Blood Glucose Control (blood Sugar Levels)
Introduction to blood sugar levels Our blood glucose level, or blood sugar level, is the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. The amount of glucose in the blood is measured in millimoles per litre (mmol/l). Glucose levels are measured most commonly to diagnose or to monitor diabetes. It is also important to keep an eye on blood glucose levels during certain situations – for example: during pregnancy, pancreatitis and with increasing age. Normally, blood sugar levels stay within a narrow range during the day. A good level is between 4 to 8mmol/l. After you consume food, your blood sugar level will rise and after you have had a night’s rest, they will usually be lowest in the morning. Diabetes is a common disease in our society, affecting 2-5% of the general population, with many more people unaware that they may be affected by this condition. Diabetes results from a lack of insulin, or insensitivity of the body towards the level of insulin present. Thus if you have diabetes, your blood sugar level may move outside the normal limits. Why is controlling blood sugar levels so important? Carbohydrate foods are the body’s main energy source. When they are digested, they break down to form glucose in the bloodstream. If you make sure you eat regular meals, spread evenly throughout the day, you will help maintain your energy levels without causing large rises in your blood sugar levels. It is also important to maintain a stable and balanced blood sugar level, as there is a limited range of blood sugar levels in which the brain can function normally. Regular testing of your blood sugar levels allows you to monitor your level of control and assists you in altering your diabetes management strategy if your levels aren’t within the expected/recommended range. Long term c Continue reading >>
- World's first diabetes app will be able to check glucose levels without drawing a drop of blood and will be able to reveal what a can of coke REALLY does to sugar levels
- How Much Should I Eat Daily To Control My Blood Sugar Levels With Diabetes?
- Diabetes Diet: 7 Foods That Can Help Control Your Blood Sugar Levels Naturally
Do You Bolt Awake At 3 A.m.? Low Blood Sugar Symptoms May Be To Blame
You’re exhausted and you need your eight hours of sleep, but you suddenly bolt awake around 3 or 4 a.m., energy coursing through your veins and mind churning anxiously. What gives? Waking up in the middle of the night is simply one of many low blood sugar symptoms. Why Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar Can Cause You to Be Awake at 3 a.m. Sleeping through the night represents a long period without food when blood sugar can drop too low. This is bad news for the brain, which depends on glucose for energy. The brain is highly active at night, transforming short-term memory into long-term memory,[1] and carrying out repair and regeneration.[2] In response, the adrenal glands, two walnut-shaped glands that sit atop the kidneys, release stress hormones. These stress hormones raise blood sugar back to a safe level. Unfortunately, stress hormones also raise, well, stress. Hence the anxious awakening during night’s darkest hours. Eating at 3 a.m. Can Help You Fall Back to Sleep A quick fix for this and other low blood sugar symptoms (below) can be as simple as eating a small amount of protein—with perhaps some fat thrown in—when you wake up too early. This could a spoonful of nut butter, a few pieces of meat, or a hard-boiled egg. Some find this stabilizes blood sugar levels enough so they fall back asleep. Do not, however, eat something starchy at this time, such as bread or cereal, as it will spike blood sugar levels, causing them to drop too low again. Daytime Tips to Avoid Waking Up at 3 a.m. Every Night Although a quick snack may help you fall back asleep, it’s better to prevent waking up in the first place. If you are waking up regularly at 3 a.m., chances are you suffer from low blood sugar symptoms. Signs of low blood sugar include: Sugar cravings Irritability, light Continue reading >>
The Dawn Phenomenon – Why Are Blood Sugars High In The Morning?
