Diabetes Talking » Diabetes » Things that would make fasting BG go up?
Things that would make fasting BG go up?
Question:
2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. Did you take an aspirin that day? I’ve read and know from personal experience that Aspirin will make you bleed more easily (at least, as far as squeezing blood out for BG tests 
Really? I knew aspirin was a blood thinner, but didn’t realize that the effect could be seen on the small scale of a finger prick. That’s a good thing to know – in both directions. Definitely don’t want to have an aspirin before having dental work done, then. As for me, I’m allergic to aspirin so if I had through error or inadvertance taken some, the hives would probably have tipped me off. I think I was probably just using a more suitable section of my finger. Thanks, Martha — Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
I didn’t know that – has anyone tracked to see if there’s a correlation with the pre-menstrual munchies?
WARNING! TMI to follow. I don’t know about the munchies, but now I track my TOM by my sugar. If it goes into the 60’s, I’m going to start the next day. Like clockwork. chakolate — Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand. –Confucius
Response:
As for me, I’m allergic to aspirin so if I had through error or inadvertance taken some, the hives would probably have tipped me off. I think I was probably just using a more suitable section of my finger.
I recently discovered that if I stick my finger on the end under the nail I get a much better drop than if I stick it on the side under the nail. Chakolate — Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand. –Confucius
Response:
Hey, I figure that collectively you all would know all things that are interesting to know about blood glucose testing. I’m a T0, but I’ve been monitoring my bg sort of as a science project. After my two day holiday blowout (I meant to do that), my fasting results have been consistently 86 with one 79. But, this morning, it was up to 100 and then when I retested (the things we do for science) it was 91. I did have a fasting result of 100 on the day I restarted induction, but I thought that probably had something to do with my excesses of the day before. Not something to worry about, but if I’m going to draw useful conclusions from this, I need to understand some of the confounding elements that might skew the readings. The only things I can think of that might have had an impact are: 1. I had a few sips of Fruit20 about a half hour before. It’s artificially sweetened and couldn’t have more than 1-2 carbs total. 2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. When I touched them to the pad, the blood sort of pooled on top. But, I wiped off the excess and there wasn’t any blood showing through on the back – just the normal darkening of the pad. 3. I feel a little run down today. I doubt it’s anything like the flu but it isn’t impossible that I’ve got a cold brewing. 4. I tested later in the morning than I normally do – got up late. I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Thanks, Martha — Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
In article – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey, I figure that collectively you all would know all things that are interesting to know about blood glucose testing. I’m a T0, but I’ve been monitoring my bg sort of as a science project. After my two day holiday blowout (I meant to do that), my fasting results have been consistently 86 with one 79. But, this morning, it was up to 100 and then when I retested (the things we do for science) it was 91. I did have a fasting result of 100 on the day I restarted induction, but I thought that probably had something to do with my excesses of the day before. Not something to worry about, but if I’m going to draw useful conclusions from this, I need to understand some of the confounding elements that might skew the readings. The only things I can think of that might have had an impact are: 1. I had a few sips of Fruit20 about a half hour before. It’s artificially sweetened and couldn’t have more than 1-2 carbs total. 2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. When I touched them to the pad, the blood sort of pooled on top. But, I wiped off the excess and there wasn’t any blood showing through on the back – just the normal darkening of the pad. 3. I feel a little run down today. I doubt it’s anything like the flu but it isn’t impossible that I’ve got a cold brewing. 4. I tested later in the morning than I normally do – got up late. I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Thanks, Martha
Having had a mother who was very insulin resistant, and a very brittle T2 diabetic, I can tell you the following: 1. Hormonal flux will change your blood sugar from time to time. 2. Illness (even if you’re not a diabetic) will change your blood sugar from time to time. People who are consistent with their blood glucose readings, but have major, major surgery where there is a worry of infection (or caused by an infection) will be given insulin as a preventative, because their blood glucose will rise, and the bacteria thrive on it. 3. Some people get a blood glucose response to artificial sweeteners. If that’s the case, you should be glad you know about it now – because you want to avoid them. I have a friend (T2) who says that splenda responds just like sugar for him – he can blow a VERY high blood glucose after ingesting anything with splenda. Who’d have thought? Hope that helps. — Nancy Howells (don’t forget to switch it, and replace the to send mail).
Response:
Martha, I’ve found that if I eat enough to refill my glycogen, my fasting blood sugar goes up–but often a few days after the fact. Plus, as other people said, hormones and, especially, fighting off a virus or infection. I see my blood sugar go up before I get symptoms. Sometimes I’ll see it rise, feel cruddy for a few hours, and then it will drop and I won’t get sick. I take it this means my immune system did its job. — Jenny Cut the carbs to respond to my email address! Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes and more at http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/ Looking for help controlling your blood sugar? Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey, I figure that collectively you all would know all things that are interesting to know about blood glucose testing. I’m a T0, but I’ve been monitoring my bg sort of as a science project. After my two day holiday blowout (I meant to do that), my fasting results have been consistently 86 with one 79. But, this morning, it was up to 100 and then when I retested (the things we do for science) it was 91. I did have a fasting result of 100 on the day I restarted induction, but I thought that probably had something to do with my excesses of the day before. Not something to worry about, but if I’m going to draw useful conclusions from this, I need to understand some of the confounding elements that might skew the readings. The only things I can think of that might have had an impact are: 1. I had a few sips of Fruit20 about a half hour before. It’s artificially sweetened and couldn’t have more than 1-2 carbs total. 2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. When I touched them to the pad, the blood sort of pooled on top. But, I wiped off the excess and there wasn’t any blood showing through on the back – just the normal darkening of the pad. 3. I feel a little run down today. I doubt it’s anything like the flu but it isn’t impossible that I’ve got a cold brewing. 4. I tested later in the morning than I normally do – got up late. I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Thanks, Martha — Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks.
