I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last week, so I started a low carb diet. Levels haven't been to bad that I've caught, but this morning my level was 197 and I haven't ate or drank anything since about 7:30 last night. Any clue why its so high??

I got type 1 diabetes, and i got a "condition" called Dawn Phenomenon (about 80% of all diabetics do, if I remember correctly). It's when your body produces growth hormone which increases the body's resistance to insulin. In some people it can start as early as 10 pm and sometimes lasts to 10 am (which it does with me). I'm am higly resistant to insulin at night and I am very sensitive to insulin after about 12 am (which leads to poorly regulated diabetes). So I almost always have too high blood sugar in the morning (it's almost always about 12 - 14 mmol/L, 216 - 252 mg/dl).
Here is a link for you to read about it :) http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/article.cfm?aid=1023

Take care :wave:

The other thing I would like to mention is to be very careful to have clean hands when you test your sugar. This can throw your reading way off. It takes very little contaminant in the small drop of blood being tested to alter
the result significantly.

Everyone has dawn phenomenon. It is your body's way of preparing for the day. At some time during the night or early morning your body puts out glucose so that there will be energy available when you get up. For some people it is only a mild elevation and for others it is quite significant. Because it is only an issue for people with diabetes, it is often mentioned in conjuction with diabetes, but everyone has it to some extent or another.

Cora

Tinkerbell,
Were you at one time hypoglycemic? Just curious, because hypoglycemia is often a precursor to T2 diabetes, and I was thinking that if in fact you had been, maybe your blood sugar actually went too low at sometime during the night, triggering your liver to release glycogen to raise the blood sugar. This is called "rebound effect" and causes high blood sugar in the am.

Even if you weren't ever hypoglycemic, try setting your alarm for around 3 AM and testing your blood sugar at that time. If it's quite low (below 60, especially), then what you're experiencing is rebound, and the way to prevent it is to have a light snack before bedtime.


Ruth

Everyone has dawn phenomenon. It is your body's way of preparing for the day. At some time during the night or early morning your body puts out glucose so that there will be energy available when you get up. For some people it is only a mild elevation and for others it is quite significant. Because it is only an issue for people with diabetes, it is often mentioned in conjuction with diabetes, but everyone has it to some extent or another.

Yes, that's true. But not everyone with diabetes has problems with it, becuase it's not so severe in everyone, as i said about 80% have minor to greater problems with it. So i only metioned it, so she could look it up to see maybe her cause to why her blood sugar was high in the morning, as the question was. :)

:wave: