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Wondering if I'm right about something BG rises)

M

Margarettt

Well-Known Member
Messages
367
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
i test when I eat and two hours later and I've had a week of fantastic numbers. I've even had my first couple of 4s. Still sometimes I have a higher than expected (not super high but higher than expected maybe 6.9 or 7.1) at the two hour mark with food that would normally not raise (eggs ;cheese etc.) Today I started wondering if having in between things is relevant. For example if I had a cup of tea with a splash of almond milk (no carbs) or a stick of chewing gum (0.5g carb) It the time just before my two hour test would it cause a short up and down rise and explain this.
I do think a CGM would solve this for me but libre is not compatible with my phone and I'll have to wait for Santa to sort that out.
The numbers dont bother me in general its been great since I stopped the nicotine lozenges I'm just wondering if everything causes a rise but some go down quickly or if its random
 
There are any number of things that can affect our BG, weather, exercise, stress, low grade illness. you could have been at a low number and your liver did it’s job and dumped some glucose. I don’t think your cuppa would have altered it if you use low carb milk but I’ve read somewhere (but can’t recall where sorry) that the act of chewing gum can make your system think that food is coming but nothing comes so it may be that?

I had a stressful episode yesterday with my son who has autism and just before tea he had a meltdown, I’d tested for my before meal at 4.5 but because of the situation didn’t get to eat right away, so as I was testing a new food I tested again 30 minutes later after everything had calmed down and my second attempt to eat my meal I was 7.6 - so it was definitely the adrenaline rush I had dealing with the situation-. Gave up the testing and ate - will try it again. But goes to show no matter how tight we are on our food choices life throws us curve balls
 
Food is not the only reason our levels change, our levels can be influenced by lots of things.
Activity, temperature, emotions, stress, hormones, even the accuracy limitations of our meters can make it appear that our levels have risen, when the reality is they could be the same or even a little lower. The +/-15% accuracy range means a possible 30% difference between two results and could easily explain your blips.
 
lovinglife said:
I had a stressful episode yesterday
Click to expand...
This really got me thinking @lovinglife. I've read stress as a reason before but always thought of big picture stress like "I'm so stressed" or "I suffer from stress" and thought that's not me. Actually mt life has lots of little "stressful episodes" particularly at work where I have to firefight and sort things out at short notice. I always sort of think my numbers are higher on work days. This might actually be the reason. Thank you
 
Margarettt said:
i test when I eat and two hours later and I've had a week of fantastic numbers. I've even had my first couple of 4s. Still sometimes I have a higher than expected (not super high but higher than expected maybe 6.9 or 7.1) at the two hour mark with food that would normally not raise (eggs ;cheese etc.) Today I started wondering if having in between things is relevant. For example if I had a cup of tea with a splash of almond milk (no carbs) or a stick of chewing gum (0.5g carb) It the time just before my two hour test would it cause a short up and down rise and explain this.
I do think a CGM would solve this for me but libre is not compatible with my phone and I'll have to wait for Santa to sort that out.
The numbers dont bother me in general its been great since I stopped the nicotine lozenges I'm just wondering if everything causes a rise but some go down quickly or if its random
Click to expand...
I agree with what others have said. There's a lot of interesting information to be had from using a CGM: for instance, I found a small latte (normal milk) will take me from low fives to high eights in about 20 minutes, and back to low fives inside an hour. So it might be any number of things: or it might be meter variance.
 
Margarettt said:
This really got me thinking @lovinglife. I've read stress as a reason before but always thought of big picture stress like "I'm so stressed" or "I suffer from stress" and thought that's not me. Actually mt life has lots of little "stressful episodes" particularly at work where I have to firefight and sort things out at short notice. I always sort of think my numbers are higher on work days. This might actually be the reason. Thank you
Click to expand...
@Margarettt You might be interested in this cgm I happened to be wearing when I was suddenly thrust into a very stressful situation affecting a near relative. (Apologies to those who've seen it before)
I'd had a normal relaxed day with an lc breakfast and a salad for lunch when about 4pm the phone rang. Within 90 minutes I was involved with Police, Social Services and trying hard to calm a relative with extreme mental health problems.
I have been this situation before (before t2 and lowcarb) and rather than thinking "what snacks can I pack?" I was thinking I'd use it as an opportunity to fast, so only took water with me
There was a peak in stress initially then another about 8pm in the police station then another about 11-midnight.
I finally got released from the situation and on my way home about 3-4 a.m..
I did not eat anything between 12 noon and when I got home.
My bg usually runs 5-8
See what my bg was doing that day...
It's only a solitary personal example, I e no idea how someone else would react bg-wise
 

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Gosh (not what I actually said) @MrsA2 That is interesting and food for thought. The sooner I get my hands on a meter the better.
 
My understanding is, when we eat we get a first phase insulin response from the Amylase in saliva, the second phase comes later and is dependent on carb load.
It could be that chewing gum caused the first phase response, and lowered your levels slightly, and your liver kicked into gear to raise them again.
I could be totally wrong, but it could explain what you saw.
 
ajbod said:
My understanding is, when we eat we get a first phase insulin response from the Amylase in saliva, the second phase comes later and is dependent on carb load.
It could be that chewing gum caused the first phase response, and lowered your levels slightly, and your liver kicked into gear to raise them again.
I could be totally wrong, but it could explain what you saw.
Click to expand...
Interesting @ajbod I'm nodding my head up and down
 
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