'normal' foods, not normal results

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
'normal' foods, not normal results
16
Thu, 04-22-2004 - 9:53pm
So much for wondering why my blood sugar "doesn't go up". Today was a somewhat high carb day....

a Light 'n Fit yogurt shake on the way to work (sweetened with splenda and a small amount of fruit juice, 1gm sugar more than plain yogurt),

a whole grain bagel and some nuts for breakfast upon arriving at work,

a handful of wheat thins with two string cheese and some more nuts at lunch,

a bowl of all-bran with dried cranberries and walnuts for snack,

a pbj (both no sugar added) on whole wheat with a glass of milk after work, around 7.

Glucose reading at 9:30 tonight--160! I am soooooo tired right now, and I have a headache too. I wish I hadn't stopped checking throughout the day--can't blame this one on gourmet soap....

I don't know what to do about my diet. If I eat low carb everything levels out, but the nutritionist had a fit last time I saw her (I was on Atkins, 60-70% of cals from fat, albeit primarily healthy ones). If I eat the 'right' way--lots of whole grains, somewhat limited fat, I feel lousy and things start going out of whack.

Now what.....? I rarely eat as many carbs as I did today, so I don't even know if an A1c would show elevated bg levels, and I REALLY don't want the GTT.

Do I just eat my way (high fat and protein, moderate saturated fat, low carb) despite what 'experts' say? Does anyone know of a wheat connection? I seem to feel worse when I eat bread and crackers (always whole grain) regularly....especially commerical products, as opposed to fresh at the bakery....can wheat itself cause instability? Additives?

Edited to add: Just took a 10:02 reading....111......I am going to be sooooo 'hungover' tomorrow.... :o(


Edited 4/22/2004 10:03 pm ET ET by lily_rose_fae

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
Fri, 04-23-2004 - 11:26am
Well....no hangover, though I'm still a little fuzzy. A half hour after the 111, I was back down to 84. (76 points in one hour!) Right before bed it was 83.

Mybe this is why I never get low readings (79 being the lowest I've been able to catch)? That my symptoms are due to falling too FAST instead of too FAR? I'm not sure what to make of the high reading.....I can remember I would have sweaty palms, hot flashes, and heart palpitations after eating my snack at school (after work, usually a package of mini-donuts or Twinkies and a soda).

If I went that high on a 'normal' meal, what would happen with a GTT? Should I be concerned that this is beyond hypoglycemia??

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2004
Fri, 04-23-2004 - 2:40pm
Not sure what to tell you. We seem to have a lot in common when it come to numbers.

I had the GTT done in Jan. It was terrible. I was actaully sick for 36 hrs after. It was done in a lab and I honestly considered going straight to the hospital when the test was over. Of course, my results were normal. LOL......The highest I got was in the 160's and the lowest was in the 70's. It went up..and then went down. NOW, give me a handful of crackers and a home monitor and you can see my numbers go over 200. Or pizza..1 slice and I'm out like a light with a reading of 198. So I said to my dr...next time instaed of drinking that poison..I'll have a slice of pepperoni pizza and a couple of whole wheat crackers...that should put me at about 300. LOL

Sugar has less of an effect then starch( for me anyways). I do better with a chocolate bar then I do with bread.
Avatar for cl_maryfrances40
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 04-23-2004 - 11:03pm

I was just reading something that will interest all the hypoglycemics on the board and others who have hypoglycemic reactions.


The body has two main responses to hypoglycemia. First the hormones glucagon, epinephrine, growth hormone and cortisol are released into the blood stream to help increase the amount of circulating glucose. The first two act rapidly to bring the blood sugar back up to normal. The second two cause symptoms of weakness, sweating, nervousness, anxiety, rapid heart beat, shakiness, tingling of the mouth or hands and hunger.


The second response results from decreased level of glucose in the brain. These symptoms may include headache, visual distrubances, mental dullness, confusion, amnesia, seizures and coma.


Tight control of blood glucose levels can lower the threshold for sensing hypoglycemia and having hypoglycemia one day can cause a decrease in hypoglycemia symptoms on the next day. Which means that you can be hypoglycemic without realizing it.


I still think it is unwise for a person to go to bed with a blood sugar of 100 or less. My suggestion would be to have some carbohydrate (no more than 15 grams) and some protein. That can be come peanut butter ( nomore than 1 tablespoon which has 2 grams of sugar in it.), or some string cheese or some cottage cheese, or some lite yoguart or 1/4 cup of almonds. Sometime I like to have 2 whole dried apricots and some nuts for my snack. It is fun to wake up in the middle of the night with hypoglycemia, regardless of the cause.


I hope this is helpful. Please continue to post your quetions and comments.


Have a great Earth Day Weekend.

Mary Frances


cl-maryfrances40


Co-Cl Diabetes Board


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
Fri, 04-23-2004 - 11:51pm
Unless I go in and someone thinks there is some immediate risk, I refuse to get a GTT. I know how sick I get off of a little rice or too much bread.

