When blood sugar remains at 100 or higher

#21

@ctviggen - out of curiosity do you wear an Apple Watch or something similar? It sounds like they now can do a reasonably good job of identifying Afib in real time.

#22

I am 69 now but may well have had a fatty liver long ago because having an athletic build I didn’t “appear” to be overweight meaning most people would never look at me and call me fat.

(UsedToBeT2D) #23

I would not worry. Blood glucose monitors are +/- 30% accurate. Your levels are borderline for normal. Keep keto. I have three BGMs, and they vary as much as 20 mg/dl with the same blood sample.

(Bob M) #24

I do not wear one of those. I was thinking about getting one of these:

The benefit to this is that it might also tell me if my left bundle branch block is acting up. This LBBB is rate-related, meaning it only appears when my heart rate hits a certain amount. I see the cardiologist next week and am going to ask him about this: is the LBBB a bad thing?

When I take my blood pressure, the device I use estimates my heart rate. When I do body weight training, my HR is normal. When I ride my bike (higher HR), the blood pressure machine always tells me I have a higher HR. I think that’s the LBBB.

The device I linked above might be able to confirm that.

So, I’m currently more concerned about LBBB, than Afib, as until recently I didn’t have an Afib issue.

I cannot tell 100% that it was the berberine, but it might be.

#25

Those devices look super interesting. I am excited for all the devices coming out that help us take ownership of our health.

Keep us posted. LBBB certainly doesn’t sound like a good thing. Have you told your cardiologist that you do keto? I’m afraid my doctors response to anything would be to go on the DASH diet or something.

#26

At my yearly physical last January, my dr., a young guy in his 30s, was delighted at the results of my keto diet even though 5 months earlier he wanted to prescribe me a statin when my CAC score was high, but didn’t argue when I said “no”. In fact he said he might even consider keto for himself and since I got off all 4 of my hypertension meds he told me I was Big Pharma’s worst nightmare.

#27

I was listening to an interview with a cardiologist recently where he said that of his 1000 or so patients, all desperately needing to lose weight, and all whom he patiently counseled on doing so, he could count on both hands the number that actually ever lost weight and kept it off for any period of time. So I imagine open minded doctors would be thrilled to learn from patients like you

#28

Try Dihydroberberine, works amazing. Don’t confuse with Berberine HCL, which is what is normally what most people use. Works way better, and it’s no more expensive. Pretty much the results of higher dosed Metformin without the downsides.

If you’re not tracking your dietary intake, then start there. You’ll never figure out stuff like this if you’re not. You have to find the correlations of different days, foods, and what happens and nobody’s gonna pull that off going from memory.

The free version of Cronometer tells you a lot about what you’re taking in down to the micronutrient level, but the paid version allows you to create custom graphs to compare basically anything it tracks, one of them being glucose levels. Fiber can also help (you know, that evil thing we allegedly don’t need), definitely did with my wifes fasting numbers, she couldn’t get below 110 to save her life even after almost 4yrs of keto (former diag’d T2D), she’s usually in the high 80’s to low 90’s now.

#29

I’ll look into Dihydroberberine. I definitely want to get some primo stuff if i’m going to take it every day

#30

Day 2 of the Berberine experiment. FBG of 87 this AM and ketones of 2.3.

The best FBG i ever had in my life was 97 which i achieved twice a long time ago. Generally been stuck 102+ for ages.

(Central Florida Bob ) #31

FWIW, which ain’t much, my wife had a pre-surgical EKG a few months ago and they noted an LBBB. They told her to see a cardiologist, so she went to mine, and he just kind of waved it off. A figurative and actual “meh.”

(Bob M) #32

I’m hoping that’s the case. But there was “something” that caused my cardiomyopathy. (I think it was SAD + stress + alcohol due to stress + possibly biking way too much, too long.)

LBBB is associated with cardiomyopathy, but whether it’s a cause or an effect is, of course, not known.

For me, it’s rate-related, meaning I have little to none normally. I only get it when I go above a certain heart rate.

I’m just wondering whether I should keep below that level of heart rate. For instance, go walking instead of riding my bike up hills.

(Bob M) #33

But if you’re eating fiber, you’re eating carbs. You’ve changed two variables.

If you think fiber by itself is “good”, only eat fiber itself. I tried potato starch (a fiber) and other starches for months and could find no benefit. Detriments only, like IBS. Back then, I didn’t have a CGM, so blood tracking was hard.

And there’s no evidence that 110 is “bad” for someone on keto. Or at least no studies I can find.

If you think it’s bad, then by all means try to “correct” it. But don’t confuse that with being “better”, since there are no studies of this.

#34

I wondered about this last Jan. when I had my blood work for my upcoming physical when in my car before going in I checked my own glucose level with my meter and if I remember it was around 90–ok but not “wow my FBG is 80!”.
So I was surprised when the lab had it at 69, lower than normal. So my meter may actually be reading higher than what my blood glucose actually is. I’ve looked on Amazon and my Metene meter is getting low marks for accuracy so I’ve ordered a new one with better marks and see how that is.

#35

I guess my concern is that they say high blood sugar causes damage to tissues and even if you aren’t above the 126 mg/dl threshold for diabetes that doesn’t mean there isn’t some damage. That being said, my BG never goes up to 180 or anything like that - if anything it seems to come down after a meal - so being flatlined at 110 likely could be fine especially compared to the typical guy at 110 FBG who is likely having extreme swings after carby meals

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #36

Verywellhealth.com says:

This reduction in cardiac efficiency [i.e., from LBBB] may be trivial in someone whose heart is otherwise normal, but it can have a significant impact in people with certain types of heart disease.

Apparently, your wife is “otherwise normal.” (ducking for cover)

#37

Except fiber isn’t processed like other carbs, so no, I haven’t.

That would be idiotic, and I never said to do that.

Never said it was, but that doesn’t mean somebody shouldn’t strive to be in a more normal range either, especially somebody that eats minimal carbs.

Again, never said “bad” but feel free to continuously put words in my mouth. If you think higher blood sugar is bad, then by default you should agree lower is better. Nobody’s saying to shoot for the 50’s here. I don’t need a study to tell me not having higher blood sugar is typically a good thing. I don’t need to “try” to correct mine, I did as did my wife.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #38

The problem is more with consistently elevated serum glucose than with transient highs. The problem is from advanced glycation end-products (AGE’s), which the body’s endogenous defences against oxidative damage can usually deal with, if they are not overwhelmed. The problem is that elevated insulin, the body’s response to elevated glucose, shuts off the body’s endogenous defences, requiring us to seek exogenous anti-oxidants. The β-hydroxybutyrate from a ketogenic diet restores the endogenous defences.

Speaking of glycation, do you happen to know what your HbA1C is? It’s not a perfect indicator (being subject to variations in the test conditions, apparently), but it might shed some light on the matter. If HbA1C is low, and inflammatory markers are all in the normal range, you may be okay even with elevated glucose.

#39

HbAIC was 5.4% in late 2019 before I started keto in March 2020.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #40

That’s a good percentage. It would be interesting to know what the level is now.