What do you recommend for a good, controlled way of bringing up low blood sugars in precise increments? My goal is to minimize the risk of overshooting with such things as fruit juice, coca cola, or chewable life savers. Glucose tablets that they sell at Walgreens and CVS seem to not work rapidly enough for me. Does anybody know of a product that will raise blood sugars almostly instantly and raise my sugar in small increments. I am looking to raise my sugar in about 8 mg/dl increments. Thanks for the suggestions.
I’m surprised glucose tabs aren’t working for you. At only 4 carbs apiece, it’s pretty much the smallest unit of concentrated sugar you can find. Plus, the average meter gives a response + or - 20%, so you might see a fluctuation of more than 8 mg/dl by doing nothing.
Of course, if you’re sugar is trending downward and you have 1 or 2 glucose tabs, you might be dropping faster (or by a larger amount) than the tabs can raise your sugar.
Mathematically, If you are pumping, take a look at your Sensitivity and Carb ratio, assuming they are set properly. Divide your sensitivity by carb ratio – the number you get should be how much one carb will raise your BG (in theory); so you can then figure out what you need to eat.
For instance, at 12:00 pm, my carb ratio is 9 (1 unit per 9 carbs) and my sensitivity is 60 (1 unit will lower my BG by 60 mg/dl). 60 divided by 9 equal 6.67, so each gram of carbohydrate should raise my BG by 6-7 mg/dl.
I like the cheap peanut butter cookies. They keep welll in my truck hot or cold, and they have sugar, starch and protein in them. Four will raise my glucose about 40 to 60 points.
I use Junior Juice juice boxes. 14g quick burst, no chance of overtreating.
Rocket candies (bought on sale in bulk after halloween)
Thanks for all replies. I guess the “Dextabs” at Walgreen’s and CVS are the fastest acting tablets to raise your blood sugar. I guess I am just looking for something more instantaneous. Nothing is worse than that 15 or 20 mins you have to wait to get your sugar above 70. Gosh, I hate that and I hate being below 60 blood sugar. Thank you!!! Thank you!! For all your suggestions.
Yeah, I think that glucose tabs are the fastest. If you are looking to save money, I heard the ingredients in Smarties are the same-- the difference is that Smarties are a lot cheaper. And taste better in my opinion. I use smarties/glucose tabs when I’m away from home.
When I’m at home, I use juice. I have a small measuring cup right next to the fridge and I can adjust the amount of carb intake easily by just measuring how many mL of juice I drink.
Tablets or juicy juice seems to work well for me, it just depends on what is the closest…
Yesterday I found the perfect thing to raise my bgs fast and has protein as well. Toffee covered peanuts. Only takes a very small amount and has protein as well, but you have to be able to stop eating them as they are way yummie.
Read the label.
Best to use something that comes in distinct units so you can calculate and calibrate the effects.
Glucose tabs work for me, but so does regular soda. Just use a measured amount for predictability.
Like anything else, YMMV. If glucose tabs don’t work fast enough for your keep experimenting and you’ll find something.
For me it’s whole milk. Not the 2% with the blue top but the red top!
Your only other option would be a glucagon kit to raise your sugar rapidly.
A teaspoon full of jelly. Not jam, jelly. I prefer apple flavored, but grape works just as well. That brings me up about 8 mg/dl. Use an actual measuring teaspoon, not the one from the silverware drawer (which is actually more like a tablespoon…). I crash at night, even with my pump turned down, if I have an intense workout in the late afternoon. I usually will make sure I don’t go to bed below 120 mg/dl. But, if I take in too much glucose to cover my late night crash, I wake up at 300! Jelly works really well, and doesn’t taste like chalk!
I also got those little tubes of cake icing. Each tube has 12 grams of sugar in it. I have several different things I use for lows just because sometimes I get tired of the gel and tablets. Since I have my pump and the cgms I don’t go low as often and a lot of times I can do a temporary basal rate reduction and prevent me from going low if I am headed that way.
My new thing is 9 twizzlers (bite size). Easy to chew up fast and raise my bgs fast as well. 
A 4 gram glucose should raise your blood sugar about 12 points in 15 min.
individually wrapped twizzlers works well… each one raised BG about 20. i also keep packs of mentos around. As a guy, one roll of fruit mentos fits perfect in my pocket… mentos also allows me to quietly slip them in my mouth one at a time if i am in a social setting and feel my sugars dropping.
Just be sure to keep them away from the diet coke!