Did you take an aspirin that day? I’ve read and know from personal experience that Aspirin will make you bleed more easily (at least, as far as squeezing blood out for BG tests -Drew
Response:
In article
[snip question re unexpectedly high BG reading] I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings, then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Having had a mother who was very insulin resistant, and a very brittle T2 diabetic, I can tell you the following: 1. Hormonal flux will change your blood sugar from time to time.
I didn’t know that – has anyone tracked to see if there’s a correlation with the pre-menstrual munchies? 2. Illness (even if you’re not a diabetic) will change your blood sugar from time to time. People who are consistent with their blood glucose readings, but have major, major surgery where there is a worry of infection (or caused by an infection) will be given insulin as a preventative, because their blood glucose will rise, and the bacteria thrive on it.
Interesting. 3. Some people get a blood glucose response to artificial sweeteners. If that’s the case, you should be glad you know about it now – because you want to avoid them. I have a friend (T2) who says that splenda responds just like sugar for him – he can blow a VERY high blood glucose after ingesting anything with splenda. Who’d have thought?
Interesting that that would be so. I think I had too simple a model of how blood sugars worked (you eat carbs, the sugars in your blood stream go up, the body releases insulin to mop them up, if it’s working normally, end of story, if you’re IR or T2 maybe not) since there couldn’t be all that high of a carb load in splenda, so some other mechanism must be involved. Fortunately, that’s probably not me. I use a variety of artificial sweeteners and so far my median readings are pretty normal, which I don’t expect they would be if I were reacting to the sweeteners. Hope that helps.
It really does, thanks, Martha — Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
I’ve found that if I eat enough to refill my glycogen, my fasting blood sugar goes up–but often a few days after the fact.
That’s interesting, and consistent with my results for this phase of my science project. Just as many people make the mistake of thinking that what they had for dinner the night before is necessarily tied with a loss they see the next morning (not that it couldn’t be, either), I was assuming that the results reflected the carb load of the last meal. Plus, as other people said, hormones and, especially, fighting off a virus or infection. I see my blood sugar go up before I get symptoms. Sometimes I’ll see it rise, feel cruddy for a few hours, and then it will drop and I won’t get sick. I take it this means my immune system did its job.
I wonder if I could use that as a barometer? "I’m sorry, I won’t be in to work today. My blood sugar is way up, so I think I’m coming down with something." <g Thanks, Martha — Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
What’s skewed is probably your machine. There can be a 10% error in the reading a machine gives you. None of your numbers are anything to worry about.
Hmmm. I didn’t realize that. As long as it’s a consistent percentage (i.e. it’s always some fixed amount higher or lower than my actual BG level), that’s fine. Even if the numbers aren’t right, I’d still be able to see trends. But if it sometimes underestimates and other times overestimates then the data won’t be as useful since I wouldn’t expect to see the big swings of someone who is T2 or IR. As for the numbers themselves, yeah my research suggested it was within the normal range. Things that can affect BG (fasting or otherwise): Illness can make BG go up and/or swing wildly. Stress makes BG go up due to the adrenalin the body produces to cope with stress.
Cool. Note to self – test more when visiting family. <g BG naturally rises before dawn to prepare you for the day ahead.
Ok, that I’m going to have to take on faith. If I’m awake before dawn the last thing I’m going to want to do is poke holes in my fingers. BG flucuates during the day naturally, depending on food intake and activity levels. The Fruit2O should not affect BG. Testing later than usual can. Eg: this morning my fasting BG was 70. Took my Starlix for BG and had a cup of coffee with cream and Splenda for breakfast. My pre-lunch BG was 128. I had not had any food, and my activities included getting ready for work, driving there and sitting in front of a computer entering data. Why did my BG jump so much? Maybe my liver dumped sugar because I hadn’t eaten. Maybe my husband leaving home angry and stressed, stressed me out. I really don’t know. But as a diabetic, 128 wasn’t all that bad.
That makes sense. Sorry about the bad day, by the way. If I pigged out for two days, my sugar would be sky high, 300’s at least. I think your science experiment is interesting. Keeping an eye on BG tells one alot.
