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Porridge

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So after my high hba1c this year I got new test monitor etc I've been checking before bed and in morning to see where it's at. Yesterday morning was 8.3 today 7.7. I gave chia seeds a miss with breakfast as I'm sure they were why it dropped so much as had metformin too. Had same breakfast this morning with no chia seeds and went from 7.7 to 8.7. I'm thinking to have my daily chia seeds in my lunches as I don't take metformin with that meal. Avocado is definitely my friend it seems.
 
jacki11 said:
So after my high hba1c this year I got new test monitor etc I've been checking before bed and in morning to see where it's at. Yesterday morning was 8.3 today 7.7. I gave chia seeds a miss with breakfast as I'm sure they were why it dropped so much as had metformin too. Had same breakfast this morning with no chia seeds and went from 7.7 to 8.7. I'm thinking to have my daily chia seeds in my lunches as I don't take metformin with that meal. Avocado is definitely my friend it seems.
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Looks like what you had for breakfast was fine as the increase was less than 2-3mmol/l. Metformin doesn't act directly on the food you eat just works in the background helping your body use the insulin in produces more effectively and reducing the output of glucose from the liver.
 
Leadinglights said:
Looks like what you had for breakfast was fine as the increase was less than 2-3mmol/l. Metformin doesn't act directly on the food you eat just works in the background helping your body use the insulin in produces more effectively and reducing the output of glucose from the liver.
Click to expand...
Ah right. I had the same breakfast yesterday but with Chia seeds added and went from 8.3 before eating down to 7.6, this morning same breakfast just mo chia seeds and 7.7 before eating up to 8.7 2 hrs later. As I take metformin with breakfast and main meal I'm now having chia seeds with lunches as no metformin then as I wondered if my BS went down yesterday after eating because I'd had both with breakfast.
 
jacki11 said:
Ah right. I had the same breakfast yesterday but with Chia seeds added and went from 8.3 before eating down to 7.6, this morning same breakfast just mo chia seeds and 7.7 before eating up to 8.7 2 hrs later. As I take metformin with breakfast and main meal I'm now having chia seeds with lunches as no metformin then as I wondered if my BS went down yesterday after eating because I'd had both with breakfast.
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Your levels going down is a good thing not a bad thing, but I doubt the chia seeds had any significant impact.

It is also important to understand that the decimal place on your meter is not really accurate, so you can take 8.3 and 7.6 as essentially the same which is 8. You are looking for the rise in BG to be no more than 3mmols at the 2 hour mark after eating, but if your reading is actually lower 2hours after a meal than it was before, then that is brilliant because it means you are making progress in reducing your levels, even with that one meal.
 
rebrascora said:
Your levels going down is a good thing not a bad thing, but I doubt the chia seeds had any significant impact.

It is also important to understand that the decimal place on your meter is not really accurate, so you can take 8.3 and 7.6 as essentially the same which is 8. You are looking for the rise in BG to be no more than 3mmols at the 2 hour mark after eating, but if your reading is actually lower 2hours after a meal than it was before, then that is brilliant because it means you are making progress in reducing your levels, even with that one meal.
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I have a lot to learn. If it wasn't the chia seeds I'm puzzled as sane breakfast sent bs down yesterday morning but up today...however after getting 10.1 hba1c 2 weeks ago I'm glad to not be getting higher readings. I'd stopped testing as thought I'd got it all sussed, but for some reason the bs level crept up.
 
jacki11 said:
I have a lot to learn. If it wasn't the chia seeds I'm puzzled as sane breakfast sent bs down yesterday morning but up today...however after getting 10.1 hba1c 2 weeks ago I'm glad to not be getting higher readings. I'd stopped testing as thought I'd got it all sussed, but for some reason the bs level crept up.
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I think you are getting confused as your HbA1C test result is in mmol/mol, a number over 47mmol/mol or the old units of % which I think over 6.5% is diabetes. This is not the same as the test from your monitor which is in mmol/l and is a moment in time rather than an average over the previous 3 months.
 
My Hba1c was 62 which converts to 10.1 according to a chart I found online. (I wish they gave me results in the same format as my monitor)which worried me as an average over 3 months, if I'm getting 7/8 daily now thats a relief as the next hba1c will be lower. Lesson learned for me as I'd stopped testing and got a shock.
 
