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Why Does My Blood Sugar Go Up Without Eating


Listen To Your Doctor

Why is Your Blood Sugar NOT Under Control Although Youâre Trying.

If you follow a meal plan or take medications that increase insulin to manage low blood sugar, its important to stick to the plan your doctor prescribed to help prevent drops in your blood sugar level.

Not eating the right foods or taking the right medications at the right times can cause your blood sugar to drop. Check in often with your doctor so they can adjust your treatment plan if and when necessary.

Surprising Things That Can Spike Your Blood Sugar

When you first found out you had diabetes, you tested your blood sugar often to understand how food, activity, stress, and illness could affect your blood sugar levels. By now, youve got it figured out for the most part. But thenbam! Something makes your blood sugar zoom up. You try to adjust it with food or activity or insulin, and it dips really low. Youre on a rollercoaster no one with diabetes wants to ride.

Do you know all of these blood sugar triggers?


Knowledge is power! Look out for these surprising triggers that can send your blood sugar soaring:

  • Sunburnthe pain causes stress, and stress increases blood sugar levels.
  • Artificial sweetenersmore research needs to be done, but some studiesexternal icon show they can raise blood sugar.
  • Coffeeeven without sweetener. Some peoples blood sugar is extra-sensitive to caffeine.
  • Losing sleepeven just one night of too little sleep can make your body use insulin less efficiently.
  • Skipping breakfastgoing without that morning meal can increase blood sugar after both lunch and dinner.
  • Time of dayblood sugar can be harder to control the later it gets.
  • Dawn phenomenonpeople have a surge in hormones early in the morning whether they have diabetes or not. For people with diabetes, blood sugar can spike.
  • Dehydrationless water in your body means a higher blood sugar concentration.
  • Nose spraysome have chemicals that trigger your liver to make more blood sugar.
  • Controlling Diabetes When Youre Not Hungry

    If you find that youre eating less due to an illness or other factors, your medications may need adjusting, so its important to talk to your doctor. Meanwhile, here are some general guidelines:

    • Mealtime insulin: For mealtime insulin, if you skip the meal, you should also forego the mealtime insulin.
    • Long-acting insulin: The dosage for long-acting insulin is not usually based on food intake, so your doctor will not likely recommend a dose reduction.
    • Other medications: There are some diabetes medications that will lower your blood sugar when high, but wont normally cause hypoglycemia. They may or may not need adjustment, depending on how much youre eating. These medications include metformin, SGLT-2 inhibitors and DPP4 inhibitors.

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    What Can Cause Low Blood Sugar Levels

    Why Does My Blood Sugar Go Up When I Don

    Some things that can make low blood sugar levels more likely are:


    • skipping meals and snacks
    • not eating enough food during a meal or snack
    • exercising longer or harder than usual without eating some extra food
    • getting too much insulin
    • not timing the insulin doses properly with meals, snacks, and exercise

    Also, some things may increase how quickly insulin gets absorbed into the bloodstream and can make hypoglycemia more likely. These include:

    • taking a hot shower or bath right after having an insulin injection increases blood flow through the blood vessels in the skin, which can make the insulin be absorbed more quickly than usual
    • injecting the shot into a muscle instead of the fatty layer under the skin
    • injecting the insulin into a part of the body used a lot in a particular sport .

    All of these situations increase the chances that a person may get hypoglycemia.

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    Increasing Blood Sugar When Fasting

    Why does my blood sugar level increase from 86 to 112 mg/dl when I do a 20-hour fast? Is that normal? Im on an LCHF diet.

    Thank you doctor,Alvaro


    Answer:This is a normal process. When you fast, insulin levels start to drop and this triggers a surge of counter-regulatory hormones, including noradrenalin and growth hormone. This is normal, and meant to pull some of the stored sugar from the liver into the blood. If your liver is full of sugar, it may release lots of sugar into the blood, causing the blood sugar to rise.

    So, yes, blood sugar may rise during fasting. The most important question to consider, though, is where this sugar came from. If you are not eating, the rise in blood sugar may only come from your own body. You are simply moving sugar from the liver to the blood. It means that there is too much sugar stored inside your body and you need to empty it out, either with LCHF diet or intermittent fasting

    Dr. Jason Fung

    Monitoring Sugars Is Vital

    When youre ill or just dont feel like eating much, its important to monitor your blood sugar levels more closely than ever. How often depends on whether you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes and what medications you take.

    For Type 1 diabetes: Be sure to monitor your blood sugar before meals and before bedtime, typically four times per day, says Garvey.


    Beyond that, check your blood sugars if you notice symptoms of low blood sugar. Those symptoms include:

    • Anxiety.
    • Weakness.

