Out of control blood sugars part 2

The results are in! After spending a month de-stressing with action movies on Netflix and John Grisham on the bedside table my blood sugar is back to normal. Changing the amount of basal insulin from 13u to 15u made a difference within a few days. Tresiba is a bit tricky in that it takes a while for any changes to show up when it’s ultra-long-acting. You need to be patient and wait. I still struggled with insulin resistance at mealtime, especially after dinner, where I took three times as much insulin as I would normally. It made me quite depressed as I believe lower insulin levels are better for a multitude of reasons. For one, you lower the insulin-like growth factor 1, which could link to certain cancers.

Then I got the best Christmas present as my protein: insulin ratio went back to normal. I could finally stop running eight laps around the block every day after dinner, trying to increase insulin sensitivity. Evening exercise isn’t my thing at all. I’m now taking my usual 25-30u of insulin per day, which is a significant reduction to the 40u I was taking in early December. I don’t know what triggered the need for so much insulin out of the blue, but my theory is elevated cortisol levels because of stress.

Cortisol is an interesting hormone. It counteracts insulin and increases blood glucose levels by stimulating gluconeogenesis – the synthesis of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources. Levels fluctuate throughout the day, and it can do all sorts of things to your body. They’re higher in the morning and a key to the dawn phenomenon that so many diabetics experience where you have to take extra insulin just to get out of bed. When you’re sick cortisol levels shoot up, which explains why you can inject bolus insulin like it’s water every time you get a cold and still struggle with high blood sugar.

So all good here on the western front. Diabetes is back under control again. Now it’s time to concentrate on my new love handles that have appeared as a result of all that Christmas chocolate. I’m thinking some intermittent fasting and amateur aerobics should take care of things.

Part one of this post can be found here.