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Weird BG levels...?

Teeh

Teeh

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Other
Hi everyone!

I'm new here. I haven't been officialy diagnosed with diabetes yet, but my blood glucose levels are most definitely not normal.
I've been checking my BG at home this week to try to figure out how bad it is, but I get really weird readings sometimes.

For example, this morning I decided to try a home version of OGTT. I didn't drink a 75g glucose syrup, instead I ate a breadroll and drank a glass of milk. That's 40g carbs for breakfast. This is the test doctors use for pregnant women in my country instead of the glucose syrup one. I'm not pregnant but I figured it's easier to buy a breadroll and milk at the shop than glucose, and they taste better as well. :)

So I woke up at 6:50 and checked my fasting glucose. It was 3.7. That's lower than what I excepted but continued with the test.

I ate my breakfast and checked my BG exactly 60 minutes later. I got 8.1! :(

I got scared by seeing such a high number so I wanted to check again to be sure.

About 5 minutes later it was 7.4.

But that can't be right, I though. It couldn't have dropped from 8.1 to 7.4 in just five minutes so I checked it again...

Again, about 5 minutes later, it was 6.4.

What the...!? Okay I have no idea which one of those numbers were correct, but I can't keep checking every 5 minutes, so I decided to check 2 hours after breakfast. I was hoping it would go down by that time.

Well, I was wrong. I checked 2 hours later and it was 7.6.

*sigh*

I really don't understand what is going on? I'm using a brand new Accu Check Activ so I'm sure my meter works correctly, and I'm sure I'm doing everything right while checking my BG. I've read the instuctions like 5 times already.

Does anyone else ever get weird BG readings like this?

How am I supposed to trust a glucometer if it gives such differnet readings in 5 minute intervals? o_O
 
It is normal to get a bit different readings. The meters for home use don't give exact values.

Ask your GP for a proper OGTT at the surgery. Your readings aren't terrible but not perfect either.
 
I'm planning on having a proper OGTT done next week but it costs a lot of money so I wanted to test myself at home first just to see if I need one.

Finding out how unreliable these glucometers are is really discouraging though. If they diagnose me with diabetes, I know I'll be advised check my BG regularily but what's the point in checking if the difference can be as big as 2 mmol/l? For fasting glucose, a 5.0 can be normal but a 7.0 is not. If my BG is 5.0 but my meter says 7.0, I'll be freaking out all day and stress about it, and then all that stress will definitely increase my BG! :banghead:
 
Hi
I am prediabetic and my levels can vary from over 7 occasionally to down to between 4's to 6's 2 hours after meals A meter only really gives you an idea of what foods raise your BG levels but is not as accurate for your BG as a proper blood test. Just try testing before a meal then 2 hours after more often than that is not really worthwhile.you can then build up a picture of what foods affects your BG most. I am sure you know the starchy carbs like white bread pasta rice and root veg can raise the BG the most
 
AnnieC said:
Hi
I am prediabetic and my levels can vary from over 7 occasionally to down to between 4's to 6's 2 hours after meals A meter only really gives you an idea of what foods raise your BG levels but is not as accurate for your BG as a proper blood test. Just try testing before a meal then 2 hours after more often than that is not really worthwhile.you can then build up a picture of what foods affects your BG most. I am sure you know the starchy carbs like white bread pasta rice and root veg can raise the BG the most
Click to expand...

Yes, I know about the two-hour testing and high carb foods. I just didn't know that glucometer readings were this unreliable. It's kind of pointless to test at all at this point. I mean what if I eat something and two hours later my glucometer says my BG is normal? Then I'll keep eating it in the future thinking it doesn't raise my BG that much but in fact it does! Yesterday I was eating vegetables with pasta and my BG was 4.0 before I started eating and two hours later it was 4.5. Now that looks pretty good, but I know pasta has lots of carbs, so that 4.5 could have been 6.5 for all I know! Apparently, you can't get a realistic picture of which food raises your BG a lot and which food doesn't if you base it on your glucometer readings. :S
 
I think you can Teeh, you just have to test over a longer period to iron out some of the statistical outliers and see a trend.
 
the readings are supposed to be within 10-20%, it varies a bit with how high or low your bg is.

Home testing isn't science but it does give you a hint of how you tolerate different kinds of food and how your body reacts to exercise. It is an excellent tool. If you feel the reading is wrong, test again. Wash your hands in warm water before testing, some soap can contain things that affect the reading.

And don't worry. If you can handle pasta you will be all right.
 
Sanguine is right. You need to start testing over a longer period. I have been testing new foods before, then after 1 hour, after 2 hours and after 2.5 hours, then keep going until it starts to fall. I have noticed my peaks are at any one of these times, although they have always fallen by 3 hours. The 2 hour guide is just that - a guide. We are all different, even moderate exercise after a meal alters things, and foods behave differently especially when combined with a lot of fats or even a glass of wine. Pasta is a quick release food, so your peak may well have been soon after your meal.
 
To get consistency I found the following helps.
1. Always wash your hands first with the same soap and rinse well
2. Always try to test from the same finger as I find there can be variance between fingers

You numbers look ok to me and I don't think you have anything to worry about. Going up to 8.1 is normal (I have tracked my wife doing that and I went to 8.6). I then tracked her down staying 0.5 mmol/L above her.

