To all these knowledgeable lcers...
 

Okay...I want one of these testers, but does that mean you're pricking yourself each time...I'm not sure if I can do that. I've had hunchs to what are my problem foods - like this awesome expresso maker I got for Christmas. I'm almost positive it's caused my insulin to spike (esplly. with the whipping cream and sweetner I add). Hey, I'm outside induction so I thought I would start using it. I will probably have to wait until Maintenance:( Yesterday I decided I would stop drinking it in the morning and see how my weight progresses, but one of those tester things would clue me in real fast.
Are they expensive? Painful? And, I know what the normal range it, but if the know goes down - is that good or bad? Or let me rephrase, when your insulin spikes so does the reading?

Can someone clue me in on the details.
Thanks,
Erin

Wait, I have one more question,
 

From the these tests, do you think that it may be plausible to say that caffine could be worse than sweetners?

Erin

CAFFEINE IS DANGEROUS..... IT WILL SPIKE INSULIN....USE DECAF.... Yes you have to prick your finger each time.... but it gives you a good idea of how your body reacts to the food or drink you ingest....

Expensive???? that's a relative question. Relative to bubble gum, its expensive. Relative to diamonds, its cheap...Honestly....the boxes of 50 testers is about 50 dollars Canadian, which is about 30 american dollars. thats about a buck a prick!!!!!!!canadian.... about 60 cents a prick american!!!

Your posts are soo cute...
 

I just love this and I also love the "buzz." I thought that the caffeine was a person to person thing?

Erin

I think I'll invest in the pricks...

glad it made you chuckle....re: caffeine.... i believe that its common to most people...

but since you are prepared to invest in a pricker like mine...you will soon find out won't ya???

HE HE

Hi again,

Gabrielle, if you're out there, I was just reading old posts and you mentioned that your high for bs in the morning was 85 and your low was 59. Well, and again, let me say that the information I"m giving is coming from my diabetes center meetings. A person who is NOT a diabetic, after fasting for 8hrs (overnight) has readings of 60-110. Above 126 is considered diabetic. I know, inbetween is kind of "be careful" the tendency to be diabetic is there. You might want to have blood work done to see if everything is ok the next time you go for a physical. According to the "center" there is no such thing as "borderline" diabetes, but many doctors insist on using that term. Supposedly, the ADA is going to shrink the gap between "normal" and "diabetic".

question.
 

so, for low carbing purposes, is it better for bs to be on the higher end of the normal range or the lower end?

what is happening with insulin when when the bs is 6 or when its 4?

i am confused because when misselly said she drank buzz coffee her bs dipped to 4.x

??? :confused:

silence.....

you wake up....your bs is normal at about 5.4. that is your fasting bs.
you have a buzz coffee... the caffeine stimulates the insulin (the hormone that brings bs down)... remember.... you have not eaten anything yet to raise the bs, so the stimulation from the caffeine takes a bs of 5.4 and drops it to about 3.8..... all this tells us is that caffeine stimulates insulin. avoid caffeine....

you wake up.... your bs is normal at about 5.4.... that is your fasting bs.
you have eggs, bacon and cheese..... no change in bs.

you wake up.... your bs is ..........
you have a danish, a coke and toast!!!!!!!!!! your bs jumps to 9.6 and insulin is being secreted to bring that down to normal.... but there is so much insulin being secreted to handle the garbage food that the bs is taken down lower than 5.4 and you soon after you eat the garbage... hit a low of 3.4 (insulin did its job). You feel hungry, tired and you want sugar...... your brain wants sugar so you give in again..... back up to 9.8 and a big drop again to 3.1 this time.... and so on.... its a vicious cycle....

you wake up... your bs is 5.4............
you have a grapefruit, 1 egg and a slice of cheese...... bs goes to about 6.1..... small amount of insulin released.... bs drops to 5.2..... not hungry till the stomach is empty bs is normal.... grapefruit digests slowly and all is fine..... our goal here is to control insulin.....

hope this helps...

yes yes!
 

ahaha. thank you so much. that clears things up a lot.