It has been interesting. One of the things that I’ve discovered was that I had thought that my occaisonal feelings of extreme tiredness, leaden thighs, usw might be the result of low blood sugars. But when I actually test, so far my readings have been entirely normal a those times. Ok, it’s a negative, but it still helps in ruling out blood sugar problems. One other thing. You don’t mention what type of meter you are using. Mine is one that has strips that can’t be contaminated by handling them (they use a sip technology). Always be sure your fingers are clean and completely dry when collecting your blood sample or get a machine that’s easier to use. There are models that won’t start the reading until enough blood is on the strip.
If I were diabetic or IR trying to prevent further progress, I’d definitely invest in the best possible system. As it is, I’m using the prestige smart system. I think it’s only advantage is that the strips are probably the cheapest you can buy. The disadvantages include the fact that it takes rather a lot of blood to get the color to completely fill in the back. Even when there’s a pool of blood (ok, it’s a *little* pool) sitting on the top side, sometimes it takes a while for the back to completely turn color. In theory, it rejects strips that aren’t completely colored and my experience is that it does reject some. But I’ve also had a number where the back hadn’t entirely colored and I got an improbably low reading. Trying again, the reading was more normal. So, I probably wouldn’t want to rely on this meter if my health were at stake (others may have better results with it; there may be some way of getting the blood to fill in the dot more evenly that I just don’t know about), but for my purposes it’s close enough for government work. Thanks, Martha – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Mary Sue Hey, I figure that collectively you all would know all things that are interesting to know about blood glucose testing. I’m a T0, but I’ve been monitoring my bg sort of as a science project. After my two day holiday blowout (I meant to do that), my fasting results have been consistently 86 with one 79. But, this morning, it was up to 100 and then when I retested (the things we do for science) it was 91. I did have a fasting result of 100 on the day I restarted induction, but I thought that probably had something to do with my excesses of the day before. Not something to worry about, but if I’m going to draw useful conclusions from this, I need to understand some of the confounding elements that might skew the readings. The only things I can think of that might have had an impact are: 1. I had a few sips of Fruit20 about a half hour before. It’s artificially sweetened and couldn’t have more than 1-2 carbs total. 2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. When I touched them to the pad, the blood sort of pooled on top. But, I wiped off the excess and there wasn’t any blood showing through on the back – just the normal darkening of the pad. 3. I feel a little run down today. I doubt it’s anything like the flu but it isn’t impossible that I’ve got a cold brewing. 4. I tested later in the morning than I normally do – got up late. I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Thanks, Martha
– Begin where you are – but don’t end there.
Response:
Hi Martha, What’s skewed is probably your machine. There can be a 10% error in the reading a machine gives you. None of your numbers are anything to worry about. Things that can affect BG (fasting or otherwise): Illness can make BG go up and/or swing wildly. Stress makes BG go up due to the adrenalin the body produces to cope with stress. BG naturally rises before dawn to prepare you for the day ahead. BG flucuates during the day naturally, depending on food intake and activity levels. The Fruit2O should not affect BG. Testing later than usual can. Eg: this morning my fasting BG was 70. Took my Starlix for BG and had a cup of coffee with cream and Splenda for breakfast. My pre-lunch BG was 128. I had not had any food, and my activities included getting ready for work, driving there and sitting in front of a computer entering data. Why did my BG jump so much? Maybe my liver dumped sugar because I hadn’t eaten. Maybe my husband leaving home angry and stressed, stressed me out. I really don’t know. But as a diabetic, 128 wasn’t all that bad. If I pigged out for two days, my sugar would be sky high, 300’s at least. I think your science experiment is interesting. Keeping an eye on BG tells one alot. One other thing. You don’t mention what type of meter you are using. Mine is one that has strips that can’t be contaminated by handling them (they use a sip technology). Always be sure your fingers are clean and completely dry when collecting your blood sample or get a machine that’s easier to use. There are models that won’t start the reading until enough blood is on the strip. Best, Mary Sue – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey, I figure that collectively you all would know all things that are interesting to know about blood glucose testing. I’m a T0, but I’ve been monitoring my bg sort of as a science project. After my two day holiday blowout (I meant to do that), my fasting results have been consistently 86 with one 79. But, this morning, it was up to 100 and then when I retested (the things we do for science) it was 91. I did have a fasting result of 100 on the day I restarted induction, but I thought that probably had something to do with my excesses of the day before. Not something to worry about, but if I’m going to draw useful conclusions from this, I need to understand some of the confounding elements that might skew the readings. The only things I can think of that might have had an impact are: 1. I had a few sips of Fruit20 about a half hour before. It’s artificially sweetened and couldn’t have more than 1-2 carbs total. 2. Normally I have trouble squeezing out enough blood to completely darken the back of the strip, so I have to keep adding drops, but today for some reason I got a lot of blood from both sticks. When I touched them to the pad, the blood sort of pooled on top. But, I wiped off the excess and there wasn’t any blood showing through on the back – just the normal darkening of the pad. 3. I feel a little run down today. I doubt it’s anything like the flu but it isn’t impossible that I’ve got a cold brewing. 4. I tested later in the morning than I normally do – got up late. I’d appreciate any suggestions. If theres something wrong with my testing technique that’s skewing my readings then I’m essentially sticking pins in myself for no good reason. Thanks, Martha