What is the dawn phenomenon?

Lagi research berkaitan gestational diabetes.. Tapi kali ni menerangkan simptom aku yg bila pagi saja sugar high... Sekarang aku sudah mula rekod sendiri kadar gula ikut timing satu hari 6 kali to see what is really happening in my body.. And the conclusion yang aku boleh narrow down is this....

What is the dawn phenomenon?

Named after the time of day it occurs, not some high brow researcher, the dawn phenomenon is the body’s response to hormones released in the early morning hours. This occurs for everyone. When we sleep, hormones are released to help maintain and restore cells within our bodies. These counterregulatory hormones (growth hormone, cortisol and catecholamines) cause the glucose level to rise. For people with diabetes who do not have enough circulating insulin to keep this increase of glucose under control, the end result is a high glucose reading in the morning. For pregnant women, the dawn phenomenon is even more exaggerated due to additional hormones released in the night.

How can I treat the high fasting glucose readings caused by the dawn phenomenon?

Several options are worth considering:

• Exercise later in the day, which may have more of a glucose-lowering effect in the night.
• Talk with your doctor about a possible medication adjustment to control the higher fasting readings.
• Limit bedtime carbohydrates and try more of a protein/fat type of snack (nuts, peanut butter, cheese, or meat).
• Eat breakfast to limit the dawn phenomenon’s effect. By eating, your body will signal the counterregulatory hormones to turn off. This concept can be a little perplexing, as people often say, “But if I don’t eat, shouldn’t my sugar go down?” The opposite is true. By not eating, or skipping meals, it is fairly common to see higher glucose values as a result.

No matter how we label high glucose values, whether caused by the Somogyi effect or dawn phenomenon, we must figure out their cause. Maybe we can start a dawn phenomenon chat room with everyone who will be setting their alarm clocks to awaken at 2 to 3 a.m. for blood sugar checks! One of the keys of diabetes management is identifying glucose patterns and trends over time. Monitoring is the best way to help solve these situations. Researchers are working deligently on newer systems to help unveil glucose patterns with relative ease. So in the meantime, Test! Don’t Guess – And let me know what you discover!

Sumber: http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/blood_sugar_management/garnero_0106