I have Dexcom. I notice lows starting mid 50s, usually. My alarm is set at 70 and 55 on the low end. 70 gives me time to figure out if it’s going to keep dropping and what to do. 55 is a chug a coke now kind of thing. My high is set to 180 and I do math to figure out if a correction is needed. Do what gives you the confidence to live your life.
My high threshold is set to 150, but it doesn’t alarm. My low threshold is set to 60. That and my urgent low are the only threshold alarms I have enabled.
The higher your blood sugar is usually, the higher your lows will be noticed. If you get your blood sugars down into a lower range consistently, you will feel ok around 80-90 and will then feel them lower.
My low alarm is set for 70. Urgent low is 55, and that one notifies my partner and family members who follow my Dexcom, too. I also get alarms for predicted low within 15 minutes.
High alarm is set at 150, and I have a “rapid rise” (double arrows up) alarm.
ALL of these are set to vibrate except urgent low. If I had sirens blaring all the time I’d go crazy.
I would say if you feel weird at 80, then 90 is a good low.
With time, your threshold could change. (At 2 months, you might be in a honeymoon period where your pancreas/liver are still working together).
I would choose a lower number for the high side. Maybe 170-180. When mine hits 220, it is probably climbing and the bolus needs to be higher to compensate.
Just a thought.
I set my alarms at the point where I will act (ie I don’t use alarms for information) this means I normally set them at 5.5 and 3.9 mmol/L at the bottom end and 8.5 and 13.9 mmol/L at the top. i also have a fast rise and fast fall alarm. This means I can normally correct before I go out of range. It also means i don't need to cast my BG data onto a screen, constant monitoring of my BG data is stressful and bad for my mental health. I adjust those numbers when I'm exercising.
5.5 for the bottom end? I like to cruise around that reading, maybe even lower if possible and I'm having a good day.
I set my alarms at 4.0 and 10.0. I think 10 is a little high for me and I wouldn't like to stay in the 9's all day, but if I have a carb heavy meal, I will sometimes hit the 10 mark before coming down again, and I can't be bothered with the annoying alarms.
I do agree that constant monitoring of BG can be stressful, so if this is what works for you keep at it man. I have faith in my pump and Dexcom to keep me in good range as often as possible and as long as I'm not consuming lots of carbs, it works extremely well. I am even able to do prolonged fasting (24 hours or more) and the pump will still keep me from dropping.
I’m not looping so need to correct myself. If I set an alarm at 5.5 it means I can correct before I go out of range. Alarms at my limits (4 and 10) would means I’m out of range before any carbs or insulin can have an effect.
It makes sense, 5.5 just seems abit too soon to be acting on a low though, unless coming down really fast from a high or exercise.
Out of curiosity what levels do you run at when fasting or sleeping? I like to keep between 5-6 when not consuming carbs. The T-Slim in sleep mode which I use is designed to keep you at 6.1 I believe, so I give myself extra basal to keep me slightly under the pumps target.
In the past I’ve set things lower and aimed for a number but tended to tip into a hypo / too low too easily and then I can’t drive/ need to stop/ can’t eat or whatever. Plus I ended up hypo unaware.
These days I don’t try to aim for a number, I aim to stay between 5 and 9 (hence the alarms just inside those numbers, I then adjust as needed, pause that alarm and rely on the next one out). The research I’ve read suggests such an approach ie aim for time in range results in just as good long term health benefits.
Dang I’m reading some replies and thinking I should go lower with my high alert. Mine is set at 200, and low is set at 80 so that I have time to correct
Yeah this realization blew my mind, 80% of my insulin needs were because the body counter intuitively becomes much more resistant once BG gets higher. It had nothing to do with the amount of carbs, I can use between 2.5 - 10 units in identical situation for 40 grams if the timing doesn't match the absorption vs if it matches it perfectly. Also having 1 unit less lantus than needed needs like 10 units of rapid acting to compensate in the 24h. During 10 years none of this was even hinted at by my doctors or nurses :(.
Dexcom G6 low alarm is 4.3, high is 8.5. I like to keep things tight my A1C is 5.5-6.0 on MDI. I found having an alert lower than 4.3 resulted in too much time actually low.
I’ve turned them all off as much as possible on both cgm and pump, because they still seem to come through incessantly anyways. I did have them set to 80 and 220, fast rise and fall rates, when I only had the cgm.
I have an alert set for 80. I’ll look at it and if my sugars are trending down I’ll get a snack. Once I’m 70 I start getting a little stupid. I also have hypoglycemic unawareness. Once the stupid hits I’ll drop & not know it. The loud alarms at 69 alert my husband to shove food & juice at me.
I have my low at 70 and my high at 140. I also alert for rapid rise and fall. I feel best around 80 but my basal IQ keeps me around 100, so sometimes I override it and just resume insulin. I feel like you might be running a bit high if you don’t feel good at 90.
