non diabetic using the libre 3 for ZOE

[shayo]

Apologies if this isn't the correct place for questions like this, I have looked for information on sugar spikes and nocturnal hypoglycaemia, but can't really find the answers, there's so much information.

I started ZOE last week and have been given a libre 3 to use as part of the package. It's been fascinating seeing how different foods affect my blood sugars, but there are a couple of things I was unsure about.

My blood sugar spikes after eating, pretty much regardless of which carbs I have seem pretty steep and high, or is this normal?



I can detail my meals for each spike if this helps. I'm 42, male, not overweight.

Also I was wondering if the drop below the baseline last night could be a reading error, or if occasional drops like that in a non diabetic is pretty normal?

Thanks.

 

[Robin]

I think your steep rises are probably perfectly normal, if you had a meal that was either sugary, or had a lot of fast acting carbs in it (pasta, rice, white bread, flour etc) before them. Your Blood Glucoes seems to have sorted itself out fairly quickly.
The Libre is renowned for producing 'Compression lows' at night. If you roll over and squash the sensor by lying on it, and particularly I find if you’re a bit dehydrated, the Libre doesn’t read the interstitial fluid properly, and gives a low reading. It normally bounces back once you’ve turned over, as yours seems to do in the night.

 

[Sally71]

I would say that looks pretty normal. Spikes after food can happen to anyone, especially if you eat a lot of carbohydrate; the key thing is though that your body recognises the rise and deals with it quickly. Yours never reach 12 and then come straight back down again which I believe is perfectly acceptable for a non-diabetic. It’s also possible for non-Ds to dip briefly below 4, again your body recognises and deals with it before it becomes a problem. Your night-time dip might be a compression low though; be aware that if you happen to sleep lying on your sensor it can cause it to read lower than you are.

 

[shayo]

I think your steep rises are probably perfectly normal, if you had a meal that was either sugary, or had a lot of fast acting carbs in it (pasta, rice, white bread, flour etc) before them. Your Blood Glucoes seems to have sorted itself out fairly quickly.
The Libre is renowned for producing 'Compression lows' at night. If you roll over and squash the sensor by lying on it, and particularly I find if you’re a bit dehydrated, the Libre doesn’t read the interstitial fluid properly, and gives a low reading. It normally bounces back once you’ve turned over, as yours seems to do in the night.

I would say that looks pretty normal. Spikes after food can happen to anyone, especially if you eat a lot of carbohydrate; the key thing is though that your body recognises the rise and deals with it quickly. Yours never reach 12 and then come straight back down again which I believe is perfectly acceptable for a non-diabetic. It’s also possible for non-Ds to dip briefly below 4, again your body recognises and deals with it before it becomes a problem. Your night-time dip might be a compression low though; be aware that if you happen to sleep lying on your sensor it can cause it to read lower than you are.

Thanks for taking the time to explain, much appreciated. One thing that wearing the libre 3 for a week has taught me is how much I take what's happening inside my body for granted and how easy it is to harm it with the sort of foods that are readily available to us.

 

[helli]

how easy it is to harm it with the sort of foods that are readily available to us.

Monitoring our body is great at telling us what is going on now but don't confuse common, natural spikes with harm.
As others have said, they look pretty normal.

 

[Sally71]

Thanks for taking the time to explain, much appreciated. One thing that wearing the libre 3 for a week has taught me is how much I take what's happening inside my body for granted and how easy it is to harm it with the sort of foods that are readily available to us.

I don’t think you’re doing any harm, please don‘t be alarmed by the spikes, nobody’s blood sugar is completely stable all the time!
Being diagnosed with type 1 certainly makes you appreciate what your body does without you even knowing. When you have to try to manage it yourself without the aid of a functioning pancreas, it’s pretty difficult and the spikes and dips can be a lot bigger than yours. You are doing an interesting experiment and have learnt something about your body which is great, but please don’t start worrying about it 🙂

 

[shayo]

Monitoring our body is great at telling us what is going on now but don't confuse common, natural spikes with harm.
As others have said, they look pretty normal.

