Anyone suffer from the Somogyi Effect and how do you manage it?

lklimowicz

A little about my history
I was a healthy happy normal until 2006 when I became pregnant with my son. While I was pregnant, in my first trimester I had to due the glucose test (normally reserved for third trimester) since I have a family history of Type 2 diabetes. My starting fasting BG was 40 at 4 AM. my final fasting was 1 point shy of the diabetes range so they put me on a diet just to be safe but it was designed for hyper not hypo - so lots of little balanced meals (well but I feel off the wagon over the holidays) come trimester 3, surprise - full on gestational diabetes so they put me on insulin as the diet did not fix it.

8 years after my son was born I inched my way back from being a normal to prediabetes. I say inched since that is what my waistline was doing - inching up. After some weight loss (30 lbs) my prediabetes was still around but lower.

Now 13 years after my son was born, and a lot of inches back - more in fact, diabetes in its full form has arrived.

OK now to the point of the post
I am not on meds and trying to manage my diabetes by gradually changing my diet and increasing my exercise (no meds yet since I am pretty low typically in the fasting range -prediabetes ranges). I am noticing though that the longer I fast, the more my bg increases beginning around hour 9 or fasting. As I am reading about diabetes I learned about the dawn phenomenon and the Somogyi effect.

When I was pregnant my starting fasting was 40 and as we all know -uh - that's bad. I suspect that is still going on so I am starting middle of the night testing to confirm if I have the Somogyi effect or if it truly is just the dawn phenomenon. If it is the Somogyi Effect, I am going to have to talk with my doc about it - funny thing is reading about it I am not seeing how that is managed other than reducing meds and long acting insulin, but as I mentioned earlier I am not on meds. I did see one suggestion of eating a carbohydrate snack at least a few hours before bedtime.

Anyone suffer from the Somogyi effect, and if so, how do you manage it?

Morethanjustanumber

I definitely am not an expert but I thought you were suppose to have something high protein/high fat before bedtime to keep your blood sugar from dropping too low during the night and causing your liver to release excess glucose. Peanut butter or cheese were the things I have seen suggested.

2t9nty

I am not sure if it was Somogyi or Dawn Effect, but for a long time, my fasting number was sometimes the highest of the day. Now that I have been at goal weight for a while (and maybe lost some of the internal organ fat?), it seems somewhat normal. My last fasting reading on rising was 81.

FWIW, I am not on meds now. I tried the peanut better/cheese as a bedtime snack, and that did not seem to make any difference for me. That "may" mean it was Dawn Effect and not Somogyi Effect. I am not sure.

Morethanjustanumber

The dawn effect is rising blood sugars during the night because you’re either not making enough insulin or you are insulin resistant but at no point during the night are your blood sugars too low ( below 50). Losing weight is one of the ways to manage high fasting blood sugars.

Somogyi Effect is where your blood sugar drops too low during the night ( again below 50) and so your liver releases too much glucose. It essentially over compensates for the low blood sugar episode during the night. One of the suggested treatments is to eat a high, high protein snack at bedtime to try and prevent the drop in blood sugar during the night.

The best way to determine which you have is to test you sugars during the night for several nights to see what is happening,

Morethanjustanumber

FYI I have high fasting number ( usually 100-115) but all of my other numbers before a meal and 2 hrs after a meal are completely normal. I am hoping that to continue to loss weight will help my fasting number problem too!

nvmomketo

I experience dawn phenomenon. My fasting bg is typically my highest of the day. I tend to add a bit of protein powder to my morning coffee to raise insulin and suppress glucagon.

If fbg is very high, sometimes metformin will be needed. Kudos to you for trying lifestyle changes first.

Some find vinegar or wine in the evening helps reduce fbg too. I found minimal effect.

http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2019/03/insulin-glucagon-pancreas.html?m=1

lklimowicz

Morethanjustanumber wrote: »

The dawn effect is rising blood sugars during the night because you’re either not making enough insulin or you are insulin resistant but at no point during the night are your blood sugars too low ( below 50). Losing weight is one of the ways to manage high fasting blood sugars.

Somogyi Effect is where your blood sugar drops too low during the night ( again below 50) and so your liver releases too much glucose. It essentially over compensates for the low blood sugar episode during the night. One of the suggested treatments is to eat a high, high protein snack at bedtime to try and prevent the drop in blood sugar during the night.

The best way to determine which you have is to test you sugars during the night for several nights to see what is happening,

When I was pregnant I did have numbers below 50 in the middle of the night I am in the process of retesting - so far 2 nights really low, and 2 nights not low.