some [sugars], such as sorbitol…, will raise blood sugar more slowly than glucose but still too much and too rapidly to prevent a postprandial blood sugar rise in people with diabetes.” In order to have no effect on blood sugar it would have to have a GI of zero (as for example erithrytol has), but sorbitol does have a GI value, albeit a low one.
 
The reason Sorbitol does not affect BG when ingested is that it is not absorbed or metabolised by the small intestine - when quantities pass through to the lower gut they can ferment and give rise to diarhea and flatulence.

My point is that there has been no research done on what happens when Sorbitol is absorbed through tissues in the mouth during tooth brushing. I am no biologist but I am sure these tissues are much different from those of the intestine and I believe are designed to be quite permeable?

I know my breif experiment was very rushed but I did try to control as much as possible and had been 'up and about' for some time before even the first test.

I am going to repeat it at the wekend with a longer period before the second test and would still be interested in any other results people may come up with...
 
I cleaned my teeth with Colgate this morning before testing. My blood test then gave a marginally lower reading than yesterday when I tested after cleaning my teeth. Am I using the wrong toothpaste?

If it gets down to worrying about toothpaste it might be time to step of the planet.
 
Please bear with me - I'm just a beginer at this.

Of course it's not the most important thing in the world Jenny, I'm just interested in what other people might find. You couldn't be using the wrong toothpaste because as far as I can see they ALL have significant ammounts of sorbitol in them. If you see little or no difference then it may be that you have that perfect set of pearly whites with no gum damage either - mine are getting a little worse for wear!

Sarah, we are all used to worrying about glucose available through the digestive system and from the liver. Here I'm thinking of it getting almost directly into the blood circulation, so the GI would have absolutely no relevance. I agree that the normal waking rise in BG may get in the way of this sort of test, but because I expect the rise to be quite rapid (however big or small) it should be possible to do at other times of day too.

Maybe I'm paranoid about any sugars and carbs taken by mouth in any way, but I'm sure I'll get over ithttp://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-fo ... =1&t=4675#
 
As you never ate breakfast the rise was probabily due to the liver dumping glucose to compensate, I could be wrong and im sure someone will be along to correct me if i am

Regards
Brian
 
I suspected toothpaste, and BP/CHOL medication for giving me the high readings in my pre-diabetes days....but i've since discovered that simply getting up and getting behind the wheel can put my readings up by 2.5....on weekend mornings i clean teeth and take my meds and readings drop by 0.5 in hour after waking.
 
witan,

The tissue in your mouth and intestine are the same basic type of tissue. They are very different to muscle, nerve etc.
As far as I can remember, and I'm thinking back over 25 years, The main difference between buccal mucosa and small intestine is what's happened to what you have ingested and the type/s of blood supply where the nutrients/drugs/etc are absorbed. One of the main factors is where the blood vessels go after they have absorbed things from the gut. Some blood vessels go straight to the liver, where drugs get metabolised, for example. Other blood vessels don't - which is why absorbtion through the buccal mucosa is a good place to absorb drugs.

I don't know whether this helps in your investigation into the effect of toothpaste on blood sugar levels! But I am very intrigued! And I love a good experiment :lol:

Can I suggest another test? Follow exactly the same routine, apart from brushing your teeth with toothpaste and water or brushing your teeth with just water?
The idea being to make the only thing different is the the toothpaste. I'd take a number of BG readings on 5-10 days for each test condition. That way you will hopefully even out some of the other variables. But there are loads of variables! What and when you've eaten previously, whether you're ill or under the weather, how well you've washed your hands before you take a sample.......
And the accuracy of your meter, of course :wink:

Let us how your experiment goes.

take care,

E
 
Stop cleaning your teeth.

Problem solved.

On the other hand painting your toenails might have a beneficial effect. But watch the colour!!
 
Thanks for the good advice SilverAndEbony, I won't be able to do that often though with limits on the test strips available.

I'd have liked to have got some results already but have come down with a really bad cough and cold which is making the BG very twitchy and I don't want to let that affect the background levels.

Hope to be good enough to do something over the weekend when alternative times will be possible too to avoid that morning dump (I'm sure that phrase would give many non-diabetics a good laugh :lol: ) so all those open minded souls still interested should check back here Sat or Sun...

Jenny
I've gone for false nails rather than painting, to cover up the fungal growth - in fact they've been so successful I'm thinking of going for false teeth too - which would save us all a lot of bother :wink:
 
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