I don’t think you’re doing any harm, please don‘t be alarmed by the spikes, nobody’s blood sugar is completely stable all the time!
Being diagnosed with type 1 certainly makes you appreciate what your body does without you even knowing. When you have to try to manage it yourself without the aid of a functioning pancreas, it’s pretty difficult and the spikes and dips can be a lot bigger than yours. You are doing an interesting experiment and have learnt something about your body which is great, but please don’t start worrying about it 🙂

Thanks for the advice 🙂

 

[SimonP]

Continuous Glucose Profiles in Healthy Subjects under Everyday Life Conditions and after Different Meals - PMC

This study investigated continuous glucose profiles in nondiabetic subjects. Continuous interstitial glucose measurement was performed under everyday life conditions (2 days) and after ingestion of four meals with standardized carbohydrate content ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There are almost certainly other papers around too.

 

[Sally71]

I’ve just seen an advert for the Zoe system so I have a better understanding of what it’s all about now, it’s trying to get you to change your diet to minimise the spikes, isn’t it. So obviously I can’t comment on your current diet, but if you think it would be beneficial to you to reduce your carbohydrate intake a bit then it certainly won’t do you any harm. There are probably a lot of people out there (me included) whose diet is maybe a bit too carb heavy. But having said that, I still don’t think you need to be worrying based on your readings, it all looks perfectly normal to me as I said before.

My hubby follows a low-carb diet, absolutely nothing to do with diabetes or blood sugar levels, he just finds it a good way to keep his weight down. And he’s lucky and enjoys the food, I‘d go mental if I had such a restricted diet, he eats exactly the same meals 5 days a week! Everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. So if you want to revamp your diet to see if you feel healthier then go for it, just don’t become obsessed or get upset if it doesn’t seem to make much difference, you’re fine 🙂

 

[shayo]

Continuous Glucose Profiles in Healthy Subjects under Everyday Life Conditions and after Different Meals - PMC

This study investigated continuous glucose profiles in nondiabetic subjects. Continuous interstitial glucose measurement was performed under everyday life conditions (2 days) and after ingestion of four meals with standardized carbohydrate content ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There are almost certainly other papers around too.

Thanks for that, pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Unless I'm misreading the paper it seems like my blood sugar response to food is pretty extreme?

The paper gave a (what I consider to sugar carb heavy?) meal of Toast, honey, jam, curd cheese, orange juice to 24 non diabetics and the glucose range of the subjects was 103-171 mg/dl.

In comparison, mine was 200mg/dl for a small jacket potato, butter, tuna and mayonnaise and similar for a chicken, salad, mayonnaise sandwich on wholemeal bread and handful of crisps.

I’ve just seen an advert for the Zoe system so I have a better understanding of what it’s all about now, it’s trying to get you to change your diet to minimise the spikes, isn’t it. So obviously I can’t comment on your current diet, but if you think it would be beneficial to you to reduce your carbohydrate intake a bit then it certainly won’t do you any harm. There are probably a lot of people out there (me included) whose diet is maybe a bit too carb heavy. But having said that, I still don’t think you need to be worrying based on your readings, it all looks perfectly normal to me as I said before.

My hubby follows a low-carb diet, absolutely nothing to do with diabetes or blood sugar levels, he just finds it a good way to keep his weight down. And he’s lucky and enjoys the food, I‘d go mental if I had such a restricted diet, he eats exactly the same meals 5 days a week! Everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. So if you want to revamp your diet to see if you feel healthier then go for it, just don’t become obsessed or get upset if it doesn’t seem to make much difference, you’re fine 🙂

Thanks, yeah it's more designed around finding foods that work for you and your gut microbiome to reduce systemic inflammation than solely about blood sugars. It's ended up creating more questions than answers for me so far They haven't interpreted my results yet so I guess waiting for that is the way to go!

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Unless I'm misreading the paper it seems like my blood sugar response to food is pretty extreme?

Maybe, but I'm not sure I trust the accuracy of these sensors quite that much. I'd also suggest that once you've worn the sensor for long enough to get statistics it's going to tell you you've been in range 99% of the time with low variability.

 

[Inka]

@shayo I’d take the higher and lower figures with a pinch of salt frankly. Things like Libre are inaccurate at the high and low ends of the scale. Even the fabulous Dexcom CGM exaggerates higher levels.