Blood sugar higher without bread ???

[chaimbu]

Perhaps someone can explain the following behavior:

About 3-4 months ago I started taking Acarbose during my breakfast because despite everything I tried and the medications I had been taking - consisting of Glibenclamide, Metformin, and Repaglinide, my BS two hours after breakfast (which contained about 20 +- grams of carbohydrates - mostly from various types of bread) was in the 180 range. This in spite of the fact that my wakeup BS was between 70-90!

After I started taking the Acarbose, two things happened: One, my after two hour BS lowered to between 120-140! Two, my stomach raged havoc and I suffered from gas and bloatedness.

I tried some experimentation with my breakfast content - still taking all my meds and the Acarbose, and after I eliminated the bread (this eliminated about 15 rams of carbohydrates - I still had about 5-7 from an artificially sweetened fruit yogurt), again two things happened: One, my stomach settled down pretty much. Two, my after two hour BS INCREASED to between 160-180! Today, I returned to some bread - a whole wheat low carbohydrate type bread, and low-and-behold, my after two hour BS was 90! (one hour before breakfast it was 75). So far my stomach is not too bad.

This behavior seems to defy any logic and has me baffled!? I would have expected my after two hour BS to either stay at the 120-140 level or even decrease after eliminating the bread? Yet, the CONTRARY seems to be the case!?

coincidentally, my dietician just called me (while I was typing) and I posed her this behavior, and she suggested that perhaps my elimination of carbohydrates without changing my meds was actually causing a LOW (during the first hour or so after breakfast) and then my body hormones were reacting and forcing a HIGH after two hours.

Does anyone else have any other ideas to explain this?

Thanks !!!

Chaim

[Cyborg]

I think it's unlikely you are having a low. Perhaps you could test during this period to see what is happening with the bg.:ahhhhh:

[fighter71]

Your problem seems to be erratic owing to its inconsistent/unusual behaviour.

I wish there was a Blood Glucose meter which could be permanently fitted to the body, having regular access to the blood stream and would show the present BS level at all times. We all then would be saved with the hassle of testing/pricking and would know exactly how our body reacts to every intake and help us manage our Diabetes better.

Has anybody heard of anything like that ?

[chaimbu]

Fighter71,

From your keyboard to the One Above!

However, such a machine would most likely be prohibitive in cost and would be against the best interest of the companies now making glucometers which are relatively inexpensive, as there biggest income is from the purchase of strips!

[Cyborg]

I wish there was a Blood Glucose meter which could be permanently fitted to the body, having regular access to the blood stream and would show the present BS level at all times. We all then would be saved with the hassle of testing/pricking and would know exactly how our body reacts to every intake and help us manage our Diabetes better.

Has anybody heard of anything like that ?

It's called a CGMS (Continuous Glucose Monitoring System).

[Harold]

CGMS would be nice, but you could could probably get a really good idea of what's going on by testing every 15 minutes after eating for two hours. Eating the same meal for breakfast day after day I see as much as a 60 point spread in the readings. Even taking the variance of the accuracy of the meter this is still a lot of variation between 90 and 150. One of the problems with trying to manage this desease is all of the varibles that go into living day to day. Some days we are more active than others, the weather changes, moon phases, and the rate we digest food varies from day to day. This makes identifing bg trends impossible over the short term, difficult over a week or two, and obvious over a month or two. Add to that we do not like to eat the same food day in and day out so we mix our food up just for change. Still over time we can still get a pretty good idea of what's going on with a little help from our meters. So why/how adding a whole wheat low carbohydrate type bread lower your bg reading? Possibly a higher ratio of fiber in the bread, the added carbs digested faster speeding up your digestion, the phases of the moons of Saturn, or all of the above. :tee:

[pam]

Well, what I can tell you is that if I eat very low carb, my sugar skyrockets. If I don't have a bite of cake, cookie or ice cream every day, my sugar goes up. It was explained to me that my body expects the sugar, so if it doesn't get it, it tries to manufacture it and pushes my levels up ...