Beware of Fake Low Blood Sugars! Here's What You Need to Know
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- Is your blood sugar actually low or is it really a fake low blood sugar?!?
Let’s discuss the reasons your low blood sugar might be a FAKE low and what you can do about it.
00:00 Introduction
1:06 Your Glucometer could be wrong because….
3:10 Can you prevent fake low blood sugar readings?
4:32 Your CGM could be wrong because….
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DISCLAIMER: I’m not a medical professional, never stop your current treatment without consulting with your doctor
I get fake lows at night. Normally I'll just set up and wait for a couple of cycles, about 10 minutes, to see if it comes back up. Then I roll over and go back to sleep or go do a fingerstick if needed. It doesn't happen often though.
I have a CGM I always double-check with a finger prick to see when it's high or when it's low. If I get false lows it's when I have been sleeping on my sensor I noticed. I don't get the sensation of low blood sugar until it's at 50 or lower. My CGM isn't as accurate as pricking my finger but it's great to let me know what direction my blood sugar is going.
One thing I've noticed, and my endocrinologist confirmed: if I go for an outdoor walk, and the temperature is below 50° F, my Dexcom G6 will sometimes alert me of an imminent low, despite the fact that I feel completely fine. Turns out, cold temperatures can mess with the sensor, leaving it to think I'm low when I'm not (which I always confirm with a finger stick once my hands are warm and dry).
Thank you for sharing
I’m usually LCHP, but mostly Carnivore now. While in Nutritional Ketosis, I’ve had lows down to 40’s but continue to function normally while my CGM keeps warning me of urgent lows. My DexCom won’t let me set it lower than 55. Since glocopneogenis take longer to convert protein to glucose, I have to be careful not to treat the lows with glucose (for me it’s Smarties) right away.
You mentioned being low and not feeling bad, I had that happen. My CGM woke me up in the 70s, finger stick said upper 60s, and I bottomed out at 52 with finger sticks but felt fine before the glucose kicked in. Now I’m willing to OD on glucose tabs or gel to get my readings higher. That is rare for me, only in the 50s twice in 3.5 years of LADA. As you mentioned before, I always do at least 3 measurements with finger sticks before deciding what is going on (I think my record is 7). And as you have also said before, don’t use first drop of blood, let some “fresh” come through. My biggest problem is “freaking out” while going very low is happening since I’m still relatively new to it…
You can become hypoglycemia insensitive. Which is dangerous. If you are g ok ing below 65 on a finger stick frequently thus can lead to heart disease and increased risk of stroke over time.
I have had much more fake lows from my CGM's then the glucometers. You are right on the spot with the pressurized lows during the night. This is the time when most of my fake lows happen. My CGM would buzz and sound off when its nearing 50 and with 2 to 3 arrows pointing down even. Most of the time this happens, I do not feel the low or that I am dropping fast. Then a few minutes later, CGM states below 40 with 1 to 3 arrows pointing down. I still do not feel the low, or just barely. I check with my glucometer and I am maybe 80 something or even close to 100. I always have either a bottle of mango or apple juice by my bed just in case. Of course, I have had real lows during the day when I get to the point I am breaking out in sweats and confusion starts to set in. Luckily wherever I am or doing, I have some form of sugar on me, ie, mango, apple, grape juice since I am so active.
This is James Beard from Paragould Arkansas. I just found out that I have diabetes last December. It is type 2 but lm now giving myself 4 insulin shots a day and a gallon bag of pills. I really enjoy your talks about diabetes . Thanks so much sincerely James
Also want to say hello from Arkansas, and I think you are a very beautiful person. I don't know your age but you are doing something right and God is with you always.
I really wish we could all get in a time machine and I could play this video to my 15 to 20 years ago self. I think I always knew this to be true to a point combined with the fact that I haven't really felt lows very much unless i'm super super low. The end result is that I'm pretty sure i was ignoring a whole lot of real lows for a long time. Thankfully with the better technology and treatment options we have now, I don't have that many lows fake or real, but I definitely was struggling there for a while. Another great video! thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing that. I’m glad the video resonated with you
Thank you for this topic. Very helpful.
