I just started a very low carb diet. My daytime averages have gone from 253 to 170 in just 2 weeks (working on it) My Lantus was changed from 60 to 30 a day because of the low carb diet. But my morning numbers have been around 260 and will NOT go lower. I’ve read about dawn phenomenon, changing long lasting etc. I just can’t figure it out. I got up at 3am to find my bs’s very high and higher at 7am. My Dr has had me switch my Lantus from 2x a day to 1x at bedtime and now wants me to try only in the AM. I take 30u Novolog 3x a day with meals btw. My question is this. Is this a case were the Lantus is just not helping? Doc said if the morning Lantus doesn’t help we can start on Levemir because it lasts 24 hours and not 10-20 like Lantus. As you can see, I’m on a rollercoaster here and need to fix this. Any ideas?
Definitely sounds like Dawn Phenomenon to me. While yours is much more extreme (numbers wise) than mine was or is, eating consistently low-carb can help with this over time. As the liver becomes depleted of glycogen, there is no stored glucose for the liver to raise BG with in the mornings. It took about a month of eating very low carb until my fasting BGs sorted themselves out. Metformin can also help with this (it short-circuits liver glucose dumps).
May not be what is going on with you, but it sounds familiar!
I’ve been on the low carb diet (about 30 carbs per day) for 3 weeks now. I sure hope it lowers in time. These morning highs are scaring me. I’m also not losing a pound. UGH Thanks
Not quite that high, but that was my experience when I went low-carb. My suggestion is to try eating a few more carbs at dinner time - that’s helped a bit for me. There are other ideas, too - but you
have to play with what works for you.
Thanks, I’ll give it a try. Tried a little protein before bed and that didn’t work. So frustrating.
Hi Deamo,
I also had large DP numbers, and over time realized I was going low around 2 am. I started eating an apple sauce pack (12 carbs) before bed and my numbers actually came down at night.Like you I was on Lantus at the time, 2 x 40 units daily (night, morning). Even with the twice a day regimen and the late night snack my numbers were still a little high, so my Endo switched me to Tresiba. My basals are generally flat at night now unless I have a high fat/protein meal within 4 hours of bedtime.
That is good to know about Tresiba. Carbs before bedtime have not helped me. Any side effects with Tresiba? I hate when they listed all the bad things.
Demo,
Absolutely none that I have experienced other than it doesn’t have a spike
or tail like most insulins. It is effective in me for approximately 38
hours (I did some experimenting when I first started Tresiba) and my basals
are completely flat through the night except for mealtime/illness /stress
/exercise spikes. If I go to bed @ 129, I am within 5 points when I get up.
That is excellent! Thank you
Deamo,
Most welcome! Good luck with your morning issues.
I also had the DP. My endo put a glucose monitor on me for 1 week to see when it Spiked during sleep. She started me on an Omnipod which has helped my numbers 100%. I went from going to bed at 120 and waking up at 275. Now the 120 falls to low 90’s. A1c dropped 1 whole point from 9.2 to 8.1. I expect it to drop another point my next 3 mo. checkup. My lowest since being diagnosed in 2003 is 7.1.
I ended up going with Tresiba about a month ago for the same reason of high glucose waking up. I found that after 2 weeks of use it had no affect on it and I took the dose around 12 am. I then tried taking the daily dose in the morning instead of at night and I get much better results, down from 140-170 to 105-125.
Tresiba is only $15 per box of u100 or $25 box of u200(at least what I paid) if you have their discount card for 24 refills.