What Causes My Blood Sugar To Go Up

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Whats A Spike And Why Do They Happen

After-meal, or postprandial, spikes are temporary high blood glucose levels that occur soon after eating. It is normal for the level of glucose in the blood to rise a small amount after eating, even in people who do not have diabetes. However, if the rise is too high, it can affect your quality of life today and contribute to serious health problems down the road.

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What To Eat To Maintain Blood Sugar Levels At Night

If youre hungry at night, eat a low-carb snack to keep your blood sugar from spiking. If youre managing the Somogyi effect, youll likely need to include some carbohydrates to prevent low blood sugar and the resulting rebound hyperglycemia. Rizzotto says an evening snack should be eaten about two hours before bed.

Protein

Protein does not spike blood sugar or insulin levels, making it an ideal bedtime food choice. Protein also slows the bodys ability to metabolize carbohydrates, according to a June 2015 systematic review published in Diabetes Care. The slower the body absorbs carbs, the less your blood sugar levels will rise. Smart high-protein options include a hard-boiled egg, tofu, low-fat yogurt or a few slices of low-fat deli meat, such as turkey.

Fats

Fats also play an important role in controlling blood sugar levels. According to the National Institute on Aging, they give the body energy without raising blood sugars. They also help the body absorb essential vitamins. Therefore, its wise to include a small amount of healthy fat in your evening snack.

Healthy fats are found in low-fat cheeses, seeds, nuts, avocados and olive oil. But though these fat sources are nutritious, its important that you enjoy them in moderation so as to avoid consuming too many calories and gaining weight. A healthy serving size for nuts, seeds and cheese is about an ounce, or 1 to 2 tablespoons.

Carbs

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Good And Bad Exercises For Diabetes

One of the first things you might ask is if there are good and bad exercises for people with diabetes as in maybe I should just avoid the bad ones.

Christel Oerum, certified personal trainer and founder of Diabetes Strong and Diabetic Foodie, offered an alternative way to look at this question. Think about it like this: Your body just wants to help you out, it wants you to be successful. So, when you do certain types of workouts, predominantly anaerobic exercises, your body tries to ensure that you have the energy to be successful. It does this by releasing hormones that allow energy, in the form of glucose, to be released into your bloodstream. And that can raise blood sugars.

This response is not unique to people with diabetes. Vieira confirmed that In a nondiabetic body, the exact same process is happening, but their bodies produce extra insulin to deal with the extra glucose.

Just because blood sugar levels rise during certain types of exercise doesnt mean they are bad exercises or that the rise is happening for a bad reason, Vieira added. This is the bodys normal reaction to several factors that can occur mostly during anaerobic exercise like weight lifting, sprinting, spinning classes, competitive moments, etc.

Since its anaerobic exercise that causes BG spikes during activity, you might think that just avoiding sprints, resistance training, or other anaerobic activities could be the answer.

Preventing A Low Blood Sugar Level

If you have diabetes, you can reduce your chance of getting a low blood sugar level if you:

Check your blood sugar level regularly and be aware of the symptoms of a low blood sugar level so you can treat it quickly.
Always carry a sugary snack or drink with you, such as glucose tablets, a carton of fruit juice or some sweets. If you have a glucagon injection kit, always keep it with you.
Do not skip meals.
Be careful when drinking alcohol. Do not drink large amounts, check your blood sugar level regularly, and eat a carbohydrate snack afterwards.
Be careful when exercising eating a carbohydrate snack before exercise can help to reduce the risk of a hypo. If you take some types of diabetes medicine, your doctor may recommend you take a lower dose before or after doing intense exercise.
Have a carbohydrate snack, such as toast, if your blood sugar level drops too low while you’re asleep

If you keep getting a low blood sugar level, talk to your diabetes care team about things you can do to help prevent it.

Symptoms Treatments And Prevention

Hyperglycemia means high glucose in the blood . Your body needs glucose to properly function. Your cells rely on glucose for energy. Hyperglycemia is a defining characteristic of diabeteswhen the blood glucose level is too high because the body isn’t properly using or doesn’t make the hormone insulin.

Eating too many processed foods may cause your blood sugar to rise.

Changes In Diet Patterns Or Food Content Can Cause Blood Sugar Fluctuations

Changes in Diet can fluctuate blood sugar.

All other people know that high carbohydrate content in the food will spike blood sugars. However, not everybody is aware of the glycemic index. The Glycemic index is an indicator of how fast the blood sugar will spike with the same amount of carbohydrates. For example at 30 g of carbohydrates in apple have a much lower glycemic index and 30 g of carbohydrates in the breakfast cereal. Blood sugar may spike twice or 3 times faster with the breakfast cereal compared to apple with the same amount of carbohydrates.