Getting high blood sugars after a period of fasting is often puzzling to those not familiar with the Dawn Phenomenon. Why are blood sugars elevated if you haven’t eaten overnight? This effect is also seen during fasting, even during prolonged fasting. There are two main effects – the Somogyi Effect and the Dawn Phenomenon. Somogyi effect The Somogyi effect is also called reactive hyperglycaemia and happens in type 2 diabetic patients. The blood sugar sometimes drops in reaction to the night time dose of medication. This low blood sugar is dangerous, and in response, the body tries to raise it. Since the patient is asleep, he/she does not feel the hypoglycaemic symptoms of shakiness or tremors or confusion. By the time the patient awakens, the sugar is elevated without a good explanation. The high blood sugar occurs in reaction to the preceding low. This can be diagnosed by checking the blood sugar at 2am or 3am. If it is very low, then this is diagnostic of the Somogy Effect. Dawn phenomenon The Dawn Effect, sometimes also called the Dawn Phenomenon (DP) was first described about 30 years ago. It is estimated to occur in up to 75% of T2D patients although severity varies widely. It occurs both in those treated with insulin and those that are not. The circadian rhythm creates this DP. Just before awakening (around 4am), the body secretes higher levels of growth hormone, cortisol, glucagon and adrenalin. Together, these are called the counter-regulatory hormones. That is, they counter the blood sugar lowering effects of insulin, meaning that they raise blood sugars. The nocturnal surge of growth hormone is considered the primary cause of the DP. These normal circadian hormonal increases prepare our bodies for the day ahead. That is, glucagon tells the liver to start p Continue reading >>
Why Are My Morning Sugars Over 300?
Q: I am 23 years old and I have had insulin dependent diabetes for 9 years. My blood sugars during the day are generally under 150 mg/dl, but no matter what I do my fasting blood sugar before breakfast is always high, often over 300. What is going on? A: The problem described above, fasting hyperglycemia (high blood sugar before breakfast), is a common complaint that vexes both patient and physician. Consistently elevated fasting blood sugars are generally due to one of the following: 1. Insufficient insulin taken the night before. 2. Somogyl Phenomenon: with this theory, it is thought that too much insulin is taken in the evening leading to unrecognized hypoglycemia in the middle of the night. The low blood sugar triggers the release of the counter-regulatory hormones (adrenaline, growth hormone, glucagon, cortisol) that increase blood sugar levels. Paradoxically, high doses of insulin taken at night lead to higher glucoses in the morning and lower doses lead to lower blood sugar levels. Although this theory had been accepted for years, currently it is controversial. Several studies have shown that lower glucoses in the middle of the night are actually associated with low glucoses in the morning and the “rebound” described above rarely occurs. This is important in that “normal” fasting glucoses may be at the expense of unrecognized hypoglycemia which can be potentially dangerous. 3. Insulin Waning: in this situation, the insulin taken the evening before has run out by morning, leading to elevated glucoses. This occurs most commonly when NPH is taken in the early evening, at 5-6 pm. This waning is the reason it is often suggested that the evening NPH be taken later at night, generally around 10 pm. 4. Dawn Phenomenon: in this situation, a predawn surge in growth Continue reading >>
What To Eat For Dinner To Keep My Morning Blood Sugar Low?
