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What BG does your doctor require you to have?

Zhnyaka

Well-Known Member
Messages
838
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
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Homophobia, racism, sexism
What BG does your doctor require you to have? I recently started trying to keep my BG level the same as in healthy people, but my doctor said, "don't do it, it's very dangerous, because the risk of hypoglycemia increases greatly." I know that low BG are much more dangerous than high but I also see that many people think that BG 6 is high. My doctor asks me to keep my BG around 5-7. What do your doctors say?
 
Zhnyaka said:
I know that low BG are much more dangerous than high but I also see that many people think that BG 6 is high.
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Is that T2s though?

Once you are on insulin losing hypo awareness can be an issue if you have too many hypos so you do have to be careful. When I last lost mine my doctor told me to aim for 6-12 to regain it , which is still in my GP notes when I order prescriptions, though I aim for 4 to 10 for as much time as possible now because I have a dexcom G6 to warn me if I go too low and thus prevents too many hypos.

But in the past, pre cgm, I've regularly lost hypo awareness when keeping my levels lower (generally an hba1c 48 or less) so it just wasn't worth it.

Having said that, I had no problems with hypo awareness in my first 20 years of T1, so length of diabetes may also come into it.

And some people seem to happily achieve far lower levels than mine without issue, but if you lose hypo awareness it is all too easy to have a major hospital inducing hypo.
 
“Healthy people” have BGs that swing. After exercise, my non-diabetic partner has had BG at 3.5. After eating pizza, his level was 9.5.
My doctor does not dictate my levels, I do. I aim for a range between 4 and 10. My concern for a range of 5 to 7 is, to achieve such a narrow (unnatural) range, diabetes is taking over my life.
The target level;set on my pump is 5.5 but I can go lower and often go higher.
 
Hi @In Response

what do you mean by "diabetes is taking over my life."

do u mean prevent u from life like socialising and these stuff?

thanks
 
Yes, this is T2 think I once ran out of test strips for a blood glucose meter when I was visiting a friend and I asked her grandmother (she is T2) to give me her blood glucose meter to measure BG, because I felt bad. She started talking about how bad she feels when her BG is 6, and I was looking at a glucose meter that showed 25
 
When first diagnosed last year the Endo gave me a guidance range of 4-10 which was tightened to 4-8 pretty quickly. Last appointment he thinks (i disagree somewhat) that my control was too tight and suggested i stick to 4.5-9ish
 
My target range is 4-10 and now I've got a pump with auto mode so I can get that quite a lot of the time. if I was aiming for 5-7 then there would be a lot of time not in target. For me something like 5-7 or something lower would be totally unreasonable and I'd probably end up with a lot of hypo fighting

Noting the auto-mode on my pump aims for 6.7 (and there is no changing that target value unless you're doing exercise where it can aim for 8.3 instead) and in fact when calculating correction doses it wont correct anything if my glucose is 8.3 or less as the auto-basal should sort that out (slowly I may add)
 
I try to aim between 4 and 10 as well.

As the cgm suggestedi do not know much
When @Rokaab says my pump aims for 6.7
Do u mean hba1c?

Or the average readings
 
Yaya10_10 said:
I try to aim between 4 and 10 as well.

As the cgm suggestedi do not know much
When @Rokaab says my pump aims for 6.7
Do u mean hba1c?

Or the average readings
Click to expand...

Its aims for me having a blood glucose reading of 6.7mmol/L
The auto-mode works with the sensors so every 5 mins gets a reading and works out how much to give for my 'basal' for that 5 min period to time (since pumps drip feed the fast acting insulin instead of me taking a separate long-acting 'basal')
 
My doctor is happy with anything between 4 and 10, and she's supportive if I like to try to stay on the lower end of that scale.
I use a Libre, so I can closely follow what happens throughout the day, and I can usually prevent hypo's instead of react to them because I can see the line of the graph dropping.
On fingerpricks only this would be much harder because you can't see if you're dropping or rising, and often you'll only notice a hypo when you're in the 3's already. Having lots of hypo's can cause you to not feel them anymore until you become unconscious, which is obviously very dangerous.

So as long as I can mostly stay out of hypo territory my doctor and I are happy!

I think official guidelines say to aim for at least 70% of time in range (between 4 and 10), of which no more than 4% below 4. But of course you'd need a CGM to know exactly what percentage of time you are in range.
 
Thank you so much.
 
Yaya10_10 said:
Hi @In Response

what do you mean by "diabetes is taking over my life."

do u mean prevent u from life like socialising and these stuff?

thanks
Click to expand...
I mean focusing too much of your brain power on checking your levels and correcting them, changing your diet, avoiding exercise, minimising socialising, limiting your career choice,… to achieve the ideal blood sugar levels.
Bear in mind too much focus on diabetes often leads to diabetes burn out.
I think managing diabetes is about balance - balance of “acceptable” levels and how much of your life you are willing to sacrifice to achieve it.
 
In Response said:
I think managing diabetes is about balance - balance of “acceptable” levels and how much of your life you are willing to sacrifice to achieve it.
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I just understand that I had sacrificed nothing in order to control diabetes (with the exception of money, of course), neither friends, nor career, nor relationships - not a single part of my life, even I chose sports to my liking, and not based on the needs of diabetes (boxing is hardly suitable for this). Perhaps that's why my blood sugar level is sometimes far from ideal, but for 18 years of diabetes I have not had any complications
 
I would object if health professionals started dictating my levels. It is my diabetes not an average of everyone else’s. I set my Libre 4.2-8.5 Am 89% in range over the last 14 days with one hypo event. I don’t go low carb mad just don’t eat carbs like potatoes, pasta, bread, as a rule. However went out for a meal with friends Friday and had a pie and plenty of wine. If I’m at someone else’s house I will eat main meals whatever they are but never ever eat anything sweet. Personally I wouldn’t thank you for sweet stuff. When I have to eat Jelly babies I hold my nose and chew quickly. 10 years ago pre diabetes I would have laughed if someone said you will no longer eat anything sweet. All tastebuds can be trained.
 
I probably put it wrong when I said "requires". My doctor does not scold me if something goes wrong, I just asked her what she thinks about the fact that I want to try to achieve a level like people without diabetes and she said that the risk of hypoglycemia is very high and that BG 5-7 is ideal for me. We have a good relationship with my doctor, we even like each other's posts on Instagram.

Thanks to everyone for the answers, I realized that BG 4-10 is great
 

I see people focusing now more on time in range.

Have you got a cgm?
 
The irony is that "healthy people" are sometimes in far worse condition than a person with diabetes! It is also worth knowing that in a "normal" body (whatever that means) BG can rise to at least 10 after a meal before coming back to about 5.4 (average) within 30 minutes
 
you know, I thought non diabetics do not spike.

Thanks for sharing this
 
Yaya10_10 said:
you know, I thought non diabetics do not spike.

Thanks for sharing this
Click to expand...
Yeah, as Grant has demonstrated they do, the difference for Diabetics is the speed at which they come back down again is completely unachievable with 'artificial' Insulin. Hence why Doctors move the goal posts for us on what's a reasonable expectation.
 
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