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whats wrong with this

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 208503
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Deleted member 208503

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is there anything wrong with
keeping your blood sugar in
the 4's (70's)?
with no hypos of course
 
If you can without hypos, it's fine.
However, for most people on insulin this would be impossible. If you're already in the 4s, doing something (like cooking, or walking to the mailbox or such) might easily drop you to below 4.
Driving this close to hypo level is taking a large risk as well, as you'd only need to drop very little before going below 4.
 
Why would you want to keep your levels lower than someone without diabetes and risk going hypo?

Edited to add: you are advised to raise your blood sugars if you intend to drive and they are under 5 when treating diabetes with insulin. Makes sense as I wouldn't want to be in charge of a heavy dangerous machine when hypo or worrying about going hypo.
 
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In Response said:
Why would you want to keep your levels lower than someone without diabetes and risk going hypo?

Edited to add: you are advised to raise your blood sugars if you intend to drive and they are under 5 when treating diabetes with insulin. Makes sense as I wouldn't want to be in charge of a heavy dangerous machine when hypo or worrying about going hypo.
Click to expand...


what are the normal numbers?
not the ones suggested for diabetics
but real normal numbers

(i dont drive so thats no concern)
 
Would not work for me, blood testing isn’t accurate enough, if you are 4 you could be 4.4 or 3.6, I also drop fast with physical activity, a gentle 20 minute dog walk last night, started walking at 6.3, got home 19 minutes later hypo so no being in the 4’s is an unachievable goal :(

B73DCEF1-85B4-4802-9E7A-56474BFEBCF3.jpeg
 
Another issue with running in the 4s all the time is loss of hypo awareness. Just as newly diagnosed diabetics can get false hypos at high levels that are lower than their normal ones, if you run at the low end all the time you risk losing hypo awareness. Speaking as someone who has had some serious hypos in the past (prec gms during a pregnancy when I was trying to keep my levels lower than usual) and more recently (when I just had too many hypos).

I got my hypo awareness back by running at 6-12 for a while, but it still isn't as good as it was 50 years ago, and it is very very hard to manage insulin without hypo awareness. I now have a dexcom as a back up, which alerts me if I go low, but in my in between cgm period (had to stop using libre because it no longer worked for me due to allergies) it was very very scary, particularly at night, and I was doing a lot of blood tests.

Having said that, I am cross posting, so if as a T2 you are still producing your own insulin maybe hypos aren't as severe ???

@cdpm, do you know if you are still producing your own insulin?
 
cdpm said:
what are the normal numbers?
not the ones suggested for diabetics
but real normal numbers
Click to expand...

Really interesting article here where 153 non diabetics wore a dexcom for 10 days
Continuous Glucose Monitoring Profiles in Healthy Nondiabetic Participants: A Multicenter Prospective Study - PMC (nih.gov)

Convert the US figures to UK by dividing by 18, but the summary is below

A total of 153 participants (age 7 to 80 years) were included in the analyses. Mean average glucose was 98 to 99 mg/dL (5.4 to 5.5 mmol/L) for all age groups except those over 60 years, in whom mean average glucose was 104 mg/dL (5.8 mmol/L). The median time between 70 to 140 mg/dL (3.9 to 7.8 mmol/L) was 96% (interquartile range, 93 to 98). Mean within-individual coefficient of variation was 17 ± 3%. Median time spent with glucose levels >140 mg/dL was 2.1% (30 min/d), and median time spent with glucose levels <70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L) was 1.1% (15 min/d).
 
cdpm said:
what are the normal numbers?
not the ones suggested for diabetics
but real normal numbers

(i dont drive so thats no concern)
Click to expand...
This graph shows both the range and distribution of A1c scores in a non-diabetic Dutch population. The vast majority falls between 35 and 42.
 

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EllieM said:
Another issue with running in the 4s all the time is loss of hypo awareness. Just as newly diagnosed diabetics can get false hypos at high levels that are lower than their normal ones, if you run at the low end all the time you risk losing hypo awareness. Speaking as someone who has had some serious hypos in the past (prec gms during a pregnancy when I was trying to keep my levels lower than usual) and more recently (when I just had too many hypos).

I got my hypo awareness back by running at 6-12 for a while, but it still isn't as good as it was 50 years ago, and it is very very hard to manage insulin without hypo awareness. I now have a dexcom as a back up, which alerts me if I go low, but in my in between cgm period (had to stop using libre because it no longer worked for me due to allergies) it was very very scary, particularly at night, and I was doing a lot of blood tests.

Having said that, I am cross posting, so if as a T2 you are still producing your own insulin maybe hypos aren't as severe ???

@cdpm, do you know if you are still producing your own insulin?
Click to expand...

i dont know if i still produce insulin

i do think im insulin resistant as it takes alot of insulin to have any effect
 
As stated, if you were not on insulin, 4's would be great. You might want to discuss your insulin amounts with your diabetes care team, you might be able to reduce.
 
It's always going to be difficult choosing between what's the best numbers for health.. and what's best for safety and I think this is why generally a suggestion of about 6mmol is suggested. My insulin pump has a fixed target of 6.1

The lower you run the more your body will get used to that... and then you body will loose hypo awareness.... you may not drive so may not see it as a risk... but as you are so close to hypo all the time a simple mistake could bring your numbers down too far... serious hypos can kill..

But then I do things every day that could kill me.. I know the risk and accept it... so your choosen target is between you and your health care team.. my health care team would never accept me having a target that low.

I wouldn't even be able to go for a walk without the risk of dropping too far/fast

If you can maintain low levels without putting yourself or others at risk and you not constantly going below the 4.0 Mark then you should be OK....
 
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