[1003hjf]

I am new here- 1 week. I have one more day of taking my readings for my dr. Everything seems to be pretty good--am fastings all between 87-95. BUT my question is how important are the 1 hour readings? For example, late this afternoon I had 2 medium brownies and 1/2 cup of milk--the 1 hr was 186 and the 2 hour was 126. Tonight for dinner I had 1/2 ofa chicken breast, pasta, 6 fries and 2 pieces of choc candy. 1 hour reading was 162 and the 2 hour was 93.

I would truly apprecaite any feedback, suggestions and/or advice.

 

[Shanny]

I am new here- 1 week. I have one more day of taking my readings for my dr. Everything seems to be pretty good--am fastings all between 87-95. BUT my question is how important are the 1 hour readings? For example, late this afternoon I had 2 medium brownies and 1/2 cup of milk--the 1 hr was 186 and the 2 hour was 126. Tonight for dinner I had 1/2 ofa chicken breast, pasta, 6 fries and 2 pieces of choc candy. 1 hour reading was 162 and the 2 hour was 93.

I would truly apprecaite any feedback, suggestions and/or advice.

Your fastings are BEAUTIFUL! I wish mine looked so good!

The 1-hour readings show how much of a spike you get from certain foods. Relative to your milk/brownies snack: the milk contains lactose which is a carbohydrate and often causes spikes for people with diabetes. If the brownies were made with white flour and refined sugar, those are also carbohydrates (and fast-acting ones!) so they will cause a spike as well.

Your dinner choices were better, but the pasta, fries and chocolates are all fast-acting carbohydrates, and many people with diabetes avoid eating them very much or very often.

For me personally, I don't like my readings to be above 130, and absolutely not above 140. Studies have shown that our bodies begin to suffer damage when our glucose levels go above 140 very often or for very long.

I'm not telling you this to scare you, because your readings seem to indicate that you're in the very early stages of diabetes, but the ultimate complications of diabetes include kidney failure, blindness and loss of extremities like toes/feet/legs. You have a chance to take control of your disorder right now (without waiting on your doctor to make up his mind) by simply eliminating high fast-acting carbs from your diet. Try to avoid or at least greatly reduce the "white" foods you eat. These include potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, and anything else made with white flour and/or white sugar.

Proteins and fats are good for maintaining low blood glucose - you can eat all you want of eggs, cheese, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, green leafy veggies, etc.

Again - I'm not saying this to scare you - don't panic - but do take this seriously. It would be good if your doc would order an HBA1c (commonly referred to as A1c) test, which would show a 90-day average of the accumulation of glucose to your hemoglobin cells. This test, along with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) would give you a little more definitive information you need to begin taking care of this. If he doesn't offer to order these tests, you may need to prompt him, or you many even need to look around for a sescond opinion. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it IS a big deal, and your doc shouldn't just blow it off.

 

[1003hjf]

Your fastings are BEAUTIFUL! I wish mine looked so good!

The 1-hour readings show how much of a spike you get from certain foods. Relative to your milk/brownies snack: the milk contains lactose which is a carbohydrate and often causes spikes for people with diabetes. If the brownies were made with white flour and refined sugar, those are also carbohydrates (and fast-acting ones!) so they will cause a spike as well.

Your dinner choices were better, but the pasta, fries and chocolates are all fast-acting carbohydrates, and many people with diabetes avoid eating them very much or very often.

For me personally, I don't like my readings to be above 130, and absolutely not above 140. Studies have shown that our bodies begin to suffer damage when our glucose levels go above 140 very often or for very long.

I'm not telling you this to scare you, because your readings seem to indicate that you're in the very early stages of diabetes, but the ultimate complications of diabetes include kidney failure, blindness and loss of extremities like toes/feet/legs. You have a chance to take control of your disorder right now (without waiting on your doctor to make up his mind) by simply eliminating high fast-acting carbs from your diet. Try to avoid or at least greatly reduce the "white" foods you eat. These include potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, and anything else made with white flour and/or white sugar.

Proteins and fats are good for maintaining low blood glucose - you can eat all you want of eggs, cheese, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, green leafy veggies, etc.

Again - I'm not saying this to scare you - don't panic - but do take this seriously. It would be good if your doc would order an HBA1c (commonly referred to as A1c) test, which would show a 90-day average of the accumulation of glucose to your hemoglobin cells. This test, along with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) would give you a little more definitive information you need to begin taking care of this. If he doesn't offer to order these tests, you may need to prompt him, or you many even need to look around for a sescond opinion. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it IS a big deal, and your doc shouldn't just blow it off.

