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September 3, 2002

Daily Care

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Question from Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA:

What causes your blood/sugar to read higher after you have gone to bed for the night?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

In a person without diabetes, there is normally some circulating glucose even when fasting overnight. This balance is finely tuned by the balance between insulin and glucagon which causes the liver to output glucose (gluconeogenesis from hepatic glycogen and protein) and glucose uptake by the brain and muscles.

In person who has diabetes, the insulin waning over the late nighttime and the dawn permits the liver to make too much glucose and the peripheral tissues not to utilize properly the glucose available. This often leads to an higher fasting blood sugar.

MS