Blood sugar levels go up when you eat carbohydrates. There is a spike, and then it quickly goes down.
I am perfectly healthy and ate some potato fries before going in to have a blood test. They told me I was definitely in trouble.
Protein can have a subtler effect, and fat nearly does not affect blood sugar at all.
Nope, I am not.
So not that I am a doctor, but try fasting for 24 hours, and then take a 'baseline' blood sugar measure. So if you test frequently, record also what you consume and start looking for causal connections...We can science.
Appreciate the info. I have started a FAST that I intend to continue for 24 hours. Will see what the test result is then.
I understand that Blood Sugar will spike after consuming certain foods, but a spike as the name implies is a brief and temporary event. My levels are consistently off the charts high.
I don't think I am going to die in my sleep of anything, but do know that as long as my levels remain this the danger zone that my organs, my eyes, my hearing, all that stuff is being destroyed, and that ain't good.
Most people like you don't know they are diabetic. I didn't for a long time. I would only occasionally hit over 200 readings so I do not have as big a problem. The fact that I did not know I was diabetic for a long time left me with heart issues, and numbness in my fingers and toes. I still occasionally battle a-fib. In your place with my experience the first thing I would do is get checked for sleep apnea, although sleep apnea often triggers weight gain instead of the weight loss.
Some folks go on insulin, but that is really not a great solution for many diabetics because many Type II diabetics make plenty of insulin. The problem is their cells have become insulin resistant and the insulin does not work as it should to eliminate glucose from the blood. Almost all doctors will at the very least put you on metformin. Metformin has limited effectiveness, at least it has for me.
What I have found works is to stay as close to a keto diet as you can, and fast periodically. Fasting will bring the bloodsugar down for me better than any other solution. Fasting also has other benefits such as autophagy, mental clarity, and lowered cravings for sugar.
Thank you. I have started a fast that I intend to keep going for at minimum 24 hrs.
For the issue you having with numbness in my fingers and toes, research DMSO. From what I've read it can eliminate this issue I think it's called peripheral neuropathy.
No experience, but a doctor I follow on Instagram says fasting insulin less than 6 is optimal, so I would rec a fasting test as the other poster said to get a baseline Cut carbs. Watch your protein, especially if you don’t have lots of muscle to use the protein or it converts to sugar, too. Try walking after meals. Praying for you; please keep us posted.
Thank. At 70 I'm realizing that I am not the perfect genetic creature I imagined I was, that I can't sit on my arse, eat junk 24x7 with no consequences.
I've had type 1 diabetes (that's the kind that requires insulin injections constantly because the pancreas is not producing insulin) for decades, and I've dealt with medical advice, both good and bad, about the condition for just as long.
Are you also super-thirsty? If so, you are dehydrated - your body wants to clear out the sugar (primarily through the kidneys by urination) but water alone won't do it; you absolutely need water with electrolytes to clear it out. That means Gatorade or Pedialyte, or even better, plain water with sea salt. Even Pedialyte has added sugar which is the last thing you need right now.
A1C of 14 is crazy high. The A1C test measures the percentage of your red blood cells that are saturated with glucose ("glycated hemoglobin") at the time of the test. It's thought of as an average saturation level over a 3-month period, which is mostly the way to look at it, because blood cells only last that long on average, but it can be affected by short-term events (for example if you went to candyland and gorged on sugar for a day a few days before the test, the measurement will reflect the high peak saturation even though it's not truly the average in that case).
The finger-prick numbers are alarming, but these numbers won't send you to the hospital, not quite yet anyway. They will make you sluggish, maybe feel feverish and tired and usually make you feel the need for water and to pee a lot. If the numbers are over 400 and it keeps going higher, there's a real danger of ketoacidosis. When a person dies of diabetes, it's usually ketoacidosis. (If their diabetes is unmanaged; the other way to die from diabetes is by injecting too much insulin). For reference I've had a few episodes in my life when sugar levels rose to 400+, and I didn't need to be hospitalized. The time I did get hospitalized my sugar level was about 800. If they didn't find me in time (sugar that high will make you unconscious) I would've died then. You need to pay attention to high numbers, and you should try to get those back down below 150 (ideally around 90), but your body can take a lot before you're in imminent danger. But don't sleep on it.
Avoid carbs. Certified Diabetes Educators will tell you to manage them. You'll be way better off avoiding them entirely. Im told a lot of people in your condition can recover without being diabetic. I hope that's the case for you. Feel free to reply or DM with any questions. I'm 6'1 and 180lbs, although I've been 260lbs many years ago before going keto. Now I'm carnivore all the way and it's been very good to me and my blood sugar levels.
