Interesting possible explanation of Dawn Phenomenom

[Nancy LC]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081005203057.htm

I'll try to sum up. There's 2 things that signal the liver to produce glucose. One happens early on in fasting, the other one takes over after fasting is prolonged (slows down the production of glucose, so you don't destroy too much muscle). Apparently in diabetics the switches that regulate the glucose production are over active.

Just kind of interesting, thought I would share.

[RobLL]

I wonder if those of us who (very) low carb are not already activating that second gene, in that largely our metabolism is ketone driven.

[KiaKaha]

I just got back from the endocrinologist as I have been completely frustrated by my constantly creeping dawn effect (now operating until about 11a.m). Rather than give me medication of any sort, she said to eat as soon as I got up (I had been holding out until lunchtime in a vain attempt to not exacerbate it further). Eat she says as it will cause insulin to be released and stop the glucose production.

I can see the logic and will give it a go but what about the people who do intermittent fasting who dont eat until 6pm? Like Miz Kitty - or are we saying that there are different types of type 2 diabetics??

[chandbaby1]

Liver cleanse my friends...It helped with my dawn phenomenon. Infact that is all I had no blood sugar raise after food or anything.

[januaria]

I have a huge problem with this dawn phenomenon, and am wondering if my damaged liver is contributing to it. MY BG is normal before and after meals, but my fasting is consistently high (but normal in the middle of the night).

The suggestion to eat something upon waking makes sense, since my BG level goes up if I have nothing but tea or water for a couple of hours, but normalizes if I have some veggies or soup (or whatever else I eat for breakfast). Thanks for the article, Nancy.

[Nancy LC]

Well eating should turn off the signals to the liver to make more glucose. But the article seems to imply that if you fast longer, the signals would switch to the longer term ones. Still, nothing there points out that fasting periodically would reset everything.

[januaria]

By the way, Nancy, I took the advice in the article you posted and tried going gluten free for a few days. The diarrhea stopped the next day, and it had been so bad for well over a year that I had to wear adult diapers when I went out. I reported this to my family doc, of course, who blamed it on the metformin.

Also, going gluten free was easy: I tried quinoa for the first time and loved it.

Thanks again - had I not read that, I would never have imagined that's what it was that was causing this.

[Nancy LC]

Wow! Well, you should read up on gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. They can be really devastating. Celiac disease predisposes you to several kinds of cancer and a host of other autoimmune diseases, so you might want to make avoiding gluten a serious proposition. There's a lot to know about it.

I'm glad you figured out your issue with gluten!

[CantEven]

I just got back from the endocrinologist as I have been completely frustrated by my constantly creeping dawn effect (now operating until about 11a.m). Rather than give me medication of any sort, she said to eat as soon as I got up (I had been holding out until lunchtime in a vain attempt to not exacerbate it further). Eat she says as it will cause insulin to be released and stop the glucose production.

I can see the logic and will give it a go but what about the people who do intermittent fasting who dont eat until 6pm? Like Miz Kitty - or are we saying that there are different types of type 2 diabetics??

I have the same problem. If I fast it continues to rise until about 11am-ish. If I eat an early breakfast of zero or very low carb, my numbers go down.

My routine is as follows. I wake up 6am and walk for an hour. At 8am, I eat a zero carb breakfast which usually consists of eggs, bacon and cheese. By 2 HR PP, my blood glucose is back down and then I keep it that way for the rest of the day by continuing to eat low carb. My lowest numbers of the day are around 3 pm-ish. I'm T2 diabetic/IR not taking medication. I've been able to keep my A1c under 6% by exercise and diet alone - so far at least. :D

My morning numbers have gone down over time although never really ideal.

~Danielle