Preparing for a GTT
How Can I Improve My Glucose Readings and/or Prepare for a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test).
Ideally get an A1C from your Doctor in the first trimester - this test has been shown to be 98.4% specific for detecting gestational diabetes. Why wait for a GTT - building a healthy baby begins right from conception (in fact pre-pregnancy is the ideal time to make these adjustments to your diet and lifestyle).
Start using Red Light Therapy regularly in pregnancy to significantly reduce blood sugar levels and spikes.
Of course, you’re going to reduce sugar, introduce more protein, and avoid eating high-sugar, processed foods if you haven’t already done so - not to beat the GTT but for your health and your baby’s. Lily Nichols’ books - Real Food for Gestational Diabetes and Real Food for Pregnancy are must-have resources as so many of the standard recommendations are out of date and not evidence-based. I interviewed Lily recently about her work.
Get out in bright daylight as often as you can in the days before your GTT. Remember to turn off the blue light devices early in the evening. These days we spend about 95% of our time indoors exposed to artificial (blue) light and miss out on so many of the benefits of sunlight (and why so many moms are Vitamin D deficient). Increased exposure to bright sunlight can increase nocturnal melatonin levels which then inhibit insulin secretion from the pancreas. Vitamin D, which is primarily produced in the skin in response to sunlight exposure has also been linked with the development of insulin resistance. A 2019 European study of over 13,000 women and men found that those participants who spent more time in the sun in the 7 days before their blood glucose test had improved glucose functioning. More recently (Stalheim et al., 2023) found a link between seasonality and GDM, with the lowest incidence of GDM when pregnancy started during the summer season. Similar findings were found in Verburg et al., (2016) who also found the highest incidence of GDM when pregnancy started in the coldest months.
While waiting for your GTT use your favorite sessions from the GentleBirth app - meditation reduces blood sugars (stress increases it).
I recently interviewed Lily about her work on my podcast.
