Diabetic Diet & Blood Gluecose

All vets in the area are closed until monday. My older dog became very lethargic tonight and has been drinking/urinating excessively. After she vomited a few times tonight, I decided to take her blood glucose and found it is alarmingly high. Is there anything I can do to help her before Monday? I’ve read mixed reports on using cinnamon to bring it down… any experience with this? Thanks everyone

Very often, dry grain based foods are to blame for diabetes in dogs and cats.

If her blood sugar is very high, she still needs to see a vet now. She also needs a completely different diet because what she is eating now is NOT working.

Carbohydrates work just like sugar to a dog or cats system. Just like in humans, there’s only so many times you can spike your blood sugar with too much sugar before eventually the system that regulates blood sugar in your body just breaks. Obviously, that’s oversimplifying, but, that’s the basics of what happens. Now that it has happened, there will always be a need to monitor and manage her blood sugar.

What you want is a canned dog food only, NOT dry. It would be best for it to be grain free, though even good canned foods usually have some potato. BUT, the first ingredients should ALL be meat.

Merricks makes some good canned foods, so does Blue Buffalo. They are both available at stores like Petsmart and Petco.

Once you change her food, it will change how much insulin she needs! It is very important to keep testing and working with your vet to modify her dose. Otherwise, you risk her going hypoglycemic which is also very dangerous!

No treats at all for her either, most of those have tons of sugar and carbs in them.

But, I would call the vets, many of them have a 24 hour answering service that will call them for an emergency and high Blood Glucose is an emergency.

My blood sugars have been so bad for a while now that my doctor recommended the continuous Blood Glucose monitor. It’s the Minimed version I believe.

So what are the pros and cons of this? I will be trying it out eventually obviously but won’t be getting it for about another month now. What do you think of it?

Thanks!

Pros-It will help keep track of your numbers more often but you still need to check your sugar 4x a day so the sensor is calibrated correctly. It alerts you when your blood sugars are going out of range.

Cons-Its really expensive, especially if insurance won’t cover it and it is still pricey if they do. You can call Minimed and ask them about what you would be paying. You would have a second device hooked up to your abdomen, not sure how you feel about that.

I am in the same situation about getting one but the thing stopping me is the price because I am on tight budget because I am going back to school in a month. At my doctors office they had a CGM and I was able to try it for a week to see if I even liked it.

My brother has type 1 diabetes. What’s the most accurate Blood Glucose meter available that has a usb connector and s reasonably priced?

All of the presently available glucometers are equally accurate. Your brother should base his choice on the price of the strips not the price of the glucometer as he will be using the strips for the rest of his life. You are correct that some glucometers have USB ports and as a physician I prefer that patients use these. These glucometers will print out 5 pages of data analyzing averaging and charting readings. I ask patients to email their results. The computer is not used by physicians as often as it should be. It improves communication and reduces cost. I wish you both the very best of health and in all things may God bless.

I am 16 years old and overweight. diabetes runs in my family but I’m not sure if I have it. I checked my Blood Glucose and it was high, 160. I am always tired and have headaches sometimes. Please only serious answers. Thanks!

It all depends when you took the test. If 1 to 2 hours after you ate , it high. Here are the numbers and when to test:
Normal Fasting Blood Sugar
A normal fasting blood sugar (which is also the blood sugar a normal person will see right before a meal) is:

83 mg/dl (4.6 mmol/L) or less.

Many normal people have fasting blood sugars in the mid and high 70 mg/dl (3.9 mmol/L) range.

Though most doctors will tell you any fasting blood sugar under 100 mg/dl (5.6 mmol/L) is "normal", there are several studies that suggest that testing with a fasting blood sugar in the mid 90 mg/dl (5 mmol/L) range often predicts diabetes that is diagnosed a decade later.
Post-Meal Blood Sugar (Postprandial)
Independent of what they eat, the blood sugar of a truly normal person is:

Under 120 mg/dl (6.6 mmol/L) one or two hours after a meal.

Also if you are heavy , lose weight.
Eat a low glycemic Index Diet.http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

This table includes the glycemic index and glycemic load of more than 2,480 individual food items. Not all of them, however, are available in the United States. They represent a true international effort of testing around the world.

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.

Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index–where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The "Serve size (g)" column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney’s Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.

And last but not least . Get off the couch. Exercise at least 1 hour a day.

Good luck Tin

Cinnamon is supposed to help regulate Blood Glucose levels. Does anyone have success with it?

