large swings in morning blood sugars

[tcc123]

I am having problems with my bs in the morning after breakfast.. I usually eat 50 g carbs and take 2 units of novolog.. every day my bg will rise about 90 pts 2 hours after breakfast.. but then fall about 120 pts over the next couple of hours.,, it only does this in the morning. the rest of the days my bgs are stable and never rise or drop that much.. I was thinking about just eating a couple of small snacks instead of a whole breakfast in the morning to keep these large swings to a minimum.. any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Cary

[poodlebone]

What do you usually eat for breakfast? You might try adding some protein to your meal, if you haven't already, If you're eating toast or cereal or pancakes etc, add some eggs or Egg Beaters, or cheese, to help even out the carb spike.

If you do split up the meal into small snacks you might end up going low at 2 hours if you take the same 2 units of Novolog, so make sure you monitor carefully if you try that.

The best solution is to be on a pump. You'd be able to adjust your basal rates so you're getting less background insulin at that time, or you could spread your food bolus out over time and you can also take much smaller amounts of insulin, instead of whole units.

[corwin]

The first question to any post like that is "what did you eat?" different types of carbs, as well as protein and fat content, will be absorbed differently. In general I think you should change your insulin to match what you eat and not the other way around. What you describe sounds like you are digesting the meal faster then the insulin works, this gives you an initial high spike and then drop you low when you still have insulin in your system but no more food. This can be fixed by injecting sooner before you eat, another way would be to add fat\protein like poodlebone said, or just eat some initially then the rest like you suggested, if you do that, make sure you test often and actually eat the rest, so you won't get a nasty low.

[MJM]

Cary,
What may be affecting your morning highs is what you eat. There is a thing called Glycaemic Index which is the reaction of certain foods when you eat them. Foods with a low G.I. release their carbs slowly and consequently should reduce highs. Needless to say if you eat high G.I. foods the starches are released quickly and give you a high. If you search for Glycaemic Index ( hope I have it spelled correctly), you will find a list of foods with differing G.I. values, i.e. Low, Medium and High. I had the same problem as you and changed my diet to low G.I. and it has helped. Best of luck - Michael

[Cyborg]

I have the most insulin resistance and subsequently lowest Insulin Senstivity Factor of the day in the morning. Combined with Dawn Phenomena, breakfast can be tough on the bg...

[Simon]

My liver dumps most mornings just before breakfast causing insulin resistance. The resistance wears off before the insulin does so I need to have an early lunch or snack about 3 hours after breakfast to avoid a low.

[tcc123]

thanks for all the suggestions. For breakfast I have been just eating all carbs.. i will try adding in protein and see if that helps..

btw poodlebone I just put in my paperwork for a minimed pump yesterday. I even put in an insertion set with the rep. So easy.. cant wait to be on it

[BriOnH]

I am having problems with my bs in the morning after breakfast.. I usually eat 50 g carbs and take 2 units of novolog.. every day my bg will rise about 90 pts 2 hours after breakfast.. but then fall about 120 pts over the next couple of hours.,, it only does this in the morning. the rest of the days my bgs are stable and never rise or drop that much.. I was thinking about just eating a couple of small snacks instead of a whole breakfast in the morning to keep these large swings to a minimum.. any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Cary

Personally this happens to me too, but don't really see it as a problem for myself(and hopefully all my organs).

[poodlebone]

thanks for all the suggestions. For breakfast I have been just eating all carbs.. i will try adding in protein and see if that helps..

btw poodlebone I just put in my paperwork for a minimed pump yesterday. I even put in an insertion set with the rep. So easy.. cant wait to be on it

Hope that everything goes through for your pump. It really does make managing everything so much easier.

Whenever I have a high carb breakfast like cereal, I try to have a couple of microwaved Egg Beaters as well, or some string cheese. You can have sausage, leftover chicken, pretty much anything to go with the carbs.

[Gangrel]

Since we're talking mornings, figured I'd ask here. Does anyone else find they are more insulin resistant while sleeping? For the last few weeks or more, I have had the following scenario usually occur:

I take my night time Humilin N, which used to be 32 for the longest time, but recently i've been giving myself up to 35 or 36!

-Wake up at 3am or something to go potty (or feed the **** cat!) and check my blood. It's either 9.0 and I do nothing , or if it's say 13 (like last night,) I take 5 units of humalog.

-when i wake up at 7am for the day and check my sugars, it's either the same, or higher! (this morning is was still 12 after the 5 units of Humalog)

(one night it was 7.5 at 4 am and then shot up to 20! by 7am)


This never seemed to be a problem for me before, and I am just wondering why it would happen. Even if i eat a little too much for a snack at 10pm, the carbs shouldn't cause me to jump that late!

It's weird, becuase while I'm awake, I can easily reduce my sugar with Humalog by about 2 or 3 points per unit of insulin.