I do testng for the same reason
 

Thank You! I just wrote a long and sad post on another thread, browsed and came upon your testing. That was the best explaination about blood sugar action/reaction that I have ever come accross.
For a while on sugar busters,I was eating the stone ground whole wheat and whole grain bread. and SGWW pasta also, and lost some weight.
Then stalled beyond belief!
Then I said, let me see what happens to my blood sugar,{ i use the other measurement} when I eat the foods they say is okay for us to eat.
I ate a sweet poatoe the BS jumped up to 175. I took it a half hour later and it continued to go up{no more food intake}
So I now have proof that this diet does not prevent my BS from raising. This means, I need an insulin push to get it down. So I kept pricking myself and even after two hours it did not drop significantly. {good and bad news: either ther was no insulin response or I had a delayed response; however by morning the sugar reading was just about 100}
There is a debate about whether to call me a diabetic or not because when sugar readings are taken over a period of a couple of months, the reading {in your guage} is about 6.something.{doctors report}
I have had over my life time more than a dozen glucose tolerance tests and many of them were useless, because when I took the fasting morning sweetner and this was tested, I spiked real high. Some were three hour tests and by that time the readings were coming down.
BUT THEY STOPPED THE TESTS, SAYING YOU ARE NOT DIABETIC

Here is the difference between another doctors method: He gives me a 7 hour test: and what happened after the three hours was that IT CONTINUED TO GO DOWN meaning I had more than enough insulin to do the job and here is where I called it HYPOGLYCEMIA.
If nothing was wrong with me the blood sugar curve after three hours should have made an up turn to normal {on it's own with out food}

Now I truly believe there is a connection with why I can't lose and the level of the INSULIN in my body not just the level of SUGAR in my body.

By the way, after the 7 hour test, I was in tears and they ran out of veins to tap, my blood pressure dropped and they sent me home with a mouth full of candy and me ready to faint/pass out.

Of course, most people would say, well you are not supposed to go with out food for 7 hours. But I should not die either by going with out food for that length of time. What about when you sleep?

Good board, perked me out of my misery for a second:

to my family and friends
I TOLD YOU THERE WAS/IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME! !

Thanks for the chance to vent my feelings.

wow.... you have sure been thru the pricking mill.....it seems very important to control your carb intake. since your bs seems to remain so high for so long...you need to know that that is not good either. you want controlled bs..... not too high....not too low....read the http://www.glycemicindex.com/ find foods that are carbs but do not jolt the bs.
good luck and let us know how that works...

thanks misselly
 

This moring after a lite meal last night, my BS was 85 with a lot of hours between the take. I haven't eaten breakfast yet, but I will make it low carb for sure.

Maybe after my morning tea, {earl grey with a punch} I will take the BS to see what the caffiene does to my already low bs. Supposedly tea does not have the affect coffee does{?}

Thanks for the encouragement and I hope to read more of your wonderful input. I read your profile, you are such a busy lady with such a big family, god bless your interest to help out others.
I can use a friend.

you are welcome.... i enjoy this and look forward to sharing with everyone.... this is a family of people who all know what the next guy is feeling.... Thank you for your kind words...

doesn't it say whole grain is slow bs raiser?
 

I've read the GI on whole grain, and it's satates that whole grains does not cause the sugar to spike like white bread. So, last night, having had no supper to think of, I felt like I needed a small meal.

So I took one slice of 7 whole grain bread from Germany and a slice of pepper jack cheese, {thin} and very small tomato sliced on top and heated in the micro for one min.
This bread has such visiable whole grains that it falls apart after heating. So this to me a safe choice. I waited for a time, and then took the BS. It was up to 195.
That is as much as a banana would spike it or even real chocolate, so here again I, needed to cut it in half to have it work.

It's almost morning{get up time} because I have to babysit my grandaughter mon. morn, so I bet bs will be on the high end because I ate so late.


Debpenny, no bread would have been better!
have a great day everyone.

I agree the GI is under 60 on whole grain. You are obviously very Carb sensitive..... STAY AWAY FROM CARBS HONEY!!!! Make your own bread from protein mix. Usually we just need a vehicle to get the stuff to the mouth. Crackers and bread are good vehicles.....CHANGE CARS!!!!!!! use celery, cucumbers or some other model----- not bread..... Good luck....

Elly