Really? A whole pack of marshmallows?! (I thought I was the only one who had this craving 
)
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CTStan
#545
I also too often indulge in excessive treats and control my glucose reaction with 50-100mg acarbose.
Something Iāve noticed though, is that although acarbose definitely blunts glucose spikes, my average glucose seems to trend higher for an extended period afterwards. Has anyone else noticed that?
Also, if attending family gatherings there may be an afternoon of extended āgrazingā (today, for example)ā¦, it seems I can take another couple of acarbose hours later and it will again blunt spikes.
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Beth
#546
WHATTTTT???
Iām jealous you can eat like that!!! Iām on dapagliflozin and also take 50mg of acarbose, and while it works, it does not work nearly that well for me.
If my google conversion is correct, 6.5 mmol/l is equivalent to 117 mg/dlā¦ mine goes that high if I breathe!
With my combo, it helps keeps my very healthy meals from breaking through 140 many days, but it still often goes higher. Having said that, on my best days of healthy food, Iām still going higher than 117.
For me, the heavy lifting is from dapagliflozin because when I was on acarbose and metformin, my spikes were still going through 160 almost daily, and that is with eating a boring af diet!
This is a good time to ask for a lesson in glucose:
My A1c is fine but Iām a glucose spike machine
I recently found out two people I know have a1cās that show they are pre-diabetic, but their cgms show they donāt really spike that much, and that is on no medication.
I would have assumed if you are pre-diabetic, that comes with spikesā¦ can someone explain why this is not the case?
EDIT: I see @CTStan will take 100mg of acarboseā¦ is there any reason I shouldnāt experiment with taking more? (Iām a smallish person fwiw)
Nick1
#547
I am probably like you, Beth.
Food sequencing helps, I have realized. Fiberā>Fat---->protein----> carbs
I do take 100 mg of Acrabose.
I had dinner at 4PM but then our family wanted to goto neighborhood FroYo place. I made an exception of going with spirit and had one scoop with some almonds. Acarbose did blunt the spike. Of course, we walked 15 min to and from the place!
Speaking of body habitus, muscle mass does play a great deal of role. If one has fair amount of muscle mass, it helps as a metabolic sink ( and buffer) as muscular indivduals will experience smaller and shortlisting spike (or glucose variabilty) as compared to less muscle-endowed individuals.
Then it also depends on the source of carbs. This is what same food sequencing+ Acarbose+ 2 Oreo cookies did to me.(i was experimenting)
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Hereās the results for Motherās Day Dinner which was non-stop Chinese food - noodles, sweet and sour pork, and some other sweet and carby dishes. I did hit 8.4 though, but no spikes above 10.
You can see that since starting the CGM, my blood glucose has never gone out of range.
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Beth
#549
@Nick1 Ok, maybe I slap another cgm on and experiment with 100mg. And eureka, I didnāt know about the muscle aspectā¦ maybe that explains some of it because I am 27% fat?
@DeStrider Ok, now you are just taunting me
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Nick1
#550
Another minor hack which inevitably helps is nitric oxide dump after eating. Its a fancy way to say keep moving after eatingā¦or old adage of after dinner walk a mileā¦
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Doesnāt binging on carbs with acarbose give your horrible gas?
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It depends on the carbā¦ I have no problem with gas with any carbs except with wheat-based carbs.
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I seem to have the same problem. I generally donāt eat a lot of wheat based products at home. I travelled recently and ate lots of wheat based products and suddenly had insane amounts of gas. Could be something else, but the experience reminded me that you had mentioned this earlier. Discontinuing acarbose resolved the gas almost immediately.
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Nick1
#554
With first dose or first few doses may be but after that I never had any issue. I suspect when you consume simple sugars, it would lead to flatulence as you are leaving those sugars for your microbiome to binge on. If you are consuming complex carbs, it shouldnt be an issue. I generally dont do grains though.
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Haha that is absolutely awesome. Going to have to procure some of this for myself! Doesnāt it make you fart a lot though, if you took acarbose with a bunch of noodles and sweets?
Iām not an expert on this, but I think I know a bit. To my understanding, both the spikes and the area under the curve (essentially A1C) are important.
I also see massive variation between people. My wife is you like, and weād maybe say ācarb intolerantā. She looks at a bowl of rice and her glucose goes above 110 mg/dl. Meanwhile, I seem to be able to eat literally any sugar I want and pretty much never spike my glucose. The only thing I can use to create a āspikeā is literally a solution of dextrose in water.
Totally agree about the muscle mass issue. I am good friends with a professor of nutrition, and she told me that this is, in her opinion, the number one factor for glucose handling, acting like a sink for the glucose. My wife has also noticed this; sheās always been slim, but once she started adding muscle her glucose disposal got way better.
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Yes. Acarbose makes me fart more. However Iāll take that over glucose spikes!
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Beth
#557
You say 110mg/dl like itās a bad thing!!??? You are freaking me out!!
If I can stay under 120 during the day, I consider it a smashing successā¦ and that is while being heavily medicated!
Fyi, I rarely have gas with acarbose, but perhaps itās because I eat a very boring diet. Today, I had tofu and broccoli for breakfast, then a protein shake, some dark chocolate with nuts, and then beans and kale for dinnerā¦ KILL ME!!
PS, today was a smashing successā¦ very unspikey! My CGM doesnāt get any better than this:
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How do your friends and romantic partners think about that? haha
Well, 110 is āmyā standard I guess. My two week average glucose with the same Libre CGM was 92 mg/dl. Thatās just some good genetics I guess.
And I think your diet looks awesome and that glucose level in the screenshot looks incredible. I think itās not too helpful to compare baselines against complete strangers. Maybe you just have higher hepatic glucose output? If thereās no evidence itās actually doing you harm, Iād say youāve got everything really nicely under control.
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My wife and friends donāt care about farts. ,
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We should add that generally I donāt think acarbose farts donāt smell much.
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Actually Iāve noticed my farts usually donāt have any odor. 90% of the time.
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Nick1
#562
When you break down carbohydrates, you pretty much release CO2 and H20 besides energy.
Unlike prtoeins, there is no sulfur ! CO2 is odorlessā¦hahaaaa
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Oh wow! I didnāt know this. The protein powder farts are toxic for sure 
out for curiosity, does poop follow the same rule?
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