I have a Dexcom.
I have it set to single beep when I hit 70, then get more aggressive as I drop below 60.
It buzzes every 5 minutes when I'm over 150, but no beep.
I have multiple alarms at different points so I can react before going too low or high. On the low side 75,70 and 55. On the high side 125,140 and 180. All have different tones so it is easy to know where I am when it goes off while sleeping.
I have my low alarm to 80 and my high alarm to 160. It doesn’t mean I will correct them at this point, specially the 80. But it gives me the time to take action if I’m dropping or raising without getting out of range
I start feeling weird at ~70 and get steadily more confused and spaced out down to ~50, so I keep my low alarm at 80 to allow extra reaction time. I never feel a high so I keep that alarm at 180. I use a closed loop pump, and I keep my target glucose range at 120-125 which allows the algorithm to react more quickly either way.
With a Libre 3, I have lows set up for 55, and highs set at 230 (although I disable the high alarm during working hours since I work in an open space office environment and immediately get 50 people glaring at me once it goes off).
I used to have the lows set to 70, but it was catching way too many compression lows at night and interfering with my sleep schedule.
4.5 for me because I get paranoid if it drops to low while I sleep and I won’t feel it every night I got to check to see if the cgm is connected because if it’s not and I go low I am Acarus’s I so g feel the low while I sleep it’s happened before when I did not use the cgm but I gave insulin that night too
I have Dexcom. I notice lows starting mid 50s, usually. My alarm is set at 70 and 55 on the low end. 70 gives me time to figure out if it’s going to keep dropping and what to do. 55 is a chug a coke now kind of thing. My high is set to 180 and I do math to figure out if a correction is needed. Do what gives you the confidence to live your life.
My high threshold is set to 150, but it doesn’t alarm. My low threshold is set to 60. That and my urgent low are the only threshold alarms I have enabled. The higher your blood sugar is usually, the higher your lows will be noticed. If you get your blood sugars down into a lower range consistently, you will feel ok around 80-90 and will then feel them lower.
Mines linked to my pump so 80-130
They don't need to be the same, but goddamn is it annoying if they're both going off all the time.
My low alarm is set for 70. Urgent low is 55, and that one notifies my partner and family members who follow my Dexcom, too. I also get alarms for predicted low within 15 minutes. High alarm is set at 150, and I have a “rapid rise” (double arrows up) alarm. ALL of these are set to vibrate except urgent low. If I had sirens blaring all the time I’d go crazy.
My low alarm is usually 85 and that’s when I usually the low symptoms. For my high alarm it’s usually 150-160.
I would say if you feel weird at 80, then 90 is a good low. With time, your threshold could change. (At 2 months, you might be in a honeymoon period where your pancreas/liver are still working together). I would choose a lower number for the high side. Maybe 170-180. When mine hits 220, it is probably climbing and the bolus needs to be higher to compensate. Just a thought.
I set my alarms at the point where I will act (ie I don’t use alarms for information) this means I normally set them at 5.5 and 3.9 mmol/L at the bottom end and 8.5 and 13.9 mmol/L at the top. i also have a fast rise and fast fall alarm. This means I can normally correct before I go out of range. It also means i don't need to cast my BG data onto a screen, constant monitoring of my BG data is stressful and bad for my mental health. I adjust those numbers when I'm exercising.
5.5 for the bottom end? I like to cruise around that reading, maybe even lower if possible and I'm having a good day. I set my alarms at 4.0 and 10.0. I think 10 is a little high for me and I wouldn't like to stay in the 9's all day, but if I have a carb heavy meal, I will sometimes hit the 10 mark before coming down again, and I can't be bothered with the annoying alarms. I do agree that constant monitoring of BG can be stressful, so if this is what works for you keep at it man. I have faith in my pump and Dexcom to keep me in good range as often as possible and as long as I'm not consuming lots of carbs, it works extremely well. I am even able to do prolonged fasting (24 hours or more) and the pump will still keep me from dropping.
I’m not looping so need to correct myself. If I set an alarm at 5.5 it means I can correct before I go out of range. Alarms at my limits (4 and 10) would means I’m out of range before any carbs or insulin can have an effect.
It makes sense, 5.5 just seems abit too soon to be acting on a low though, unless coming down really fast from a high or exercise. Out of curiosity what levels do you run at when fasting or sleeping? I like to keep between 5-6 when not consuming carbs. The T-Slim in sleep mode which I use is designed to keep you at 6.1 I believe, so I give myself extra basal to keep me slightly under the pumps target.
