What do normal blood sugar levels look like?

Type 1 and LADA New to Type 1 Diabetes
1

I was dx a few weeks ago as Type 1. I'm currently on MDI and my four blood sugar checks before eating were all okay -- usually between 90 and 120. I got a dexcom about a week ago, and my "in between" times are whack. Like, I've just gone from 100 to 200 in 30 minutes, still rising, despite properly administering insulin for my greek yogurt I had with breakfast.

When I see it spike up, I get very frustrated. But I thought I should take a reality check -- what does a normal person's blood sugar levels look like after eating some carbs? Do normal people spike, or do they stay level? Or somewhere in between? What's the best I can reasonably hope to achieve as a T1 diabetic?

I just want to make sure I have reasonable goals. Goals to push for a work for, but not impossible goals.

2

There is a thread going on right now on just that topic, about how high a normal person spikes, but generally (with exceptions) it is around 120 But I just want to suggest that you test 2 hours after meals and if you are consistently high, than you might want to tweak the I:C ratio for that meal. As for goals, I try to stay under 140 after meals, others aim to stay under 120

3

I was just diagnosed in June as Type 1 and I can tell you that your levels won't be "normal" for a few months, theres a few reasons for this. 1, you're body has been dealing with high levels of sugar for a while with no help from a regulated diet or insulin intake. After about 2 months I began understanding my levels and what triggers them, what keeps them normal and what to eat for breakfast(that was huge for me). For example I can eat bread and it really doesnt spike me at all, for some people it sends them through the roof. Rice on the other hand is like my kryptonite and i can only have it in moderation.

My advise is exercise everyday, I did at the beginig and it allowed me to experiment a lot mroe with food. Drink a ton of water and do everything your doctor says.

Normal is like 70-120, but for right now your goal is just eat right and exercise, let the doctors worry about the numbers, at first i was sensitive to everything i ate, but now my ody can handle things a lot better. Do not become freaked out over 200 after a meal, its normal but def keep in midnw hat your eating so you know what makes you spike real bad.

Relax, breathe and take it one day at a time, 200 is only bad if you STAY at 200 all the time.

Good luck!

4

I just wanted to add that greek yogurt or any flavored yogurt for that matter, has lots of sugars. Even though you may be counting the carbs in the product, it will rise your glucose level high as a rule.

5

https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/quote-from-a-non-diabetic-wearing-a-cgm

heres the link to the discussion if you wanna read it, its very interesting i think and shows that some diabetics are wayy too strict on themselves...

6

Greek yogurt also comes in plain which is what I eat. I personally would not be happy with a 200 after a meal - not that it doesn't happen, but I correct it if it does and if it happens too often I consider either not eating the food that causes it or changing my I:C. But yes, as a previous poster says, it takes awhile to get everything in order and at first everything is a learning process. My recommendation in the early weeks is to just keep careful logs of what you eat and what your starting and 2 hour numbers look like so you can begin to focus in on food choices and I:C ratios.

7

After your body recovers and everything levels off, you should be able to maintain normal blood sugar(80-120) all of the time if you are motivated and disciplined. There is a lot of debate about how high a non-D spikes after a meal, but I generally aim for little to no spike because the spikes(however high they are) can be just as damaging as consistently high bgs.
I may be one of those that is way too strict on themselves, but I find it doesn't take much to lose control...if I eat the wrong food one time, there goes my control and it seems to mess everything up for a couple days after! so if I shoot for perfection, that will usually allow me to maintain normal bgs most of the time

8

It's not worth worrying about "normal" as much as trying to keep yourself in a healthy range most of the time. The big picture outlook will keep you in a better frame of mind. Having a goal of great numbers is a good one. Just don't beat yourself up over individual spikes - use the info and move forward. It sounds like you're doing really well for someone so new to the diagnosis.

Use the dexcom as a tool to see how certain foods affect you and use that data to tweak your insulin levels or eat less of certain things. I'm pretty new to the dexcom too - at times seeing those spikes can be a bit freaky. Just today I strayed from my usual breakfasts and tried something new. Unfortunately, my usual breakfast ratio didn't work very well and I was high with double arrows up soon after. And then the 1u correction dropped me down to 50 a couple hours later. Rather than giving up altogether, I may try that meal again soon with a bit more bolus and see if that keeps the numbers more in range. It's all trial and error. (Hopefully less error!)

Realistically, doing the work of your pancreas is difficult.

9

actually, spiking to 200 after each meal can be just as damaging as consistently high bgs over the long term

10
...I've just gone from 100 to 200 in 30 minutes, still rising, despite properly administering insulin for my greek yogurt...
Since you're newly diagnosed, I'm going to assume you have a lot to learn. Please don't be offended if I touch on something you're already familiar with.

"Properly administering insulin" is a bit of an involved topic. However, key to controlling post-meal spikes is pre-bolusing -- i.e. administering the insulin a period of time before eating.

The optimal advance time varies from person to person, so you'll have to experiment to find out what works for you. For me, for instance, if I don't bolus at least 30-40 minutes before eating, I'll get bigger spikes. 30-40 is the sweet spot for me (I'm talking humalog).

To control the spikes you want to try to achieve two things: (1) Start with a low-normal (80) rather than a high-normal (120) BG before eating, and (2) get ahead of the glucose spike by pre-bolusing.

Consider: A carb load that will raise your BG 60 mg/dl will send you to 180 if you start at 120 before the meal. If you start at 80, you'll spike to 140. Big difference. Also, when you get pre-bolusing nailed, insulin is peaking and active metabolizing that glucose while it's dumping in your blood, keep it from being expressed fully in increased BG levels. So, with a good starting BG before a meal, and good pre-bolusing, those same carbs can result in only a peak at 120-130.

