Are you experiencing sudden spikes in your blood sugar level? Let’s explore what causes your blood sugar to rise or fall and what it means to live with diabetes.
What Causes Blood Sugar to Rise?
- Carbohydrates: the most common problem
- Fruits: fruits contain a type of sugar called fructose that raises blood sugar
- Fatty foods
- Juice, soda, electrolyte drinks, and sugary coffee drinks
- Alcohol
- Lack of regular physical activity
- Stresses: emotional and physical
- Not taking enough insulin
What Causes Blood Sugar to Fall?
- Taking too much insulin or diabetes medication
- Not eating enough
- Postponing or skipping a meal or snack
- Increasing exercise or physical activity without eating more or adjusting your medications
Hyperglycemia in Diabetes
High blood sugar affects patients who have diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic health condition that does not make enough insulin or cannot use insulin well that affects how the body turns food into energy.
When you digest the food, it is broken down into sugar (glucose) that is released into your bloodstream. When blood sugar (glucose) goes up, it signals the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin is a hormone that signals enable blood sugar to get into the body’s cells to use as energy.
With diabetes, there isn’t adequate insulin or cells don’t respond to insulin properly. Therefore, too much blood sugars stay in the bloodstream. Consequently, this condition causes problems in the heart, eye, and kidney.
What Does A1C mean?
The A1C test is a hemoglobin A1C or HbA1c test that measures average blood sugar levels over the past 3 months via a blood test. This is used to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes.
Who Should Get an A1C Test?
- Adults over the age of 45 should get a baseline A1c test
- Adults under the age of 45, who are overweight and have one or more risk factors for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes
- Risk factors for type 2 diabetes
- Have prediabetes
- Have a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes
- Are physically active less than 3 times a week
- Have ever had gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) or given birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds
- Are African American, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian, or Alaska Native (some Pacific Islanders and Asian
- Americans are also at higher risk)
- Risk factors for type 2 diabetes
How to Interpret A1C Result
- Normal: Below 5.7%
- Prediabetes: 5.7% to 6.4%
- Diabetes: 6.5% or above
Within the prediabetes range, the higher A1C indicates the greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Read More about Diabetes
How Do Doctors Check for Type 2 Diabetes, https://www.doctorhere.com/type-2-diabetes-diagnosis/
References
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