DP/DE-Kathleen: was- Re: New Here

[Guest guest]

Kathleen,

What you say " should " be true, but there's a big " but " ---

There's a thing called the " Dawn Phenomenon " (DP) or " Dawn Effect " (DE) that

most diabetics have to contend with to one degree or another (another YMMV).

Simply put, you can arrive in the morning with the same or higher bg's than

what you had before going to bed. There's another facet to it where your bg's

will continue to go up in the morning even if you don't eat " anything " !

Our bg's should decrease thru the night as the body uses the bg for the

various purposes to keep us alive. In some cases, the bg will get low enough

(the

body thinks it's starving) that it will trigger the liver to dump glucose

into the blood, raising bg's & since our diabetic bodies are poor at

controlling bg, will usually result in a higher bg in the morning than bedtime.

This is

called the " Somogyi " effect. You can google " somogyi effect " & find many

more technical explanations of this.

Now, why would this happen to you at a bg around 180mg/dl? Well, your body

thinks that level is normal & can react as if your bg was " really low " , when

in fact it's not. Diabetics who have reduced their bg's quickly can even

experience symptoms of hypoglycemia (shaking, sweats, headache, disorientation,

etc) at bg levels far higher than what is the usual hypo level (<70mg/dl).

While not dangerous like a " real hypo " , these things can be very uncomfortable.

Bg rising after rising in the morning has a different cause, but since

that's not your question, a discussion for later.

Please know that these explanations are simplified & not technically

accurate, but an easy way of describing what's happening & sufficient to help

you

understand at this early stage in your control efforts.

There are various ways to try to mitigate DP or DE, but since yours just

results in getting back to bedtime bg's, I personally wouldn't worry about that

at the moment. There are bigger fish to fry, like getting down from that

180mg/dl level.

Hope this helps.

*****************************************

, T2, dx'ed 4/98 with Fasting bg 350mg/dl & HbA1c 15.5%

Controlling until last month with LC-D & very little E

Average Fasting bg 105mg/dl, Last HbA1c 6.0%

7+ Year Historical HbA1c 5.6%-6.0%

Now Experimenting with Metformin, Glyburide & " Merlot Therapy " for HbA1c

nearer 5.0%

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>> Helen,

I don't understand something. My after supper reading was 182 and now

my morning fasting level is 180, I thought it would go down maybe 20

or 30 points not just 2.

Kathleen <<<