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I Have Type 2 Diabetes. How Can I Prevent Morning Spikes?

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Posted on Sat, 15 Sep 2012
Question: type 2 diabetic my morning spikes occur between 8 am and 11am how can I preventthis or is it possible?l
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Answered by Dr. Michelle Gibson James (1 hour later)
Hi

Type 2 diabetes occurs both because of insulin resistance (body does not respond to its own insulin) and inadequate level of insulin. There are persons who may be insulin resistant because of excess weight but because their body responds by increasing the insulin released then their blood sugar does not go up.

In addition to insulin, there is another hormone called glucagon that is important. Glucagon is also released by the pancreas (the organ that releases insulin) and its job is to raise your blood sugar. Insulin can normally suppress glucagon but when it is not able to work properly then it cannot and this also contributes the increase in blood sugars. This is the reason that diabetics often will see rises in their 2 hours after meals before the fasting blood sugars go up.

After you eat a meal , your insulin tries to reduce your blood sugar and also tries to prevent the rise in glucagon, so the 2 hr depends on the relative interplay between these 2 hormones; so that a small drop in insulin relative to glucagon causes this to go up.
Fasting levels are mainly influenced by insulin stopping the liver from making too much sugar and these are high when the insulin levels are really low; so increase in fasting sugars go up after the 2 hours.
This is why it is important to check a variety of readings because some may be normal and others abnormal.

Your readings will be influenced by what you eat or drink and the adequacy of your medication (diabetes is a progressive disease and if you are complying to a healthy lifestyle and the readings remain elevated, it may mean that the medication needs to be increased or something added).
You will need to look at what you eat or drink in mornings, check your readings after different meals and note which meals are associated with what readings. When you figure out which foods ( bread, biscuits, pancakes,juices , waffles, other high carbohydrate foods) are causing the higher blood sugars then you can cut them out or reduce them.

Sometimes our morning sugars are influenced by our evening meals if they are extremely high in carbohydrates, so you may want to make a note of your evening meals as well.

You may also need to look at the medication you are taking to control your blood sugar. It may need to be adjusted to provide better daytime control.You should speak to your doctor about this.

I hope this information is helpful, feel free to ask any other questions
Note: For further follow-up, discuss your blood glucose reports with our diabetologist. Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Michelle Gibson James

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2001

Answered : 16808 Questions

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I Have Type 2 Diabetes. How Can I Prevent Morning Spikes?

Hi

Type 2 diabetes occurs both because of insulin resistance (body does not respond to its own insulin) and inadequate level of insulin. There are persons who may be insulin resistant because of excess weight but because their body responds by increasing the insulin released then their blood sugar does not go up.

In addition to insulin, there is another hormone called glucagon that is important. Glucagon is also released by the pancreas (the organ that releases insulin) and its job is to raise your blood sugar. Insulin can normally suppress glucagon but when it is not able to work properly then it cannot and this also contributes the increase in blood sugars. This is the reason that diabetics often will see rises in their 2 hours after meals before the fasting blood sugars go up.

After you eat a meal , your insulin tries to reduce your blood sugar and also tries to prevent the rise in glucagon, so the 2 hr depends on the relative interplay between these 2 hormones; so that a small drop in insulin relative to glucagon causes this to go up.
Fasting levels are mainly influenced by insulin stopping the liver from making too much sugar and these are high when the insulin levels are really low; so increase in fasting sugars go up after the 2 hours.
This is why it is important to check a variety of readings because some may be normal and others abnormal.

Your readings will be influenced by what you eat or drink and the adequacy of your medication (diabetes is a progressive disease and if you are complying to a healthy lifestyle and the readings remain elevated, it may mean that the medication needs to be increased or something added).
You will need to look at what you eat or drink in mornings, check your readings after different meals and note which meals are associated with what readings. When you figure out which foods ( bread, biscuits, pancakes,juices , waffles, other high carbohydrate foods) are causing the higher blood sugars then you can cut them out or reduce them.

Sometimes our morning sugars are influenced by our evening meals if they are extremely high in carbohydrates, so you may want to make a note of your evening meals as well.

You may also need to look at the medication you are taking to control your blood sugar. It may need to be adjusted to provide better daytime control.You should speak to your doctor about this.

I hope this information is helpful, feel free to ask any other questions