Hi Shanny. Thank you so much for all of your guidance and support. I am defintely taking this seriously as I have 2 little children. I had gestaional diabetes with both babies so know I need to be on alert. I have 15-20 lbs to lose. My last 2 a1c (last one was3 weeks ago) were both 6.0. HOWEVER--I have been on metroformin( for 3 years) for insulin resistance while these 2 were taken. My new Dr. took me off metroformin last week to get a look at "real" bs readings. It would be interesting to know what those a1cs would have been if I had not been taking metroformin. Also just to scare me more I had a bowl of cereal last night and my 1 hr reading was 204 and 2 hour 171. I was shocked and scared.

 

[Shanny]

Cereal is another of the ones which can really "bite"! I can't even have oatmeal, which I LOVE, although there are many diabetics who do tolerate it.

I can sorta see your new doc's point in wanting to find out your baseline - I just wonder what he has in mind for step two. Is he the doc who ordered the most recent A1c? Just keep us posted - this interests me!

I finally sat down this afternoon & watched the entire lecture "Sugar: the Bitter Truth". It sheds a lot of light on the food options available to us. Not like I think you have TIME for viewing this, with two babies, but just let me say - read the labels and avoid eating anything containing fructose of any kind (like high fructose corn syrup, which seems to be added to everything bloomin' thing anymore!)

Metformin has worked well for me, and it helps with weight loss as well as insulin resistance. If you tolerate it well, it seems a good choice for you.

 

[1003hjf]

Cereal is another of the ones which can really "bite"! I can't even have oatmeal, which I LOVE, although there are many diabetics who do tolerate it.

I can sorta see your new doc's point in wanting to find out your baseline - I just wonder what he has in mind for step two. Is he the doc who ordered the most recent A1c? Just keep us posted - this interests me!

I finally sat down this afternoon & watched the entire lecture "Sugar: the Bitter Truth". It sheds a lot of light on the food options available to us. Not like I think you have TIME for viewing this, with two babies, but just let me say - read the labels and avoid eating anything containing fructose of any kind (like high fructose corn syrup, which seems to be added to everything bloomin' thing anymore!)

Metformin has worked well for me, and it helps with weight loss as well as insulin resistance. If you tolerate it well, it seems a good choice for you.

Hi Shanny. I am so grateful for your replies. I just counted up all the readings above 130 for the last 7 days: 16 above 130 at the 1 hr readings and 4 above 130 for the 2 hour readings. Thoughts? Do you consider 6.0 non-diabetic or diabetic? Thx. Also work full time and hubby out of a job so stressful these days !

 

[sloan]

For me personally, I don't like my readings to be above 130, and absolutely not above 140. Studies have shown that our bodies begin to suffer damage when our glucose levels go above 140 very often or for very long.

I'm not telling you this to scare you, because your readings seem to indicate that you're in the very early stages of diabetes, but the ultimate complications of diabetes include kidney failure, blindness and loss of extremities like toes/feet/legs. You have a chance to take control of your disorder right now (without waiting on your doctor to make up his mind) by simply eliminating high fast-acting carbs from your diet. Try to avoid or at least greatly reduce the "white" foods you eat. These include potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, and anything else made with white flour and/or white sugar.

The vast majority of damage done from being above 140 is not irreparable so long as you do not stay high for a long time. Bodies are pretty amazing at repairing themselves. Also, always keeping your blood sugar below 130 or 140 as a diabetic is of course ideal, but highly unlikely and perhaps too high of a standard to set. Why? well because you will often not meet this goal even if you have all your rates down and count carbs perfectly. At least that is the case for me.
But anyway I just thought it was important to clarify the above because it is very easy to get depressed as a diabetic every time your blood sugar gets out of whack due to the thoughts of how your body is being harmed.

 

[Shanny]

Hi Shanny. I am so grateful for your replies. I just counted up all the readings above 130 for the last 7 days: 16 above 130 at the 1 hr readings and 4 above 130 for the 2 hour readings. Thoughts? Do you consider 6.0 non-diabetic or diabetic? Thx. Also work full time and hubby out of a job so stressful these days !

Not sure what the "official" A1c cutoff is - 6.0 might be a little high, but not by much. You're doing a terrific job of maintaining your levels, young lady!

Sloan makes a good point that we don't want to spend our days fixated on staying below 140. But for patients who aren't on insulin, the juggling act becomes a little more difficult, because if we go high, we can't always get back down quickly. The higher we go and the longer we stay there, the higher the risk of developing problems with vision, kidneys, etc.