Another point that You have to be aware of is the fat content in the food. Anytime you eat carbohydrates with high animal fat content your blood sugars may spike much higher and the spike may come delayed many hours after a high fat, high carb meal.

On the contrary, if you eat very healthy and eat very little carbs the medications you have been taking for your regular diet may be too much especially if you are on sulfonylureas or short-acting insulins.

In summary, to prevent blood sugars go up and down or fluctuate too much you have to pay attention to the glycemic index and fat content in your diet in addition to paying attention to carbohydrates.

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What Are Possible Complications Of Diabetes During Pregnancy

Most complications happen in women who already have diabetes before they get pregnant. Possible complications include:

Need for insulin injections more often
Very low blood glucose levels, which can be life-threatening if untreated
Ketoacidosis from high levels of blood glucose, which may also be life-threatening if untreated

Women with gestational diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in later life. They are also more likely to have gestational diabetes with another pregnancy. If you have gestational diabetes you should get tested a few months after your baby is born and every 3 years after that.

Possible complications for the baby include:

People With Diabetes Generally Take 2 Types Of Insulin:

WHY is my blood sugar UP AND DOWN? Stop the Madness! SugarMD

Short-acting insulin and
Long-acting insulin.

Short-acting insulin such as APIDRA or NOVORAPID or HUMALOG reaches the bloodstream within 30 minutes after injection and peaks anywhere from 23 hours.

However, long-acting insulin such as LANTUS is peakless insulin that works in the background and lasts more than 24 hours.

The effect of these two insulins gets combined and the peak of short-acting insulin shifts to early morning hours. This increases the risk of hypoglycemia around 3:00 am.

Key Points About Diabetes During Pregnancy

Diabetes is a condition in which the body can’t produce enough insulin, or it can’t use it normally.
There are 3 types of diabetes: Type 1, tType 2, and gestational diabetes.
Nearly all pregnant women without diabetes are screened for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy.
Treatment for diabetes focuses on keeping blood sugar levels in the normal range.
Women with gestational diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in later life. Follow-up testing is important.

High Calorie Foods May Or May Not Cause The Blood Sugar Level To Rise

Many people think that all high-calorie foods raise blood sugar level, but this is not always the case.

In general, foods that cause blood sugar level to rise the most are those that are high in carbohydrates, which are quickly converted into energy, such as rice, bread, fruits and sugar. Next are foods high in protein, such as meats, fish eggs, milk and dairy products, and oily foods. However, even though carbohydrates affect blood sugar levels, if you don’t eat them your diet will be unbalanced and you won’t feel satisfied after your meal, which can lead to excessive consumption of foods rich in protein and fat.

Food containing three major nutrients

Carbohydrates

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How Is Diabetes During Pregnancy Diagnosed

Nearly all nondiabetic pregnant women are screened for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. A glucose screening test is given during this time. For the test, you drink a glucose drink and have your blood glucose levels tested after 2 hours.

If this test shows a high blood glucose level, a 3-hour glucose tolerance test will be done. If results of the second test are not normal, gestational diabetes is diagnosed.

How Is Diabetes During Pregnancy Treated

Treatment will depend on your symptoms, your age, and your general health. It will also depend on how severe the condition is.

Treatment focuses on keeping blood glucose levels in the normal range, and may include:

A careful diet with low amounts of carbohydrate foods and drinks
Exercise
Oral medicines for hypoglycemia

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How To Treat A Low Blood Sugar Level Yourself

Follow these steps if your blood sugar level is less than 4mmol/L or you have hypo symptoms:

Have a sugary drink or snack like a small glass of fizzy drink or fruit juice, a small handful of sweets, 3 or 6 glucose tablets or 1 to 2 tubes of glucose gel.

Test your blood sugar after 10 to 15 minutes if it’s improved and you feel better, move on to step 3. If there’s little or no change, treat again with a sugary drink or snack and take another reading after 10 to 15 minutes.

You may need to eat your main meal if it’s the right time to have it. Or, have a snack that contains a slow-release carbohydrate, such as a slice of bread or toast, a couple of biscuits, or a glass of cows’ milk.

You do not usually need to get medical help once you’re feeling better if you only have a few hypos.

But tell your diabetes team if you keep having hypos or if you stop having symptoms when your blood sugar level is low.

