Does anyone have any ideas on why my coffee would make my sugar go up? I tested it when I got up, and it was 70, about 1.5 hours later it was 170! Now that is a big diffrence. I drink it with Splenda and Sugarfree Hazelnut Creamer. Any advice?
Hey there! Mine does the same thing. I use a bit of Splenda and a splash of fat free milk and it can raise mine as much as 50 points. I get up and check my sugar then do a 50% bolus for 20-25 carbs (I know it seems a lot!) and then extend for an hour or so. This actually keeps me down until I eat breakfast! Good luck!
Coffe has a funny effect on people in a different way. I drink two cups every morning with cream. My sugaro goes up 30 -40 points at most and I adjust my bolus accordingly. Others it spikes 80 - 100 points. Depends on your metabolism and other related issues such as stress, current BS and so forth
I used to have to do the same routine. It seemed as though Splenda was making my bs rise. So I recently asked my endo the same question.
He then had me track my fasting basil rate (I’m a pumper). Turns out I needed to adjust my basil rate (from 1.0 units/hr to 1.2 units/hr) right when I woke up until about 10am. Now I no longer bolus for coffee, no matter how many cups I drink.
I really glad I read these comments about coffee. I drink coffee every morning and I bolus for the milk in the coffee but I sugar goes up & up then I take a correction bolus. I am going to up my basil rate like Jimmy did and see how that works. I am not about to give up my coffee!
I really don’t think it is coffee raising bloodsugars as my bloodsugar spikes every morning after I awake and I have to bolus about a unit. I have not raised my basals as my wake up time varies.
I think it is the dawn phenomenon versus coffee causing the bloodsugar rise.
I read about a study . They thought that it was the caffiene that caused the BG to spike. I started drinking decaffienated. It just isn’t the same. The caffiene is what I drink it for! I have read other studies that were pushing coffee to keep from being diagnosed . Once you are there , it just doesn’t help. It did help me when I cut out the caffiene. Now , I just have real difficulty waking up in the morning. Oh well , the things that you have to cut out. I also read something in an alternative medicene site where they were pushing the raw coffee beans. I think that they called them coffee berries. They claimed that the roasting of the beans destroyed a major portion of the anti-oxidant effects of the coffee. I wonder if there is anything to this.
Personally, I drink a lot of coffee and it generally makes me go low. My theory is that it’s because I have more energy and exercise more which drops my blood sugar. Honestly though I have no idea. Maybe it is just the dawn phenomenon though. Perhaps you could try doing the same test without drinking any coffee and see if you still go up.
Dehydration. W/ less water in your blood stream, there is relatively more sugar. Plus, the sugarfree hazelnut creamer has some carbs. (That’s my favorite flavor, too!) Plus, you’re probably drinking it in the morning, when higher sugars are common.
I have found that Splenda and creamer (sugar free or sugar included - doesn’t matter) will raise my blood sugar. I don’t really think it is caffeine related, because I personally am a caffeine addict and have never had diet soda (without splenda) raise my blood sugar in any way. I mean, it could vary from person to person, mind you. Maybe try drinking a cup of straight coffee one morning and see if the coffee alone takes your blood sugar up? 
Not a tasty test but it would give you a better idea of what is causing the spikes.
I thought it was just me. But milk (even skim, even in small doses) tends to make my blood sugars spike, so I attribute it to that. I switch on an off between Equal and Splenda, and I still get the same affect. So for me, I think it’s the milk. (Oh, and I love lattes, but those are basically a cup of milk with a shot of espresso, so I’m realizing I need to take an extra unit or two of Humalog to control my blood sugars after that.)
I’ve heard that coffee causes the release of stress hormones (i.e. adrenaline and glucagon) that cause your liver to dump glucose into your blood stream. So that might explain why you’re seeing such a jump even going sugar free.
I always have to take a big bolus for coffee, but mostly because I like it with a lot of cream and sugar
Thank you for all the input. My sugars has actually been doing pretty good now. I did switch to black, for a while, and then to just powder, and played around but now I am back to my sugarfree Hazelnut I am down some mornings to the 70’s or 80’s, so maybe it was just stress
Thanks once again…
Hi Mareze:
Ain’t Diabetes a Kick? 