What do you take in dinner ? Are you crazy about having a mouth watering dinner because you cannot enjoy food in the morning and afternoon due to your busy schedule, if you say YES !! then it's the time to break your habit of eating a luxurious dinner because what you eat for dinner can keep your blood sugar level high or low in the morning. Do you know the digestion gets slow after sunset ? yes Sunlight can stimulate the body to produce certain enzymes which can help in digestion, So eating as less as possible after sunlight is very good, because whatever excess you eat converts into fat and more fat means more insulin resistance. A healthy diet is quite important to keep the blood sugar levels under control. The dinner that a person eats is very important because it can either control the blood sugar levels in the morning or spike the blood sugar levels. This article will inform you about the foods which you need to eat at night to keep your morning blood sugar levels under control. you can see how dinner controls morning blood sugar levels What to Eat for dinner to keep your blood sugars under control? You need to understand one thing here and it is that when a person has diabetes then it doesn’t mean that a person can’t eat the foods he enjoys. All a person has to do is to eat healthy and nutritious food. You should make sure that your diet includes plenty of legumes, grains, vegetables, lean meat, fruit and low-fat dairy . These foods have high amount of minerals, fibers and vitamins in them and they are low in saturated fats, refined sugar and cholesterol. Dinner Foods for Diabetic patients: The following is a list of foods which the diabetic patients need to eat to keep morning blood sugar levels under control: Oatmeal: Oatmeal can help to keep the blood suga Continue reading >>
How Staying Up Late Screws With Your Blood Sugar
Your body could pay the price for too many late nights: Skimping on sleep may raise your diabetes risk, finds recent research from the University of Chicago. In the study, young, healthy men who were limited to just 4.5 hours of shuteye for 4 consecutive nights showed 30 percent higher levels of fatty acids in their blood than when they were allowed to snooze for 8.5 hours. Here’s what might be happening: When you’re short on sleep, your body tends to pump out growth hormone for longer periods of time, and secrete higher levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Those hormonal changes seem to prompt cells in your body to release more fatty acids into your bloodstream, says lead study author Josiane Broussard, Ph.D. All those fatty acids make it harder for your body to produce enough of the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar. Without enough insulin, your glucose can build up in your blood, instead of being absorbed by your body. This can cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, putting you on the road to diabetes. Usually, only people who have diabetes or who are obese have elevated fatty acid levels. But if you consistently miss sleep over time, the study suggests you could be on your way to developing both of those conditions. The good news: You should be able to reverse the effects. According to Broussard, the preliminary data hints that simply getting enough solid shuteye may help regulate your blood sugar and improve other metabolic parameters. Need help falling—and staying—asleep? Follow our sleep doctor’s tips for the 5 Best Ways to Snooze Better Every Night. Continue reading >>
Understanding Fasting Blood Sugar
Among the most common questions people have about Type 2 diabetes is this: how can they lower their fasting blood sugar? To answer this question in a way that will help you lower your blood sugar we are going to have to first explain why doctors measure fasting blood sugar and what it does--and does not--tell us about our blood sugar health. WHAT IS FASTING BLOOD SUGAR? Traditionally, fasting blood sugar is the value you get when you test your blood sugar after an 8 hour long fast--which is usually immediately upon waking. In a normal person this fasting blood sugar would also be the "baseline" blood sugar--the level to which blood sugar returns a few hours after every meal all day long. However, for reasons we will discuss later on, this is often NOT the case for people with Type 2 diabetes, whose morning blood sugars may be much higher than the baseline level they achieve after meals for the rest of the day. Doctors have for decades relied on the FPG (fasting plasma glucose) test which measures fasting blood sugar to diagnose diabetes. The reason for this is NOT that FPG test results predict diabetic complications. They don't. Post-meal blood sugar tests are a much better indicator of whether a person will get the classic diabetic complications, and the A1c test is a better indicator of potential heart disease. But the FPG test is cheap and easy to administer, hence its popularity. The value most of us would find much more helpful in assessing our health is not fasting blood sugar but something else: the number of hours a day our blood sugar spends elevated over the level known to cause complications, which is roughly 140 mg/dl (7.7 mmol/L). A person can wake up with a FPG of 130 mg/dl (7.2 mmol/L), but if it drops after breakfast and most hours of the day are spent w Continue reading >>
Why Blood Sugar Levels Rise Overnight
get the scoop When you go to bed, your blood sugar reading is 110, but when you wake up in the morning, it has shot up to 150. Why does this happen? To understand how blood sugar levels can rise overnight without your eating anything, we have to look at where glucose comes from — and where it goes — while we sleep. During the day, the carbohydrates we eat are digested into glucose and absorbed into the bloodstream. Some of this glucose goes to the liver, where it is stored for later use. At night, while we are asleep, the liver releases glucose into the bloodstream. The liver acts as our glucose warehouse and keeps us supplied until we eat breakfast. The amount of glucose being used is matched by the amount of glucose being released by the liver, so blood sugar levels should remain constant. what is the dawn phenomenon? A rise in blood sugar level between approximately 3 A.M. and the time you wake up is called the “dawn phenomenon.” The liver is supposed to release just enough glucose to replace what is being used, and insulin works as the messenger to tell the liver how much is enough. But if there's not enough insulin (as with type 1 diabetes), or if there's enough insulin but it cannot communicate its message to the liver (as with type 2 diabetes), the liver starts to release glucose much too quickly. In addition, levels of hormones such as cortisol begin to increase in the early morning hours, which can contribute to altered insulin sensitivity. The result? Blood sugar levels rise. This is why blood sugar levels can go up between the time you go to bed and the time you wake up. what can you do about it? You might be able to make changes in the timing of your meals, medications, or insulin injections to help prevent dawn phenomenon. First, keep a detailed rec Continue reading >>
Overnight Glucose Testing: Who Does It And Why?
