Spikes

[kathy s]

Can I just clarify what constitutes a spike ( links to official advice that I can show the nurse would be good!)
So I've always thought that if I prick my finger for a reading as I eat and 2 hours after I'm looking for an increase of less than 2 e.g 4.6 rising to 6.6 or below. Anything above this is a spike? My reading are different before each meal depending on my day so this is what I've been looking at. Yesterday, I saw the nurse as I'm struggling to mentally cope with this. She told me that blood sugar is meant to go up after eating and a reading of 11 or 12 is OK!! So really she wasn't much help. She also wanted to know if I was eating low fat and I said no full fat as im low carbs! So what is a spike?

 

[Leadinglights]

Can I just clarify what constitutes a spike ( links to official advice that I can show the nurse would be good!)
So I've always thought that if I prick my finger for a reading as I eat and 2 hours after I'm looking for an increase of less than 2 e.g 4.6 rising to 6.6 or below. Anything above this is a spike? My reading are different before each meal depending on my day so this is what I've been looking at. Yesterday, I saw the nurse as I'm struggling to mentally cope with this. She told me that blood sugar is meant to go up after eating and a reading of 11 or 12 is OK!! So really she wasn't much help. She also wanted to know if I was eating low fat and I said no full fat as im low carbs! So what is a spike?

For Type 2 the ranges people aim for is 4-7 mmol/l before meals and 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal. So if you were to test at say 1hour then you might expect it to be higher.
If levels are still high people use the criteria that a meal increase should be no more than 2-3mmol/l.
That allows you to modify your meal to reduce carbs.
The more consistently your reading are within those ranges over the period between tests (HbA1c) then the more likely your HbA1c will be in normal range

 

[Inka]

A spike is just that - a spike on a continuous glucose graph, real or imaginary. Yes, blood glucose is supposed to go up after a meal, but the question is how high is it going and how long is it staying there?

If your pre-meal reading was 4.6 and you went up to 2-3mmol above that at the 2hr mark, that would be ok. I think your ‘under 2 mmol’ is unnecessarily strict. 2 to 3mmol is more realistic. I’ve often tested non-diabetic friends’ blood sugar and they go up around 3mmol for a normal meal. After large meals, people without diabetes can occasionally go up to the 9s and 10s.