I know there's some people here with diabetic neuropathy so I was wondering if anyone knows whether a blood sugar of 109-115 first thing in the morning before eating anything is something to be concerned about?

I am sure people will chime in but I have heard that 100 or under is the normal range but it can depend on family and history. What did your doctor say? I know I have heard here people who even have pre diabetes who start to adapt a healthier lifestyle see a notice in their pain level. I wish I had more answers but hopefully one who knows more here will give you direction

What is more predictive IMO is your fasting insulin levels. If those are elevated, you are pre-diabetic even if your fasting glucose is pretty good yet.

Another test to reveal your daily average sugars is the HbA1C.
This link gives HbA1C values in a table, and the corresponding
average daily blood sugar.
http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org...nt/24/1/9.full

There are some things that improve glycemic control:
diet (avoid fructose and sugars)
chromium 200 to 400mcg/day nicotinate better than picolinate
cinnamon (some people do well with this)
lipoic acid may reduce some blood sugars
Inositol supplements
vanadyl sulfate (similar in action to chromium) but be careful with this.

Mrs. D.

I have a question about cinnamon. How much should one take? I just came back from GNC and there's different strengths. there is 250 mgs and 500 mgs. Also on the internet there are some that are over 1000 mgs.

I just want to get the right bang for my buck.

And all these numbers about glucose readings are sooooo confusing.

I mean, if I woke up every morning and my reading was 110, I would shout to the sky. My readings all day long are just fine. 99 to 115, and sometimes 126 (but that is 2 hours after I have my meal. So I'm good during the day. I spoke to the people at Cornell, and my lovely Dr. Fred and they take into account the post prandial readings and more important, my a1C. So they don't only go by my morning fasting reading.

I looked it up and it says that hormones (while one sleeps), can increase the blood sugar reading in the morning.

I still have 20 or so pounds to lose but at my age, IT COMES OFF VERY SLOWLY.

So I read about cinnamon and I think I'll give it a try.

Thanks much for any info you can give me.

Melody

The cinnamon you have to take quite a bit of it to work.

YOu know I think your readings are pretty good. Did you check that chart I put up?

Remember that aggressive arm of the Accord program that tried to lower A1C arbitrarily too low, resulted in deaths.

Also new information is showing LOW blood sugar attacks in people and diabetics damages the brain irreversibly and may lead to dementia!

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/n...ory_82890.html

What is needed is common sense. If you are well controlled,
do not have infections, have good eyesight, and good blood pressure, I wouldn't sweat those last few readings myself. Quality of life is so important.

For cinnamon you need at least a gram or two a day.

So far with my d-chiro inositol, I lowered by blood sugar 14 pts, and my A1C by .2

I am continuing for the retest in Oct.
It is very expensive however...you would not like it. ($75 a month-- just reduced from $85.)

You could try regular inositol, and it might help. But it is not as powerful as the d-chiro form. If you do the regular it would need about 1 gram at least a day.

And BTW Asians are showing up in the news with type II now and many are not obese either:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/56361.php

Hi Mrs. D (and thanks much for replying).

I'll be quite honest. When I left the Accord program (they were pleased as punch by my progess over the last 4 years and I probably did better than many of the 10,000 people who participated because I changed my brain and did as I was told). But even after losing all the weight I lost and changing my eating habits, well... when you wake up in the morning, and sometimes it's 180, and then two days later it's 147 (I shouted HURRAY AT THAT ONE). And then you have a healthy low fat egg white breakfast and at 1 p.m. you see a 99 (sometimes I reached 94 and believe me I shouted at that one), and then I had dinner and then it was 127, well, I thought "why the heck am I high in the a.m. and good all day long??"

It makes one wonder (when one doesn't have all the facts known about diabetes, I mean). So when I told the people at Cornell, "I'm kind of concerned that sometimes my blood sugar reading in the morning is 180 and even thought I'm 6.0 to 6.5 in my a1c, and I'm good all day long, WELL, AREN'T YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE HIGHER READING IN THE A.M??" (and then we spoke about the people who died in the Accord program), and I was told that there is going to be an investigation and papers will be written and the results are coming out sometime in 2010 (who knows if that is accurate).

But they just said "don't worry about the morning reading, as you continue to lose weight, your readings will get better" "We take into consideration the a1c and the readings during the day".

I was always under the impression that the reading when you get up in the morning was the most important reading. (Then I read how nighttime hormones affect the reading when you get up). What the heck have hormones have to do with morning readings, (especially if you go to bed at 12 a.m. and you didn't eat anything before you went to bed.

Oh, just to let you know, I did some testing about this.

I tried eating a protein snack before I went to bed (like at 10 p.m.), I had some chicken or a half cup of yogurt (no refined sugars or carbs or anything like that). Made no difference. I even tried switching my morning shot of Lantus to before I went to bed (I have a friend who takes her shot before she goes to bed, and she eats when she takes that shot ...????????).

So I tried taking the shot of Lantus before retiring. Made no difference whatsoever.