Do you wake up during the witching hour to test your blood sugar? If you're raising your hand, you're probably the parent of a child with diabetes. But the odds are pretty slim that you'll find an adult who willingly sets an alarm to test their blood sugar in the middle of the night, breaking peaceful dreams for a dose of reality. Sleep is supposed to be our break, our meager vacation from the struggles and stress of managing diabetes. Right...? I'll be the first to admit that I don't test my blood sugar in the middle of the night. If I happen to be awake and I feel low, guess what? I'm low! I don't need to fiddle around with a glucose meter to prove it. (Although it might help with that erroneous 30-day average.) I've heard so many stories on Facebook and at diabetes conferences of parents who faithfully wake up every night — sometimes twice or more! — to check their child's blood sugar, and beat themselves up if they happen to forget. I think, those poor moms and dads! All that lost sleep! It will be great when their child is old enough to wake up on their own and manage their own blood sugars, which is what I did once I reached middle school age. I always wake up from my low blood sugars now, I think happily. No need for alarm clocks here! Or is there...? The fact is, about 75% of the time, you're going to sleep through a nocturnal low rather than waking up. Surprising, huh? Most of us probably think that if we don't wake up, we didn't go low. But the feeling of being low — caused by the release of epinephrine — is blunted when we're sleeping, though sometimes it'll kick in strong enough that it'll jolt us awake. In a totally unofficial survey of PWDs on Facebook, the majority of folks responding to my query said they don't test their blood sugar at night bec Continue reading >>
Blood Sugar And Sleep Problems: How Blood Sugar Levels Impact Sleep
November is National Diabetes Month and Alaska Sleep Clinic is dedicating this month’s blog posts to raising awareness for diabetic complications and how they correlate with sleep disorders and overall tiredness. SLEEP PROBLEMS AND SNORING MAY PREDICT DIABETES Studies have shown that individuals who consistently have a bad night's sleep are more likely to develop conditions linked to diabetes and heart disease. Loud snoring sleepers (many of whom may have sleep apnea), compared to quiet sleepers, double (2x) their risks of developing certain types of metabolic syndrome(s); including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. This likelihood also increased dramatically to 80% in those who found it difficult to fall asleep and to 70% for those who woke up feeling not as refreshed. Blood Sugar and Sleep Problems Sleep can affect your blood sugar levels, and your blood glucose control can also affect your sleep. It’s a vicious cycle. As the amount of sleep decreases, blood sugar increases, escalating the issue. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase blood sugar levels and the risk of diabetic issues. Higher blood sugar means less long-lasting fat metabolism in the night and even less sleep. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine found that people who slept less than 6 hours a night had more blood sugar complications compared to those who received 8 hours of sleep. HIGH BLOOD SUGAR - HYPERGLYCEMIA Sleepless and restless nights hurt more than your mood and energy; it is a form of chronic stress on the body. When there is added stress on your body this results in having higher blood sugar levels. When researchers restricted people with type-1 diabetes to just 4 hours of sleep, their sensitivity to insulin was reduced by 20% compared to that after a full nig Continue reading >>
- Diabetes and Sleep Apnea: How Sleep Affects Blood Glucose and Diabetes
- World's first diabetes app will be able to check glucose levels without drawing a drop of blood and will be able to reveal what a can of coke REALLY does to sugar levels
- Poor Sleep And Diabetes: The Worse You Sleep, The Higher Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk
The Night My Blood Sugar Dropped And I Thought I Was Going To Die
