Undiagnosed but high blood sugar

[Rillum]

I use an app, MyFitnessPal, which is very user friendly.

 

[Ballofwool]

Thank you! Maybe it initially had higher blood sugar because of all the carbohydrates I had been eating before I switched to low carb foods, and perhaps I need to adjust it now. I would be happy if I could eat slightly more carbs because this is very restrictive. I will do a lot more testing.

 

[Rillum]

Sounds good

 

[Ballofwool]

At two hours after breakfast, it went up to 5.0 on it's own, without me or drinking eating any more. Which is a good reading I think!

So my question is, why would someone have reactive hypoglycaemia in the first 90 minutes after eating, followed by normal glucose at 2 hours after eating? Can *anything* account for this? I'm starting to feel like my blood glucose is truly random! It changes on it's own!

 

[Rillum]

There's a morning rise in blood glucose normally, even without eating. Otherwise people can have delayed gastric emptying, so that it takes longer than normal for the food to reach the intestine. But now I'm just speculating and I'm a human biologist, not a doctor .

 

[Ballofwool]

Maybe it rose but not due to food intake. Or maybe my meter is broken... But when I take a reading twice in the space of 5 minutes, the two readings are exactly identical.

I really feel like I need some medical help at this point, but with my endocrinologist appointment at the end of July, I don't know what I can do to get help any sooner.

 

[Rillum]

If you eat to the meter and stay within 4 and 6.6, you should be good until then.

 

[Lamont D]

If you are eating very low carb your bloods will not go up by much at all!
You may get a slight rise above but not by much.
That's where I stay all the time.
3.8 isn't that low! It's borderline and the shaking is a warning to have something to eat.

You are maybe over thinking a little, you have only just started, take it easy, and test after an hour then two hours.

I digest very quickly especially carbs. Everyone digests different.
There is a different form of RH called gastric dumping. Food just doesn't stop in your stomach and you hypo within 2 hours.

Easy does it! Eat to your meter!

Don't go looking for spikes or up your carbs drastically, eat every couple of hours.

 

[Ballofwool]

You are both talking sense, of course! I think I was getting a bit too anxious about it all, probably because of that weird POTs diagnosis from the cardiologist.

Thank you for keeping me on the right path

 

[Lamont D]

Control is the key to unlock your health!

Once in control, you will feel better!

It doesn't happen overnight, be kind to yourself.

 

[RuthW]

I also read that blood glucose in normal people doesn't go above 7.8 ever. I am not sure whether this is true in reality?

No, that's not true. Normies can have blood sugars up to about 13. To me your results don't indicate diabetes at all. Do you have a family history of it?

 

[RuthW]

Hmm! My fasting this morning was 3.8 which I consider too low, because I felt unwell and my usual fasting is about 4.5 mmol. Then I ate breakfast (350 kcal of eggs and olive oil) and after an hour it was 4.3 which is still below my usual fasting level.

I'm confused and not sure what to do now.

Those are both entirely normal readings for a NON-diabetic.

 

[RuthW]

I was also under the impression that it is not possible to get Type 2 diabetes if you are underweight (although I understand you can get it at a healthy weight, e.g BMI 18 - 25.

My BMI has never been near 18 throughout my lifetime.

Does this mean your BMI is BELOW 18?

If you have a BMI below 18, plus severe anxiety and heart problems, plus the occasional very low blood sugar, are we discussing an eating disorder, rather than incipient diabetes?

How do you normally eat?

 

[Rillum]

Please RuthW, don't confuse the issue. Blood sugars in non-diabetics do NOT rise up to 13. Any measured venous blood sugar above 11 is diagnostic of diabetes, according to WHO guidelines. See here: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_u...itoring/New_diagnostic_criteria_for_diabetes/

No, that's not true. Normies can have blood sugars up to about 13. To me your results don't indicate diabetes at all. Do you have a family history of it?

 

[Rillum]

Those are both entirely normal readings for a NON-diabetic.

Yes - because Ballofwool has started eating low-carb! Going back in the posts, you would see her having much higher readings on a high carb diet, sometimes followed by extreme lows (2.2 as I recall), which is why she has sensibly taken steps towards lowering her blood sugar.

 

[Rillum]

You can get diabetes type 2, while underweight. And normal blood sugars in healthy people are quite low. I cant figure out how to insert a picture, but the info is from this presentation: http://www.diabetes-symposium.org/index.php?menu=view&id=322.

Normal healthy people in this study had all passed an oral glucose tolerance test. They then ate normal meals, giving them app. 250 g of carbs a day.

Their blood sugar was above 160 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/l) only one minute per day - in average.
Their blood sugar was between 140 and160 mg/dl (7.8 - 8.9 mmol/l) for ten minutes per day - in average.
The remaining 23 hours and 49 minutes of the day blood sugars were below 7.8.

 

[Ballofwool]

You can get diabetes type 2, while underweight. And normal blood sugars in healthy people are quite low. I cant figure out how to insert a picture, but the info is from this presentation: http://www.diabetes-symposium.org/index.php?menu=view&id=322.

Normal healthy people in this study had all passed an oral glucose tolerance test. They then ate normal meals, giving them app. 250 g of carbs a day.

Their blood sugar was above 160 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/l) only one minute per day - in average.
Their blood sugar was between 140 and160 mg/dl (7.8 - 8.9 mmol/l) for ten minutes per day - in average.
The remaining 23 hours and 49 minutes of the day blood sugars were below 7.8.

These normal readings certainly don't apply to me! When eating a cup of rice, my blood sugar was over 9 for several hours! And when eating toast it always rises over 10.

I don't know what that previous poster was talking about with the comment about readings over 13 being normal... That goes against every available resource on the subject... Bizarre thing to say!

 

[Lamont D]

No, that's not true. Normies can have blood sugars up to about 13. To me your results don't indicate diabetes at all. Do you have a family history of it?

As a non diabetic, I can and have had readings in the mid teens. The last one during an OGTT!


But I'm weird!





As I will explain, normal and diabetics have two spikes, the first is normally within half an hour, then you have a slight dip, but the spike again continues to your high.
I have one and if I eat something that's carby or sugary, my spike will just go straight up to its high! Obviously depending on what I have! It has in my dark days gone into the twenties! I was misdiagnosed as T2 when it was just under 30!

 

[Ballofwool]

I see what you mean! I suppose a spike above 9 or 10 mmol doesn't necessarily mean that you have diabetes, but I think it does mean that there is something wrong, or maybe that you are at risk of something being wrong...

It's hard to see how high blood sugar could be a-okay when there are all these studies showing that blood sugar that high causes damage eventually.

 

[Lamont D]

I see what you mean! I suppose a spike above 9 or 10 mmol doesn't necessarily mean that you have diabetes, but I think it does mean that there is something wrong, or maybe that you are at risk of something being wrong...

It's hard to see how high blood sugar could be a-okay when there are all these studies showing that blood sugar that high causes damage eventually.

That's why I live in the normal range.
Continuous high blood glucose levels are damaging.
There are many conditions other than diabetes, that cause high blood glucose levels.
When you get ill with a fever or just a common cold, your blood levels go up, ever so slightly.
There have been many threads on this.
Even woman's thingy watchimacallit every month raises it a bit!

That is why a hba1c test is important in diabetes diagnosis, as it gives a 3 month average.

How are you feeling now?