OSA and Sugar - Oh My!!!

Catnapper wrote:... Could someone explain this to me? ...

I'll do what I can.

Catnapper wrote:... I had breakfast and then 4 hours later checked my blood sugar. ...

When you intensely monitor your blood glucose you should check it before you eat and then two hours after you eat. The before tells you what it is (and allows you to make meal choices based on the current value). The two hour after test shows you about when your blood glucose levels will peak. Ideally it should be at or below 160. That's actually a little high. But it's considered well controlled. I try to keep my blood glucose levels at or below 140.

By the way, Walmart has some cheaper test strips. You don't need to do it for a long time. You need to do it until you get accustomed to what works for you and what does not. Once you can clearly predict how food will impact your blood glucose levels, you can go back to daily testing.

Catnapper wrote:... I ate about 10 pecan halves and some steamed buttered cauliflower for lunch. An hour or so later my blood sugar was 15 points lower than before I ate. ...

Sure. That's what I would expect. You did not eat any carbohydrates. As a result of normal lunch activity (getting up, moving about, your body prepares for the meal .. saliva increases, the stomach and intestines increase their activity, etc), your body was consuming carbohydrates. But you didn't give it any!! So, your blood glucose level dropped. I'm not surprised by that.

Catnapper wrote:... I have had this happen several times before where eating lowered the reading right after I ate, sometimes a lot of points. ...

Again, it depends on the medication you take and the amount of carbohydrates that you eat. You really should ask your doctor (if your insurance allows it .. and most do) to enroll you in a diabetes education class.

Catnapper wrote:... Other times if my blood sugar tested low, about 60-65, I could not get it to go up even if I ate a candy bar. ...

Once again, that's what I would expect. A candy bar is a poor choice:

http://youtu.be/-DGFuHC75aY

A candy bar typically has a lot of fat in it. This significantly slows the absorption of the glucose. It does not halt it. It just delays it significantly. And when you have a low blood glucose event (hypoglycemia), then you need the glucose to be readily absorbed. Hard candy (mints or the like) is a better choice. As would be glucose tablets, which are available over the counter at most pharmacies.

Catnapper wrote:... I really hate low blood sugar. I can't function at all when it gets like that. When that happened I had been taking glipizide. The doctor said it was the glipizide that kept the blood sugar low. ...

Yup. It's an AWFUL feeling. And yes, some medications can lead to low blood glucose levels. That's not something that just happens with insulin. It's one reason I recommend that you take a diabetes education class. It helps you figure out what works and what does not. From that you will learn how to control your blood glucose.

Hope that helps.

Good post, John. The only thing I'd change is that some people have their blood sugar spike from carbs sooner rather than later. So it helps for 1 day (and one day only) to start testing every 15 minutes after a meal until your blood sugar returns to the pre-meal level. If you graph it out, you can see where you tend to peak. For me, that's about 1 hour after a meal, by 2 hours I've completely missed it. The Relion meter from Walmart is the most economical way to do this. It's not necessarily the most accurate, but it will certainly help you see how you're trending.

I definitely have my blood sugar go lower AFTER eating a (low carb) breakfast because I was tending toward "dawn phenomenon" where it is higher first thing in the morning (and continues to climb UNTIL I eat). I moved around my Metformin doses to take the evening dose at bedtime instead of dinner time, and now I'm waking up with normal blood sugars in the 80 to 85 range.

Don't be surprised if a diabetes educator tells you to eat at least 6 servings (15 grams each) of carbohydrates throughout the day to avoid low blood sugar. My personal experience is that when I ate a lot of carbs, I had to eat practically every two hours, because the carbs would spike my blood sugar, which would cause a lot of insulin to release, and when my insulin resistant cells finally let the insulin do it's job, my blood sugar would drop like a stone and I'd feel awful. Now, by limiting carbs and avoiding that peak and drop, my blood sugar stays very even, in the 80 to 90 range most of the time. I feel great, and don't have to constantly eat.

Yesterday I took my daughter shopping. In the old days, after one or two stores we'd be at Starbucks (ever notice how conveniently located they are when you're shopping) sipping down sugary drinks and snacks. We shopped for hours, and driving home we passed a Starbucks, and I realized "wow, I'm not even hungry, I don't NEED to stop there anymore."

Diabetes educators may also tell you to limit fat, on the theory that your gluttony in overeating caused the diabetes in the first place (so what will they tell my daughter???). They're partially right, the type of fat deemed "heart healthy" in the American diet--Omega 6 polyunsaturated fat--should be avoided. It's highly inflammatory and does your diabetes no good. But they are absolutely phobic about natural fats (olive oil, coconut oil, and animal fats) which our species has been eating throughout time, and which can increase satiety so you actually eat less, while NOT spiking your blood sugar or causing inflammation. My friend, the diabetes educator for the HMO system still gives handouts advising diabetics to use margarine instead of real butter, canola or vegetable oil for cooking, and use low fat products, and have at least 15 g of carbs at every meal (e.g Saltines with your snack). IMHO, spectacularly BAD advice. When they take natural fats out of whole foods, they invariably replace them with sugars and starches and oxidized fatty acids, just what a diabetic doesn't need. But this is a conversation we cannot have. And so it goes.

Jan, that is exactly what I found when I went to an "educator" a few years ago. Actually lots of carbs - 45 to 60 grams or so at a meal, low fat, and low protein. She told me to eat corn because it was better than rice. I knew back then that all those carbs couldn't be right. She had plastic food to show me how big a potato I could eat.

My doctor recommended another person, so I called to interview her before I went. Turned out to be the same kind of thing.

The person I saw did not give me the kind of advice I have gotten here. John gave me some good suggestions. I just bought the necessary supplies from WalMart, so I will start tonight with the before and after meal testing.

Thanks for the help. Probably I will ask for more help soon.

Catnapper - Joanie