I’d been out with friends, I think, for a walk and a meal. As my boyfriend drove us home, I remember feeling exhausted. It had been a bad blood day. I’m a type one diabetic, and I was diagnosed when I was 19. For the last five years I’ve survived on injections of insulin to cover my food, finger pricks to check my blood sugar, and, when that drops too low, a supply of emergency sugar… all to try and keep my sugar levels between those magic numbers, four through seven, which were produced by someone who is good friends with their pancreas. This day had been “one of those days.” I had dropped low (below four) before dinner and corrected with a coke. I injected for my meal. Despite my confidence that I’d managed my sugars correctly and coped well, the stark drop and subsequent rise of my blood sugar had physically taken its toll. As my boyfriend and I arrived at home, I was looking forward to crawling into bed. As always, before I sleep, I had my long-acting nighttime insulin and checked my blood sugar one last time – 3.8. Annoyed, I had another drink of Coke and turned off the light. After about half an hour of restlessness, I checked my sugar again. It was at 2.7, accompanied by a downward-facing arrow on my meter, meaning my blood sugar was dropping fast. Not wanting to disturb my boyfriend, whose sleep is often disrupted by my blood sugar, I hauled myself out of bed and onto the sofa. I remember sitting there, sweating and shaking, in what became the scariest two hours of my life. No matter what I ate, what I drank, I could not get my blood sugar safely above a four. I was confused, I was irritated and I was exhausted. But drifting off to sleep, which would have been so easy, wouldn’t have been safe. Diabetics can lose consciousness from untreated low Continue reading >>
Why Is Blood Sugar High In The Morning?
At the moment we are following Yvonne (a type 2 diabetic) on a 6-8 week journey to lower her blood sugar, a1c levels and hopefully cholesterol and other health markers. Yvonne has been sending me her blood sugar charts every few days and on those she always makes some notes for me. I noticed she had 3 big question marks (???) against one of her morning blood sugar results and then again on another morning when her blood sugar levels were high at 160 (mg/dl – or 8.9mmol/l) she had written: “I don’t understand. 97 (mg/dl – or 5.5mmol/l) last night when I went to sleep. I didn’t eat anything because I didn’t feel well. Humm.” So I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide some information on the question: Why is blood sugar high in the morning?? While you’re here be sure to subscribe for our type 2 diabetes updates Why Is Blood Sugar High In The Morning? Although it would seem like the body would have the lowest blood glucose in the morning this often isn’t the case for these 5 reasons. 1. Glucose Happens 24/7 All the cells in the body need glucose to fuel their function, even when we sleep. So the body breaks down stores in the liver so that the body and brain can continue to go about their functions. This glucose production will still occur when you don’t eat and in fact if you skip a meal it can increase the livers production of glucose. 2. Morning Hormones Raise Blood Glucose Cortisol (our stress hormone) is the hormone that slowly increases in levels from around 3 am onwards to reach it’s peak early in the morning. This occurs to get us moving and to give us energy. But cortisol stimulates a rise in blood sugar response so it is in fact a ‘normal’ response but if you are diabetic there is one factor that impacts both the overnight g Continue reading >>
15 Ways High Blood Sugar Affects Your Body
High blood sugar symptoms Glucose, or sugar, is the fuel that powers cells throughout the body. Blood levels of this energy source ebb and flow naturally, depending what you eat (and how much), as well as when you eat it. But when something goes wrong—and cells aren't absorbing the glucose—the resulting high blood sugar damages nerves, blood vessels, and organs, setting the stage for dangerous complications. Normal blood-sugar readings typically fall between 60 mg/dl and 140 mg/dl. A blood test called a hemoglobin A1c measures average blood sugar levels over the previous three months. A normal reading is below 5.7% for people without diabetes. An excess of glucose in the bloodstream, or hyperglycemia, is a sign of diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes don’t make insulin, the hormone needed to ferry sugar from the bloodstream into cells. Type 2 diabetes means your body doesn’t use insulin properly and you can end up with too much or too little insulin. Either way, without proper treatment, toxic amounts of sugar can build up in the