Question about blood sugar - Anyone well-educated here?

So I've been keeping track of my health more lately, including blood pressure, sugar, and the like...I'm losing weight, eating healthier and such and one thing I find odd is that if I'm say really hungry in the daytime, haven't eaten in a while - My blood sugar is around 85, maybe up to 90 but not typically. My A1C was 5.1 - An average blood sugar of 100

Yet, when I wake up in the morning, my numbers are as high as 115 - Which puts me in the prediabetic ranges, when no other measurement does ( Postprandial, for instance. )

What's with this?

I've read about things like "Dawn phenomenon" and "Rebound Hypoglycemia" ( Which some don't believe exist. ) But do these concepts even apply to a non-diabetic, or are they not even concepts at all for the general rest of the population?

One thing I've noticed, if I have an intense workout just before bed, my morning sugar levels seem a bit lower, 95-100 range.

Any clues here?

Do you get anxiety/stressed when you do it first thing in the morning? The only reason I ask is because I've checked mine too at work (hospital) and it's always in the low 80s fasted before breakfast. When I got it checked for my annual health screening it was a full 10 points higher. When you get a stress response and your body pumps out more adrenaline you do release more blood sugar to prepare for flight or fight, that's just my 2cents though.

a reply to: avgguy

I suppose so, I mean sometimes in the morning I'm just super tired and not in a great mood anyways, I'd definitely call stress one of those feelings in the morning.

I do have a doctor, I just prefer to have him work on more immediate things like illness and what not rather than every curious question I have.

If my day time fasting is lower than my morning fasting... Which is the correct number?

That is normal. You convert fats to ketones and burn ketones at night, the body shifts it's main source of fuel and the little sugar left in the body circulates around and is used by some processes but most things run on the ketones. As soon as you start to eat some carbs, the body switches over

I have hypoglycemia, my sugar can crash but usually averages around a hundred. If I drink some juice, it will spike up to a hundred twenty for a while then drop down below seventy sometimes and I get a rough conversion to burning ketones. I get lightheaded at the least.

Don't worry about the numbers fluctuating between the range too much, if you start eating right, then your sugar will vary a little more. I noticed the numbers are actually a little more jumpy now that I switched over to eating better. I also noticed my blood pressure is more responsive, if I bend my arm it goes up a bit, straightening it out it goes down. Same with my legs. Studying this, I found that that is actually the way it is supposed to work. Was I surprised to find that, I thought it would be better to be constant.

When I was eating a lot of junk food my sugar was always constant around a hundred. Now I feel better after cutting back but my sugar level swings between eighty and one twenty a lot, depending on whether I have just eaten a lot of something really sugary. It corrects within five minutes and still averages around a hundred.

a reply to: rickymouse

Hmm. Thank you for your input - well I am talking mostly fasting sugar levels, are you?

My blood sugar levels say a half hour, hour after eating a high carb, low fat meal can be as high as say 150-160, but those numbers are less relevant as the highest spike of your blood sugar is less indicative of your bodies response - checking it two hours after a meal, there's more reliable numbers a normal person should be under, which I always am ( under 140) - this to me indicates the insulin response to high blood sugar, but I'm not sure how you'd go about lowering the spike other than intense exercise.

Or do I have it wrong?

originally posted by: deadlyhope
a reply to: rickymouse

Hmm. Thank you for your input - well I am talking mostly fasting sugar levels, are you?

My blood sugar levels say a half hour, hour after eating a high carb, low fat meal can be as high as say 150-160, but those numbers are less relevant as the highest spike of your blood sugar is less indicative of your bodies response - checking it two hours after a meal, there's more reliable numbers a normal person should be under, which I always am ( under 140) - this to me indicates the insulin response to high blood sugar, but I'm not sure how you'd go about lowering the spike other than intense exercise.

Or do I have it wrong?

I actually studied in depth the way the tests work and know that having thoroughly clean fingers is very important when doing the test. I would do my mothers sugar tests every day and would notice big differences just after taking the test and rewashing her hand and taking it again because I knew something was not right.

I studied the A1c test and found there could be a half dozen reasons that could be wrong. One actually applies to me. I had the test once and it showed that I was in the top of the normal range. But I do have a lifelong hereditary condition which could cause those results.

I have tachychardia, high heart rate. I have hypovolemia, learned that when I donated blood, I have a reduced rate of making red blood cells, about half normal rate. Found that out from genetic testing, fits right in with the tachychardia and hypovolemia. When I am not hypovolemic I am Anemic. The Anemia effects me more than the hypovolemia. I also have genetics that keeps my blood cells alive longer than normal, up to ten times the normal lifespan. That makes up for the reduction in making cells, but I have to watch not to eat too much sulfur foods because they destroy red blood cells and leave me more anemic or hypovolemic.

So A1C measures telltale markers where sugar has attached, an older blood cell will have more of those, especially if you are hypovolemic and as a result have tachychardia because of low blood volume. Each blood cell has to carry more sugar around so more markers. I am still in the learning phase of this, my knowledge is not complete but I know more about it than most doctors do. But my condition is kind of rare so nobody really wants to do a lot of studying when only a half million people in the world have it like I do.

Also good to note though is that when people get older, the building of new blood cells slows down quite a bit, they could actually get to the point I always have been at or even below. When older people get their dizzy spells, it is often from hypovolemia, something I know of from experience throughout my life. It can cause you to fall and you can't get up. So of course life alert capitalizes on this to sell their services on commercials on TV. I am trying to figure out a remedy for this, I have researched what causes it and ways to possibly stop it from happening. This I have a Guinea pig for.....me. But it is not easy, when I would get the spins and have to lay down it is hard to test my sugar and blood pressure. But I have succeeded. My blood sugar level drops only to about eighty when this happens, a simple cookie will get me up and running after the event, but the event is caused by a nitrogen compound expanding the arteries coupled with hypovolemia. I learned just eat more proteins and less carbs and it rarely happens. Low blood sugar from too much insulin and depleted sugar somehow triggers the body to jump start ketone processing and this expands the arteries, jumps up the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and the brain doesn't get much blood. They induce comas by reducing blood volume, that is common in medicine. So a person can actually pass out. Upon laying down, blood flows to the brain again and things start working better. Most older people do have more of a susceptibility to this, my research on myself and how foods interact with this may be able to help many old people. Not all of course. Some medicines made can partially stop this action, but it is a treatment not a fix. Diet alterations can also fix this and when fixed it is much better. No cure, just a more stable life

a reply to: avgguy

I'm type 2 for the last 4 years..your a1c is really good and you're supposed to spike after you eat..I was prediabetic with constant levels of 119...
You're doing all the right things..weight training is really helpful with blood sugar. Lots of cucumbers and Apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp a day and cinnamon at 1/2 a tsp once a day can help...no more cinnamon than that though..it can affect your kidneys in higher doses. I know those things work because I use them. Watch carbs AND sugar...use all whole grain products..a carb veggie protein and fruit at each meal and snack on nuts and or string cheese...lots of water to flush sugar out daily...these things will ensure good numbers... I almost died ... my sugars were over 600...I was in the hospital dehydrated and close to cardiac arrest. My Doc simply said " you're going to die" that did it for me and I got off insulin inside of a month on my own. You're good so far it seems but extra weight and not enough water are key...think of food as medicine..all of it.
I wish you luck...it's not easy but can be managed!!!