The glucose dosage is 100gm, right? that gives a glycemic load of 100. A can of coke has a glycemic index of 53, with 39gm of carb.--a glycemic load of 21. so, discounting the effects of the caffeine, the glucose concoction is roughly the equivalent of chugging FIVE CANS OF COKE, on a fasting empty stomach, and then not eating for 2-5 hours, depending on the duration of the test. Oh, that sounds like fuuuuuun. :o( No thank you!

I hadn't been checking my immediate postprandial readings, only when I woke up in the morning or felt sick. I guess I don't really need the fasting #'s OR "low" #'s so much as the #'s immediately following meals (30 min-1hr). *sigh* would have been nice if the doctor/nutritionist had pointed that out.

I'm just going to go back on 'my' diet. I'm going to try and keep the fat a bit lower and replace it with lean protein, and avoid sat. fats as much as possible, but this whole 40-50% of calories from carb thing is just not working for me. :o(

Also, the sugar being less bad than starch is not surprising. Sucrose (table sugar) has a glycemic index around 60, while potatoes are around 85 and white rice is in the high 70s. I can't tell you how many times peanut M&M's have saved my butt when I was stranded at school in 4 hours of night classes with no dinner and a vending machine full of junk....fortunately they opened a little cafe in my classroom building. It's pizza, but on a very thin flat bread that seems to be ok (although it's off-limits now, except in emergency).

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2004
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 12:42pm
I thought it was more then 100. I thought it was 150 if you weren't pregnant and 175 if you were. BUT I could very well have my numbers wrong. I do remember buying my hubby one of those big "Turtle easter eggs" shortly after I had the test done. He love "Turtles" but this was so sweet he could only handle a bite or two at a time. I read the box and basically he would have needed to eat like 4 of these to equal the drink I had to drink. It made him cringe. I said to the nurse running the test that I thought the whole things was barberic (sp?)...I mean you take someone with a blood sugar disease..starve them..make them drink liquid sugar..and draw blood out of their arm 6x. What could be worse? Not only that...but then it comes back normal. Yet I eat crackers and my sugars go through the roof. What is up with that!?!
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 12:50pm
It can change fast enough that the usual intervals for drawing the blood don't catch it. It is entirely possible for a hypoglycemic to jump to 160-180 1/2 hour after eating, then drop back down to fasting or near-fasting before the 1-hr draw. Additionally you can crash well below normal and come back up to normal in one hour as well. It happens all the time, where the spike and/or crash happen so fast that the previous draw and following draw are normal, but things went nuts in between. You feel lousy, but the numbers say that you are fine.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2004
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 2:42pm
Yes, but I've been told that your number 30 mins after you eat means nothing. Even the 1 hr numbers don't show anything. It's what happens at 2 hrs that sets diabetics and non diabetics apart. Everyones blood sugar rises after they eat. It's how quickly those numbers return to normal that tell you something. Maybe you know the answer to this question. Is it normal after a GTT for the 4 hr blood to be lower then the fasting blood taken that same day? I've been told no. But not what that means when it happens. hmmmmmm
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 5:02pm
OH...I'm sorry, I thought you were hypo....I can't keep track of who is dealing with what!!!!

How much lower at 4 hours? I don't think that's normal if it's more than a few points lower. If you are falling significantly below normal at any point, then something is not functioning properly. Either your pancreas is releasing too much insulin, or your liver is not responding quickly enough with its glucagon (which releases stored sugars back into the blood). I've looked at 'normal' curve examples, though, and it looks like they can dip a little bit below the normal fasting level...

Can you post the entire series of numbers from your test? Also, everything I've read says that the 1/2 hr and 1 hr ARE significant when talking about hypoglycemia. While many medical professionals only consider a reading below a certain level (I think it's currently 45, although it used to be 50, and then 60 before that) to be 'hypoglycemia', many people have the same symptoms due to the rate at which their blood sugar levels change--a factor that is missed in the scenario I described in my previous post. (I believe this is the source of my own problem, as I never seem to have an actual 'low' reading.)

There are several different 'hypoglycemic' curves. Some go up too high and come down very fast. Some go up a normal amount, and come down at a normal rate, and just keep going down, and some barely go up, but come back down too far below normal. Some go way up, come down, go up again, and then come back down too low! While some may not technically cross the threshold for being 'low' (although 45 seems like an awfully extreme criteria to me), the same effects result. Most things I've read say that in the case of 'functional' hypoglycemia, 'hypoglycemia' is really a misnomer--that it ought to be referred to something like 'glucose instability'.

Could you give me a quick summary of what you are dealing with? I know I've read it, but I haven't been here long enough to remember who posted exactly what....


iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2004
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 7:31pm
Wow! Sounds to me like you know your stuff. I don't know about you but i have had a lot of trouble finding info on hypo. K..here goes..lol

For about 5 years now I have suffered from reactive hypo. It never was a problem though...as long as I didn't go to long without eating..tried hard to eat 6x a day..I could go for months without feeling sick. When I did suffer symptoms of low blood sugar..it was totally my fault..