For information I have seen my numbers drop from 8 to 5 in about 10 minutes (but that is often with exercise). I do see higher rates of fall when I am higher than lower.
 
@Andrew Colvin

I agree that those numbers are not an immediate concern, and that further testing is going to build up a better picture.

However, I disagree that a high of 8 is normal at any time. Really normal blood glucose doesn't rise above 6.5 ish at its highest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar
There are huge numbers of people whose blood glucose fluctuations are outside the normal range, and who will never be identified by either fasting or oral glucose tolerance tests. Changes in the first stage of insulin production, at the start of a meal, (late secretion, or reduced secretion, resulting in levels over 6.5) is one of the first signs of non-normal blood glucose levels, and can be present for years before the changes will be picked up by standard testing.

It can be found and mapped using home glucose monitoring, and treated by diet. I wish I had known that 20 years ago!
 
Totto said:
You are right, and never ever over 7.8 and rarely above 6.6.
Click to expand...
I disagree with this too. The 7.8 is the mean and the 95 percentile for "normal" goes nearly to 10. Just because the mean peak is 7.8 doesnt imply you should never go over. Please do not read too much into statistical numbers. just to emphasize here is a quote from that same wiki article "in non-diabetics, temporarily up to 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) or slightly more"
 
Andrew Colvin said:
I disagree with this too. The 7.8 is the mean and the 95 percentile for "normal" goes nearly to 10. Just because the mean peak is 7.8 doesnt imply you should never go over. Please do not read too much into statistical numbers. just to emphasize here is a quote from that same wiki article "in non-diabetics, temporarily up to 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) or slightly more"
Click to expand...
And what science is behind that wiki article?

I am a fan of phlaunt: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/16422495.php

I have seen more evidence for what normal bg is, and that is rarely more than one or possibly 2 mml over baseline and only for a very short period. So a perfectly normal bg is below 6.6. So let us all err on the safe side to avoid complications.
 
And the top line in your graph that you so like to quote is the 95 percentile (2 standard deviations) and goes up to 9 not 6.6 and this is for normals for a sample of about 20 people so not a very large sample to conclude much really - especially not for the human population! Umm........ As I said do not read too much into some statistics. The data in the article are interesting but definitely doesn't give your conclusion. Remember one norm was outside this graph and are you telling me 50% of the people in the article are diabetic because they are above the mean.
 
I've just read both of Jenny Ruhl's books over a second time. Her research is impressive and I am completely convinced by the evidence she cites and the studies she quotes. Particularly the very impressive body of studies (far too many to quote here) that demonstrate the increasing risk of complications that arise when blood glucose habitually rises above 6.5ish.

One of the most interesting things about her evidence is that she doesn't just cite the findings of a study. She analyses it's strengths, weaknesses and correlates it against others for comparison.

You can find evidence galore on her website.
http://www.bloodsugar101.com

Where does your figure of 7.8 come from?
Is it a figure quoted by orthodox medicine?
In which case I would view it with deep suspicion, based on most of the other advice they hand out.
 
Andrew Colvin said:
And the top line in your graph that you so like to quote is the 95 percentile (2 standard deviations) and goes up to 9 not 6.6 and this is for normals for a sample of about 20 people so not a very large sample to conclude much really - especially not for the human population! Umm........ As I said do not read too much into some statistics. The data in the article are interesting but definitely doesn't give your conclusion. Remember one norm was outside this graph and are you telling me 50% of the people in the article are diabetic because they are above the mean.
Click to expand...
I quote: After a high carb meal, normal people's blood sugar rises to about 125 mg/dl for a brief period, with the peak blood sugar being measured at 45 minutes after eating and then drops back under 100 mg/dl.

The chart at the top of this page is taken from this presentation.

And from an other study: With that in mind we are safe saying that normal people do not go over 140 mg/dl ever and are only rarely (4.4% of the time in this study) over 120 mg/dl--no matter what they eat.
 
@Teeh

All your home made GTT test did is corroborate the idea that you may well be to some extent diabetic. You would qualify as "prediabetic" at least. But you already suspect that, and you have a diagnosis coming soon. You are not on any meds or treatment and you deliberately took a pretty severe glucose challenge.

So basically 8.1 is nothing to worry about in the scheme of things. If you are diagnosed diabetic, you will not be having a GTT for lunch, you will be eating something more sensible and you will probably have some meds. So you can think of the 8.1 as a "worst case" right now.
In the future, if you are diagnosed diabetic, you might want to decide to aim for tighter targets than 8.0 at 2 hours post meal. You might not. You will get a lot of advice from here either way. But for now, you have nothing to worry about.

PS Don't test every 5 minutes, it will just stress you out. :-)

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Brunneria said:
However, I disagree that a high of 8 is normal at any time. Really normal blood glucose doesn't rise above 6.5 ish at its highest.
Click to expand...

I agree with this!

I've read a lot of books and articles about diabetes lately and many of them say that even in healthy people, BG level can rise up to 8-9 after a high carb meal, but I find that really hard to believe! I asked a friend of mine to eat the same food as I do for a day and we checked our BG 1 and 2 hours after each meal. His biggest rise during the day was 0.4 (!!!) and mine was 2.5.

His BG was steady all day long: his lowest was 4.1 and his highest was 4.6.
Mine was fluctuating between 3.8 and 6.8 throughout the day.
 
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