jacki11 said:
I have a lot to learn. If it wasn't the chia seeds I'm puzzled as sane breakfast sent bs down yesterday morning but up today...however after getting 10.1 hba1c 2 weeks ago I'm glad to not be getting higher readings. I'd stopped testing as thought I'd got it all sussed, but for some reason the bs level crept up.
Click to expand...
BG levels go up and down throughout the day and night in response to a whole lot of different factors. The biggest factors are food and exercise and medication but there are lots and lots of others including stress and hormones and how well or poorly you slept and the ambient temperature and alcohol. Exercise can have an impact over several days, so if you did a lot of work in the garden yesterday or went for a long walk, it may well continue to drop your levels a bit today. This is why you should never take one set of readings at face value and make a decision based on them but look at trends. So if you get a high reading from one particular food on one occasion, don't rule it out there and then but try it again some other time. If it still gives you a spike in BG then discard it from your menu or reduce the portion size next time and test it a couple of times again. Nothing is clear cut with diabetes. You don't get 1+1=2 every time. Some days 1+1= 2.6 or 1.5 because the body is a biological system. It isn't precise, it is messy. What you need to look out for is when 1+1 gives you something that is way out of range of what you would expect like 4.7
Not sure if that makes sense, but you have to accept that the readings give you an idea of how you are responding to that food but there are often other lesser things affecting that reading in the background too, so you won't get exactly the same results from the same food 2 days in a row.
 
rebrascora said:
BG levels go up and down throughout the day and night in response to a whole lot of different factors. The biggest factors are food and exercise and medication but there are lots and lots of others including stress and hormones and how well or poorly you slept and the ambient temperature and alcohol. Exercise can have an impact over several days, so if you did a lot of work in the garden yesterday or went for a long walk, it may well continue to drop your levels a bit today. This is why you should never take one set of readings at face value and make a decision based on them but look at trends. So if you get a high reading from one particular food on one occasion, don't rule it out there and then but try it again some other time. If it still gives you a spike in BG then discard it from your menu or reduce the portion size next time and test it a couple of times again. Nothing is clear cut with diabetes. You don't get 1+1=2 every time. Some days 1+1= 2.6 or 1.5 because the body is a biological system. It isn't precise, it is messy. What you need to look out for is when 1+1 gives you something that is way out of range of what you would expect like 4.7
Not sure if that makes sense, but you have to accept that the readings give you an idea of how you are responding to that food but there are often other lesser things affecting that reading in the background too, so you won't get exactly the same results from the same food 2 days in a row.
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Thank you I appreciate your knowledge and time given here. All of that makes sense and I just got in a panic with the hba1c result and getting numbers down but am glad they're not worryingly high at the moment and I'm
making effort to get back it under better control.
 
jacki11 said:
My Hba1c was 62 which converts to 10.1 according to a chart I found online. (I wish they gave me results in the same format as my monitor)which worried me as an average over 3 months, if I'm getting 7/8 daily now thats a relief as the next hba1c will be lower. Lesson learned for me as I'd stopped testing and got a shock.
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The reason they are not in the same units is they are measuring something different and the relationship between the two is that the higher your readings from your monitor are the more likely you will have a higher HbA1C and visa versa.
Keeping before meal readings between 4-7mmol/l and 2 hour post meal readings below 8mmol/l consistently over a period of months that is likely to give you a normal HbA1C (that is below 42mmol/mol).
 
I'm aiming for that. Thank you so much for your input here. I really appreciate it.
 
jacki11 said:
My Hba1c was 62 which converts to 10.1 according to a chart I found online. (I wish they gave me results in the same format as my monitor)which worried me as an average over 3 months, if I'm getting 7/8 daily now thats a relief as the next hba1c will be lower. Lesson learned for me as I'd stopped testing and got a shock.
Click to expand...
The 62 mmol/mol converts to 10.1%, not 10.1mmol/L. The 10.1% is still your HbA1c, not an equivalent to a fingerprick. The HbA1c used to be measured in the % units in this country, so some of those diagnosed a long time ago may be more comfortable with the %, and it is still used in some countries, eg the USA.
 
silentsquirrel said:
The 62 mmol/mol converts to 10.1%, not 10.1mmol/L. The 10.1% is still your HbA1c, not an equivalent to a fingerprick. The HbA1c used to be measured in the % units in this country, so some of those diagnosed a long time ago may be more comfortable with the %, and it is still used in some countries, eg the USA.
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Oh I hadn't understood that at all. I had a 10 and 9. 8's on the monitor just after the results so that's likely added to my confusion. I'm now, 2 weeks later getting nearer to the 7 before eating and nearer under 8.5 after. My monitor is set to those numbers and I find it easier to relate to. I'm fed up with myself for not testing this past year as I'd had good results previously. I'll not do that again.
 
There has been an immense amount of stress and health problems that have scuppered much exercise and probably portion control not as it should have been. No point kicking myself now for not testing but I'll be doing it from now on.
 
jacki11 said:
Ah right. I had the same breakfast yesterday but with Chia seeds added and went from 8.3 before eating down to 7.6, this morning same breakfast just mo chia seeds and 7.7 before eating up to 8.7 2 hrs later. As I take metformin with breakfast and main meal I'm now having chia seeds with lunches as no metformin then as I wondered if my BS went down yesterday after eating because I'd had both with breakfast.
Click to expand...
The walk likely made the difference. And a sample of two days isn’t really convincing it was the food or the walk. Maybe you slept better yesterday, maybe you were a bit more stressed today Etc etc

The Metformin doesn’t act instantly or against the food you ate. Just as an overall help in the background, mostly by limiting the extra glucose the liver might add.
 
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