bloodstream, wreaking havoc head to toe. That’s why it’s so important to get your blood sugar levels in check. “If you keep glucose levels near normal, you reduce the risk of diabetes complications,” says Robert Ratner, MD, chief scientific and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association. Here’s a rundown of the major complications and symptoms of high blood sugar. No symptoms at all Often, high blood sugar causes no (obvious) symptoms at all, at least at first. About 29 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, but one in four has no idea. Another 86 million have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. That's why it’s a good idea to get your blood sugar test Continue reading >>
How Blood Sugar Levels Affect Your Sleep
Dr. Doni discusses why eating too much, too late can make it hard to sleep (it’s all about blood sugar). She offers some simple tips to help you take control. In the introduction to this series of articles I gave an overview of 12 things that can disrupt our sleep. This week, we’ll focus on blood sugar – and how eating too much of the wrong things can pull us into a vicious cycle of over-eating and blood sugar fluctuations that can have a serious impact on our ability to sleep. Did you notice that you felt sleepy after your Thanksgiving meal last week? This lull in energy is often attributed to tryptophan, an essential amino acid found in turkey meat that is known to make us feel sleepy. However that sleepiness is also due to a rise in your blood sugar levels as the carbs from your meal make their way into your blood stream. Then, the day after Thanksgiving, did you notice that you felt hungrier or that you craved sweets? This is because, once your blood sugar goes high (the technical term for this is hyperglycemia) for even just one meal, it will always be followed by a dip in blood sugar (hypoglycemia) a few hours later. This dip will make you to want to eat more and repeat the pattern of eating a large amount of carbohydrates. In fact, some people end up eating more the day after Thanksgiving than they did on Thanksgiving itself. As you might imagine, once this pattern starts, it is difficult to get it to stop. The more often you consume large, Thanksgiving-sized meals, the more likely your body is to send the signals that lead you to have another large meal. This is because a rise in blood sugar is followed by a rise in insulin, the hormone which causes the sugar to move into your cells to be used to make energy. Then, when your blood sugar is low again, you a Continue reading >>
Sleep Interrupted? The Blood Sugar And Sleep Connection
In my last newsletter, I wrote about how most people with sleep trouble think they have too much energy and simply can’t settle down. I also discussed that one of the main causes of insomnia is actually a deep level of exhaustion. Odd as it may seem, the body needs energy to calm or sedate itself for sleep. Without energy, we stay awake, “wired and tired.” The second most common cause of insomnia is a silent blood sugar issue that affects one third of Americans. The worst part is, a shocking 90% of people are unaware of this problem until it is too late! (1) Could you or someone you know be suffering from blood-sugar-related insomnia? Keep reading to learn the facts about this troubling, little-known sleep issue. First Comes Stress, Then Come Cravings Sleep disorders affect an estimated 50-70 million Americans and, as I discussed in my last newsletter, much of this is caused by stress and exhaustion. When under stress, the adrenals go shopping for energy. Their favorite stop is the pancreas, where stress generates insatiable cravings for sweets to create the energy the adrenals can no longer provide. Before you know it, Americans are waking up to a sugar-laced cup of coffee or two. In an attempt to pick the healthy choice, we might sip green tea to keep us going through the morning. Lunch might be a salad and a diet soda. Then, as the blood sugar starts plummeting, bringing on the all-too-well-known afternoon crash, dark chocolate is passed around the office as if you had called room service. By the end of the workday, either a workout, latte or a nap is the only thing getting us home without falling asleep. The Band-aid Cure To remedy this, some of us have adopted a diet that was originally formulated for folks with severe hypoglycemia”the “six small meals a Continue reading >>
