Blood Sugar Talk - 3 tips
Oct. 25th, 2009 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkI am neither pre-diabetic nor diabetic, but now that my husband is I feel like I'm an honorary member of the club. We've both been consumed lately with trying to devise a sustainable diet plan that will work as a healthy reducing diet for both of us while also optimizing Richard's blood glucose levels, so I'm learning a lot more about counting carbs and spacing meals for BG stability. And then there's the care and feeding of glucose meters. Since a number of people on my FL have similar interests, I thought it might be worthwhile to post a few discoveries that we've made lately.
1) If you get an unexpectedly high BG reading, wash your hands! Richard's been doing a really good job of controlling his BG with diet and thought he had it pretty much figured out. His readings range from dead normal (80-100) to the very occasional reading over 200 if he over-indulges on party snacks. The other day he suddenly got an afternoon reading over 200 followed by an evening reading of 330! Yikes! Running diagnostics on the meter didn't help. But washing his hands really well did. After scrubbing thoroughly his reading came back at 89. The remarkable thing is that whatever he had gotten on his hands persisted long enough to contaminate two readings several hours apart (I think it was the Thompson grapes in heavy syrup).
2) I've never seen this tip written down, but it seems to be working for Richard. When he first got the meter and started logging daily BG readings we noticed that his morning readings (which are essentially fasting readings) were typically the highest readings of the day. This seems contrary to common sense. Isn't blood sugar supposed to be LOWER after fasting for 12 hours? After skimming through Diabetes for Dummies again, I theorized that this must be caused by the liver releasing too much stored glucose, an overreaction to the normal blood sugar drop during the night. If I'm understanding correctly, counteracting this problem is what Metformin is for (typically the first medication prescribed for Type2s). Richard also noted that if he went 5 or 6 hours between meals during the day this resulted in slightly elevated blood sugar, and is now being more careful about meal spacing.
Well, if eating every 4 hours takes care of the problem during the day, why wouldn't the same thing work at night? Since we are of an age where we typically get up once during the night to visit the bathroom, why not have a small snack on the way back to bed and see what happens? So Richard decided to try my suggestion, starting with a single ginger snap in the middle of the night. It worked like magic. Before he started this his morning readings were typically in the 105-125 range. Now they are typically 95-105. He's been fine-tuning the technique, sees little effect if he eats the cookie too early in his sleep cycle. The little snack really needs to be about 4 hours before he gets up for the day. With this technique he has had morning readings as low as 85 which NEVER happened before.
Has anyone else ever heard of this idea? It's so simple and safe, I wonder why it wasn't suggested in the diabetic eating class. It might not work for everybody, but it's worth trying.
3) Everybody who needs to know it probably knows this, but it came as a surprise to me. Moderate exercise shortly after eating drops your blood sugar like a stone! I have been hearing for years that exercise is an important part of preventing/controlling diabetes, but I thought this was a general lifestyle recommendation, not a short term fix. The practical application of this principle is: you can have double soft tacos and ice cream for supper if you bike to and from the restaurant (experimentally verified!). What a great loophole!
1) If you get an unexpectedly high BG reading, wash your hands! Richard's been doing a really good job of controlling his BG with diet and thought he had it pretty much figured out. His readings range from dead normal (80-100) to the very occasional reading over 200 if he over-indulges on party snacks. The other day he suddenly got an afternoon reading over 200 followed by an evening reading of 330! Yikes! Running diagnostics on the meter didn't help. But washing his hands really well did. After scrubbing thoroughly his reading came back at 89. The remarkable thing is that whatever he had gotten on his hands persisted long enough to contaminate two readings several hours apart (I think it was the Thompson grapes in heavy syrup).
2) I've never seen this tip written down, but it seems to be working for Richard. When he first got the meter and started logging daily BG readings we noticed that his morning readings (which are essentially fasting readings) were typically the highest readings of the day. This seems contrary to common sense. Isn't blood sugar supposed to be LOWER after fasting for 12 hours? After skimming through Diabetes for Dummies again, I theorized that this must be caused by the liver releasing too much stored glucose, an overreaction to the normal blood sugar drop during the night. If I'm understanding correctly, counteracting this problem is what Metformin is for (typically the first medication prescribed for Type2s). Richard also noted that if he went 5 or 6 hours between meals during the day this resulted in slightly elevated blood sugar, and is now being more careful about meal spacing.