How To Stabilize Your Blood Sugar Overnight

The most important thing you can do to stabilize your blood sugar is monitor your glucose levels at bedtime, during the night, and when you wake up to look for patterns. This will help you determine whats going on in your body and how you can fix it. While there are many strategies people use to stabilize blood sugar at night, every person is different youll have to look for trends in your body, experiment with ways to lower glucose levels over a period of time, and learn what works best for your body.

Check your blood sugar before bed. If its already high, your blood sugar levels may remain high throughout the night. To address this, youll want to start by adjusting when you eat your evening meal and what it consists of, and how much mealtime insulin you take to cover it.
Avoid eating lots of food close to bedtime. For diaTribe writer Adam Brown, the key to staying in range overnight is low-carb, early dinners, with no snacking after dinner.
Consider eating less food at night and taking more basal insulin to cover your evening meal.

Check your blood sugar during the night, between midnight and 3am. If you were in range before bed but have high glucose levels between midnight and 3am, you may need to adjust your basal insulin dosage and timing. If you are low during that time, you may experience a rebound high blood sugar later on this is usually associated with overcorrecting the low.

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Blood Sugar Spike Causes

Blood sugar levels fluctuate all day long. When you eat food, particularly those foods that are high in carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, or pasta, your blood sugar will immediately begin to rise.

If your blood sugar is consistently high, you need to talk to your doctor about improving your diabetes management. Blood sugar rises when:

youre not taking enough insulin
your insulin isnt lasting as long as you think it is
youre not taking your oral diabetes medication
your medication dosage needs adjusting
youre using expired insulin
youre not following your nutritional plan
you have an illness or infection
youre using certain medications, like steroids
youre under physical stress, such as an injury or surgery
youre under emotional stress, such as trouble at work or home or with money problems

If your blood sugar is usually well-controlled, but youre experiencing unexplained blood sugar spikes, there might be a more acute cause.

Try keeping a record of all the food and drinks you consume. Check your blood sugar levels according to your doctors recommendations.

Its common to record your blood sugar reading first thing in the morning, before youve eaten, and then again two hours after eating. Even a few days of recorded information can help you and your doctor discover whats causing your blood sugar spikes.

Common culprits include:

Shades Of Chia Pudding: A Diabetes Breakfast Revolution

Real Reason Why Blood Sugar is High In The Morning? Quiz below!

What weve learned from over 75,000 people about making awesome chia pudding for breakfast: new recipes, new flavors, and how to overcome common stumbling blocks

Chia pudding has struck a resounding chord with diaTribe readers: over 40,000 people have viewed the original column, The Three-Minute Diabetes Breakfast That Changes Lives, and more than 30,000 people have now viewed our original how-to video on and .

As I shared in Bright Spots & Landmines, chia pudding is an awesome diabetes breakfast: little impact on blood sugar, super filling, three minutes to make without cooking, under $0.60 per meal, infinitely customizable, tasty , and yes even life changing. Simplifying breakfast which is almost certainly the hardest meal of the day for blood sugars can be transformative.

Over the past year, weve learned how diaTribe readers make chia pudding in their own clever ways. This article organizes more than 50 tips and tricks into a single, choose-your-own adventure guide to making chia pudding with new bases and toppings. Its like the Chipotle approach, but re-applied to my favorite breakfast: Chia-potle?

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Blood Sugar Spike: What To Do

Its important to know the symptoms of hyperglycemia. If you suspect that you have high blood sugar, perform a finger stick to check your level.

Exercising and drinking water after eating, particularly if youve consumed a lot of starchy carbs, can help lower your blood sugar.

You can also use an insulin injection, but be careful only to use this method while closely following the recommendation of your doctor regarding your dose. If used improperly, insulin can cause hypoglycemia .

Why Does Blood Sugar Go Up At Night

There are many factors that can cause your blood sugar to increase at night. For example: what food you ate during the day, how much and when you exercised, whether you ate snacks before bed, the timing of your insulin doses, and your stress level. You can experience different patterns of high blood sugar at night. You may start with high glucose when you go to bed, start the night in range but go high several hours later, or spend most of the night in range until the hours just before you wake up. By identifying your bodys patterns, you can figure out what is causing your high blood sugar and how to address it.

Common causes of a glucose increase at night include:

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How To Treat Someone Whos Having A Seizure Or Fit

Follow these steps if someone has a seizure or fit caused by a low blood sugar level:

Stay with them and stop them hurting themselves lie them down on something soft and move them away from anything dangerous .

After the seizure or fit stops, give them a sugary snack.

Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to have a seizure or fit.

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