Optimal Fasting Blood Glucose

Do I want my Fasting Blood Glucose to be normal/average, or do I want it to be optimal? It dawned on me, I want my FBG to be optimal, so that led to an Internet search to find out what optimal is, and I found this referenced website:

http://www.vitaminb17.org/temp/blood_sugar.htm

The site is affiliated or owned by: Life Extension Magazine. They claim that for optimal health against age related diseases, we should try to achieve optimal fasting blood glucose readings. I thought the information posted at the weblink was interesting.

I’d like to hear some opinions on this, both pro & con….

This is what they consider optimal fasting blood glucose levels.
Optimal: 70-85 mg/dL
High Normal: 86-109 mg/dL

And, they say that “high normal” is dangerous………

I am shooting for 75-85 FBGs. See Jenny, there is evidence that time spent over 100 can be harmful. Obviously not as harmful as 120, 140, 180, etc. And I would like my daily excursions to stay below 100. haha, despite pre-exercise insulin I am going over that fairly regularly at the gym.

I'm always very happy to see 70-80 on the meter. I need to get off the caffeine again so I can return to those sorts of numbers.

This type 1 is very happy with "high normal." I'm prone to very scary hypos while I'm sleeping and I want to avoid that at all costs.

I had a frightening hypo last night where my meter simply said "lo" and I ended up overcompensating and a fasting BG of 420 this morning.

My sister-in-law is a "brittle" type 1 and it is not uncommon for her to have significant hypo's in the morning. One thing I recently read was to eat protein just prior to going to bed. I mentioned it to her the other day. I have no idea if it will help for 6 or 8 hours...

As a T2 I am pretty fortunate in that with basal insulin primarily, it is rare that I wake up under 70, but not unheard of. When I awaken under 70 it gives me a good excuse to have a single morning cup of coffee instead of a glucotab... Coffee takes my BG up by about 25 points in about 40 minutes... pretty fast acting.

I like the waking 70 - 85 number but have no particular basis for it.

/smile

I tried a new exercise DVD with resistance bands last night and consumed 4 glucose tablets 2 before and 2 after. My BG was 118 when I went to bed. I think glycogen replenishment may have sucked all the glucose out of my blood. My BG monitor has never registered "lo" before. I have had a 27 reading on this monitor. It scared me pretty bad and today I feel like I've been hit by a mack truck.

Technically, normal is 70 to mid 80s based on CGMS studies of younger healthy people.

Brittle diabetes is often diabetes treated by doctors who don't quite have the hang of adjusting basal/bolus regimens correctly and who urge people to eat HIGH carb/low fat diets.

Dr. Bernstein says that cutting carbs dramatically can eliminate so-called brittle diabetes, and I suspect he is right. I am not a full fledged Type 1--functionally I'm about half way there now with a tiny bit of basal insulin production left but almost no meal time secretion. But I cannot eat more than 50 grams and get the insulin to work properly. If I were to try to cover the 100 grams many Type 1s routinely eat, I'm pretty sure I'd end up with those trips to the ER too. And a lot of Type 1s are skinnier than I am which means they respond even more dramatically to carbs!

She has been T1 for at least 30 years and is only now finding out about LC diets and their benefits. That is a sad testiment to our "normal" treatment recommendations for diabetics. Her insulin use has dropped dramatically in the past couple of weeks.

Her old philosophy was to eat a healthy salad for lunch so she could get a milk shake...

/smile

P.S. Oh, and yes she is skinny, too.

I've given it some more thought... If optimal FBG is 70-85, shouldn't that be optimal for BG all the time????

Well, LCing hasn't helped my "brittleness" in the least. I take it to mean that you have no cushion, the honeymoon is over, and every external event can affect my BG levels. A simple cold can send my numbers over 400 for days. Just a stressful event can raise it over 100 mg/dl. That is what I consider "brittle."

Jenny has quoted some research that short deviations from normal base line BGs are not know to cause complications. Healthy non diabetics frequently go to 125 briefly after a carby meal.

Sympathy for being 'brittle', that really is a bummer. This is obviously a variation on the definition which is useful for us to know. Would using Lispro to get highs down help keep BGs in the range you would like?

Yep, being "brittle" sucks. You can improve the bouncing numbers which often arise from very low BG levels (I've had BGs in 20s) and that can cause a huge dump of glycogen and sends your numbers soaring. I have pronounced Dawn Syndrome too and i have to compensate for that with 1.5 units of Humalog. I just load a syringe and keep it next to my alarm clock. I wake up at 5:30 a.m., inject and go right back to sleep for an hour.

When I'm sick, I become insulin resistant so bolusing has less effect and more uncertainty. I found that good old Regular works better than fast acting Humalog when I'm resistant. I don't know why Regular works when Humalog doesn't, or if that is simply just me.

I try to avoid stress which also exacerbates the problems of crazy BG levels. When I was newely DXed, it wasn't nearly this hard to keep my BG levels under control. The LC diet helps greatly, but I am ever vigilant and check my BG at least 6 times per day and compensate for any deviation.

I think this thread has been hijacked....... but then, perhaps, my opinion is just being "Brittle"...........


The following by LowCarbUgh:




Do you listen to yourself? Of all the posts I've read lately, if I could judge any as being written by someone who is stressed, you'd win by far!!!!

I hope things get better for you....

Right now I have my powerbook at the pool. So, no I'm not stressed now. I'm going diving in Cozumel next week. I'm a naturally intense person (and I run a company I built myself) and that causes some stress.

Sorry to hijack your thread. It's just that I think the issues of type 2s and type 1s are so vastly different. What is "normal" for a "normal" person or even a type 2 is slightly dangerous for a type 1.