This describes pretty well what my own experiences are, when I do it all right.

11

Currently, the doctor just has me taking insulin immediately prior to eating.

How do I know how far ahead I need to take the insulin? I'm worried that as I back it up, I will back it up too far and crash.

12

Those double arrows! Arg!

13

Unfortunately, it was greek yogurt... with two strips of bacon. I'm not sure how much protein is there, but some was there for sure (and a bit in the yogurt)! I love protein. Nom nom nom!

14

I would just experiment slowly. Start with ten minutes and see how that goes; it's just another piece of the puzzle.

15

We're all different, Shawn. It's great that you can maintain such a tight control, but for some of us, even with motivation and discipline and lots of hard work we still have more variations than that. I wouldn't want someone who was doing their best to feel they weren't "doing it right" if they couldn't stay "between 80 and 120 all the time."

16

Yeah, I think there a few things worth considering here.

There's a ton of variability in how people with fully functional pancreases respond to big carb loads. Some may spike high shortly after a meal, some may not. You might see normal post-meal BGs approaching 200. What's not variable is the fact that, normally, BGs return to a very narrow normal range, and stay there, very quickly, within 1 to 2 hours post-meal wit ha fully functional pancreas.

The problem with diabetes is that you have to inject your insulin. You may not be able to respond to a big carb load the same way with injected insulin versus insulin produced by a fully functional pancreas.

So "properly administered insulin" is the key here. If your BG reaches 200 and rising, then does not drop below 140 to 120 in 1 to 2 hours, then you've probably underdosed and need to make adjustments. Similarly, if you inject a big bolus to get you BGs below 120 to 140 within 2 hours, but it keeps dropping below 70, into hypo range, before your next meal, then you've overdosed and need to make adjustments.

Injected insulin just doesn't work the same way as the insulin produced from a healthy pancreas. Even though a normal pancreas might allow a BG of 200, it will respond to it appropriately. There's no way I can consistently respond appropriately to a BG over 200 with injected insulin, so I just find it a lot more effective to limit my range of BGs. If I can keep my BG below 140 post-meal, I just have better overall control.

YMMV.

17

Howdy.

I was in the same spot you are a few months ago.

The biggest things I found so far:

1. Devour Information - especially at this website (serious knowledge going on with many folks here). Think Like a Pancreas and Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution gave a great primer and perspective about the approaches and techniques out there for getting things under control and keeping them there most of the time. Be sure to understand with any information you take in that everyone is different and you need to find what works for you. It will take a bunch a trial and error. After aggregating the info collected from many sources, I determined what seemed the appropriate baseline and then started from there.

Doctors are great and some are not... This is you and your health. No one else is going to handle for you as well as YOU!

2. Revisit and Renew Your Relationship with Food - This, along with exercise, is probably the biggest thing you can do for yourself. There is a MASSIVE problem with the way we have evolved to produce and consume our nutrition (or lack thereof at this point). Do not under estimate the necessity of putting serious focus on this. Once again I took the same approach of information gathering and became extremely alarmed at how unhealthy my supposedly very healthy diet was. Simply though it all boiled down to - Don't eat anything processed or that comes in a box. Shop on the outer areas of the super market. The aisles are where the bad stuff lives. Eat things as fresh as possible - get involved in a CSA Program (Community Supported Agriculture). Favor raw veggies over cooked ones.

I found that food, diet and all that surrounds it can be an emotional situation as food is what makes us and breaks us in many ways. Don't be surprised to find that some of those things that you are told are good for you or make you feel good when you eat them very well may not be. The changes I have made have done wondrous things for me and how I feel.

Watch this - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/ and read this http://www.amazon.com/The-Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History/dp/1594132054

3. Get to Moving Around - I dropped a bunch of weight on my way to diagnosis. I'm about halfway to getting back to where I would like to be from a weight perspective. Both food and exercise in the right combinations have enabled me to do that, along with Insulin :). Just be careful to get things right with your ratios and tolerances before getting into the more strenuous stuff.

4. Dig the Data - Use the data you collect to manage food, insulin and exercise.

5. Don't Let the Bastard Grind You Down - Its been 4 months for me, but it feels like longer. I've got a few decades to live yet so I'm trying to prepare my mind for the road ahead and build positivity in myself as well as around me so I can live my life well, maintain my goals and not let the bumps in the road that will occur with this Diabetuus get to me.

I would also echo most of the others on this post so far... The folks here are pretty swell, really.

As for your question about normal BG. The range approach has worked for me. I shoot for maintaining 80-110 and know that I can get up to 140 and even higher if I miscalculate or indulge in something and have had some upper 60's - 70's as well.

Things will change and evolve with this. We will have times where it doesn't go as planned or predicted. Right now though, I'm at a point where I can say I haven't felt this good in quite a while.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
18

Hi here is a link to an article which compares the dexcom data from a PWD to a PWOD (person without D). It is the only one of its' kind that I have been able to find.
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/dia.2013.0051
On page 8 there is an illustration of a normal Dexcom tracing.The article itself is a pretty good read as well.

19

I generally need to prebolus by about 10 or 15 minutes, especially with more fast-acting carbs. I try not to go about 150 after a meal, although I like to do better.

20

It's important to remember that insulin has a duration, usually 3-5 hours for short-acting insulin. If your food is digested much faster than that, you will see a spike. (That's why I never drink sugary drinks. They hit you fast!) Taking insulin before you eat, having fiber and/or fat with your carbs are ways to minimize this. For some people, some foods will always spike them. As everyone else has said, experimentation is the best way to know what your body can handle. Personally, I don't experiment when I know I will be driving or at work. Keep at it; being curious and involved like you are will be the best way to gain good control.