Then shortly before Christmas things started becoming unpredictable. I could eat and 15 mins later have symptoms. Sometimes it would occure 3 or 4 times a day. It was becoming scary to drive..and trying Chrsitmas shop became a nightmare. I went to my family dr and said that basically I was ingesting a steady supply of sugar just to keep from feeling sick. I no longer got hungry but instead got shaky..clammy.. confused....tingly..you get the idea. I had discovered cheesecake worked well at keeping the symptoms away and was eating a ton of it. I was also gaining weight at about 5 lbs a month. Now I started this nightmare at 110 lbs I am 5 "2"...and as of today...I am 130 lbs.

I wasn't able to get the GTT till Jan cause of the holidays and lab hours. Honestly at the time I figured I'd be hospitalized before I got to the lab so I wasn't too concerned about the wait.

I managed to make it to my app in early Jan. It was the 4 hrs test. All I can tell you for sure is this. My fast was 88..then I drank the poison. Then at 1 hrs it was in the 180's, 3 hrs the 160's and the 4 hr at 78. Now I'm not sure exactly for 3 reasons..one he wouldn't let me see the numbers...I saw them but it was brief. Two..he gave me a verbal report that the numbers started to come down at the three hr mark. And three..I'm Canadian so I'm trying to convert as closely as possable. I did look closely at the 4 hr mark cause at that point during the test I was feeling very hypo. I was VERY surprised that the number wasn't lower based upon how I was feeling. The lab workers didn't even think I could drive home. I wanted to go to the hospital. NEVER AGAIN! I was sick for the next 36 hours. Luckily I didn't start throwing up till after the test.

So of course now I get a noraml result. Things do not improve..I'm still hypo all the time..still gaining weight..still very tired..and now I've developed a red rash on my torso. So he orders all these fancy tests. Thyroid, adrenal, I had a CAT scan..all kinds of stuff. Everything is normal.

THEN we decide to try home monitoring. I had tried the Atkins diet in an attept to lose weight..but it made me very sick..the hypo got worse. So I'm expecting all these low numbers..instead I'm seeing high numbers and at times very high. I have measured over 200, 2 hrs after meals. I also managed to catch a few crashes and pretty much they were the same. For example...one day I tested before breakfast and it was a 119. I then ate a bowl of cheerios and a banana. Next thing I know I'm feeling hypo. I check again and my number was 70. Only 35 mins had passed since I got the 119 reading. Every crash was the same. I wasn't out of the normal range..I just had quick drops..right after eating. Now I should mention too. During the time I was home monitoring I was also put on a diet by my dr. It was a basic guidline diet for diabetics to help control BG. I lost no weight.

So when I took him my 2 weeks of home monitoring number he said he felt I was in a pre diabetic state and needed a specialist. He gave me Xenical and told me to come back in a month. The wait for a specialist is 3 months. I am still home monitoring and my numbers on average are higher now. Today I havent' gotten below a 166.

I should mention too...my fast number are always really good. They range from 76-110. The numbers get higher as the day goes on and the crashes are still unpredictable.

Whew! I doubt I've remembered everything. LOL...But I hope this gives you enough background.

I was unaware that for hypos..reading every 30 were significant. My dr did not mention this.

Also too, on Xenical your suppose to lose 2 lbs a week. It blocks fat or something. I have been on it now for 2 weeks. Nothing. The dr mention insulin resistance...and hyperinsulinemia.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2003
Sat, 04-24-2004 - 8:58pm
OK....Mary Frances can probably give you a better idea what to make of the sustained high (still being high after 4 hours). However, notice that between 3 and 4 hours, you dropped 82 points (very much like what I had the other night, which made me really sick). While 78 is certainly considered a normal fasting level, dropping 82 points in one hour is not normal. I don't want to overstep my boundaries, as I am not a trained medical professional, but the fact that your doc didn't do any 30 minute tests, or at two or two and a half hours, and did not see anything unusual at such a fast drop makes me think he doesn't know a whole lot about this condition.....again, though, I only know what I've been able to read and observe on my own.

My knowledge of insulin and glucagon is currently limited to it's role in and impact on hypoglycemia. As you said, it is hard to find info on functional hypoglycemia, and it has taken a fair amount of effort to find significant information. Logic says that insulin resistance may be causing your problem (again, M.F. can probably answer that better than I can). Unfortunately, I do not know very much about this condition.

I remember that before I stopped eating my junk food diet, I would frequently get mild tremors, sweaty palms, hot flashes, disorientation and heart palpitations 15-30 after eating bad foods. I'm guessing it was due to my blood sugar going way too high, but as I did not have a monitor at the time I don't know---maybe it was an extremely fast spike and crash? I certainly do not wish to re-create the problem for research purposes!!!

Good luck.....let me know what your specialist says...it sounds like we are both heading in a similar direction!

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