    For Type 2 diabetes: If youre taking a sulfonylurea medication, check your blood sugars at least twice a day in the morning and at bedtime.

    Its important to keep in mind that sulfonylureas may cause your blood sugar to drop during the day if you dont eat anything after taking your medication, Garvey says.

    If your only treatment is metformin, you may not need to check your blood sugar more than once a day. This medication doesnt typically cause hypoglycemia.

    Its important to be aware of the symptoms associated with low blood sugars, says Garvey. Be ready to check your blood sugar and eat or drink 15 grams of simple sugar such as glucose tablets or 4 ounces of juice to correct a low blood sugar if needed. This treatment is also recommended for Type 1 diabetes, she says.


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    Why Blood Sugar Levels Rise Overnight

    When you go to bed, your blood sugar reading is 110, but when you wake up in the morning, it has shot up to 150. Why does this happen?

    To understand how blood sugar levels can rise overnight without your eating anything, we have to look at where glucose comes from and where it goes while we sleep.

    During the day, the carbohydrates we eat are digested into glucose and absorbed into the bloodstream. Some of this glucose goes to the liver, where it is stored for later use.

    At night, while we are asleep, the liver releases glucose into the bloodstream. The liver acts as our glucose warehouse and keeps us supplied until we eat breakfast. The amount of glucose being used is matched by the amount of glucose being released by the liver, so blood sugar levels should remain constant.


    How Soon After Waking Up Should I Test My Blood Sugar

    Real Reason Why Blood Sugar is High In The Morning? Quiz below!

    Blood sugar testing at home

    In most cases, doctors ask people to measure fasting blood sugar immediately upon waking and before they have anything to eat or drink. It may also be appropriate to test blood sugar before eating or sometimes 2 hours after a meal when blood sugar has returned to normal levels.

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    Causes Symptoms Diagnosis Treatments And Support

    With Elena Christofides and Jennifer Shine Dyer MD, MPH

    When youre diabetic, a severe drop in blood sugar can strike even when youre doing everything right. Glucose is your bodys main source of energy and fuels your brain, so its critical to recognize the early signs of an episode before it becomes severe enough to cause you to pass out or worse. Were here to empower you with clear answers to all your pressing Qs.


    Definition | Causes | Symptoms | Diagnosis | Treatments | Complications | Fast Facts | Support

    The Somogyi Effect Causing Blood Sugar Level To Go Up During The Night:

    There is another possible reason behind the high blood sugar levels in the morning or blood sugar levels that go up through the night and that is, the Somogyi Effect. When a person has too low blood sugar levels, which is possible for hypoglycaemia patients, the body sends signals to the liver through the hormones to release more glucose into the blood for performing the bodily functions. It is the bodys own way of rescuing itself from the adverse effects of low blood sugar, which is usually the inability to produce energy and perform the physiological tasks. When this release is extremely high, more than what is needed or more than usual, it is called the Somogyi Effect. It is named after Dr. Michael Somogyi, who first discovered this condition and the reason behind this. It results into high blood sugar levels in the morning.

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    Where Can I Find Support

    The Hypoglycemia Support Foundation, established nearly 40 years ago, is a national group that offers many resources, including advocacy. They offer salons so that you can personally connect with people like you who are also dealing with bouts of low blood sugar.

    Occasionally blood sugar crashes are so extreme they require emergency room care for an immediate dextrose IV treatment. If you have diabetes, wear a medical bracelet that does TK thing? What will this bracelet have on it? A number of one of your contacts? Can you answer and smooth out with this line? have a circle of people who serve as close contacts and are aware of your condition and how to help.


    Also Watch For High Blood Sugar

    How long after a meal will blood sugar levels return to ...

    If youre not eating due to an acute illness like the flu or an infection, its also common for your blood sugars to rise.

    When you have diabetes and are acutely ill, you should check your blood sugars up to four times per day, drink plenty of fluids and contact your doctor if your blood sugars are consistently over 250, Garvey says.

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    Caution: Birth Control Pills

    Types that have estrogen can affect the way your body handles insulin. Still, oral contraceptives are safe for women with diabetes. The American Diabetes Association suggests a combination pill with norgestimate and synthetic estrogen. The group also says birth control shots and implants are safe for women with the condition, though they can affect your blood sugar levels.

    What Should I Do If My Blood Sugar Gets Too Low

    Low blood sugar is also called hypoglycemia . It means your blood sugar level drops below 70. Having low blood sugar is dangerous and needs to be treated right away. Anyone with diabetes can have low blood sugar. You have a greater chance of having low blood sugar if you take insulin or certain pills for diabetes.


    Carry supplies for treating low blood sugar with you. If you feel shaky, sweaty, or very hungry, check your blood sugar. Even if you feel none of these things, but think you may have low blood sugar, check it.

