Dawn Rise of Glucose

[Guest guest]

Val,

I was doing a search to find more info on the dawn rise and its

relationship with Cortisol and found this:

" Overnight, usually between 4am and 11am, your body releases some

hormones. These are Growth Hormone (GH) from the anterior pituitary

gland, cortisol from the adrenal cortex, glucagon from your

pancreatic alpha-cells, and epinephrine (adrenalin). These hormones

cause an increase in insulin resistance, raising your BG. In

addition, these hormones trigger glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis,

adding stored or new glucose to your bloodstream.

Dawn Phenomenon, and its associated increase in insulin resistance,

is the reason most diabetics are far more sensitive to carbs in the

morning.

Dealing with Dawn Phenomenon

There are many ways of defeating Dawn Phenomenon. You will have to

experiment with the following suggestions to see what works for you.

1. Try eating no food after dinner. This works for people whose Dawn

Phenomenon isn't very strong. Basically, it lowers their baseline BG,

so that when DP does hit them, the increase keeps them below a

certain level, usually 120 (6.7).

2. Try eating a small snack of fat and protein before bed. Most find

that a tablespoon of peanut butter, or some cheese and deli meat are

effective. The theory here is that the slow-digesting fat and protein

holds their BG high enough overnight to avoid Somogyi Effect (see

below).

3. Eventually, you will learn how the two disparate approaches above

work for you. Hopefully, you will set personal targets to guide you,

eg., if my BG is below XXX (insert your target here), I need a snack.

If my BG is over XXX, I don't need a snack.

4. The prescription medication Metformin HCl (Glucophage) is often

very effective in limiting Dawn Phenomenon for Type-2s and insulin

resistant Type-1s. Of course, Type-1s can adjust their basal (slow)

insulin regimen to account for Dawn Phenomenon.

5. Lastly, EAT BREAKFAST. The resulting increase in blood glucose

from food will often turn off the continued rise. If you don't, some

diabetics will continue to rise until 10-11 am. "

The link is:

http://www.diabetic-talk.org/dp.htm