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Blood Glucose Levels

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
G

Gee1970

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi,

I was confirmed to be type 2 just over 2 weeks ago. I have now managed to get the blood sugar level (fasting, first thing am) down to between 7.7 mmol/L and 8.8 mol/L for the last few days. Given the original reading was 24 mmol/L on the 1st November it is on the surface a good result so far...

However, this has been obtained by a very strict diet where I have limited my diet to probably less than a quarter of my previous levels of daily carbs (and even less sugar). I have also built up to 3 metformin per day increasing by one per week until I start on 4 next week.

My worry now is that the am readings have appeared to plateau at a level that is essentially still too high. Is there anyone who experienced similar results in the early days and should I expect the numbers to get any lower than this with a continued similar minimal daily intake of carbs?

The numbers actually increased by 4 on one day last week when I had more carbs due to a birthday celebration (which I expected). This is going to be the case for good now which I accept and certainly will be likely on the odd day around Christmas. However, it would be nice to know that it is at least going to be possible to get the numbers into the normal range ever again, given I am struggling to see how I can reduce my carb intake any further. As it is I’m feeling hungry most of the day.....

All comments appreciated.
 
If you are saying your levels are now 7.7 and 8.8 , then that is not bad for 2 weeks.
 
Two weeks is a bit too early to make any judgements for me. Getting a fasting reading down from 24 to 8 in a couple of weeks is good going and as Anitram suggests some might consider that a bit too quick. See where you are after a month or two.

I would begin to think about some before and after meal tests to see how your body is reacting to carbohydrate intake. Again I would not get too hung up on the early numbers. If you are keeping in single figures on measurements taken a couple of hours after eating, then hang on until you have enough to see patterns.

Are you losing some weight with your low carb approach? If so that could well be having some effect.

Do you have an HbA1c to go with the fasting 24? If so you could be expecting that to drop after your next test for sure.
 
Couple of hackneyed sayings apply here - Rome was not built in a day and This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Diabetes whatever type it is, does not appear suddenly overnight. Hence neither can the treatment work suddenly either.
 
Thanks for the responses guys.

Interesting that I can probably expect to get below 7 which is a relief as it appeared to have plateaued. Also, good advice re the long game as I think the early stages you don’t quite understand it.

Will certainly look to get readings at different times of the day but initially I wanted to change my habits quite radically to get the numbers down quick. I didnt get a HbA1c reading with the original 24 ( the doc just gave me a figure of just over 100 which I think was in different units converting to a figure which had probably reduced slightly from 24 that I had tested myself before seeing the doc).

In terms of weight it is going up if anything but not much. I thought this was common initially as the body is probably using its resources better as the blood glucose lowers. I am eating far more protein and much less carbs but probably more of the good fats. I had noticed weight loss in my haunches which prompted my initial home test so it looks like the body is getting some way back to normal.

Thanks again
 
If your BG reading was 24 at diagnosis, the number just over 100 that the doc mentioned will have been your Hba1c reading. As others are saying, coming down quickly from a reading that high can cause damage to delicate tiny blood vessels in the eyes and extremities, risking possible retinopathy and/or neuropathy so it is better to take it steady with changes rather than radically altering your diet overnight and pushing to get levels down as soon as you can. Hopefully that hasn't happened with you or if it has, hopefully it will be transient but it can occasionally cause permanent damage so do take it a bit easier and be patient.
 
Great. Starting to understand the HbA1c at last....tbh I’ve noticed my eyes have been a bit more blurry the last few weeks so hopefully, it is not permanent damage. Will look to maintain at around 7 to 8 for a few days, I think...
 
