Spikes - are they always bad?

[RJN123]

A few weeks in on my T2 journey. Did fingerpricking for 2 weeks, and now got myself a Libre 2 trial, so I can get my head around what I respond to, what I can eat safely and what do avoid.

I am uncertain about how to read spikes. While fingerpricking, my blood sugar before and 2h after eating was mostly fine (around 8-9 which is within my target range). But with Libre, I see these terrifying spikes of up to 12-14 in the hours after eating. With one exception, they come down to target within an hour or two. Should I aim for no spikes at all, or is the objective just to have it come down within 2 hours. I couldn’t really find a straight answer online. My night blood sugar is very stable around 5-6. Thank you!

 

[harbottle]

Are you saying that the Libre is showing different results to finger pricks?
I saw that as well when I used Libres, they would show 8 when a fingerpick was 5. And the variation was different based on how long I'd had it in - they tended to vary a lot more in the 2nd week.

 

[RJN123]

Sorry if that wasn’t clear, but no - fingerpricking and Libre are fairly overlapping. But with Libre I can see what happens in the hour after I eat, and throughout the day, so my question is should I be concerned about spikes in general, or only those that exceed 2 hours after eating?

 

[harbottle]

I see what you mean!

Well the guidelines are for it to be less than 8.5 2 hours after eating and between 2-3 higher than the base level.

A brief rise into double figures can happen to non-diabetics.

 

[RJN123]

Thanks, That’s what I was hoping. I had a big wobble yesterday when virtual everything I put in my mouth caused spikes for about an hour….

 

[Bruce Stephens]

But with Libre, I see these terrifying spikes of up to 12-14 in the hours after eating.

Those shouldn't be terrifying! People without diabetes can get those, too. Libre (and everything else we have access to) aren't that great outside the "normal" range so it's worth taking those numbers with a pinch of salt anyway.

I think it's plausible that changing one's eating habits to reduce the spikes (change what you eat and the order (maybe have fat and protein first, etc.) and speed of eating) might be beneficial (I think that's part of what Zoe is encouraging), but it feels like a hypothesis rather than anything established. And it's probably not that big a thing compared to getting to >70% time in range (which allows spikes).

 

[RJN123]

Thanks Bruce. I got the Libre to be able to do that (tweak etc), so will see how that goes. I am keeping an eye on TIR, and it is comfortably in the 80s.

 

[harbottle]

Some websites, especially US based ones, seem to think all non diabetics eat a pizza and end up at 5.0 two hours later and never go above 7.8. I know someone (T1) who tested friends (Non-D) and they were all around 6.0-7.0. And people without diabetes have used CGMs to see what happens when they eat things like MacDonalds - double figure spikes, and I recall in one case there was another spike shortly afterwards. (I saw this quite often when I wore a CGM myself.)