I’m going to post weekly graphs of my blood sugar here, along with the food and exercise that makes it move.
I hope this provides accountability to get me healthier.
I’m 49 with Type 2 diabetes that I need to manage better.
Earlier this summer my annual physical was coming up and I was expecting bad results. I wanted to tell my doctor “nothing I do will lower my blood sugar” but I wanted to have proof.
I wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) that will give me a cool spreadsheet of my blood sugar every 15 minutes. So I spent the week before the doctor’s visit tracking all my food and activity and labelling the graphs that came out.
I’m bad about snacking, but in that week I knew I couldn’t say to my doctor “I don’t know why my blood sugar is so high, I only ate a bag of doritos” so I ate properly.
Of course, my blood sugar was great that week.
That tought me that having someone to report to keeps me on the good path. I’ll start posting my graphs early next week.
My wife tests her blood sugar levels every other day and has been able to identify which foods cause significant increases. No more Rice Krispie Treats, a lot less bread and pasta too.
I can’t keep you waiting, here’s the first two days.
The borderline for diabetes is A1C of 6.5 which is an mdgl of 140. Mgdl is instantaneous, while A1C is a 3 month average, I’m showing the daily averages here.
Normal is an A1c below 5.7. I’m thrilled with any day with an A1C below 6.0.
These graphs are auto generated by the glucose monitor website, and I add my comments in powerpoint. I’ll make an assumption about #1 and 2.
Those are points when I touch my phone to the sensor to get a reading.
The data that is stored is both the immediate reading, plus 15 minute readings for the prior 8 hours.
There will be gaps in the graph if I go more than 8 hours without scanning, usually overnight.
I assume those are based on the 15 minute readings, I dont know what kind of smoothing they do.
I added those commetns in powerpoint. The times are approximate and I do point to the apparent effect if it’s obvious.
I agree. I think it’s important to find out what food/s and the timing of the food causes the spike before deciding how best to address it. Should be lots of cool information coming out of it.
The thing about Type II diabetes is that people tend to over-secrete insulin because of higher blood glucose levels. This then becomes a cycle which trends higher and higher over time (this then causes oxidative damage to your peripheral nerve endings in your hands and feet mostly)
People focus on controlling the glycaemic load of a meal (glucose), which while the correct thing to do, is only one part of the picture.
There is a lot of variability in your blood glucose-insulin responses due to timing (day and meal composition). Unless you eat the exact same thing every single day and sleep 7h/day (lack of sleep is a huge problem for insulin sensitivity) its going to be tough to really make use of the results in a granular way.
The main thing insulin does in your bloodstream is shuttle the glucose into your muscle and fat cells.
The problem for Type II folks is that the muscle cells have reduced insulin sensitivity (thus they have reduced ability to soak up glucose from the bloodstream), so you end up over-secreting insulin via the pancreas to drive down blood glucose (thats how you end up with higher insulin and blood glucose levels which is damaging)
Thats were thioctic acid comes in. It improves the muscle cells ability to transport glucose from the bloodstream into the cell, leading to lower levels of blood glucose in the bloodstream, which then does not necessitate higher insulin levels to clear. The results usually tend to be lower resting blood glucose and insulin levels with individual variability (depending on how severe the Type II diabetes is).
Other than lower carb diets (think isometric or ketogenic) its one of the few things that does seem to work vs drugs (metformin, insulin, etc.) for people at the lower end of the type II diabetic spectrum.
True, but let’s see FIRST how his blood sugar changes without them.
For science, mind you.
Woodrow, are you on any kind of medication? Just wondering about that first period on Aug 13, and how everything is now in a slightly tolerable level. Of course, the readouts you see tell you what you need to do right at that moment, causing bias (not that anyone here should mind, as we are more concerned about your health than general scientific inquiry on one volunteer).
Where are the other days?? Been a whole week. We’re STARVING for your sweet, sweet data! (And we might Type II just looking at it!)
Ohh, good info above, thanks.
My current understanding is that insulin sensitivity is the real problem and that’s caused by the 10-20 lbs of fat around my belly - I’m skinny otherwise. Losing that is the real goal, which mostly goes hand in hand with daily control (don’t eat junk).
I’m on 1000 mg of metformin daily. Been on that for a year.
This week started well, but things got stressful at home and I fell off the wagon over the weekend.
I’m observing that 10 minute walks are a super power (but still dont make up for eating junk)
When insulin levels are higher than normal because blood glucose levels are higher than normal, the body will not release energy stored in your fat cells into your bloodstream (in the form of free fatty acids).
This is the difficulty Type II diabetics face as it can become a vicious cycle given that you have a propensity to increase fat storage (as you produce too much insulin to clear a standard blood glucose load), but those same higher insulin levels block the release of FFAs from your fat cells (which can theen be burned for energy).
Metformin works to achieve that reduction in insulin by slowing gastric emptying (this then has the effect of reducing blood glucose levels to a standard blood glucose load). Thioctic acid work on a different pathway so it can also be useful to reduce blood glucose and insulin levels.
The best time for you to do low intensity excercise (which burns mostly fat) is when you wake up after an overnight fast. Insulin levels will be lowest then, and since you do seem to be in the lower end of the type II spectrum it could probably yield some results for you in terms of losing that bit of fat.
Looks like there are three prominent yellow zones - after Wegmans (maybe a big meal with grapes, was there sauce on the wings?), French toast and apple (with a slight dip after the walk) and the Ice cream (while still digesting Chipotle).
Is the danger in the yellow zone measured by duration, how deep into it you go, or the total yellow area under the curve (combination of time and severity)?
