...Has anyone (type two) found anything to minimize this effect without drugs. Should i eat before bed? If I wake up and have a snack will that help? I've found lots of reports and studies on this but non of them were a studiy of what makes it better or worse form a dietary standpoint.
Thanks,
rick

...Has anyone (type two) found anything to minimize this effect without drugs. Should i eat before bed? If I wake up and have a snack will that help? I've found lots of reports and studies on this but non of them were a studiy of what makes it better or worse form a dietary standpoint.
Thanks,
rick

Hi,
I have tried everything for this and nothing works! I have given up and quit worrying about it. I have tried carbs before bed, alcohol, protein, protein with carbs. I even went on insulin at night to try to lower my morning sugars and that doesn't work either. I take 24 units of Lantus at bedtime. Everytime I see my endocrinologist, she increases my Lantus in hopes to lower it, but it does not work. My BS has always been and still is around 150-160 in the morning. The only thing that I can do is to eat something immediately when I get up and then it will go to a normal range. If I don't eat, it will continue to rise. Good luck.

Mine rises in the morning also. When I get up it's usually in the 130-40 range but also can be below 120. After I eat, it goes even higher. I've tried taking my glucotrol and then waiting for a half an hour to eat, but it makes no difference. I notice that an egg and a half of a piece of toast works the best... causes the least jump. Orange juice or cherrios seems to be out of the question. Orange juice makes my levels go sky high and even though cherrios have only 1 gram of sugar, they are bad for me anyway. I only eat half a cup with some skim milk.
I find that the morning numbers are all over the place. The ;ast time I had blood work done, I tested out at 114 and then an hour later at my doctor, I was 82! (Fasting) But I have been as high as 136 at the doctor also.
I'm beginning to think it may be something I'm eating before I go to bed. I'm just going to have to try and eat more protein, but it's a struggle.
When I was first diagnosed in November, my Alc was 11.5 and now it is 6.6 so I've done quite well overall. I just wish I could control the morning and early afternoon levels more. Before and after dinner I'm fine and also at night and before bed.
I have eye disease due to my out of control diabetes, which must have been going on for awhile. I was very ignorant about treatment as I thought I had it under control ten years ago. I had gone to a diabetic dr. and was doing extremely well, My one hour after meal levels were in the 100-110 range and I did it without meds.. just diet and exercise. After that I lost quite a bit of weight, so I thought I was OK. I had always read that diabetes was a disease of the obese. How wrong I was and what a price I paid! Let it be a lesson to everyone. Your eyes can appear fine with 20/20 vision and terrible damage can still be going on. I can't stress enough the importance of regular eye exams and blood work. Once the eye damge has occured, there is little besides laser surgery that can be done. The laser surgery won't reverse the vision loss, only stop the progression.

Cher,
,,,A couple of things you may want to consider. I don't try to distinguish between carbohydrates and sugar. To know how much your BS is going to react is going to be determined by the carbohydrate content and what type of carb more so than by it's sugar content as you have experianced, Some carbs raise blod sugar faster that table sugar will. Potatoes are a good example. So that may be what your experiancing with the cheerios. I have the book, The new glucose revolution and it rates the different foodss by their efect on BS. The tables in the book may help you in figuring what foods will effect you the most.
...The dawn phenomenon is usually caused by hormonal releases and not by food. We don't have too much control over that which is the reason for my post to see if anyone had found an answer. From what I've read, just a small meal will kick the hormones down and let BS lower. I think the best way is as you described and to experimant on what you eat whne you wake up to see what works best.
Rick

Rick:
I found a glycemic index and saw that Cherrios are in the 70's... even higher than frosted flakes if you can believe that! This morning I had scrambled egg beaters with small pieces of ham and one piece of whole wheat toast. My glucose reading was only 132 an hour later. Much better than after my 1/2 cup of cherrios and 1/2 cup of skim milk. Also filled me up more substantially.

I no longer have DP. But I always have a snack before bed. usually a med to low glycemic load food and water. Infact, sometimes I have cheerios before bed...lol

A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low. When I compared the GL of Cheerios and Frosted flakes the load was actually the same...15 go figure

I still eat my cheerios several mornings a week alternating with oatmeal.

I have my numbers in normal range now, but am still always reading and learning

Linda :jester:

This message board has been so helpful!!! It helps to know I am :) not alone with these problems. I too, cannot figure out how to keep my BS from rising in the morning. I even have tried doing my 30 minutes of exercise(before I eat but after my meds) and my BS goes even HIGHER! I always thought exercise would lower those numbers. I have been diabetic since 1991 and am 67 years old (maybe that's the problem LOL). I look forward to the continued support.
Thank you everyone,
Nancy

This message board has been so helpful!!! It helps to know I am :) not alone with these problems. I too, cannot figure out how to keep my BS from rising in the morning. I even have tried doing my 30 minutes of exercise(before I eat but after my meds) and my BS goes even HIGHER! I always thought exercise would lower those numbers. I have been diabetic since 1991 and am 67 years old (maybe that's the problem LOL). I look forward to the continued support.
Thank you everyone,
Nancy
...I can see where physical activity could stimilate the adrenal gland even more, creating more cortisol, thus elevating the BS more. I haven't done enough research yet to know this for sure, but I bet that until you replinish the glycogen stores, this will be a problem or if the insulin levels are still too high for the pancreas to release glucagon( to use the glycogen stores) it will be a problem. I read where dr's give type two diabetics insulin to try and compensate for this rise, but it also seems this would make us depend on the adrenals even more for glucose to keep us moving. Very confusing.
...I've had early morning vertigo attacks and they were usually the morning after I had NOT eaten any carbs the night before. I usually have a bowl of cereal before bedtime. (frosted flakes LOL). I'm wandering now if it wasn't the Dawn Phenomenon triggering the excess insulin that caused them.
Rick