#1469 Small Sips: Steal A1C Overnight
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Stable overnight blood sugars significantly improve A1C and make daytime management easier.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 00:00 Hello friends, welcome to the sips series. These foundational strategies were nominated by listeners. They told me, these are the ideas in the podcast that truly made a difference for them. So I distilled them down into short, actionable insights. There's not going to be any fluff or complex jargon, just practical, real world diabetes management that you can start applying today. And I know your time is valuable, so we're keeping these short. Another small sip will come out once a week for the foreseeable future. If you like what you hear, check out the Pro Tip series or the bold beginning series for more. Those series are available in the menu at Juicebox podcast.com and you can find complete lists of all of the series in the featured tab on the private Facebook group. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. The questions you have, I guarantee you there's answers to them in the Juicebox Podcast, and it's all free. You Jenny, let's talk about apparently in, oh, look at this, apparently in Episode 37 again with you and I brought up in Episode 11, bold with insulin that, oh, I think I, the way I put it was, I steal a 1c overnight. So, like, take advantage of overnight hours. And the way I used to think of it back then with Arden, like, for full clarity, like, Arden's a 1c wasn't terrific when she was little. They were in the eights and and when I was first trying to imagine, like, how can I impact this, right? Like, how can I create, at least maybe stretches of time with less glucose in our system? The first thing that occurred to me was like, well, when she's asleep, there's no food in there. Like, maybe that'll help. You know, now, eventually she got big enough where there was growth hormone overnight, and that's a different headache. But if you're of the mind, like, I want to be stable overnight at 180 because I want to be safe or I want to sleep. You hear people say that all the time, like, oh, I leave my blood sugar 200 because I want to sleep. And I think, Gosh, what if you could keep it at 100 all night. Now, again, probably everything I say here in these smaller clips, people are going like, Yeah, great. Well, but if I know to do that, buddy, I would right. But the idea is that when you're you're overnight, you're at rest. I'm assuming the food should be I mean, unless you're eating late at night, there should be no food in your system by the time midnight comes around. It's just a great time to steal a 1c so if you're a six and a half during the day, but a six at night, you're going to be more like a six, two, maybe, or something like that. So, yeah,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 03:03 it actually gives you know, we break a 24 hour day into segments. You break it in easily. Most people should be sleeping, let's say, should be sleeping about eight hours, right? Kids might even be sleeping longer than that, because they go to bed earlier than most adults do. So stealing the overnight hours in terms of affecting that long term average, if you've got eight to 10 hours, even eight hours, that's a third of the weight of your overall a 1c right? Yeah. And if you've got 30 some percent of your overnight sitting at a blood sugar of 100 you are absolutely going to be able to wait a little heavier to a lower overall average, or a 1c so 100% take advantage of the overnight. And if you don't know how to do it, I think it's a good idea to start understanding the hours before the overnight impact the overnight. So if your blood sugar after your dinner or after your evening snack are consistently leaving you higher, but your basal is allowing you to then stay stable and flat at 161 4180, overnight, then it's not the basal fault, right? It's the problem before the hours of the overnight. And so I think it should teach you to look at time before, where you're having the problem.
Scott Benner 04:26 Everything that is happening to you right now with that number is from something that occurred before, correct? And it could be hours and hours before, like you used something. I think people all understand I had a slice of pizza at eight o'clock, and my blood sugar got high at 1030 you know, like that kind of thing. Like, there's food in your system. It's digesting once it's cleared out, the amount of insulin it takes to keep your blood sugar stable should be pretty consistent. And also, I think that what you learn from overnight not to shift gears too hard, but one. Once you learn how to keep overnight stable where you need it to be, where you want it to be, that information or way of thinking can go a long way into helping you in the waking hours as well. Absolutely. Yeah. So I tell people all the time when they're like, I don't know how to get my basal right. I'm like, well, it's easier to get it right because people don't want a basal test, you know? I'm like, Well, if you're not going to basal test, use overnight as a test, you know, clear system, basal test, and then use that as a jumping end point for the morning and the rest of the day. Okay, awesome. Look at us being all like, good one, if you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bowl beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginnings series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player, or you can go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on bowl beginnings in the menu if you're ready to level up your diabetes care. The Diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast focuses on simple strategies for living well with type one. The pro tip episodes contain easy to understand concepts that will increase your knowledge of how insulin works and so much more. My daughter has had an A, 1c, between five, two and six, four, since 2014 with zero diet restrictions, and some of those years include her in college. This information works for children, adults and for the newly diagnosed and for those who have been struggling for years. Go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on diabetes pro tip in the menu, or head over to Episode 1000 of the Juicebox Podcast to get started today with the episode newly diagnosed, we're starting over and then continue right on to Episode 1025 that's the entire Pro Tip series episode 1000 to 1025 if you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the Time now to do that, it really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. You.
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