Low glucose at night - advice please!

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Franthepotter

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Hiball, I've lost 5kg with low carb and low sugar diet and my CGM shows steady blood sugar with no large spikes. That's all food, but last might I had 3 hours of low glucose (3.8) . I'm hoping to remedy this and have eaten dome carbs before bed.. 100g of kidney beans, some peanut butter and cheese. Is this a sensible strategy?
 
Two things, assuming you are not on any medication which lowers BG ie insulin or Gliclazide.... which I don't think you are, but correct me if I am wrong.

a) Firstly, 3.8 is a perfectly OK and normal reading during the depths of sleep, although it is likely that you were probably not quite that low because Libre generally tends to read lower than BG for many people at low levels. I find if I check levels like that with a finger prick, my BG meter will usually say I am about 1mmol higher. But, even if you were 3.8 that is fine as your liver will release glucose to bring you back up when it needs to. A true hypo is actually below 3.5 but those of us on insulin treat anything below 4.0 as a hypo in order to preserve our hypo awareness. You don't need hypo awareness because you are not using insulin or other medication which can drop you dangerously low.

b) Libre will give a false low reading if you lie on the sensor, so if the low alarm wakes you up during the night, consider which side you are sleeping on to see if this is the possible reason. It is called a compression low and is one of the main quirks of Libre, although I believe it can happen with other CGMs too. The sensor compresses the tissue under it and this changes the molecular composition of the tissue which the filament is sampling and this leads to a false low. When you release the pressure by rolling off the arm, the Libre will gradually show your levels returning to where they were before you rolled onto it, so you will typically see a sharp dip and then it will remain low for however long you lie on it and then it will rise back up to it's previous level or thereabouts.

There is therefore no need for you to be eating anything at bedtime.
 
3.8 is a normal blood sugar if you aren’t on any meds that can cause hypos @Franthepotter The Libre isn’t that accurate anyway and you could easily have been in the 4s. But basically, don’t worry. It’s fine and there’s no need to eat a bedtime snack.

All the things you might read about CGMs and snacks and low sugars are really aimed at people on insulin or similar.
 
Hi rebrascora hi inka thank you so much that's really helpful. That was the first anxious moment I've had in this journey so helping me understand it is really kind. May I ask another question sort of related.

So I've cut out all grains, reduced my calories carefully (protein and good fats up) with a large veg intake And these spikes have stopped. Should I introduce grain carbs ? I don't want to reduce my weight more (now I'm 61 kg) but am mindful to change this eating gradually and I don't want my spikes to come back. I wonder if I should put this on the general forum about eating low carb ...
 
If grains spiked your levels then reintroducing them will likely cause your levels to spike again. You can try smaller portions of them and see if a portion size that doesn't spike your levels too much is worth bothering with. Is there a reason why you want to reintroduce grains? You don't need them nutritionally and after a while you no longer want them. At least that is what I found. If you are following a low carb way of eating to manage your diabetes then you are looking at finding a menu which is sustainable for life. It isn't really a quick fix "diet" it is a new way of eating for life.

If you are worried about your weight getting too low, eat a bit more fat to stabilize it. There are lots of ways to introduce more fat. I have double cream in my morning coffee and almost all my veg are cooked with a knob of butter or if it is ratatouille, a good couple of glugs of olive oil. I don't restrict my cheese intake.... other than only eating really nice cheeses. I have full fat creamy Greek natural yoghurt for breakfast.
 
rebrascora said:
If grains spiked your levels then reintroducing them will likely cause your levels to spike again. You can try smaller portions of them and see if a portion size that doesn't spike your levels too much is worth bothering with. Is there a reason why you want to reintroduce grains? You don't need them nutritionally and after a while you no longer want them. At least that is what I found. If you are following a low carb way of eating to manage your diabetes then you are looking at finding a menu which is sustainable for life. It isn't really a quick fix "diet" it is a new way of eating for life.

If you are worried about your weight getting too low, eat a bit more fat to stabilize it. There are lots of ways to introduce more fat. I have double cream in my morning coffee and almost all my veg are cooked with a knob of butter or if it is ratatouille, a good couple of glugs of olive oil. I don't restrict my cheese intake.... other than only eating really nice cheeses. I have full fat creamy Greek natural yoghurt for breakfast.
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@Franthepotter has been doing the DESMOND course which has been pushing the low fat, must have carbs and saying bread is better than olive oil which possibly explains the reason for wanting to introduce more grains. I think they have set themselves some quite strict targets.
I wholly agree a good regime is one which is sustainable.
 
@Leadinglights Thanks for that. It is really frustrating that the NHS is still pushing the Eatwell plate through DESMOND. It almost seems that it is a postcode lottery as to the dietary advice you get for Type 2 from the NHS. Some are going with the Newcastle diet, some encourage low carb like Freshwell and Dr David Unwin and some are still stuck in the past with DESMOND and the Eatwell plate and wholegrains!
I remember it was hard enough for me, going against my nurses low fat advice, which was in private not a group situation and I genuinely felt guilty for not following it, but getting the low fat, wholegrain advice pushed at you in a group environment must be much harder to resist, even when you can see the benefit of what you have been doing.

Unfortunately @Franthepotter you have to make your own decisions about these issues. Read and learn all you can and take into account what you see happening with your own experiments on yourself with your Libre, but don't blindly trust the NHS advice where diabetes is concerned because sadly they get it wrong and have been for many decades, which is why more and more people are becoming diabetic instead of people who are diagnosed, getting better.
 
rebrascora said:
@Leadinglights Thanks for that. It is really frustrating that the NHS is still pushing the Eatwell plate through DESMOND. It almost seems that it is a postcode lottery as to the dietary advice you get for Type 2 from the NHS. Some are going with the Newcastle diet, some encourage low carb like Freshwell and Dr David Unwin and some are still stuck in the past with DESMOND and the Eatwell plate and wholegrains!
I remember it was hard enough for me, going against my nurses low fat advice, which was in private not a group situation and I genuinely felt guilty for not following it, but getting the low fat, wholegrain advice pushed at you in a group environment must be much harder to resist, even when you can see the benefit of what you have been doing.

Unfortunately @Franthepotter you have to make your own decisions about these issues. Read and learn all you can and take into account what you see happening with your own experiments on yourself with your Libre, but don't blindly trust the NHS advice where diabetes is concerned because sadly they get it wrong and have been for many decades, which is why more and more people are becoming diabetic instead of people who are diagnosed, getting better.
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Barbara that is all so kind and sensible and helpful. Yes I was thinking Desmond-do-do so thought it would be bad for me with no grains. But I'm feeling much much better all around without them. I should have done this many years earlier!!! Oh well. So still on this journey... navigating the low carb family life but generally feeling good. I love goats cheese so that stays firmly on the shopping list. Xxxxxxx
 
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