Well, if eating every 4 hours takes care of the problem during the day, why wouldn't the same thing work at night? Since we are of an age where we typically get up once during the night to visit the bathroom, why not have a small snack on the way back to bed and see what happens? So Richard decided to try my suggestion, starting with a single ginger snap in the middle of the night. It worked like magic. Before he started this his morning readings were typically in the 105-125 range. Now they are typically 95-105. He's been fine-tuning the technique, sees little effect if he eats the cookie too early in his sleep cycle. The little snack really needs to be about 4 hours before he gets up for the day. With this technique he has had morning readings as low as 85 which NEVER happened before.
Has anyone else ever heard of this idea? It's so simple and safe, I wonder why it wasn't suggested in the diabetic eating class. It might not work for everybody, but it's worth trying.
3) Everybody who needs to know it probably knows this, but it came as a surprise to me. Moderate exercise shortly after eating drops your blood sugar like a stone! I have been hearing for years that exercise is an important part of preventing/controlling diabetes, but I thought this was a general lifestyle recommendation, not a short term fix. The practical application of this principle is: you can have double soft tacos and ice cream for supper if you bike to and from the restaurant (experimentally verified!). What a great loophole!
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 07:31 pm (UTC)Yes, this was suggested in Richard's diabetes class, and I also found it mentioned on at least one of the articles I found on the Somogyi effect. It didn't seem to make much difference for Richard - certainly wasn't as effective as the middle of the night snack. But it's still probably a good idea if he's prone to nighttime hypoglycemia. I'll remind him of that. Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 07:27 pm (UTC)1) A very small snack in the middle of the night eliminates the problem
2) One of the symptoms of "undetected nighttime hypoglycemia" is night sweats. This is something he's had trouble with intermittently for the last year or two (although not at all since he started controlling his blood sugar).
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 07:42 pm (UTC)The only thing I'd point out with your solution is that, well, if there's a pre-dawn snack, it's not really a fasting blood sugar any more. However, I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter. The point is keeping blood sugars down all the time.
I found Bernstein (Diabetes Solution, etc.) pretty compelling.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 08:16 pm (UTC)Do you have a glucose meter? If you're officially pre-diabetic you might want to obtain one and start monitoring now. It's surprising how much difference a few adjustments in diet and exercise patterns can make. But there is really no way to calibrate that without some way to measure your glucose at will.
"The only thing I'd point out with your solution is that, well, if there's a pre-dawn snack, it's not really a fasting blood sugar any more. However, I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter. The point is keeping blood sugars down all the time."
Well, yeah. Doing that before going to the doctor for a fasting glucose test would be cheating. The rest of the time it's just managing your glucose level.
"I found Bernstein (Diabetes Solution, etc.) pretty compelling."
I don't recognize the reference.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 08:40 pm (UTC)Bernstein was an engineer with type 1 who got a glucose meter before they were widely available and worked out controlling his blood sugar on his own. He eventually went to medical school and became a doctor so he could treat others. His suggestions are much lower-carbohydrate than the ADA's, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 09:53 pm (UTC)Interesting. Go, engineers! We've got the "Diabetes for Dummies" book, which is actually pretty good despite the insulting name. That author points out that the advent of cheap portable glucose meters changed everything. First of all, it became trivially easy for doctors' offices to test blood sugar, which meant lots more data (with some confusion how to interpret it, thus the freqently changing guidelines for diagnosis). More important, it meant that individuals could monitor their own BG throughout the day, allowing them to make small continuous changes in their diet and immediately observe the results.
"His suggestions are much lower-carbohydrate than the ADA's, though."
Of course, Type 1 diabetes is a whole different kettle of fish from Type 2.
The great thing about the individual glucose meters is that you don't have to take any expert's word for which diet works best - you gather your own data and find out what works for you. Really a paradigm shift.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 09:26 pm (UTC)I was underweight till I was about 25.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 01:44 am (UTC)P.