Re: Type 2's : What was your fasting blood glucose in a morn
Hi Finzi,
I used to wonder about this but then I realised I didn't really understand the significance of the results of a fasting test.
My understanding from what little reading I have done is that the dawn phenomena is already factored in. A healthy person experiences it just as much as a type 2 diabetic. The difference is that the healthy person responds better to the insulin whereas the type 2 doesn't respond as well.
If you measured both at say 4am, they both may have a reading of say, 5.5 depending on what they ate during the evening. If you then measure them at 9am, the healthy person has had their extra liver produced glycogen but the insulin response brought it down quickly again so they may be 5.5 again. The type 2 is taking longer to deal with it, so it might be 6.7. If your early morning is within the range of 6.0 to 7.7mmol/L, you are said to have 'impaired glucose tolerance'. Above 7.7 is an indication of possible diabetes. There are several possible causes for things not working as they should, you may not be producing enough insulin or you may be producing it but it is not working effectively. These results tell you no more than something isn't right.
Recently, I have noticed that 2 hour after meal reading is sometimes the same as my pre meal reading. This would be the case even when I ate foods with some sugars in eg. a banana and a chocolate. To find the spike, I had to measure at one hour and, sure enough it was there, a 9.0. After another 15 min however I was down to 7.9; after 30 mins, 7.2 and after 50 mins 6.4. A healthy person would get the same spike but might be back down to the pre snack level within ten to twenty minutes. I, as a type 2, take longer, which is why my 3 month average HBA1c is higher than a healthy person.
It looks as if I am starting to respond better to the insulin my pancreas is producing. The reason is probably because I am losing weight and doing exercise. This sort of statement is often seen in scientific studies: "weight loss via diet-only or a diet + exercise program clearly improves insulin sensitivity", though they don't really know why.
I have noticed that I am getting 5.8 - 6.2 early morning whereas last week it was 6.4 - 6.8 and three weeks ago it was including many in the 7s. So, it looks like the improvement in my insulin sensitivity is due to diet and exercise, coupled with watching the carbs. It's by no means fully working, but I do still have a lot of weight to lose and am in reality terribly unfit, but the trends look promising. The best thing is that I am not tempted to go out and buy a take away curry with all the trimmings, after having had a few pints of real ale and a few packets of crisps to keep me going. Well, that'll save me the best part of twenty quid so there is a plus side to it.