The blurriness is most likely due to the vitreous part of the lens which changes shape with the concentration of sugar and that changes your focal point. It usually is reversible. Unfortunately retinopathy is not generally obvious with your vision, at least in the early stages. That is why it is monitored yearly with photos of your retina, so that they can detect it early and treat it if any significant changes occur.
HbA1c is a measure of the amount of glucose stuck to the red blood cells (the haemoglobin) Those cells live about 3months and pick up glucose during that time depending upon how much is in the blood, so the HbA1c gives you an idea of what your Blood glucose levels have been like over the past 3months rather than the finger prick which just gives you a reading of your glucose level at that moment in time. This is why they don't like to do HbA1c readings more frequently than every 3 months because there will be overlap in the results, so a high HbA1c repeated a month later will still have some blood cells from the previous sample period with that same amount of glucose stuck to it even if your BG levels are dropping. The glucose is stuck to the cell until the cell dies. If glucose levels have dropped the new blood cells will pick up less glucose and the HbA1c will reflect that. As you will now be aware BG levels vary throughout the day and night and after eating food there is significantly more fluctuation so your finger prick will only pick up a fragment of what is going on during the average 24 hrs and a doctor using a one off test like that can't really know what is going on in that any one moment.... food breaking down, exercise having reduced levels, stress of visiting the doctor etc, so the HbA1c gives them a more overall picture of what has been going on over that previous 3 month period of time.
 
If you imagine your insulin resistance as a dam on a river, by eating low carb you have opened the sluice gates, and all the held back stored up glucose is now starting to escape. There is a lot to flow away, but the river downstream of the dam just can't move any more than at the moment - but in the end the improved flow will empty the lake behind the dam and the river - your metabolism, will be flowing normally once again.
 
Gee1970 said:
Great. Starting to understand the HbA1c at last....tbh I’ve noticed my eyes have been a bit more blurry the last few weeks so hopefully, it is not permanent damage. Will look to maintain at around 7 to 8 for a few days, I think...
Click to expand...
I got this s well. Your eyes will need time to adjust to the lower sugar levels. It took me a few weeks before they settled down and I used a £1 pair of non prescription glasses from Poundland to read things.
Please dont be tempted to rush to an optician just yet. I did tbat and wasted money on a new prescription. My eyes reverted back to normal a day or two before picking up the now useless new prescription.
 
Gee1970 said:
Great. Starting to understand the HbA1c at last....tbh I’ve noticed my eyes have been a bit more blurry the last few weeks so hopefully, it is not permanent damage. Will look to maintain at around 7 to 8 for a few days, I think...
Click to expand...

Well done at your terrific progress so far! Whatever you have been doing looks to be working really well for you. It’s easier on the fine blood vessels for average levels to come down gradually, and it’s certainly not uncommon for rapid improvement to slow as things continue to improve.

There’s some background information about hba1c here if it helps:

What is HbA1c?

HbA1c is your average blood glucose (sugar) levels for the last two to three months. If you have diabetes, an ideal HbA1c level is 48mmol/mol (6.5%) or below. If you're at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, your target HbA1c level should be below 42mmol/mol (6%).
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
 
Thanks to everyone for your replies so far on this thread as it is really helping me get used to T2.

I had managed to get numbers below 7 for the last few days but I have only been testing the blood first thing am before any food or drink. However, yesterday I got a batch of new strips and thought I’d test just before bed as an experiment. This was the result:

26/11 at 8.00 was 6.7 (my lowest level yet) great news
26/11 at 23.30 was 7.4 (over 2 hours since my last snack) expected
27/11 at 8.00 is now 8.6 (very surprised by this - not good)

This is the first time I have really been surprised by the number this morning. I ate very similar things to the previous day tbh and was expecting the number to be around 7 at worst. Is it unusual for the fasting number to be higher than the number last thing at night?
 
Gee1970 said:
This is the first time I have really been surprised by the number this morning. I ate very similar things to the previous day tbh and was expecting the number to be around 7 at worst. Is it unusual for the fasting number to be higher than the number last thing at night?
Click to expand...

