does anyone spike from coffee? does anyone spike from decaf?
i love my morning or early afternoon caffein. but, i have found that whatever i try, i cannot escape the spike; even with decaf. has anyone found a solution to this dilemma? i have been going without for a couple of years now, but the only caffein that i can get away with, morning or night, is caffein from diet pepsi and other sodas. they don’t seem to have any effect on my BGs at all. i don’t get it. makes no sense b/c there is no consistency. is it the caffein that is effecting me, or the coffee itself? i have even tried giving myself a bolus to help the BG rise from happening. this has not worked either.
please help. all suggestions welcome; any explanations are also very much appreciated.
well yes, I am thinking it is not the caffeine but has to be something, maybe the ground bean, some of that has to get through a filter and must have some unmeasurable CH value. I am the same way, diet coke/pepsi = free food, coffee 1-1.5 unit of insulin required.
Oh my… that must be awful!! I have GOT to have my coffee!! I do not see any noticeable spikes from coffee - and certainly not decaf (which I avoid, as it’s just a waste of time for me! ). I have no ideas how to help… maybe you need to try a little at a time and re-build up tolerance? (I drink POTS at a time, but I’ve been doing that for years!)
If I drink coffee without eating, it causes a spike. I can have a cup of coffee with breakfast and it doesn’t cause a problem. I have also noticed that diet coke zero does not affect my blood sugar. During the day I either drink water or decaf green tea. I used to drink very strong hot black teas, but that is a problem for me, so I gave that up. I can’t understand why coffee alone would cause a problem, but not with food. The only thing I know for sure about me and my unkind friend, diabetes, is that nothing seems to make any sense, and it changes day to day, hour to hour.
I do not have to bolus for coffee. Perhaps because I have been drinking so much of it for so long, I barely see any impact – unless I STOP drinking it for a couple days – then you do NOT want to be near me!!
Do you put cream in your coffee? Cream has just a small amount of carbs. So if you are putting it into your coffee, that would bump you up a bit.
Part of the reason could also just be your body reacting to the elevated heart rate the caffeine from coffee gives you. Your body senses a bit of a faster HR from the coffee, and thinks you need fuel for that, so your liver would release a bit of glycogen to fuel it.
You might not notice that with a diet pepsi or diet coke, because the amount of caffeine in coffee is much more than in a diet soda (2 - 4 times more!)
Also, this can affect you more if you are a bit higher. At something like 80 you might not notice it, but at 120 you’d see it even more pronounced.
Perhaps try a bit larger bolus, or a bit sooner. You can make it not rise!
i dont get what you mean here.[quote=“Eric2, post:7, topic:59502”]
Perhaps try a bit larger bolus, or a bit sooner. You can make it not rise!
[/quote]
i think i will give this a whirl. and btw, i had a great swim this afternoon! loving those Ucan bars
I’m sure there is a reason. I can’t explain it well. There are other people that can answer that better than I can.
It’s kind of like how your correction factor isn’t always the same. Higher BGs need more insulin per mg/dL than lower. For example, if your correction factor is one unit for 50 mg/dL when you are at 150, you might need one unit for every 40 mg/dL when you are at 250.
EDIT:
Here is another explanation (sort of). As an example, suppose your BG was 60 and you ate a cookie. That cookie might make your BG go up 20 points, to 80. But if your blood sugar was 180 and you ate that same cookie, you might see your BG go up 40 points! Have you ever noticed anything like that?
Many people think that insulin and carbs always affect you the same, but they don’t. It depends on your current BG, your activity, how active you were the previous day. Many different things.
one thing i have noticed is that if i am above 250, i will give myself a shot, and then w/in 1 hour, my BGs have come down significantly, unlike if i use my pump to correct a high. and i dont shoot into the muscle, i shoot just into the belly sub-q. maybe b/c there is no scar tissue where i take my shot; i dont know. all i know is that it is very effective, very efficient and reliable. and my general correction factor is 1 unit per 50 points. (and i say “general” b/c, as you have said, at different times of day, my correction factor varies a bit; not much, but a bit)
What type of infusion length do you use for your pump, and what length needle do you use for injections? Maybe because your needles are longer it is faster? The needles I use are either 8 mm or 13 mm (every once-in-a-while, I get crazy with a 25 mm!).
my infusion needles for my pump are 13mm but i dont push them all the way in; i am just too skinny. my injection needels are the shortest ones made, i think ; they are 6mm. they just slide right in. during all of my 30+ years, i have never hit a nerve or a cappilary with one. i cannot say the same for my pump infusion needle (ugh).
I, like Thas, never have a problem with just black coffee. I have a 32 oz iced coffe five days a week with no problems. But this is one of those items that has very mixed results. A longer delay on the pre-bolus might be the best way to go. I would be very unhappy without my coffee. Hope you find the answer!
I gave up real coffee for decaf because of the spikes I get from caffeine. I do love my morning coffee though. Just holding that warm mug in the morning is comforting.
). I have no ideas how to help… maybe you need to try a little at a time and re-build up tolerance? (I drink POTS at a time, but I’ve been doing that for years!)
