Table of Contents
- 1 Blood Glucose Level
- 2 Comprehending Your Blood Sugar on the Blood Glucose Amount Chart
- 3 What Are Regular Blood Glucose And Blood Sugar Amounts?
- 4 Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring: Is It A Good Alternative To Glucometers?
- 5 Diabetes and Blood Glucose Variations
Blood Glucose Level
Diabetes is a condition that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. It has become the fourth leading cause of death. Diabetes also leads to all sorts of other serious medical conditions like blindness, amputation, kidney disease, heart disease and sexual problems. Tragically, some people are never diagnosed because they don’t show any symptoms. A simple test of your blood glucose level can save your life.
Certain people seem to get diabetes more than the general population. People over 40 should have a blood glucose level test every three years. If you are overweight, you may be at risk of diabetes. If the extra weight tends to gather around the abdomen, you are even more prone to getting diabetes. Diabetes is more common in people of Hispanic, Asian, African, or Aboriginal descent. It also tends to be genetic between brothers, sisters, parents or other close relatives.
If you are at risk of diabetes you should ask your doctor for a blood glucose level test. You should also ask for a blood glucose level test if you are showing any symptoms of diabetes. Signs include frequent urination, extreme fatigue or blurry vision. You may experience numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Excessive thirst is often a sign of diabetes. You may have cuts or infections that take a long time to heal. You may also experience sudden weight gain or loss.
A blood glucose level test will determine if you have diabetes. People with diabetes have high blood sugar concentrations because they cannot burn the glucose for energy. People with diabetes cannot produce a hormone called insulin. The pancreas produces insulin to help cells absorb blood glucose.
There are three types of diabetes. Type 1 occurs in youth. In this case, the pancreas cannot produce any insulin. Type two diabetics are generally adults, who cannot produce enough insulin. Some type two diabetics cannot use the insulin efficiently. Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy and usually disappears after birth. However, it is a signal that you could eventually develop a high blood glucose level.
People who are diagnosed with Type One diabetes will always need to take insulin injections. People with Type two may be able to manage their blood glucose level through diet and exercise. A blood Glucose Level Meter will help you keep track of your blood sugar at different times during the day. Keeping your blood glucose level within healthy limits is the key to managing diabetes.
Diabetes treatment plans can vary from person to person. If necessary, insulin doses will be tailored to your personal needs. Insulin must be injected into the fat under the skin because stomach acids destroy it. This can be done with a pump, syringe or pen. Some people may be able to use an inhaler.
Often lifestyle changes are enough to lower your blood glucose level. Getting at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day can help you manage your diabetes. You should also limit carbohydrates, which are can have a significant impact on your blood glucose level.
Fruits, vegetables and grains need to be eaten in moderation, and with other foods. Fibre, protein and limited fat can help slow the injection of sugar into your blood. Weight management is also an important part of a diabetes management plan. You could impact your blood glucose level by losing as little as ten pounds.
Comprehending Your Blood Sugar on the Blood Glucose Amount Chart
Comprehending your blood sugar on the blood glucose degree chart is clear-cut. The benefit has fairly various implications relying on when you or your medical professional examined your blood sample. For occasion, was it taken though fasting (initial issue in the early morning in advance of feeding on) or soon after feeding on a meal or a period of several hours soon after consuming a typical glucose tolerance takes a look at consume?
If the take a look at is completed though fasting, it tells you if your pancreas can get your degree back again into a typical selection, which ought to be a benefit of ninety nine mg/dL or under. Of training course a excellent blood glucose degree falls inside of a selection rather than a one benefit. A much too-lower degree is not risk-free for you possibly – so when the benefit dips into a selection of 60-70 or under, your brain may perhaps not be able to do the job correctly.
Think about your ideal blood sugar stages in a Goldilocks way. In the kid’s fairy tale, the minor female Goldilocks tries out different products in the bears’ property, getting that one was much too a great deal, one was much too minor, but one was just ideal.
Your medical professional may perhaps explain to you that you are pre-diabetic if your fasting blood degree falls in the selection of 100-125 mg/dL. Over 126 mg/dL for fasting values fulfils a definition of diabetes. But there is much more to the story. In diabetes, your entire body can’t handle glucose hundreds from feeding on or consuming meals with a lot of carbs or sugars in them.
Consequently, another issue to take into account is your body’s potential to handle the glucose in the blood (which you will need in just the ideal amounts) that feeding on can include as a load on your cells’ potential to get up and benefit from glucose for typical metabolic process.