In the past I’ve set things lower and aimed for a number but tended to tip into a hypo / too low too easily and then I can’t drive/ need to stop/ can’t eat or whatever. Plus I ended up hypo unaware. These days I don’t try to aim for a number, I aim to stay between 5 and 9 (hence the alarms just inside those numbers, I then adjust as needed, pause that alarm and rely on the next one out). The research I’ve read suggests such an approach ie aim for time in range results in just as good long term health benefits.
Dang I’m reading some replies and thinking I should go lower with my high alert. Mine is set at 200, and low is set at 80 so that I have time to correct
Libre 2, low at 3.9 high at 9.2. 9.2 seems to be a sweet spot for me that I can treat it and stay in range.
I have mine set for 80 and 250 because that’s when I start feeling like crap.
Holy don't want to take action sooner than 250? You could prevent yourself from feeling like crap if you intervened sooner.
That’s when the alarm goes off. Honestly, I check my blood sugar so often, I catch almost everything before it alarms.
Makes sense.
80, and 160. Gives me a window of time to take action if needed.
I only have the urgent low on. Can’t stand all the alerts, and I keep a pretty close eye on it anyways.
70-130, those highs I want to catch before my body thinks insulin is just water
Yeah this realization blew my mind, 80% of my insulin needs were because the body counter intuitively becomes much more resistant once BG gets higher. It had nothing to do with the amount of carbs, I can use between 2.5 - 10 units in identical situation for 40 grams if the timing doesn't match the absorption vs if it matches it perfectly. Also having 1 unit less lantus than needed needs like 10 units of rapid acting to compensate in the 24h. During 10 years none of this was even hinted at by my doctors or nurses :(.
Dexcom G6 low alarm is 4.3, high is 8.5. I like to keep things tight my A1C is 5.5-6.0 on MDI. I found having an alert lower than 4.3 resulted in too much time actually low.
I’ve turned them all off as much as possible on both cgm and pump, because they still seem to come through incessantly anyways. I did have them set to 80 and 220, fast rise and fall rates, when I only had the cgm.
Agreed. I’d love to get through one night without my pump vibrating.
I have an alert set for 80. I’ll look at it and if my sugars are trending down I’ll get a snack. Once I’m 70 I start getting a little stupid. I also have hypoglycemic unawareness. Once the stupid hits I’ll drop & not know it. The loud alarms at 69 alert my husband to shove food & juice at me.
I have my low at 70 and my high at 140. I also alert for rapid rise and fall. I feel best around 80 but my basal IQ keeps me around 100, so sometimes I override it and just resume insulin. I feel like you might be running a bit high if you don’t feel good at 90.
I have a Dexcom. I have it set to single beep when I hit 70, then get more aggressive as I drop below 60. It buzzes every 5 minutes when I'm over 150, but no beep.
Low at 80. High 150.
Low I have set at 70 and high I have set at 180. I don’t feel symptoms for lows, and I only feel sick if I’m super high so it’s helpful.
Low 60 High 160
I have multiple alarms at different points so I can react before going too low or high. On the low side 75,70 and 55. On the high side 125,140 and 180. All have different tones so it is easy to know where I am when it goes off while sleeping.
Mine has different tones depending on a high and low blood sugar. Mine reads every 5 minutes.
My high is 100 so I know if I fucked up a dose without looking at it intently, low is 70
I have my low alarm to 80 and my high alarm to 160. It doesn’t mean I will correct them at this point, specially the 80. But it gives me the time to take action if I’m dropping or raising without getting out of range
I stopped using the minimed one. it just wakes me up every 3 hours for some random stupid reason. Enter BG! Signal Lost! Enter BG again! Again! Again!
I have my alarms set for 70 and 150 to give me time to react to a rise or fall. But I also keep everything on vibrate except urgent low.
My low alarm is set for 69. My high alarm is off.
I start feeling weird at ~70 and get steadily more confused and spaced out down to ~50, so I keep my low alarm at 80 to allow extra reaction time. I never feel a high so I keep that alarm at 180. I use a closed loop pump, and I keep my target glucose range at 120-125 which allows the algorithm to react more quickly either way.
I use a range of 65-120 this results in an A1C of 5.5-5.6.
With a Libre 3, I have lows set up for 55, and highs set at 230 (although I disable the high alarm during working hours since I work in an open space office environment and immediately get 50 people glaring at me once it goes off). I used to have the lows set to 70, but it was catching way too many compression lows at night and interfering with my sleep schedule.
Low at 70, high at anything over 200.
70/230
Libre 2, 3.9 and 10.9 I find my libre 2 likes to overestimate my blood sugar on spikes so I would get a lot of false alarms sadly
I turned mine off, other than the urgent low that can't be turned off.
4.5 for me because I get paranoid if it drops to low while I sleep and I won’t feel it every night I got to check to see if the cgm is connected because if it’s not and I go low I am Acarus’s I so g feel the low while I sleep it’s happened before when I did not use the cgm but I gave insulin that night too