I am 15 years old and have had type 1 diabetes since I was five years old. I was having trouble keeping my blood sugar under control for a while, but about a month ago, I started to limit my carbohydrate intake and began to exercise more often. Then my blood sugar finally came back to normal. However, sometimes my blood sugar still jumps up to around 300-400 mg/dl (16.6-22.2 mmol/dl). I am not eating anything that would raise my blood sugar, I am exercising, and I am not under any stress. Do you know why this is happening? Also, what is the normal range for a person with diabetes’ blood sugar to be in? I have heard so many different numbers, and do not know what one is right.

It sounds like you are doing a great job trying to control your blood sugar. Even if you are doing everything “right”, you may have periodic highs and lows because of hormonal changes in your body, differences in day to day rates of digestion of food, day to day differences in absorption of insulin, the lack of normal amylin production by the pancreas which helps regulate rate of digestion of food and release of sugar by the liver, and because injected insulin doesn’t prevent the liver from releasing glucose as efficiently as insulin secreted directly from the pancreas.

I would ask your own physician what are realistic goals for your own blood sugars. If you are very prone to low blood sugars, your doctor may not recommend aiming for completely normal nondiabetic levels, but may aim a little higher. Although the goal is always to get as close to non-diabetic levels as possible, this is not always possible without avoiding serious low blood sugars.

TGL