I've had some bad lows. I only use Humalog currently with the Medtronic system. I'll be doing the software upgrade for the pump soon and switching to a supposedly better transmitter and sensors/CGM. I guess Medtronic finally became concerned about losing customers to Dexcom and the other competitors. My endocrinologist put me on this so I just kind of trusted that he knew what my insurance would cover. I mentioned trying Omnipod and he said their customer service is awful. He is fro Pakistan so possibly there was a communication problem...who knows. I don't like getting a Medtronic rep in the Philippines whose English sometimes is not great. Thee end. Good luck
This is amazing knowledgable content. You know so much, thank you for sharing. I was suspicious about those weird lows at night on the CGM, makes sense that they are compression lows!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fake lows are the reason I stopped using a CGN. At first, whilst I was using insulin to lower my blood sugar, I found it annoying to have the alarm go off. However, thanks to you, I was aware that it was likely a compression low, so I would do a finger stick. Finally, I found a doctor that prescribed Metformin rather than a high priced designer drug that likely paid the previous doctor (quack?) a kickback. Metformin is much less likely to drop the blood sugar into the danger zone, so I would just turn off the CGN app at night.
Then one sensor quit two days early, and the replacement gave readings 25 to 40 mg/dL lower than the finger stick. This even after the initial day or two.
By now I had done a pretty good job of charting what did what to my blood sugar so I ripped the sensor out and deleted the app.
Lest anyone thing this totally irresponsible, my last A1c lab result was 4.6. So I think I am OK.
Love your videos, by the way!!!
Thank you. And great job on your blood sugar management 🙌
I too just abandoned my CGM for this reason. Back to finger sticks. Nice video by the author though eh?!
@@scottjones6624 she always does a great job.
I wouldn't recommend turning off a CGM off at night if you are a T1D or on insulin therapy. I am very well controlled but the few times I went into hypoglycemic shock was at night before I had a CGM and that was terrifying.
@@mhfnet You are giving sound advice. I would not have done it, IF I was still jabbing myself with insulin. I also monitored the output of the CGN every day, but with extra scrutiny when a low glucose level had been triggered. In every case the dip was a very short excursion into the “danger” zone. Many times it totally disappeared from the graph.
Having worked as an engineer for decades, I know the value of data. That is why I did not regard the CGN as an interesting gadget, used to determine current glucose, but as a mapping utensil available to chart the effects of things I ate, things I did, and when those effects became manifest.
When engineering something, I did not find it necessary to run new tests to determine the properties of materials I wanted to use, there is a large library of this sort of data. I used my CGN to compile data I could refer to, rather than run test after test after test. Good luck in your struggle to stay healthy!
Really well done and complete. Nice attention to detail.
Glad you liked it!
I get lows on cgm after its done with its loading after changing it after the 10 day cycle but pretty rare I get that wrong reading. If you sleep on your sensor you may get a fake low reading. I feel when I am low so I know when it's correct or not.
Nici video, i dont fell a low of I just eaten a big meal, the organe and everything still haves food for a while. Using fiasp and being very senzitive, i could get a low very quik, even from 300. I generally prevent them from happening. To be sure about my blood values and im not confident in my fingers, i usually take samples from other parts of the body.
Thanks for Sharing 👍🏾
You are so welcome
I can't wear a monitor, because I can only use one side of my body, do
to breast cancer ,I have been a diabetic since 1992 so I am pricking ,3 times a day
Thanks for sharing here it is very informative
Glad it was helpful!
@@DiabetesStrong Yes thanks learning all the time and learnt from your other video you linked👍👍
My experience with false (mainly high) readings was after handling fruit, in my case lemons or oranges, without washing my hands 🙄
😑
This is James Beard from Paragould Arkansas. What do you mean after handling fruits you get a false high. And not washing your hands. I'm fairly new to this diabetes stuff and CGM but you always wash your hands after handling anything. Cause you may end up with an infection or something.
