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type 1 low carb worries

S

SJS5

Active Member
Messages
32
imHi

I have been following a low carb diet for around 18m.

Type 1 on MDI novorapid and tresiba

I found it really helpful at controlling by blood sugars more evenly and it improved my Hba1c.

However there are a couple of things I have noticed and wondered if others following this lifestyle have the same issues

1) hypos.. I try not to over treat but it seems whatever I take eg glucose sweets or jelly babies it seems to take an age to get my sugar to rise.
Eventually the blood sugar seems to gradually come up.
It will stay stable for maybe a couple of hours then all of a sudden approx 4 hours later I suddenly find my blood sugars are in the mid teens.
It seems like there is a delay in the sugar taking effect and then it suddenly shoots up


for eg today at 2pm my sugar was 3.8mmols , I had in total 15g of carb , mixture of fast acting and a cracker

between 3.30 and 5.30 all very stable 5. 2 - 6.8mmols

now it has suddenly shot up to 14.6 mmol ( 18.30)

so now i am going to have to give extra insulin to bring it down again.


2) I am always having rise in blood sugars at around midnight .. doesn't matter what time I eat, whether I have a snack , don't have a snack

I take a correction dose & it seems to take an age to bring it down. So if I give say have 1 -2 units at midnight, nothing happens for hours then at 6.30am I am hypo

These 2 things make me feel that there is a delayed response for some reason

anyone else have these issues?

Its really getting me down at the moment. I have gone from having really stable blood sugars to swinging all over the show

Any advice would be very welcomed
 
SJS5 said:
Any advice would be very welcomed
Click to expand...

How confident are you that your tresiba dose is correct? Hormones can change your insulin needs so am wondering if the menopause could be an issue? (I realise you might have gone through this ten years ago or might still have another ten years to wait. )

Correction doses : could you have overused your injection sites, thus slowing insulin absorption?

Not sure about the delayed sugar processing, I think that can be caused by high protein and/or fat??? (Waits to be corrected by the more knowledgeable). How low carb are you?
 

Hi,

The "age to rise" from a low.? Are you using a sensor to gauge BGs, or a meter?? Sensors, (Libre for me can lag coming up from a low. a good half hour or so after the meter say's i'm OK & even that has a 15/20 minute lag on how actually i feel?)

What time of day are you taking your basal?? To be quite honest, in my experience what ever you choose to inject for diet, if the basal dose is wrong it can offset everything else? That dose is individual & can change from time to time. (It is basically what it "is..")
 

Hi I am going through the menopause --tiredness, brain fog hot sweat lol.

I'm sure my tresiba is correct as I have sometimes not eaten breakfast and my blood sugars will keep a steady straight line

If I have tried to increase it I have often run too low through the day.

Injection sites seem ok but will try a different site.

I eat around 40g -50g of CHO a day
 

I Tend to use the libre sensor but will sometimes double check with blood glucose meter especially when the sensor keeps alarming.

Thankyou I may start to test more often using the BG meter rather than relying on the libre.

Sometimes can't see these things yourself.
 

Hi, don't get me wrong. the Libre is a great tool. However, interstitial fluid seems to be last on the "list" registering much needed glucose after a low? (That's my theory. With the brain being the priority?)

I use a 3rd party app for the Libre. i personally set the alarm on "snooze" for 45 minutes after treating..

However, you are "you." by you profile we are about the same age? but i am a bloke with different activities. & the "menopause...?" Not my forte. (I'll bow out on that one..)
 
One other thing. You are eating an awful lot to counteract the low. A 3.8 isn’t far off, yet with the cracker you ate about 20 carbs. I know it is quite a long time later but the cracker would still be digesting. Try a smaller amount. Wait 15 minutes and if it is still low eat a little more.
 
The Libre 2 uses an updated algorithm to convert interstitial fluid readings (ISR) to blood glucose (BG). This attempts to overcome the 15 minute delay between ISR and BG by extrapolating the current trend of your graph. This works well when the trend continues. However, if the trend changes in the 15 minutes (such as reversing a downward trend by treating a hypo), the extrapolation predicts a worse BG and appears to take longer to correct
Added to this that Libre (and most CGMs) are calibrated to be most accurate at normal levels (between 4 and 9), it is recommended to always check Libre readings before making a correction and to check recovery from it.
 
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