| > But it sounds like bringing blood sugar up is a big part of managing T1D, so I'm just wondering why that would be the case for a diabetic but not for a non-diabetic. If you think of insulin as moving the glucose out of your blood stream into a storage area, eg your liver, then, when a normal person's blood sugar goes low, their body stops producing insulin and at the same time dumps some glucose from storage (eg the liver) back into the blood stream. But if I have injected some insulin, the insulin will still be working and I can't just tell it to stop. So even if my liver tries to help me by dumping glucose into my blood stream, the injected insulin will try to move it back! So it is harder and takes longer for my blood sugar to rise on its own. Hence non-diabetics can increase their blood sugar levels when needed, but that is a lot harder for diabetics who are on medication. The biggest problem that I find controlling my BS levels, is not overdosing, but dealing with the unexpected. For example, taking insulin before a meal and then dropping my dinner plate and then trying to find something similar that I can eat quickly or getting an important phone call and being interrupted before I get a chance to eat. Or maybe just getting stuck in traffic and missing a meal. Keto/low carb diets seem to work better for non-insulin dependent diabetics who are producing some insulin, just not enough. I think most Type 1's would still need some (significant) amount of insulin even on a keto diet, so the hypo problem still exists. |
I really hope the CGM and "artificial pancreas" technology continues to progress. It really sounds like a very difficult thing to deal with day in and day out.
Thanks for taking the time to help me understand it a little better.