I have had some morning highs. I understand this is from sugar released from the liver. I have also had some increases at other times during the day. Does the liver only release sugar when you are resting or sleeping?
I’ve had morning highs also, most of the time it was a “bounce” from my sugar dropping low in the middle of the nite, ie “Dawn Phenomena”. Have you tried some middle of the nite glucose tests to see if you are going low in the early morning hours? There are plenty of discussions on here about it The liver will release extra glucagon when your sugar is low, but it takes a while for it to happen. In general, the liver will release glucagon all day long to fuel your body
hi Robert, your live can release sugar any time of the day as a response to stress and anxiety, as a result of taking steriods, or as a response of dropping blood sugar, as a presponse to adrenalin, cortisol, etc… Sometimes it’s better to eat than to fast, becasue a liver dump will typically send your blood sugars soaring for hours. Cheers!
If you are a Type 1, your body does not secrete amylin from the islet cells, which regulates the release of sugars from the liver. This can be problematic in many ways, such as necessitating larger mealtime insulin doses, post-exercise blood glucose spikes, and a deficiency of glucose stores when it is truly needed (specifically at times during which your blood glucose levels are not sufficient to fuel your current activity). It also can cause spikes in the morning. Basically, a primary regulatory mechanism is absent and thus the release is inconsistent, unpredictable, and relatively uncontrolled.
You can inject Symlin (synthetic amylin) at mealtimes and even after exercise to mitigate this problem.
Oneless:
Boy oh boy, are you smart! How’d you get that way? I’ve had D for at least 20 years and, before last week, never heard of amylin and symlin.
Lois La Rose
Milwaukee, WI
Thanks…you are too kind! I’m basically a geek who reads waaaay too much. Symlin was released to the market in 2005 and from my experience, many doctors simply don’t bother mentioning it to their Type 1 patients. It has much wider adoption among the Type 2 population, but I think we Type 1s need it a lot more!
Ive been told that if your liver does to much “dumping” it can cause a bit of liver damage … does anyone know about this???
Sorry but this is just a little stretch off the subject.
I was dx’d in '74 and my doc was an elderly family practice guy in a small Minnesota town. He knew very little about db, and, there was no web to get information.
The protocol at that time was to have a fasting bg done every three months (yeah, ain’t it a wonder that I’m still here today…).
I was very strict with my diet a couple of weeks before the draw, even lopping items off. I’d go and my reading would be 200 and the doc would call my mother and say I had been sneaking candy bars (I was a teenager at the time). I am getting upset just thinking about this…
Anyway, after home monitoring became available I realized that I had an extreme rise in bg about 4 a.m. I look at it as the body’s way of “revving up” to get the day started. And, with me not eating a lot, I was also probably hypo-ing at about 2 a.m., causing a double whammy.