Let’s say that your medical professional sent you to the lab for a glucose tolerance take a look at. They could check out your blood glucose fasting, just in advance of they ask you to consume a typical beverage that contains a load of glucose in it. Then they check out the rise and peak stages that your stages access at a established period of time soon after the beverage, e.g., 2 several hours later on. In that scenario, the best that a healthier, non-diabetic person’s blood sugar degree will go soon after 2 several hours is 139 mg/dL.
Any benefit 140-199 mg/dL is regarded as pre-diabetic functioning and a 2-hour benefit two hundred or previously mentioned will likely guide to a diabetes analysis. If possibly of these lab effects take place to you, it is time to get much more severe about utilizing a healthier sort of a lower carb eating plan to stay away from overloading your system with glucose from carbs that it can’t course of action correctly.
Just a last remark on the means of various blood glucose values in various situations – for girls anxious about gestational diabetes, the satisfactory higher limits of “typical” during a glucose tolerance take a look at are a minor lessen than for non-expecting people.
That is in element simply because of the health and fitness pitfalls to infant and mom if the mom has diabetic glucose stages are significant. It is specifically important for an expecting female who has blood sugar concerns to maintain tight manage of her blood sugar. Also, if a female develops gestational diabetes, it will likely go absent soon after offering beginning, but it means that she is at hazard for establishing sort 2 diabetes later on.
What Are Regular Blood Glucose And Blood Sugar Amounts?
This is the concern my diabetic people normally request. There are various approaches to establish blood sugar amount. Some exams give you precise diagnosis of diabetes or pre-diabetes, when others will notify you how well you are taking care of your diabetes.
Fasting Blood Sugar Exam
Measure the glucose amount right after 8 several hours speedy or overnight. Regular fasting glucose is less than 100mg/dl. If your fasting glucose is from 100mg/dl to 125mg/dl then you will have impaired blood glucose also acknowledged as Pre-Diabetic issues. If your sugar amount is previously mentioned 125mg/dl then your health care provider will diagnose as an affected person of diabetes.
To validate the diagnosis, your health care provider may perhaps repeat the fasting blood glucose examination on any other working day. If you have blood sugar amount of 126mg/dl or higher in two consecutive exams, then you may perhaps have diabetes. If you have glucose better than 200mg/dl and you have symptoms of diabetes like elevated thirst or hunger, repeated urination, body weight decline, blurred eyesight and many others, then you may perhaps be diagnosed with diabetes mellitus devoid of confirming it with next examination.
Random Blood Glucose Exam
Random blood sugar examination gives your blood sugar at any time in a working day. Regular random blood sugar amount must be less than 200mg/dl. If your random blood sugar is amongst 140mg/dl to 200mg/dl then you will have pre-diabetes.
Oral Glucose Tolerance Examination
This examination measures your reaction to sugar. Very first we evaluate fasting glucose, and then glucose answer is presented, right after that we evaluate blood glucose right after one hour and 2hours. A typical blood glucose amount right after an oral glucose tolerance examination is less than one hundred forty mg/dL. Amount amongst one hundred forty mg/dL to 199 mg/dL indicates pre-diabetes. A glucose amount of 200 mg/dL or higher two several hours right after you drink the glucose answer may perhaps counsel that you have diabetes mellitus.
Glycated Haemoglobin (A1C) Examination
This examination is not for diagnosing diabetes, but it exhibits you how well you have controlled your sugar in last 2 or three months. Regular benefit is less than 7%, nevertheless if it is much more than 7 then you and your health care provider must think of altering your treatment method of diabetes.
Normally, don’t forget, your blood glucose measurement alone is not sufficient to differentiate amongst sort one and sort 2 diabetes. Your health care provider may perhaps do some other exams to locate out which sort of diabetes you have.
Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring: Is It A Good Alternative To Glucometers?
Continuous glucose monitoring systems or CGM provide a more convenient alternative to typical glucose monitoring devices that compel diabetes patients to prick their skin a couple of times every day. These use a circuit of devices that is connected to a sensor inserted under the skin to continuously gather records of blood glucose values. CGM basically records fluctuations in blood glucose levels on a constant basis to determine whether changes in the diet, medication, treatment, or physical activity are needed.