Thanks. That seem to be a common thread throughout all the input I am getting, and I am following that prescription.
Hell I always thought of myself like Brackus in Best of the Best 2 - “The Supreme Warrior who has never known defeat.”, and now this niggling condition has befallen me.
After 24 hr fast, last result was 191 down from high of 394. And now I am starting a Keto diet and a fasting plan. Hopefully I will be able to reset my system, and get down to non-dangerous levels.
You should be good. Keto is worlds more healthy than "typical." I was more or less keto for a number of years, before going full carnivore. It improved my health. Although I recommend carnivore as being better, I probably couldn't have done the transition at that time.
Don't be surprised if you have hunger pains as your body adjusts. It will take time for your body to adapt, but after a few weeks you'll have no regrets.
I still recommend lots of water with sea salt. Although it sounds like strange advice, I've found it very beneficial, and it makes the fast much easier.
Have you ever heard this? (From email from chemical engineer friend)
Potatoes and rice have notoriously high glycemic indices. This means that within minutes of eating those carbs, your blood sugar lifts off, maybe doubles. Every time this occurs your cells increase their insulin resistance, edging you towards diabetes.
BUT, if you bake a potato, and then chill it for 12 hours, the starches in it rearrange into a structure which your small intestines cannot digest. The resistant starch then moves to the large intestine, where it is processed by a different batch of bacteria, and one of the products of their metabolism is butyrate, a simple aldehyde. However, the butyrate then activates stem cells, resets immune system factors, and generally cleans up lots of cellular debris.
So, to improve your diet, strengthen your gut biome, and reduce insulin resistance, start converting your potatoes and rice into 'resistant starch.' Just refrigerate for 12 hours. You can reheat it and the resistant feature is not diminished. Your pancreas and immune system will thank you. And this is the cheapest way to activate your stem cells, so a win-win which costs nothing. Benefits without costs? What a reversal of our usual forced gruel.
Blood sugar levels go up when you eat carbohydrates. There is a spike, and then it quickly goes down.
I am perfectly healthy and ate some potato fries before going in to have a blood test. They told me I was definitely in trouble.
Protein can have a subtler effect, and fat nearly does not affect blood sugar at all.
Nope, I am not.
So not that I am a doctor, but try fasting for 24 hours, and then take a 'baseline' blood sugar measure. So if you test frequently, record also what you consume and start looking for causal connections...We can science.
Appreciate the info. I have started a FAST that I intend to continue for 24 hours. Will see what the test result is then.
I understand that Blood Sugar will spike after consuming certain foods, but a spike as the name implies is a brief and temporary event. My levels are consistently off the charts high.
I don't think I am going to die in my sleep of anything, but do know that as long as my levels remain this the danger zone that my organs, my eyes, my hearing, all that stuff is being destroyed, and that ain't good.
Some tips: MAgnesium, Vitamin C
I read somewhere about Magnesium. I hate this shit, that I have to start doing all this figuring out diets and crap, but it is what it is my fren.
Most people like you don't know they are diabetic. I didn't for a long time. I would only occasionally hit over 200 readings so I do not have as big a problem. The fact that I did not know I was diabetic for a long time left me with heart issues, and numbness in my fingers and toes. I still occasionally battle a-fib. In your place with my experience the first thing I would do is get checked for sleep apnea, although sleep apnea often triggers weight gain instead of the weight loss.
Some folks go on insulin, but that is really not a great solution for many diabetics because many Type II diabetics make plenty of insulin. The problem is their cells have become insulin resistant and the insulin does not work as it should to eliminate glucose from the blood. Almost all doctors will at the very least put you on metformin. Metformin has limited effectiveness, at least it has for me.
What I have found works is to stay as close to a keto diet as you can, and fast periodically. Fasting will bring the bloodsugar down for me better than any other solution. Fasting also has other benefits such as autophagy, mental clarity, and lowered cravings for sugar.
Thank you. I have started a fast that I intend to keep going for at minimum 24 hrs.
For the issue you having with numbness in my fingers and toes, research DMSO. From what I've read it can eliminate this issue I think it's called peripheral neuropathy.
Here is one good source: How DMSO Heals The Nerves & Eliminates Pain
Here is some information I posted on MMS and DMSO a while back.
https://greatawakening.win/p/16bjA5TSBn/this-my-save-your-life-or-life-o/
No experience, but a doctor I follow on Instagram says fasting insulin less than 6 is optimal, so I would rec a fasting test as the other poster said to get a baseline Cut carbs. Watch your protein, especially if you don’t have lots of muscle to use the protein or it converts to sugar, too. Try walking after meals. Praying for you; please keep us posted.
