Hi Les!



Well...fretting about it isn't going to make it go away. In my own experience, yes...it did clear up after several months on low carb. If I remember correctly, my morning readings didn't start getting lower than my bedtime ones until I had been on low carb for 6 or 7 months. Whether it was the length of time that I had been low carbing or the weight loss (or both) I can't say with any certainty.
I can't promise you that your experience will be the same as mine, but at the moment it seems that you are doing everything you can to help overcome it, so I would encourage you to keep at it, give it more time, and try not to fret about it too much. Have you tried exercise early in the morning?
As for the shot of whiskey at bedtime, I understand completely...I don't think I could stomach it, either. But...a nice glass of wine or a low carb beer would be much more agreeable to me even if it does have a few more carbs.

hi all:
i'm too obsessed about my fasting. usually alcohol does it trick but bot always. 1/2 glass of wine with dinner keeps my gasting at 112, which is good for me. my previous doc told me that as long as my pp is low, my slightly elevated fasting is not a proble. actually, before dawn is the time when liver removes most of the insulin from our bloodstream, and pumps as much glucose for us to get energy and start a new day. this happens before down only since i';ve checked my BG midnight, and it was lower. i usually go to ber with 90-100 BG, and it raises 10-20 points before dawn. i've seen Grove's website before, sounds interesting. i've tried but couldn;t stomack that much fat. i got some gastric distress for past two day from eating all this fat, so i'm cutting back on it. feel better and lost few pounds already. just protein, bit of oilve oil, and some berries and grapefruit. i've read protein power on weekend, and i'll try this plan just low fat version.
regards

I don't know if this would help, but while I was pregnant they reccomended eating something at 2 am. This might help combat the rise of glycogen from the fasting state.
Rosie

Thanks Rosie, i'm not sure id i can actually do this. i know if i eat, my BG will be better. btw, eating close to bedtime is better. the longer i fast, the higher the BG. it's like cholesterol, worst is made by liver. so does the BG. it looks like liver is a major offender. LOL
dina

Thanks Lisa!

I do exercise in the morning. I get up at 5 am every day even weekends and work out for 30 to 40 minutes depending on what I'm doing. (I do weights and power walking with weights to an exercise tape in the house on alternate days. Too dangerous to walk outside at 5am-a neighbor might shoot me!). I also drink a glass of wine with dinner or sometimes before bedtime.

I am just going to stop being obsessed by this and concentrate on doing the right things for me. I am losing weight and my doctor says when I lose a sufficient enough amount my body will make the proper adjustments. Patience is a virtue which I seldom adhere to!

Hi Les:
you are not the only one. hang in there. i'm too very impatient with dieting but then i tell myself that i didn't gain this weight overnight, and it will take some time to lose it too. i've decided to get a glass of red wine everynight now with dinner since it keep my morning BG at 110-115 which is at least below diabetic. i'm not sure if i'll ask for medications because it will stop my pleasurable dinner time. we may become alcoholics and then we'll switch from blood sugar dorum to AA forum. LOL
cheers,
dina

Hi Dina- I should know this, because I read your posts over on the Dr. B's forum, but are you trying the ALA/Evening Primrose bit? I have been for a couple of days, and it is very encouraging - this morning mine was 82, and that is not fasting, 'cause I didn't get home from work until 11 pm and had some sausage and broccoli, a meal, basically. I'm beginning to think it works. Cheers, Bill

Dina, forget i asked that, I did this forum before going over to Dr B, and I see you've discussed it fully over there. I am a bit bummed because, reading the new edition, I notice he thinks H1ac should be in the 4.7 range, and I was so pleased with my 5.6 - I think some ADA lit that I've got says that is normal - and so much better than the 7-8 range i was in before. But to drop to 4.7? seems like my meter would have to always be in the 60s to get that. I told myself once fall got here, would join a club, do the weight lifting thing - maybe more muscle mass, insulin sensitivity, etc. To be fair, look at how great we are doing, you with your slightly high fasting, me with my not-quite-the-ultimate H1ac, we could still be on our way to beta cell burnout, and worse things.Cheers, Bill

