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Originally Posted by nelly2605  Since testing b/s more often and eating better over last 30 days,I've had a whopping 26 hypos.Thinking of knocking metformin on the head.Anyone else suffer lots of hypos? |
I suffered many highs and lows. Very brittle diabetes indeed. About six weeks ago I got a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor and it has resulted in a significant stabilization of blood sugars and hardly any hypos. Maybe one a week instead of one or two a day. The primary change is having a continual or at least frequent sense for which direction bgs are going. Here is a scenario: I test high, say 220 or 250, take insulin to lower bg. Now it may be the case that one hour later one drops to 150 or 125. However, every now and then, I drop to 60, don't ask me why. Well, this is exactly what the meter catches. In the hypo scenario, I can see that I am dropping fast when I pass, say 125 only 45 minutes later, and I know that I need glucose at that moment....thereby heading off the hypo incident. This happens to me all the time.
I still miss a few, and the meter isn't perfect yet. The sensors are good for approximately five or six days (although the company only validates them for three). The first day, they are not particularly accurate, but they are extremely accurate after that.
In any event it has significantly helped in stablizing my bgs and reduce hypos.
One last comment: If you have the discipline to pull it off, low carb diets work extremely well in reducing hypos for the reason BlueSky states above.
To state it differently, lower carbs means less insulin. Less insulin means smaller errors in dosing. DeusXM is right about matching insulin to carbs, but he misses the point...which is that large insulin doses mean large errors, which cause larger problems than small errors.
As an example, if one eats a bagel and covers it with 10 units of insulin but, for whatever reason...say exercise or the variable strength of the insulin...took 20% too much...well that extra 2 units will send you from your target of 125bg to perhaps 25bg.
However, if you eat a salad and cover it with 2 units of insulin...and similarly took 20% too much, then you've only taken 0.4 extra units. This will send you from your target of 125bg to perhaps 100bg.
My best diabetes management has been on low carb diets. That was about 10 years ago, since I never had the discipline to stick with it....
Hence the dexcom.