    If your meter shows that your blood sugar is lower than 70, do one of the following things right away:

    • chew 4 glucose tablets
    • drink 4 ounces of fruit juice
    • drink 4 ounces of regular soda, not diet soda or
    • chew 4 pieces of hard candy

    After taking one of these treatments, wait for 15 minutes, then check your blood sugar again. Repeat these steps until your blood sugar is 70 or above. After your blood sugar gets back up to 70 or more, eat a snack if your next meal is 1 hour or more away.

    If you often have low blood sugar, check your blood sugar before driving and treat it if it is low.

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    How To Treat Someone Who’s Unconscious Or Very Sleepy

    Follow these steps:

  • Put the person in the recovery position and do not put anything in their mouth so they do not choke.
  • If an injection of glucagon is available and you know how to use it, give it to them immediately.
  • If they wake up within 10 minutes of getting the injection and feel better, move on to step 5. If they do not improve within 10 minutes, call 999 for an ambulance.
  • If they’re fully awake and able to eat and drink safely, give them a carbohydrate snack.
  • They may need to go to hospital if they’re being sick , or their blood sugar level drops again.

    Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to lose consciousness.

    How To Differentiate Between The Two Effects If You Suspect High Fasting Blood Sugar

    How To STOP Glucose From Rising After Waking Up! Listen Up!

    If your sugar level shoots up every morning after you wake up, then always check your 3:00 am sugar.

    If sugar at that time comes low then this is a Somogyi effect. You should always consult your doctor as root cause analysis of hypoglycemia is required. There may be a need for drug dose reduction but it all depends on clinical judgment.


    But if your 3:00 am sugar comes out to be normal or on the higher side, then its a dawn effect. It requires clinical judgment, your dose may need to be increased or changed.

    Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels should be managed at priority since low sugar causes our body to get deprived of energy and causes symptoms such as tiredness, weakness, fatigue, lethargy, shivering, and extreme hunger.

    If sugar levels are not managed at this stage, it can further lead to unconsciousness or coma. Unawareness of hypoglycemia phases could be dangerous due to the same reason and hence must be looked for!

    On the other hand, hyperglycemia or high blood sugar levels are also important to be managed as it can further lead to complications. Constant high blood sugar levels can impact kidneys, eyes, nerves, heart and brain.

    You must work on managing your blood sugar levels within the normal range in order to live a healthy and happy life. Do improve your lifestyle by eating timely, exercising daily, going for doctor follow-ups and taking insulin or medicines on time. For more information, read this blog.


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    Why Would You Have High Blood Sugar If You Have Not Eaten In 12 Hours

    When humans eat carbohydrates, the body converts them to sugar. The sugar fuels every cell in the human body, but it’s important that sugar levels be neither too high nor too low. Low blood sugar, called hypoglycemia, can cause brain damage and even shock. High blood sugar, known as hyperglycemia, is another matter.

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    Blood Sugar Spike Symptoms

    Learning to recognize the symptoms of hyperglycemia can help you keep your diabetes in control. Some people with diabetes immediately feel the symptoms of high blood sugar, but others go undiagnosed for years because their symptoms are mild or vague.

    Symptoms of hyperglycemia typically begin when your blood glucose goes above 250 milligrams per deciliter . Symptoms get worse the longer you go untreated.

    Symptoms of a blood sugar spike include:

    • frequent urination

    What Sort Of Danger Do I Encounter If I Skip Meals

    Blood Sugar 112 2 Hours After Eating

    Sometimes it occurs that people tend to skip meals and tend to lose weight, but the resultant load shoots up instead be on the lower side. The reason is that when the body is fasting, it releases glucose that aids to maintain or increase the body weight.

    When you skip meals, the body releases its glucose and triggers the liver to emit insulin, which increases your blood sugar and makes you feel ill.

    When you skip meals, then your blood sugar level shoots up thereby making you feel giddy. The liver uses the glucose released by it.

    When you skip meals, the medication does not work correctly thereby either lowering or increasing your blood sugar level.

    Skipping meals will make you feel fatigue, and your stored energy will be used up.

    Skipping meals leads to overeating sometimes and thereby not utilizing the energy will lead to accumulating fat sometimes.

    People, in general, have some universal disbelief about lowering blood sugar level. But some cautious activities do increase the standard instead of decreasing.

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    What are the various myths or false notions about how I reduce my blood sugar level?

    Skipping meals does not lower blood sugar level, but it increases in some cases accompanied with increased body weight.

    Going low carbohydrate meal is not always a reality towards low diabetes. In fact opting for a balanced meal is much more necessary. Equal proportions of vitamins, protein, and minerals are essential.

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