I take cinnamon but I truly don’t know if it really helps because I do so much more to control my glucose levels. My fasting is 96 and my hba1c is 5.5. It’s too hard to determine what is working and what is not.
I take 2000 mg of metformin a day and 3 mg. of Amaryl.
Plus I exercise 1 1/2 hours a day . Nordic Walking Google it.
And also I follow a low glycemic index diet ;http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

So who knows. But I will tell you that it sure can’t hurt to try.
Also try the lemon or lime juice and also use vinegar on your salads.
Use ¼ to ½ teaspoon of cinnamon per day. Add it to your coffee, oatmeal, smoothie, or wherever you find it palatable.
If you already suffer from diabetes, be sure to stay on a regular schedule with your cinnamon usage so that your blood sugar levels don’t yo-yo.Use the same amount at the same time every day so that you can get a sense of how cinnamon affects your own personal blood sugar readings.
Use the powdered spice or a cinnamon stick. Cinnamon pills are also available, and can be found easily via an online search. MHCP is water soluble and is not found in cinnamon oil.

Lime and lemon juice delay the digestion of starches as does vinegar. I’ve found that 2-3 tablespoons of lime or lemon juice reduces my post prandial BG response by 10-20 points. Rick Mendosa’s site has a lot of material on acids in the diet. Take a look at http://www.mendosa.com/acidic_foods.htm .

Good luck
Tin

The hormone glucagon is released when glucose levels fall below normal. Explain how the hormones glucagon and insulin work together to control Blood Glucose levels.

(needs answer asap)

Glucose is the type of sugar in your blood that is the main source of energy for the body. If the glucose is too low the body, especially the brain cannot function and the person becomes sluggish, confused and faints. If the glucose is too high the person will have long term problems of diabetes like high risk of heart attacks, poor wound healing, kidney disease, etc. Insulin is a hormone released into the blood which lowers blood sugar by stimulating the muscle cells and fat cells to take in glucose from the blood to use as energy. Glucagon is a hormone which raises blood sugar by stimulating the liver to release stores of glucose into the blood. They work together to keep blood glucose from getting too high or too low.

Im 29 weeks pregnant and was supposed to have my routine 28 week Blood Glucose test, but i was throwing up and couldn’t keep down the sugary drink that’s needed for the test. I’ve had severe nausea and vomiting my entire pregnancy. What if this keeps happening and i don’t get the test? How long can i leave it without the results being affected. Is there any other way of testing for it without my needing to drink that disgusting sugar water?

I have heard of people not being able to keep the drink down. but if it keep happening they will alter the test to you eating something that has the same sugar content as the drink (i.e. x amount of jelly beans) either way if they don’t already detect sugar in your urine and if your baby is measuring right on track then they may not be too worried about it for a couple more weeks.

I’m looking for a blood glucose meter that doesn’t require a test strip. Can you recommend a manufacturer or model that doesn’t need to have a test trip?

Well there are many different types of blood glucose meters made by companies such as Accu-Chek, lifescan, freestyle, ascensia, contour, one touch. The one you may be thinking of is the Accu-Chek Compact Plus. People sometimes think that the Accu-Chek Compact Plus does not take test strips but all Blood Glucose meters use test strips. Check out diabetic-Supplies-Online.com, they have many instructional videos and have virtually every diabetic supply you could ever want.

I have several new boxes of Blood Glucose test strips I bought 2 days ago. I wanted to return them but the store will not take them back. They sell on eBay for only 1/5 of the price. How can I get my money back? I cannot use these strips at all. These boxes are sealed and have never been touched. The manufacturer can only do an exchange, not refund money.

Test strips are consider an "expendable medical supply", and according to federal law they CANNOT be returned. Yes, the boxes are sealed, but since they are classified as "expendable" the law will not allow a return.

You cannot get your full money back. ASk you doctor if he has any patients that use those kinds of strips, or donate them to a "free clinic" or homeless shelter (the doctors at homeless shelters might be able to use them).

i have to wait a few weeks for an ovarian scan to rule out PCOS as the cause of my irregular, infrequent menstrual cycle, & i heard insulin resistance can cause this. i have had many blood tests done before, one a few weeks back, and my glucose levels are always normal. is it likely i could have insulin resistance despite this? i am BMI of 20.5.

1337 is a bit off. You CAN have insulin resistance and still have normal glucose levels, but you cannot know without a doctor giving you a blood test.

Ask for an Insulin Levels or a C-Peptide test — this will tell you how much insulin you have in your blood. If your glucose is normal and you have an elevated Insulin or C-Peptide level, then you likely have some insulin resistance.

As to how likely? I’m not sure, I hope someone else can help you. I would guess that it would be hard to tell without more information, but going on your BMI, I’d say that it’s not too likely.