Bill:
i've read the Dr.B book latest edition, and i start questioning the whole thing. is it possible for somebody with our condition to have H1C below 5. 5 is cut off for BG =100. if we could have it this good, we wouldnt be diabetics in a first place. everyone is different, some people are more insulin sensitive, some are less. but the major point is not what exactly your number is but is it high enough to do signuifucant damage. for the beta cell burnout, my guess it happens to everybody as we age either you are diabetic ot not. it's the same as other hormones in our bodies which decline too. sorry but i wouldn't expect someone in his 60s to be in the shape and state of the hormones as somebody in his 20s.
so, my point is with your H1C of 5.6 and my slightly elevated fasting, we can still be OK. Dr.B makes sense but it looks like a lot of folks can't fit completely into his BG range. yes, exercise especially weight lifting are great and niot only for BG, but health in general. i personally believe that we are trying our best. one of my doc told me to stop stressing yourself, it makes your BG even higher.this whole diabetic thing takes already a big chunk of my free time, i can't afford it. life goes on.
dina

Hi Dina,

An A1c of 5.5 is equal to an average BG of 118 (plasma)

Thanks,

Adam

hi Adam:
sorry, i've messed up the numbers. I meant that 100 = 5.0, not 5.5.
thanks,
dina

i think we all strive to keep bgs under 100 and i would love my A1c to be under 5 instead of 5.4 but at the end of the day we just have to do our best and as long as i can maintain daily bgs of under 100 95% of the time with no serious spiking after meals, i,m not going to stress about it.lifes too short!
i think very few long term diabetics would be able to have an A1c under 5,without medication and don,t forget,it all depends on the lab that does the test.
stressing about it puts my bgs up anyway!!
i,ll keep on trying though.

I think it is possible for diabetics to get readings under 5 and that's what I'm shooting for. My last was 5.3. I'm hoping my next will be 5.0 or lower. Not that it isn't achieved without a good deal of discipline which means that you can't allow your blood sugar to spike even once in a while. Non-diabetic A1C is in the range of 4.2-4.6, or an average blood sugar of about 85 and this is what we are to "shoot" for. Can everyone make that? Maybe not and maybe not for some with just diet alone, but it's a worthy goal to aim for. Is 5.5 good enough? Maybe, but if I can get it lower I'm certainly going to attempt it. At this point, I'm not sure I'd be willing to go back on medication to get my A1C below 5 and I'm reasonably sure that my doctor wouldn't go for prescribing it for that reason.
I don't believe that beta cell burnout is inevitable with age. If that were so, we'd see a lot more elderly people with diabetes who are not overweight. In other words, everyone would eventually become diabetic if they lived long enough and this is just not so. Yes, our other hormones decrease with age and this is generally thought to be a normal function of aging, but I've not read anything to date that shows that beta cell burnout is a normal process of aging. What burns out beta cells isn't their age, it's overuse and high blood sugar readings. Allowing them to work less, either through the use of insulin or by eating in a manner that eliminates blood sugar spikes, preserves their function.
Having said all that, I don't think about it every hour of the day and I don't let myself become obsessed by it. It's a goal and when I'm deciding whether or not to have that high carb goodie during the next holiday, it's something that I will think about; is eating this more important to me than my goal of a lower average blood sugar? If my next A1C comes back the same as it was last time, I'm not going to beat myself up over it or get stressed over it. I'll just keep trying and at the end of the day, that's really the best that all of us can do.

The ultimate goal is getting healthy. Even for me. I started with needing to lose 125 lbs and now I only (hah!) need to lose 102. But I feel better, am more active, and like myself better than I have in years. Yes, I want BGs in the normal range and I will continue to work for that and everyday I do pass up high carb food that's there on every street corner in America and in the grocery stores (but not in my house!). I can do this because there's a forum like this one that I can come to and ask questions and glean answers from. I have vowed to myself to stop obsessing and get on with living. I have to live with this disease but I refuse to let it drive me anymore. I agree Lisa, that's all any of us can do, but we are doing it.

Well, well, look who we have here !! This is a much busier site than Dr Bs, but it is very far-reaching with its topics...most informative. Cheers Eevee (Eve)