I was wondering if you test your sugar and take your Insulin as soon as you get up? I was also wondering what your sugars are like when you first test?
I’m not sure of your situation of course, since I don’t know your answers but I agree with Flo that it might be dawn phenomenon(DP).
I had a bit of an “agree to differ” situation on what PD was with someone on another site quite some time ago. He has what the majority have, waking up with high numbers. I(and both my Brothers, gone now)have what I call “delayed DP”. I wake up with normal numbers (unless occasionally I’ve been bad the evening before ). We used to think it was the coffee.
When I stopped drinking anything after I got up, I noticed my sugars still doubled quickly. Along with not eating or drinking anything, I tried the treadmill for 20 minutes and other exercises. My sugars still at least doubled. I then just sat around after I got up, ate and drank nothing and checked my sugars every 10 minutes. Almost like clock-work, I could watch my sugars start climbing fast between 30 and 40 minutes every morning.
I asked my Endo about this “delayed PD”. He said it is not “delayed PD” just PD. With some Diabetics it starts before they awaken, with us in the minority it starts about 30 minutes after
we awaken.
I sure am Glad that Great People like Manny have created these Forums or I’d never know that there are all these differences among Diabetics. Plus I’ve learned quite a few things for my own benefit that none of my Doctors had mentioned(I guess they thought I knew everything…NOT).
When I first got on the Forums in 2002, I thought that all these Diabetics waking up with high blood sugars were fibbing a bit or eating too much stuff in the evening. I now know the truth, in most cases.
I’m sorry this is so long Mareze. :o)
HELLO I ALSO HAVE THAT PROBLEM AND THINK ITS THE SUGAR FREE HAZELNUT CREAMER
Thanks all for the interesting discussion.
Wondering if anyone has experienced spikes from caffeine in tea?
Milk in any form sends me high. I now use heavy cream & no more problems. Less lactose in cream, hence less carbs.
I’ve noticed what Terrie’s endo stated. I have DP & bad. If it’s not high when I wake up (though it usually is), it is shortly thereafter. I have to inject basal & rapid acting immediately upon waking & eat right away.
I’ve read several places that Type 1s should never do strenuous exercise in the morning. Walking, light exercise is ok, but no real work-outs.
Do you know why diabetics aren’t supposed to do strenuous exercise in the morning? If I try to go running in the morning, I turn beet red (lots of people asking me “are you ok?”) and go really high (as in 300s). At least, this happens 3 out of 4 times, so if I try to just bolus for it before, there’s an occasional superlow- once I had to walk a mile back home in the 40s, the glucose tablets I had on me didn’t even touch my blood sugar. I should have just knocked on someone’s door and asked “Do you have a quart of orange juice?” But then again, maybe not… So, in any case I would love to know anything about why this happens, or where you saw this mentioned.
I get spikes from tea, but much less than coffee. With a medium coffee, I usually take about 20 carbs worth of insulin, and am pretty much ok. I had always heard that the spike was from the adrenaline and cortisol increase from caffeine, that your liver will dump glycogen to give you energy to fight big scary animals or do whatever stressful thing you need to do.
I’ve had the same problem many times! I tend to need more insulin to compensate for things in the morning than I do later on in the day. I use regular creamer and bolus for the carbs in it along with some extra for the coffee, depending on how much I drink. I don’t really drink coffee much at other times of the day. Occasionally after dinner I’ll have a cup, and that seems to raise my blood sugar too, but not as much as the morning.
Reading Dr Bernstein had me switch from powdered splenda and fat free half and half to Splenda tablets and regular half and half with my morning coffee. It has helped my morning #'s spike less frequently, but I still see it sometimes. It just may be the PD (DP?) thing.
I find that I need an extra 1.0units when I bolus for breakfast.The carb bolus doesn’t cover it.I could be perfect in the morning,like 6.3mmol. bolus for my carbs and I stillgo up to 13 or 14.It’s not my food because I eat 3/4 of a cup of unsweetened puffed wheat with splenda on top,and a little more than a half a cup of 2% milk.I also drink 3 cups of coffee in the am.I tested my basal rates and they seem to be good.