Thanks. Appreciate comms.
Praying for you MD! 🙏🤍
Thank. At 70 I'm realizing that I am not the perfect genetic creature I imagined I was, that I can't sit on my arse, eat junk 24x7 with no consequences.
If only we could! 😉
Hey Muckey,
I've had type 1 diabetes (that's the kind that requires insulin injections constantly because the pancreas is not producing insulin) for decades, and I've dealt with medical advice, both good and bad, about the condition for just as long.
Are you also super-thirsty? If so, you are dehydrated - your body wants to clear out the sugar (primarily through the kidneys by urination) but water alone won't do it; you absolutely need water with electrolytes to clear it out. That means Gatorade or Pedialyte, or even better, plain water with sea salt. Even Pedialyte has added sugar which is the last thing you need right now.
A1C of 14 is crazy high. The A1C test measures the percentage of your red blood cells that are saturated with glucose ("glycated hemoglobin") at the time of the test. It's thought of as an average saturation level over a 3-month period, which is mostly the way to look at it, because blood cells only last that long on average, but it can be affected by short-term events (for example if you went to candyland and gorged on sugar for a day a few days before the test, the measurement will reflect the high peak saturation even though it's not truly the average in that case).
The finger-prick numbers are alarming, but these numbers won't send you to the hospital, not quite yet anyway. They will make you sluggish, maybe feel feverish and tired and usually make you feel the need for water and to pee a lot. If the numbers are over 400 and it keeps going higher, there's a real danger of ketoacidosis. When a person dies of diabetes, it's usually ketoacidosis. (If their diabetes is unmanaged; the other way to die from diabetes is by injecting too much insulin). For reference I've had a few episodes in my life when sugar levels rose to 400+, and I didn't need to be hospitalized. The time I did get hospitalized my sugar level was about 800. If they didn't find me in time (sugar that high will make you unconscious) I would've died then. You need to pay attention to high numbers, and you should try to get those back down below 150 (ideally around 90), but your body can take a lot before you're in imminent danger. But don't sleep on it.
Avoid carbs. Certified Diabetes Educators will tell you to manage them. You'll be way better off avoiding them entirely. Im told a lot of people in your condition can recover without being diabetic. I hope that's the case for you. Feel free to reply or DM with any questions. I'm 6'1 and 180lbs, although I've been 260lbs many years ago before going keto. Now I'm carnivore all the way and it's been very good to me and my blood sugar levels.
I really appreciate your input. It's late here so I want to study what you say more and then get back with you.
There's a lot to learn about it, and lots of bad "official" info. Fasting, which is a good start, and avoiding carbs are the basics.
Thanks. That seem to be a common thread throughout all the input I am getting, and I am following that prescription.
Hell I always thought of myself like Brackus in Best of the Best 2 - “The Supreme Warrior who has never known defeat.”, and now this niggling condition has befallen me.
Either way, the cures are coming. You'll make it. Stay strong.
After 24 hr fast, last result was 191 down from high of 394. And now I am starting a Keto diet and a fasting plan. Hopefully I will be able to reset my system, and get down to non-dangerous levels.
You should be good. Keto is worlds more healthy than "typical." I was more or less keto for a number of years, before going full carnivore. It improved my health. Although I recommend carnivore as being better, I probably couldn't have done the transition at that time.
Don't be surprised if you have hunger pains as your body adjusts. It will take time for your body to adapt, but after a few weeks you'll have no regrets.
I still recommend lots of water with sea salt. Although it sounds like strange advice, I've found it very beneficial, and it makes the fast much easier.
So the Carnivore is just eating meat only?
Have you ever heard this? (From email from chemical engineer friend)
Potatoes and rice have notoriously high glycemic indices. This means that within minutes of eating those carbs, your blood sugar lifts off, maybe doubles. Every time this occurs your cells increase their insulin resistance, edging you towards diabetes.
BUT, if you bake a potato, and then chill it for 12 hours, the starches in it rearrange into a structure which your small intestines cannot digest. The resistant starch then moves to the large intestine, where it is processed by a different batch of bacteria, and one of the products of their metabolism is butyrate, a simple aldehyde. However, the butyrate then activates stem cells, resets immune system factors, and generally cleans up lots of cellular debris.
So, to improve your diet, strengthen your gut biome, and reduce insulin resistance, start converting your potatoes and rice into 'resistant starch.' Just refrigerate for 12 hours. You can reheat it and the resistant feature is not diminished. Your pancreas and immune system will thank you. And this is the cheapest way to activate your stem cells, so a win-win which costs nothing. Benefits without costs? What a reversal of our usual forced gruel.