did you see?

[bev]

Did anyone watch the programme last night called 'bodyclock' on bbc2?

It seemed to be suggesting that it would be kinder to your body (especially for diabetics) to eat only a small amount of food for your evening meal as there is a natural progresson for your body to be less effective at digesting and producing the right amount of insulin the later it is in the day. If you do eat a big evening meal high blood glucose levels should be expected - even for a non diabetic!
So the old adage of Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, and supper like a pauper seems to be spot on!
They tested peoples ability to process food and insulin throughout a 24 hour period and there is definately a drop in its abilty to do this around evening meal time between 4 -8pm. Bev

 

[sofaraway]

Didn't see it.
I do have higher blood glucose levels after evenign meal, but I suspect thats lantus running out, the fact I'm eating my most carbs then. I have difficulty not etaing a proper meal in the evening, I feel cheated somehow.

But I guess for a type 1 that doesn't produce any insulin anyway it wouldn't matter

 

[janine19]

Did anyone watch the programme last night called 'bodyclock' on bbc2?

It seemed to be suggesting that it would be kinder to your body (especially for diabetics) to eat only a small amount of food for your evening meal as there is a natural progresson for your body to be less effective at digesting and producing the right amount of insulin the later it is in the day. If you do eat a big evening meal high blood glucose levels should be expected - even for a non diabetic!
So the old adage of Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, and supper like a pauper seems to be spot on!
They tested peoples ability to process food and insulin throughout a 24 hour period and there is definately a drop in its abilty to do this around evening meal time between 4 -8pm. Bev

Hi Bev,

I was havin higher readings at night. Dietician sorted it by using a different carb ratio to insulin for all my meals. Its working so far.

 

[sofaraway]

Hi Bev,

I was havin higher readings at night. Dietician sorted it by using a different carb ratio to insulin for all my meals. Its working so far.

Do you use the same I:C ratio for all meals or a different one for evening meal?
I am having high evening/bed readings at the moment and need to increase my dinner bolus, not sure if I need to change the ratio though or just a set increase for the missing lantus

 

[tracey w]

Hi Bev,

I was havin higher readings at night. Dietician sorted it by using a different carb ratio to insulin for all my meals. Its working so far.

yes, i have my biggest meal in the evenings, i use a ratio of 1:8 at the minute, i have been sorting these myself! breakfast i am using 1:10, lunch 1:14

 

[bev]

At clinic on monday we were told that if you get the breakfast and lunch readings more or less the same - and if your evening reading is high - then you do need to have different ratios .

We were told to change Alexs to 1:10 for breakfast
1 :20 for lunch
and back to 1.10 for dinner

I havent changed it yet - will do at the weekend in case he reacts badly to it! I do get scared changing things so much - he seems so sensitive to even the smallest change in insulin etc..

I dont fully understand how they work out the ratios. Bev

 

[aymes]

Do you use the same I:C ratio for all meals or a different one for evening meal?
I am having high evening/bed readings at the moment and need to increase my dinner bolus, not sure if I need to change the ratio though or just a set increase for the missing lantus

I too have a higher evening ratio than I do for other times of the day which I've always seen as a bit unusual as most people tend to have a higher morning one to cover dawn phen etc. I increased my ratio for dinner about 4 months ago (from 1:10 to 1.5:10) and was quite nervous about doing it as my post-dinner readings were 3-5 above what they should be, suggesting that I only needed 1-2 units extra insulin (one tends to drop me about 3 units) rather than increasing my dose by half - but I did (nervously) increase it as per dafne rules and it's really worked so far.

 

[bev]

Sounds like you have it under control now. Can you tell me how many days it took to settle down? I am also nervous of changing it for Alex -even though we have been told to do so! Bev

 

[aymes]

Sounds like you have it under control now. Can you tell me how many days it took to settle down? I am also nervous of changing it for Alex -even though we have been told to do so! Bev

It worked straight away, I was on target by the before bed reading as it turned out to finally be the right dose.

I'd say go with what your DSN advises and if you're nervous do an extra test or two between when you usually would to see how it's going, that way if there is going to be a hypo you're likely to catch it in good time.