Well, byetta finally seems to be doing it’s job and kicking down the blood sugars a little. That and I am trying really hard to keep the carbs down. Yesterday was a pretty good food day – but hey, part of the reason byetta works is because it makes me too nauseous to eat! Historically, that goes away. Also, it seems to back off some when I do eat.
However, I think it’s pointed out another issue. I was an amazing 127 when I first woke up this morning! 
When I got up for the second time I was up to 175 – that was 3 hours and no food later.
Okay, that’s a little dawn phenomena, right? I couldn’t eat lunch and then I went shopping and sweat in the heat and got home, feeling a little low and finally hungry at 3:00 – 211!
Say what? 211?
I have to ask the endo but I’m asking y’all first. When your body thinks it’s hungry/starving it releases glucagon that tells the liver to pump sugar into your system – right? So is it possible for your body to make too much glucagon? Is there a way to treat it? Anyone know anything?
I have been taking my bsl a lot lately and found that , on first waking i am say 7 and then an hour plus i can be 10.
This was expalined as, the body awakes and starts moving around and needs energy to do so. So if nothing in the system, it then uses the fat stored, so that the sugar rises
I get my lows around 3-4 am.
So try eating something as soon as you wake
By: pug2n on June 26, 2008
at 1:37 am
Hope this is interesting and hopefully helpful:
I have as part of this diet I am on (low carbohydrate normal protein high natural fat) been reading a lot about Glucagon, and from what the others that know about the biology behind it have been writing: Glucagon not only releases sugar from the reserves of sugar in the body, but also makes the body start burning fat and producing ketones that are used by muscles and the brain and the rest of the body for energy when there is not an excess of sugar around.
You ask if there is a possibility for it to be produced in too high quantity, and from what I have read it seems that without the guidance of beta cells producing insulin in high enough quantity the alpha cells will produce too much Glucagon. One can apparently also stop the alpha cells producing Glucagon by injecting enough insulin, as that is the signal they body uses to stop the production. There is apparently also a drug being developed that will do the same thing without elevating the insulin level in the blood.
As an aside one of the experts said that the body can store about 0.5 kilograms of glucose in the liver, muscles and other tissues, and that the glucose binds about 1.35 kilograms of water, it is not really an impressive weight one can lose, but that much sugar one can imagine would push one into a sugar coma if it was all released without being used up or stopped, and that is what could happen if Glucagon is released and insulin levels don’t rise, like in type 1 diabetics.
Now from what I have been reading, insulin does have its negative sides too, it causes fat cells to absorb sugar and fat, and often results in all energy and nutrients vanishing from the blood, and then people get hungry again, because it takes too long for suitable levels of Glucagon to be released into the blood to release enough energy for the body to use, it is very hard to balance even when one is not a diabetic.
Now I am currently reading an interesting book by Gary Taubes that makes a lot of sense to me, so far, it is called “Good Calories, Bad Calories” or “The Diet Delusion” and I think he demonstrates how the science behind the new low fat diets, higher in carbohydrates, is a bit flawed, he goes through the studies that came out at the time of change till the present and the ones they are based upon as well as several other studies and evaluates the evidence and comments upon what the scientists in question said about the evidence, and the parts of the evidence they ignored or said seemed strange or anomalous. I recommend everyone to read it, for me the introduction alone was quite interesting and revealing, and what people knew back before these new theories of low fat, high carbohydrate diets became what we all believe in.
Gary Taubes also have made two lectures that are less dense than the book, but obviously much less detailed, where he tries to introduce what he has found, I think they are quite interesting and that there might be something worth checking into for a lot of us. They are free and I think should be viewed before one decides to get the book, though I guess one can read the book in the library.
* Webcast of Lecture by Gary Taubes at University of California, Berkeley — “The Quality of Calories: What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care”
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/event_details.php?webcastid=21216
* Webcast of Lecture by Gary Taubes at Stevens Institute of Technology, Center for Science Writings, Hoboken, NJ, USA, 2/6/2008 — “Big Fat Lies”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149
Wikipedia about Gary Taubes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Taubes
By: TheDarkWraith on June 27, 2008
at 1:25 pm
Yay Bayetta!
I wonder about the glucagon too… be sure to let us know what the endo says. Exercise ( even a little ) helps me a lot but it’s been just too hot for it here. The AC is still out and I can’t get motivated to do anything but lay around and sweat… should be fixed on Monday.
If I was rising in the morning without eating I would probably use a little more insulin. I usually start out kinda high and stay there until the first shot of the day kicks in then drop some before lunch. I don’t eat breakfast… my stomach refuses food before mid-day. I take insulin every 12 hrs and don’t eat supper until late evening so both my meals are a few hours after… I know I should eat 4-5 small meals but the best I can do usually is 2 for the day… there are those days when I graze all day but that’s another article… lol
By: Phatz on June 29, 2008
at 2:59 am
Our dietitian/educator explained that when our blood sugar levels drop too low overnight (or first thing in the am) the liver kicks out glucose to cover it. However, in diabetics, sometimes the liver ‘leaks’ glucose all night long. This is what makes glucophage such a good med – it stops the ‘leak’ of glucose in the liver. I can no longer take glucophage, so – I frequently have higher readings in the morning than at bedtime. I’m assuming my liver is leaking like a sieve. lol
By: AdamsWife on June 29, 2008
at 3:54 pm
Where did my new ‘picture’ come from? I’m trying to decide whether I like it or not. The shades are cool, but I’m not sure about the buck teeth. :s
By: AdamsWife on June 29, 2008
at 3:56 pm
It’s an automatically generated picture for those without avatars of their own. There are a couple sets to choose from now. Didn’t you have an av?
By: Zazzy on June 29, 2008
at 10:40 pm
I’ve decided… I don’t like mine. What happened to my tattooed elf?
By: Phatz on June 30, 2008
at 5:52 pm
Are you signed in? You can comment without being signed in – if you are signed in, presumably your elf should come back.
By: Zazzy on June 30, 2008
at 10:42 pm
TDW – I checked “Good Calories, Bad Calories” out of the library. I find it very interesting.
By: adamswife on July 11, 2008
at 12:32 pm