When to raise blood sugar?

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digihat

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Just wondered at what point you all feel it's best to raise blood sugar. I have my alarm set at 4.2 which works pretty well for me. I do take into account what I'm doing at the moment such as if going out currently walking etc and when next meal along with trend of arrow. I know this will be very individual to each person just curious what everyone does 🙂
 
I usually try to stay above 5 but sometimes I’m happy to be in the higher half of the fours. Obviously if I’m 4.4 with an up arrow and about to sit down and do nothing, I might leave it, but generally I like to bump it up a tiny bit.
 
digihat said:
Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Just wondered at what point you all feel it's best to raise blood sugar. I have my alarm set at 4.2 which works pretty well for me. I do take into account what I'm doing at the moment such as if going out currently walking etc and when next meal along with trend of arrow. I know this will be very individual to each person just curious what everyone does 🙂
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My way of doing it is not dissimilar to yours. I bear in mind what bolus insulin is currently on board & the trend arrow. The only time I’d nudge up past the 5 would be if I had to drive. Or get hands on with something needing a bit of physicality?
 
It all depends for me.
Like @Satan’s little helper I aim above 5 for driving.
Like @Inka I aim a bit higher when starting cardio exercise but I "use" resistance exercise to achieve this and am happy to start climbing, for example, in the 4s.

But it also depends upon active bolus insulin on board and how long ago I last ate. This can be a bit of a challenge because I am a grazer. But if I ate 30 minutes ago, my BG is 4.5 and the trend arrow is flat, I leave it as it is. Whereas, if I ate 3 hours ago and my BG is 4.5 and flat, I would notch it up with a Lift tablet.
I try to be above 5 before bed and I know others aim higher.
 
helli said:
It all depends for me.
Like @Satan’s little helper I aim above 5 for driving.
Like @Inka I aim a bit higher when starting cardio exercise but I "use" resistance exercise to achieve this and am happy to start climbing, for example, in the 4s.

But it also depends upon active bolus insulin on board and how long ago I last ate. This can be a bit of a challenge because I am a grazer. But if I ate 30 minutes ago, my BG is 4.5 and the trend arrow is flat, I leave it as it is. Whereas, if I ate 3 hours ago and my BG is 4.5 and flat, I would notch it up with a Lift tablet.
I try to be above 5 before bed and I know others aim higher.
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hope you dont mind me asking what is a lift tablet ? I am T2 but insulin dependent only one dose of Lantus per day, I have reciently had lower BS levels and if i go into the mid 4 s i start to feel bad, what i am doing is just having one JB if it get low and it seams to bring it up one point.
 
Pam123 said:
hope you dont mind me asking what is a lift tablet ? I am T2 but insulin dependent only one dose of Lantus per day, I have reciently had lower BS levels and if i go into the mid 4 s i start to feel bad, what i am doing is just having one JB if it get low and it seams to bring it up one point.
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Of course I don't mind you asking.
Lift is an alternative to Dextrose or jelly babies or fruit juice to treat hypos. They used to be called GlucoTabs.
I prefer Lift because I am vegetarian so need to be careful with jellies, I have found it easier to take something that is more obviously medicine than sweets because no one thinks I am being rude not sharing or would take my stash, Lift comes in plastic tubes or tubs which last longer than the paper wrapping around Dextrose.
About 8 years ago, I bought a few tubes. Now I buy the bigger tubs in bulk from eBay and refill the tubes to keep in my handbag, sports bag, workbag, etc.
This is their website: https://liftglucose.com/pages/fast-acting-glucose

But if JB works for you, there is no need to change.
 
I think a clue to answering your question is that I try to set "Alerts" not Alarms. At 4.2 I'm far too close to going hypo and it would be extremely lucky if I could take preventative action from 4.2 to stop myself going hypo. I have NHS funded CGM to prevent most hypos and happily that has become a rare event these days.
 
My alert/alarm is set at 5 which gives plenty of warning to avoid most hypo effects. Sometimes I can tell I am going low before alarm sounds so good to know hypo awareness intact
 
I found raising my low alarm to 5 was counter productive for me because I don't always want to be topping carbs up at 5 and of course if I didn't eat carbs and I continued to drop, I didn't get any further alarms with Libre, so if I got distracted and didn't keep a close eye on things, I might end up hypo anyway. Also, I sleep best about 5, so don't want alarms going off when I am having my best sleep.
I used to have my low alarm set at 4.2 but have raised it to 4.5 in recent months. I am not sure that is working better for me as I am having more hypos, although that may be related to other medication (Amitriptyline), so I may yet go back to 4.2.
 
I look at my 5 alert @rebrascora and decide what to do, based on the arrow and when I’ve eaten and what I’m about to do. I find setting it to 4.8 works very well on my G7. On the Libre, I had it set at 5.6.
 
Inka said:
I look at my 5 alert @rebrascora and decide what to do, based on the arrow and when I’ve eaten and what I’m about to do. I find setting it to 4.8 works very well on my G7. On the Libre, I had it set at 5.6.
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Yes mine is 4.8, (libre) and then I decide what action is needed based on the arrow. I normally just turn off my pump and then check again in a few minutes and it’s either stable or still dropping
 
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