i was prediabetic before going lower carb and i don't take medication/insulin now. if i eat late at night, my blood sugar upon going to bed will not seem to move at all- it will be the same when i wake up. so if i got to bed at 106, it will be around 104-107 when i wake up. i always thought since i still have insulin production that it would go down. i am active at least walking fro 40 minutes every day, and have fairly good muscle tone. why does my blood sugar seem not to move at all during the night, or is it impossible to know what my bg is doing at night unless i take readings in the middle of the night? thanks.
These points of measurement are just too low-resolution to really tell what's going on. Information like when you ate, how long after eating you tested the bedtime reading, how much carb/fat/protein was in your snack, etc... all of this is important to analyzing the situation.
That said, for a person "pre-diabetic" the numbers you cite above are neither worrisome, nor odd, given the context. What is probably happening is your BG is peaking some time after you go to bed from digesting the snack, then gradually dropping back down.
Also, what is your typical fasting BG? That is, your BG after not eating for 3-4 hours? Due to something called "Dawn Phenomena" that some people experience, your waking BG is not reliable as a "fasting" measurement.
Rather, eat a modest breakfast at 6-8am, then don't eat again until lunch around 12:30-1:00pm. Check your BG right before lunch. Repeat this 2-3 times over a "test week".
The number should be pretty consistent -- within +/- 10-15 mg/dl -- and is your body's "set point" for fasting BG. I'll bet it's between 90-110 :-)
Oh, I'd also add that since you're taking no meds to treat this, I'd cut out the bedtime snack / late eating unless you really really need to. A true fast overnight is far better for you as a pre-diabetic.
It seems to me your blood sugar is probably pretty flat all night. If you are eating then clearly your pancreas is taking care of whatever you've eaten.
If you had no insulin production and ate a snack before bed with no bolus you would go to bed at 100 and wake up at 300 many hours later (has happened to me when eating and forgetting to bolus before bed).
If you had no insulin production and didn't have basal coverage, then even without eating you would go to bed at 100 and wake up at 450 (has happened to me when my pump has run out of insulin for five hours - not even the entire night).
OK, thanks. i will measure right before lunch, as you advised. my bg is almost never in the 80s, which is supposed to be healthier,no? one day i only had two small salads with a little chicken and some peanuts later on as a snack. this is much less than what i usually eat, but i wanted to see what my blood sugar would do and it stayed 95 pretty much the whole time. how can i get that magic 85? maybe 95 is like my set point now and i will need a while of eating less and doing more exercise to get 85? i am very motivated and have already cut out all grains, milk, and almost all processed food since 2009. my quality of life is more tied to my level of energy and alertness rather than food and occasions revolving around traditional food, so i don't mind cutting out stuff everyone else eats. my energy/concentration/memory have been going down a little since i hit 49, so i'm ready to look into new strategies.
PS i know glucometers can be off +/- 15 points, but i am also starting to put on more stomach fat which is the dangerous kind, so i am looking to up my game in terms of diet and exercise. i get occasional hot flashes which wreck my sleep, but i don't want to go on any time of hormones at this point, so i deal with that with the occasional 1/2 benadryl tablet.thanks, jen. i had no idea and i need to learn. how did you feel at 450? i remember when my mom was getting chemo. she was insulin dependent. the steroids she took made her bg shoot up so high, her meter had no number , it just said 'hi'. she told me she really didn't feel any different.
If my meter always read 106, I would be pretty sure that the "display sticker" was still stuck on the meter :-). Or maybe I was just looking at the cardboard box the meter came in. Seriously, that's the number that's almost always in the advertisements. They never show any actually interesting numbers like 529 or 31.
The weird thing is that I feel worse with mild highs than I do with extreme ones. Today I was 389 after breakfast and 403 after lunch (I think I'm having issues with insulin or my infusion set - an injection brought the first high down, still waiting on the second) and I feel a bit dehydrated but otherwise not all that bad, to be honest. I've had readings of HI before as well (which means over 600) and have felt pretty decent. Yet if I'm 250 or 300 I'll often feel totally wiped out and exhausted. Not sure why that is.
Having said that, obviously anything over 200 is never a good thing, so it doesn't really matter if you feel bad or not, you should still get it down. :)
thanks for the replies. i am learning :)
Don't focus on 85. 85 is not, as far as we can tell from the stats, any "safer" than 100.
As I said in my earlier post, 90-110 is a good range to shoot for. You're already there, so that's why I said your numbers were nothing to worry about.
Far more meaningful would be your 1, 2, and 3 hour postprandial (after eating) number, especially with a "typical" carb meal. Like whole sandwich, potato chips, piece of fruit. Or a spaghetti dinner. Or two slices of pizza.
That's a fairly "typical" carb load for a non-diabetic meal. If you're not going over 168-180 at 1-2 hours after your first bite, and getting back down under 110 3+ hours postprandial, I'd do nothing more than continue to treat with diet (low carb) and exercise, and test regularly -- maybe once a day before lunch -- to monitor fasting levels. If that consistently stays under 110, you could back off to testing twice a week.
However, given your metabolic situation, I would adopt a strategy of ALWAYS testing 3hr postprandial after a nutritional exception -- i.e. a party, celebratory meal out, etc. Again, just to keep tabs on how your system is handling carbs.
Keep a log too, BTW.
This will allow you to spot trends, changes, etc.
Diabetics like us are a doctor's dream (and bane, all at the same time :-))
Want to repeat one more time just so it doesn't get missed: 85 is not a magic number. Do not kill yourself trying to get there. You're just as healthy, as far as medical science can tell, sitting at 100. So relax, and feel good about 106. With the error bars for a meter, that could easily be 90 (or 120, but we're looking at a half full glass, right? :-))
When you start consistent sitting over 140, fasting, then we've got trouble a-brewing.
That is a perfect number to be at all night. Be happy that you're not spiking from DP or dropping hypo.
the concern with prediabetes is heart disease. at what A1c does that become a concern?
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046669.php
i read this a while ago. it's important reading for prediabetics or people who have normal blood sugar but have a family history of diabetes. it pays to be vigilant. i was telling my sister years ago not to just depend on a fasting value- she needed to test after meals. she always had a fasting in the 80s. she just called to tell me she got her first A1c. it was 6.2. so i will continue to be vigilant, be thankful for my current good health, and learn all i can while continuing to exercise, eat low carb, and monitor my bg.