Need help and advice
 

I convinced my lean T2D (well-controlled with insulin for over 20 years) to try a fast today.

After about 18 hours, his BG is 140 and he is about ready to start eating because he would never have a reading that high unless he had a lot of carbs.

What is going on?

Sorry, guess we all missed this. Dr Fung might have answered a similar question on the DietDoctor page?

On the LC support page someone became ill, luckily went to hospital..turned out it was dehydration.
Interesting list of hidden causes of Blood Sugar swings was just posted. If you put some of these causes together, starting LC which is dehydrating, maybe fasting and not drinking enough, adjusting meds, keep these in mind when numbers look out of usual range.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diabe...-swings.aspx#01

A bit OT but the pic with #11 has the poor sod sticking the pad of his middle finger. Ouch!

Thanks for the link, JEY100.

:lol: Diatribe had a list of 22 reasons used before here, and readers added some more. http://diatribe.org/issues/68/adams-corner
Put together a dehydrating diet, fast, exercise, and a few hot, summer-like days, this could be a more common reason for higher BGs than people realize. Luckily the body gives other warning signs to fix it.

Well, he didn't like the fast at all, and I doubt he'll continue (well, he might try another time). On the other hand, as someone who has been on insulin for over 20 years, the fact that he is pretty much off of it (and has no other meds), it's pretty amazing. He's in the 90-100's and hope that will lower with the very low carb WOE. He's lost about 7 pounds, but he is not overweight at all -- maybe that's visceral fat?

I think that if his BG had dropped during the fast, rather than shoot up, he might have been more convinced of it's efficacy. It was the shooting up part that I was wondering about.

90-100 is good and deemed normal for everyone, for someone who use to be on medicine and now only using diet...great. The 7 pounds may be just water attached to glycogen? What I meant by LC being a dehydrating diet by itself, add a fast, and "dehydration drives up blood sugar". But his numbers are good, no need to lose weight, so no need to fast.

At first, when I fasted or ate very low cal (LC, of course) my BG rose higher than I usually saw (my spikes at that point were about 115 mg/dl. I saw as high as 130). I found some comments, I think on Blood Sugar 101, about the liver releasing glycogen in an effort to keep the body at what it considered 'stabilized'. Think of it as Dawn Phenomenon happening during the day.

I expected it and rode it out. Over a very few days, the BG rises gradually decreased. My DP pleasantly stopped at the same time. I think my liver and pancreas needed time to get the message, 'there's a new game in town'.

These days, on no meds, I rarely go over 100 after eating. When not eating I gracefully slide into the 70s.

Of course, your DH could have a completely different metabolism and under-riding issues. Meaning YMMV.

What is his insulin regimin like? Does he take basal, and then cover his meals with bolus, or does he only cover meals with insulin? It's possible the insulin for the meals is obscuring things, and he actually needs a little (or a little more) to cover his basal, fasting needs.

And I think gotsomeold's experience makes a lot of sense. Early on, with high glycogen stores, it's easy for a bit of stress to raise blood glucose. I found this working out and measuring my blood glucose. Probably the most stressful exercise I do is deadlifts, when I ate a higher protein low carb diet, it wasn't unusual for my blood glucose to go up to the mid-120's after a deadlift--higher than it generally went when I ate a high protein meal. When I started eating at more ketogenic ratios, that post-deadlift rise in blood glucose greatly diminished--gluconeogenesis can't compete with a glycogen dump.

This is great information, you guys.

He was taking both types of insulin, both basal at night -- and bolus before breakfast and dinner. He has stopped both. He is eating 20-30 carbs now. He only considered fasting as I am doing 22:4 3X per week.

I'll let him know about the glycogen stores -- I'd invite him over to this forum, but I kinda need it for myself and my own issues. :)

You could always let him read the references that people cited, for himself.

My husband is more likely to pay attention to information from the source itself, than from me.

Yeah, I send him stuff all the time -- he probably gets tired of it :) On the other hand, he's really making a go of getting off the insulin, so he is definitely paying attention. I'm very proud :cool:

I would be proud, too, Kat.

Mine doesn't have the health issues that yours has had. But he's a stubborn Scandinavian (the worst of stubbornness of Sweden, Norway AND Finland!) who's read entirely too many articles in running magazines about the "necessity" of carbs for running.

So every drop in his consumption of carbs is a victory!

Kat, how's DH doing now?

I mentioned that Dr Fung has answered seems hundreds of questions already on DietDoctor, so many hard to find the right one.

But they loaded some newer ones today, and I noticed this answer to your question:

Some BG spikes are just head-scratchers - no obvious reason for them. As long as my diet is good, I'm now ignoring the occasional spike. I do make a note of when/what I ate, just in case there turns out to be a connection.

For me, one connection turned out to be eating a full meal late, like at 7 or 8. So now I don't usually eat after 2 or 3. I'm not a morning person, but it turns out my body is, so I now have a good lchf breakfast and 5-6 hours later a similar lunch & I'm good! :)

He's still doing well, and hasn't fasted again, but still is off the insulin -- his BG's are starting to go down, so he may not even need to fast. We are sticking to the under 20 grams of carbs, highish fat, moderate protein, way of eating.

We're both viewing Dr. Fung's videos again.

Thanks for asking.