CGM has three components: a sensor, a transmitter, and a pager-like wireless monitor. The sensor is inserted under the skin, usually in the upper arm, near the thighs, and under the abdomen, to measure glucose levels of the tissue fluids. People who are using insulin injections, insulin pens, and insulin pumps have no problem finding these sites as these are basically the same. It should be noted that sensors should be placed two inches away from the navel and should not be placed over bruised, swollen, and tender skin. Placing the sensor is usually quick and relatively painless.
A transmitter is hooked to the sensor and sends information every ten seconds or so via radio waves to a pager-sized monitor, which then displays blood glucose values. The transmitter of a CGM is rechargeable and should be recharged every few days. This is water resistant and does not need to be removed during bathing, exercising and swimming.
CGM comes with an alarm system. This alerts the patient whenever blood glucose levels go below or above the set threshold.
CGM is replaced every three to seven days, depending on the brand and manufacturer. After which, all the data recorded in its built-in memory are downloaded to a computer. This information will be analyzed and charts and graphs will be produced to represent the trends in the fluctuations of blood glucose levels.
Although the results recorded by the CGM are accurate, these should still be checked with a blood glucose monitors or glucometers from time to time for calibration.
Advantages of using CGM
While CGM does not guarantee very accurate readings and is fairly expensive, many patients still opt to use this device because it allows constant monitoring of blood glucose levels without having to prick the skin to draw blood samples. Once the monitor is attached to the patient, continuous readings can be obtained.
Another advantage of using a continuous glucose monitoring system is that fluctuations as well as trends in glucose levels are identified more constantly. Also, this system can possibly record changes in blood glucose that are easy to be overlooked when using glucometers and other tests.
For example, CGM can detect dangerous changes in blood glucose levels overnight, in between meals, in the morning, during and after exercise, after every meal, and during a 7-hour time span. Information gathered around these hours can provide health care providers with critical information that will help them decide whether there is a need for a change in treatment, medication and lifestyle.
The CGM system is not yet perfected. Thus, inconsistencies with the records are very common. In order to resolve this problem, users often calibrate their CGMs with blood glucose meters.
CGM is not a replacement to glucometers. Although it can display blood glucose values continuously, glucometers still provide more accurate readings.
Diabetes and Blood Glucose Variations
The class of diabetes referred to as type 1 diabetes refers to the state when your body is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a protein chemical or “hormone” that is produced from your body’s pancreas. It helps transport sugar from the blood into the cells.
Type 1 diabetes has to be managed by insulin replacement therapy. The only way to replace insulin is to inject it through the skin. Insulin will make your blood sugar drop. You have to also be mindful of how much carbohydrate you ingest. If there is a mismatch between the carbohydrate in your blood and the insulin in your body, your blood sugar may go up or down. You should get some advice from your local diabetes unit.
You blood sugar will go up and down throughout the day. But if it goes too high or too low, it can really cause havoc with your body. When your blood sugar is high, you may find that you need to go to the toilet – a lot, you can become quite thirsty and you can even go into a type of coma. If your blood sugar drops too low, you may find yourself become shaky and confused.
What follows is a short discussion about the factors that affect your blood sugar variations:
Reasons for a High Blood Glucose level
- Skipping your dose of insulin reduces amount of insulin in blood making the body cells unable absorb sugar in the blood leading to high concentration.
- Increasing the amount of carbohydrate will cause your sugar level to increase.
- If you are ill or under metabolic stress, your blood sugars can rise.
- There is something called the dawn phenomenon – basically it means that because you haven’t been doing much overnight, your blood sugar is higher.
- Taking other medicines, consult your doctor before using most types of medicines.
- Growth hormone, which mediates growth and is increased during puberty, will make your body relatively resistant to insulin and causes your blood sugar to rise.
Factors driving a Low Blood Sugar
- If, by error, you took too much insulin, your body’s cells would suck out insulin from your blood and leave you with a low blood sugar level.
- If you were to miss a meal or take in less carbohydrate than you had expected, you may find that your blood sugar drops.
- By exercising more than usual without eating enough food, the body uses more energy than it can supply leading to a deficit in blood sugar which supplies energy to body cells.
- If you drink alcohol on an empty stomach, your blood glucose will drop as a result of the alcohol on your digestion and cell function.
- Just as some medications can raise your blood glucose level, some can also drop your blood glucose level – this includes some that you can purchase over the counter, like aspirin. Always ask for advice before you take any medication.
- Women in their menstrual period; this is because hormonal changes may affect how well insulin works in the blood.
Banani Mandal is involved in healthcare market research since 2009. She writes on various health topics and very much passionate about herbal and organic healthcare.