@@jamesbeard7153if fruit juice (which has fructose) is on your hands, it can get mixed in with the blood drop and that can lead to a false high blood sugar reading when you measure with a glucometer (so, poke your finger, not CGM)
Ma’am i have a question please reply , if anyone loss lots of blood , can it be a reason for hight hba1c
It depends on the situation, but from what I've read conditions such as acute and chronic blood loss, hemolytic anemia, and splenomegaly can all cause falsely lowered A1c results
this you tube hit me at a time Im that my new g7 gives me false los during the first 24 hrs and a couple more hours after that. I find if I make adjustments the results are more unreliable. my g6 was more consistant.
Heat and cold affect my Dexcon g7 readings a lot. A hot shower will make it read really high and a cold shower makes it read really low compared to my glucose meter. I tested it by putting an ice cube in a plastic baggy on the sensor a few minutes and it went double arrow down then applied just the body heat of my hand over the sensor and it went high. My glucose meter readings remained constant. I also notice me g7 reads much higher than my glucose meter when I exercise.
Interesting, did you have a G6 before the G7 and had the same problem?
@@mhfnet G7 is the only one I ever had. Got it about 1 month ago. I love it so far but finding its limitations. It goes up with exercise sometimes over 50 points compared to my glucose meter so I take a very cold shower afterwards and it reads very low compared to the glucose meter. I do this trying to balance to false high with the false low readings so that over all it will be more accurate.
Yeah I'm curious if you had g6 before you had a G7. I've been curious to try the G7 but I kind of hear that it has issues I have a sample of a G7 just to try but I haven't tried it yet I'm pretty satisfied with my G6 so I don't know if I'll even switch to a 7
@@mamasaurus82 And on top of that you can't restart a G7 sensor. I too am happy with the G6 and might change to the G7 when they fix the current issues and if they increase the sensor life to be competitive to the Libre, which is 14 days and support direct to iWatch as I do not like using my phone and want something better than the separate receiver. I hear they "plan" to do that but they promised that on the G6 and didn't deliver so I am not holding my breath. It seems like it's all about maximizing profits and marketing by holding off on improvements until the next release.
I have a habit of over correcting.
We are learning and this is issue my husband is having. I wish there was a magic calculator.
I have just been told I have type 2 diabetes and over the last 3 weeks I have been trying to sort out my diet. I have a fingerstick but thought a CGM would show me more of what was going on. So last 5 days have used freestyle libre 2 which I thought was working well showing what was going on with my food then it started showing fake lows checked with blood prick which was 5.4 mmml normal then I started checking other readings and sometimes they match sometimes they don't. How accurate are these CGM or how can you know when they are working correct. I thought I was getting my diet right by seeing what foods gave me a spike but don't know now. I have to pay for it myself here in UK CGM or finger sticks. What I don't understand is Freestyle Libre 2 are supplied to Type 1 diabetics to work with insulin pumps but if they are unreliable how does that work.
Great questions, and I understand why you're starting to question your CGM. First I'd suggest you watch this video, I know it's made with Dexcom in mind but a lot of the general CGM principles apply: ua-cam.com/video/ipKdnTeaOLM/v-deo.htmlsi=o5hrAqY9vmOlNuL9
The key difference is that you can't calibrate your Libre when it's off. But the video explains what kind of variation is to be expected, and when you can expect them to be different (for example when blood sugars are changing rapidly)
Im T1D my A1c 6.7 since then I’m to sensitive to insulin. Do you have any recommendations how to manage blood sugar level stable specially at night please 🙏🏼
If you often have lows at night try discussing your long-acting dose with your doctor. You might even do better with a different type of long acting
Whenever I ha e to change my sensor😢 I experience low blood sugar very low or urgent low. I take jardence trulicity metformin all on that Monday I change sensor.
That's so frustrating
As a woman T1D, did you have kids? This is a tough decision.
You can definitely have kids as a type 1 woman. Ginger Vieira’s pregnancy book is a great resource