I tried not eating before retiring. Made no difference.

No matter what I do, sometimes when I wake up, it's 160 (thank god, it's not 180 anymore). I seem to be going down (but very slowly).

I wonder if I will ever wake up and it will be 120. My doctor said "you have two things going against you, your weight (even thought I don't look overweight and I wear a woman's size 12, the weight is still there). and he said "your age".

He explained that as we age, our bodies change, our metabolism changes, and that affects everything. He is very happy with my progress and I guess I am too, but when you work as hard to get healthy as I have worked, and you get up and you see 160, and then you eat and two hours later you see 99, well, I just don't get it.

And the reason I am completely baffled is that I googled the following statement:

"How come my sugar reading is higher in the morning and normal all day long".

You should see the stuff that comes up on THAT ONE!!!

There are explanations about the hormones that kick in during the night. But what really got me were the questions that certain people wrote on message boards.

One guy wrote:

"I'm 75 and when I get up my blood sugar reading is 105 and I'm not diabetic and I exercise and I'm healthy but I'm worried about the 105 reading". HE'S WORRIED ABOUT A READING OF 105???

See my confusion? Someone wrote back to this guy and said "Well, you seem to be doing all the right stuff, but 105 means you are pre-diabetic." It went on to say that "When one wakes up in the morning, one's blood sugar should be no more than 80".

Alan's blood sugar NEVER GOES ABOVE 84. Never.

So he's NORMAL, I gather.

So I am still thorougly confused as to what is going to happen if I don't succeed in lowering my blood sugar in the a.m.

For example, I'm 62 this year. My a1c is now 6.5 and I'll get it tested again in August by Dr. Fred.

My blood pressure is just fine, my cholesterol is just fine, and my triglycerides are just fine. So is my liver functions, and all the other blood tests that they gave me over the past 4 years.

I have absolutely no symptoms of diabetic neuropathy ever since I started the Methyl B-12 2 years ago.

So if my blood sugar reading in the a.m. NEVER GOES DOWN TO 120 or so, what the heck might happen to me? I can't find out any information on this.

The doctors don't seem to be concerned because, again, they are combining this with the a1c and the post prandial readings.

And I know I'm not 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 anymore, but I'd like to live a few more years without any complications from diabetes. And what causes these complications anyway? The readings in the a.m., or the a1c, or the post prandials?

Oh, by the way, my eyes have no signs of diabetes (according to the top eye guys at Cornell, and I regularly see my diabetic retinopathy specialist.

So I guess what I'm asking is can a person have these readings in the morning, and not have to eventually develop complications.

I'll do whatever I have to do. I was hoping to eventually get off of the Lantus but I don't think I have a chance on that. I always received the Lantus free from Cornell and I have 3 vials left (each one lasts for 28 days).

I asked Dr. Fred about this, and he said "when you are all done with the Lantus, and if you need a med, we'll put you on a pill".

I don't want to go on Metformin again because I was on that for 8 years (before the Accord study), and it ruined my digestive system. I never got out of the bathroom.

do you think Januvia would be good for me (as a switch-over from the Lantus), or is there another pill that I can take THAT WON'T PUT ON WEIGHT. I even wonder what might happen if I went off Lantus when it runs out and I took NOTHING for my diabetes. And I tried to control it with diet alone. I don't want to take an oral med and put back the weight that I took off.

That really scares me.

Thanks much my dear Mrs. D.

Melody

Look at this new drug.... NOT EVEN INSULIN and it lowers morning fasting levels:

Cycloset:
http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20090...loset-approved

Also they are going to do studies with Melatonin and
Type II... since finding the melatonin receptors in the pancreas.

People who are not making enough melatonin, may have higher blood sugars!

I've noticed since I have aged and moved closer to diabetes, that I get really hungry at night now...around 4am. 90% of the time I ignore it...but once in a while I will cave in and have some cereal (unsugared). I think at 4am I am hypo, and then my liver starts converting glycogen to sugar and by the time I get that fasting done, it has gone up. (this is why metformin works so well...it prevents gluconeogenesis by the liver!) The only other time in my life that I got hungry at 4am was when I was pregnant.

So there may be a component of altering the circadian rhythm
changing blood glucose levels. The morning high might just be a survival thing, so we can get going properly.
So far the medical community focuses on insulin to treat diabetes, and now that is changing too!

Question:
What does cinnamon do?

Here is an article on the benefits of Cinnamon.

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis...-cinnamon.html

Interesting.

Hi Mrs. D.

I checked out the link. All I had to do was read the following:

"Gastrointestinal side effects, particularly nausea, were the main reason patients taking Cycloset quit the study"

I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I remember all those mornings when I used Metformin and I couldn't leave the house till noon because all I did was go to the bathroom. And I didn't lose a pound on that one.

so what do you think about Januvia and again, what could happen if my blood sugar never goes down to 120 or so but everything else is normal and I feel fine (except for my arthritis lol).

Melody