dawn phenomenon of diabetes

[Jhanananda]

Dawn Phenomenon of diabetes

All people have the “dawn phenomenon,” if they have diabetes or not.

The dawn phenomenon is a surge of hormones that the body produces daily around 4:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.

People with diabetes don't have normal insulin responses to adjust for this, and may see their fasting glucose go up.

The rise in glucose is mostly because your body is making less insulin and more glucagon (a hormone that increases blood glucose) than it needs. The less insulin made by the pancreas, the more glucagon the pancreas makes as a result. Glucagon signals the liver to break down glycogen into glucose. This is why high fasting blood glucose levels are common in people with type 2.

Steps that may help:

    Eat dinner earlier in the evening
    Do something active after dinner (such as going for a walk)

[Jhanananda]

A few days ago I happened to notice my morning blood sugar was quite high, when the solar weather was normal, and my diet continued to be low carb.  Considering the dawn phenomenon of diabetes I took my blood sugar reading every hour for 3 hours.  Here are the results:

March 24th 2015:
time/blood sugar reading
5:30 AM (170)
6:30 AM (180)
7:30 AM (97)

Clearly this table reflects the dawn phenomenon of diabetes, which I had not accommodated for in my earlier data and interpretation.  So, I plan from now on to take my blood sugar readings after 7:30AM when my morning blood sugar seems to be at its lowest.  I also plan to take my blood sugar reading hourly when I can afford to purchase more blood sugar meter strips after the first when my Social Security check shows up.  I should then be able to determine the best time to take my morning blood sugar to avoid the dawn phenomenon of diabetes effecting my data.

[Michel]

This looks promising. I hope it works out for you.

[Jhanananda]

Thank-you Michel for your interest in this investigation, and your continued support.  I finally made it to Walmart yesterday while driving a load to the new warehouse.  There I bought another box of blood sugar meter test strips, so this morning I checked my blood sugar with a focus upon understanding the dawn phenomenon of diabetes, as it effects this body.  Here is the list:

7AM: 216
8Am: 181
9AM: 158
10AM: 151

Conclusion:
A blood sugar reading of 216 was the highest that I have seen in about 6 months, so it was startling.  However, my blood sugar started to level off from the dawn phenomenon by 9AM, when the reading was 158, which is still high, but in the range of normal.  I plan to test my morning blood sugar hourly from 7AM until 10AM for the next few days to see what the variation might be.  The only explanation that I have for the exceptionally high blood sugar reading would be the x-ray and radio wave bursts from the sun yesterday.

[Jhanananda]

April 7th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 144
8Am: 127
9AM: 170

[Jhanananda]

April 8th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 145
8Am: 121
9AM: 161

[Jhanananda]

April 9th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 165
8Am: 145
9AM: 148

The dawn phenomenon of diabetes is not too predictable, but the variable might be due to recent solar activity.

[Jhanananda]

April 10th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 151
8Am: 153
9AM: 190

[Jhanananda]

April 11th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 106
8Am: 115
9AM: 159

I have noticed that my blood sugar consistently rises the more hungry I get.  I was surprised to find that I could not just fast until my blood sugar dropped.

[Jhanananda]

April 12th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 175
8Am: 106
9AM: 165

I have noticed that my blood sugar consistently rises the more hungry I get.  I was surprised to find that I could not just fast until my blood sugar dropped, so I will have to eat at the first sign of hunger.

[Jhanananda]

April 13th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 160
8Am: 157
9AM: 138

[Jhanananda]

April 14th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 135
8Am: 164
9AM: 162

[Jhanananda]

April 15th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 169 (after this test I ate 2 stalks of celery with peanut butter on it)
8Am: 119 (my blood sugar dropped 50 points just from eating a low carb meal.
9AM: 156

I searched for and found Reactive hypoglycemia; however, I am not experiencing low blood sugar following a meal, just lowered blood sugar. So, I am not sure if this fits.

Reactive hypoglycemia, or postprandial hypoglycemia, is a medical term describing recurrent episodes of symptomatic hypoglycemia occurring within 4 hours[1] after a high carbohydrate meal (or oral glucose load) in people who do not have diabetes. It is thought to represent a consequence of excessive insulin release triggered by the carbohydrate meal but continuing past the digestion and disposal of the glucose derived from the meal. 

The prevalence of this condition is difficult to ascertain because a number of stricter or looser definitions have been used. It is recommended that the term reactive hypoglycemia be reserved for the pattern of postprandial hypoglycemia which meets the Whipple criteria (symptoms correspond to measurably low glucose and are relieved by raising the glucose), and that the term idiopathic postprandial syndrome be used for similar patterns of symptoms where abnormally low glucose levels at the time of symptoms cannot be documented.

[Jhanananda]

April 16th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 127, after this reading I felt hunger, so I ate 2 stalks of celery with peanut butter on them.
8Am: 99, this low reading is due to the low carb meal eaten, as described above.
9AM: 196, hunger again came, so after this reading I ate some quiche, but it appears that I waited too long to eat.

More research on blood sugar rises with hunger I found the article The Dangers of Skipping Meals When You Have Diabetes, which exactly matched my findings that my blood sugar rises with hunger.

[Jhanananda]

April 17th my morning blood sugar readings were as follows:

7AM: 133, after this reading I felt hunger, so I ate 2 stalks of celery with peanut butter on them.
8Am: 159, this low reading is due to the low carb meal eaten, as described above.
9AM: 159, hunger again came, so after this reading I ate some quiche, but it appears that I waited too long to eat.