What Is the Dawn Phenomenon - A Simple Easy To Understand Explanation
One of the current diabetes buzzwords on the net is "dawn phenomenon" and many diabetics are asking, "What is the dawn phenomenon?" The explanation is simple but dealing with it is quite another story as it has proven to be one of the most difficult things for diabetics to control.
If you are diabetic and you check your blood sugar several times a day, you may have noticed an unusually high reading first thing in the morning.
For clarity, this means the reading you take BEFORE you eat breakfast.
This is counter intuitive to many diabetics because they don't expect their blood sugar to be so high unless they've eaten a meal.
However, this is actually a very common problem among diabetics.
Here's why it happens.
When you go to sleep at night, the body releases three regulatory hormones: cortisol, glucagon, and epinephrine.
In a person without diabetes, these hormones work in perfect harmony to stimulate the liver to produce a little extra blood sugar (glucose) and make the cell membranes a little extra resistant to insulin.
This gives the human body an energy boost to start the day off.
In prehistoric times, this would have been immensely important.
However, in people with diabetes, things can go haywire with the regulation of these hormones and with your cell membranes and you can end up with a huge surge in blood sugar instead of just the little extra you need to start the day.
Now, I should point out here that if you're one of those people who get up in the middle of the night for a high carb snack attack, you may be seeing a high blood sugar reading in the morning even if you go back to bed afterwards.
However, if you are seeing a high reading after fasting and sleeping for at least 6 hours, you are more than likely experiencing a true case of dawn phenomenon.
Many diabetics try to stop the dawn phenomenon by changing their diabetes medication - oral medications and/or insulin.
They also may try adjusting their medication dosage or they may try changing the timing of exactly when they take their medication.
However, these methods almost never seem to work.
It has proven very difficult to stop the dawn phenomenon by just making a change to your medication.
In fact, many people with diabetes find it to be one of the most frustrating challenges they deal with.
If you are diabetic and you check your blood sugar several times a day, you may have noticed an unusually high reading first thing in the morning.
For clarity, this means the reading you take BEFORE you eat breakfast.
This is counter intuitive to many diabetics because they don't expect their blood sugar to be so high unless they've eaten a meal.
However, this is actually a very common problem among diabetics.
Here's why it happens.
When you go to sleep at night, the body releases three regulatory hormones: cortisol, glucagon, and epinephrine.
In a person without diabetes, these hormones work in perfect harmony to stimulate the liver to produce a little extra blood sugar (glucose) and make the cell membranes a little extra resistant to insulin.
This gives the human body an energy boost to start the day off.
In prehistoric times, this would have been immensely important.
However, in people with diabetes, things can go haywire with the regulation of these hormones and with your cell membranes and you can end up with a huge surge in blood sugar instead of just the little extra you need to start the day.
Now, I should point out here that if you're one of those people who get up in the middle of the night for a high carb snack attack, you may be seeing a high blood sugar reading in the morning even if you go back to bed afterwards.
However, if you are seeing a high reading after fasting and sleeping for at least 6 hours, you are more than likely experiencing a true case of dawn phenomenon.
Many diabetics try to stop the dawn phenomenon by changing their diabetes medication - oral medications and/or insulin.
They also may try adjusting their medication dosage or they may try changing the timing of exactly when they take their medication.
However, these methods almost never seem to work.
It has proven very difficult to stop the dawn phenomenon by just making a change to your medication.
In fact, many people with diabetes find it to be one of the most frustrating challenges they deal with.
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