confused

[lushaboom_ragdoll]

ok i am a little confused about sugar readings...i have been having to diet to keep my sugars lower in range ..but for some reason yesterday my sugars have ran in low 90's before a meal and did not change  after....and would drop to 70's 2 hrs after and i woke up with a 67 reading  and went to bed with a 70 reading but ate a sandwich to try to bring it up before bed ...of course i didnt check to see what it was after the sandwich .how can you go low all of a sudden most the day if you usually have to watch for high suagr...also   once i ate a breakfast and it went to 155 2 hrs after but plummeted to 72 by 4th hour after.......please someone explain...(i'm not an insulin dependant person...i control mine by diet)

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

We are not doctors here, and any expertise that we can claim is with type 1, not type 2 diabetics, so you may want to go to the American Diabetes Association's website at www.ada.com for more information about type 2 diabetes.

But I will offer some comments here... Type 1 diabetics have an autoimmune disorder that causes their bodies' immune systems to attack and kill off their pancreas insulin-producing cells, but type 2 diabetics have working pancreas organs. Some type 2 diabetics are diabetic because the pancreas doesn't produce ENOUGH insulin, while others are diabetic because of insulin resistance (usually because of insulin resistance in overabundant fat cells). So your pancreas is working. If it were not, you would be taking insulin. But your type 2 status means that it is not working optimally. From what I have read, it appears that often people who are type 2 have periods when developing the problem where they can get hypoglycemic because the pancreas is too easily stimulated and overproduces insulin. This may be what is happening right now. How long it will continue depends on what is causing it.

Are you stressed at work? Has your diet changed recently? Has your exercise routine changed? Have you recently lost weight (this could cause a type 2 person's blood sugar levels to drop lower than usual)? Are you female and experiencing hormonal swings or just the normal hormonal change just before a menstrual period? Any of these issues can cause blood sugar levels to fluctuate and possible hypoglycemia to happen.

In the case of eating and then having a glucose level drop several hours later, this sounds like an instance when your pancreas put out insulin and then continued to produce the insulin to cover that breakfast after the breakfast finished digesting, leaving you on the borderline of hypoglycemia. Many people deal with hypoglycemia off an on, but if they are not diabetic, they don't have access to a glucometer and all they know is that they can get a headache if they go too many hours without eating, or that they sometimes feel ill and tired during the day. So blood sugar fluctuations are really normal for everyone.

Your numbers sound very good, actually, so your diet sounds like it is working. Even your low numbers in this posting are barely in what is considered a low range, so it sounds as if your body is regulating itself well. If you do FEEL low when you get a reading of around 70, then a small fix of about a half cup of juice is the ideal to make you feel normal again quickly. As for your sugars not rising after you eat a meal, this could be because your meal was low in high-glycemic index foods and so your body did not have to produce much insulin to maintain its normal glucose level or it could just mean that on that day your pancreas was a little hyperactive. Do you drink coffee? For some people, the caffeine can cause them to overproduce insulin and become hypoglycemic.

One more website for you to check out so you know more about hypoglycemia (even though your numbers don't appear to be low enough to really be called hypoglycemia): www.hypoglycemia.org

[lushaboom_ragdoll]

thanks i work at a fast food place and i ate a smaller lunch than normal cause even though you tell work u need a second break to eat a meal they won't let you so i had to eat 4 nuggets... thats all they gave me time for that day and had no time to eat anything else till time to get off....i am lucky to get that as it is they work someone 11 hrs a day ...you get one 30 min break at 2 hrs after coming in and then  u have to work 8 to 9 more hours no more breaks regardless ....i dunno how to tell them i need to eat a lil something cause i eat less in morning so i don't raise my sugar up...yeah i guess i didn't eat prperly that day to keep sugars up and was afraid to eat to much of the wrong thing at work  incase it raised up to high.