The answer to that question is no, it is not unusual. One of the complicating factors is something known as the dawn phenomenon where your liver dumps glucose into the system to prepare you for the day. It's a highly variable thing from person to person and day to day - sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. Check it for a few days to see if there is a pattern is the approach I would take.
 
Ahh, that makes sense then. Great stuff....wake up with a query or concern, post on here, then I feel better. Many thanks.

Being quite a logical person means I think some of my results may be a challenge until I understand them
 
Hi
The body is a very complex system and your blood glucose levels can be affected by 42 different factors, not just the food we eat, the type of food and when we ate it. Exercise is another one of the main factors and what physical activity we did yesterday or even the day before.... exercise seems to have a cumulative effect, so regular exercise is hugely beneficial..... will have a bearing, but there are a large number of other factors including Dawn Phenomenon as @Docb mentions, so simple a+b=c sort of logic with this just doesn't work. Frustrating for those of us who want things to be nice and straightforward and results follow on from actions. Biological systems are always messy. Some people find that looking for trends over the longer term is more helpful and perhaps plotting a graph of averages rather than individual readings, can make it easier to see progress and iron out some of the idiosyncrasies.

DP or sometimes "Foot on the Floor Syndrome" can be quite individual. Mine kicks in the moment I set foot to the floor, so I test before I get out of bed and it can raise my BG as much as 4-6 whole mmols in an hour, so really quite substantial! Some people find it kicks in during the early hours of the morning (particularly in summer) which is a more typical Dawn Phenomenon. Mine always waits until I get out of bed which I am grateful for as I can deal with that better. It is thought to date back to prehistoric days when we didn't have cupboards and fridges and had to go out and forage or hunt down a wooly mammoth for breakfast, so the liver giving us a boost of glucose was helpful to provide energy for that, but less helpful unfortunately in our modern age! I have a sensor on my arm (Freestyle Libre) which samples levels every few minutes and plots a graph and it is fascinating (and baffling sometimes) to see what is going on and how hugely variable our BG levels are.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, don't be discouraged by levels not always reflecting the effort you have put in. Over the longer term they will improve if you keep at it and hopefully in a few weeks/months you will be seeing 5s in the morning.... fasting readings are usually the last ones to come down to normal levels. Hope that all makes sense.
 
Absolutely fantastic info. Many thanks...
 
Gee1970 said:
Hi,

I was confirmed to be type 2 just over 2 weeks ago. I have now managed to get the blood sugar level (fasting, first thing am) down to between 7.7 mmol/L and 8.8 mol/L for the last few days. Given the original reading was 24 mmol/L on the 1st November it is on the surface a good result so far...

However, this has been obtained by a very strict diet where I have limited my diet to probably less than a quarter of my previous levels of daily carbs (and even less sugar). I have also built up to 3 metformin per day increasing by one per week until I start on 4 next week.

My worry now is that the am readings have appeared to plateau at a level that is essentially still too high. Is there anyone who experienced similar results in the early days and should I expect the numbers to get any lower than this with a continued similar minimal daily intake of carbs?

The numbers actually increased by 4 on one day last week when I had more carbs due to a birthday celebration (which I expected). This is going to be the case for good now which I accept and certainly will be likely on the odd day around Christmas. However, it would be nice to know that it is at least going to be possible to get the numbers into the normal range ever again, given I am struggling to see how I can reduce my carb intake any further. As it is I’m feeling hungry most of the day.....

All comments appreciated.
Click to expand...
Can we tell what gms on food labelling {carbohydrates to sugars & sugars per 100gms} actually equate to hba1c levels? ie 1.2gm sugar into hba1c mmol
My thoughts are that we could look at a label to judge the contents impact on us.
I know that we are all individuals with other medical issues, even blood test ranges don't fit everyone.
Martyn
 
In a word no. Plus a HBA1C leve is an average of sugar circulating in your blood over an average of 3 months.
 
You are misunderstanding what the HBA1C is, you maybe muddling with a blood sugar that the meter gives.
 
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