High Blood Sugar Causes
Sometimes the cause of a blood sugar spike is clear . But other times, the cause is a little more mysterious.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, losing sleep, skipping breakfast, not drinking enough water, or drinking coffee can cause blood sugar instability.
Even weirder, sometimes a sunburn can cause a spike! The pain of a burn causes stress, and high levels of stress can mess up your blood sugar. So bust out the sunscreen for the sake of your pancreas!
Other causes include eating high-sugar/high-carb foods, drinking alcohol, getting sick, and changing medication. A diet low in fiber and high in refined carbs or sugars and a sedentary lifestyle also make high blood sugar more likely.
So, what can you do when your blood sugar gets too high? Here are some natural ways to get your sugar back into a safe zone.
Ways To Lower Your Blood Sugar Naturally
- To lower your blood sugar, it’s important to exercise regularly and lose weight.;
- You should make sure to drink lots of water, eat less unhealthy carbohydrates, and increase your fiber intake.
- It’s also important to manage stress if you want to lower blood sugar and keep it under control.;
- This article;was medically reviewed;by;Jason R. McKnight, MD, MS, a family medicine physician and clinical assistant professor at;Texas A&M College of Medicine.;
- This story is part of Insider’s guide to Diabetes.;
High blood sugar occurs when your body cannot convert sugar in the blood to energy for cells. This is a common issue for those with diabetes, or those at risk. If you don’t lower your blood sugar, you will be at an increased risk for serious health complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, and vision loss.
That’s why, if you already have diabetes, it’s important to frequently check your blood sugar to make sure your levels stay in a normal, healthy range.
Plus, about one-third of Americans have prediabetes or elevated blood-sugar levels and 84% of them don’t know they have it. If you have prediabetes, it’s also important to lower your blood-sugar levels to reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Here are six ways you can lower your blood sugar over time:
What To Eat To Maintain Blood Sugar Levels At Night
If you’re hungry at night, eat a low-carb snack to keep your blood sugar from spiking. If you’re managing the Somogyi effect, you’ll likely need to include some carbohydrates to prevent low blood sugar and the resulting rebound hyperglycemia. Rizzotto says an evening snack should be eaten about two hours before bed.
Protein
Protein does not spike blood sugar or insulin levels, making it an ideal bedtime food choice. Protein also slows the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, according to a June 2015 systematic review published in Diabetes Care. The slower the body absorbs carbs, the less your blood sugar levels will rise. Smart high-protein options include a hard-boiled egg, tofu, low-fat yogurt or a few slices of low-fat deli meat, such as turkey.
Fats
Fats also play an important role in controlling blood sugar levels. According to the National Institute on Aging, they give the body energy without raising blood sugars. They also help the body absorb essential vitamins. Therefore, it’s wise to include a small amount of healthy fat in your evening snack.
Healthy fats are found in low-fat cheeses, seeds, nuts, avocados and olive oil. But though these fat sources are nutritious, it’s important that you enjoy them in moderation so as to avoid consuming too many calories and gaining weight. A healthy serving size for nuts, seeds and cheese is about an ounce, or 1 to 2 tablespoons.
Read more:How Long Does It Take for Blood Sugar Levels to Peak After Eating?
Carbs
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How To Lower Your Hba1c
Below is a set of 8 steps that will all help to improve your blood sugar levels, lower your HbA1c and improve your overall diabetes management and health.
1. Have a plan
There are a number of changes you may have to make in order to achieve a good HbA1c level and these will be a lot easier achieved with a plan. With a plan you can identify your long term goals, set them against a time-line and then break each goal down into smaller achievable tasks. Any changes you need to make in order to lower your HbA1c can be incorporated within your plan. This will give you focus, direction, and a much higher chance to achieving your objectives.
2. Eat healthily
Stop eating fast food such as pizzas, burgers, fries, etc as they are loaded with carbs, fat and salt. As a Diabetic you should avoid these like the plague..! They are very unhealthy for non-diabetics and even more so for diabetics. Eating home cooked healthy meals without too many carbs will greatly help to lower your HbA1c.
3. Stop snacking
Most people enjoy a snack between meals but for diabetics this should be avoided. Firstly many of the snacks we love are unhealthy and are loaded with carbs, and remember;carbs = sugar. Secondly, snacks are usually unplanned and therefore are more difficult to successfully cover with medication.
4. Eat low carb
5. Frequently monitor your blood sugar
6. More movement
7. Reduce stress
There are many things you can do to help reduce the stress in your life.
8. Routine Routine Routine
How To Lower Blood Sugar Naturally
Keeping blood sugar levels in check reduces insulin resistance, weight gain, stress hormone levels, inflammation in the body, and decreases the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Medications are often the first-line treatment for high blood sugar, but there are ways you can lower your blood sugar naturally and avoid having to manage one or more prescription medications for your condition. Blood sugar circulates in our blood stream to supply energy to cells in the body. Blood sugar levels need to be optimal and not too high. This can be also achieved naturally.
Dr. Maheswari Raja, a family medicine physician with Healthcare Associates of Texas located in Coppell says, patients should see their physician at least once every three months and intermittently check their blood pressure with home monitors. If their blood pressure isnt well controlled, or treatment is not optimized, patients will need to see their physician more often.
Heres how to check your blood sugar levels, and what you can do to reduce low blood sugar naturally.
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Wait Why Is Your Blood Sugar Up In The Morning
Why is it that your blood sugar levels will rise overnight? You dont eat anything, so how can you possibly add any glucose to your system?
Well, those who suffer from type II diabetes will find this is most problematic. The body still creates glucose throughout the night. It needs to, whether youve eaten something or not. This natural process is called gluconeogenesis, and there is nothing you can do to stop it nor would you want to. In a healthy person, this process doesnt cause a major problem.
Those with diabetes will find the gluconeogenesis process is increased. That means your body produces more glucose naturally than it would if you were healthy.
Lets not forget that the stress hormone cortisol also plays a part. This increases slowly on a morning until it reaches a peak early in the morning. The cortisol will elevate the blood sugar levels, so you end up with naturally higher levels on a morning.
To keep your blood sugar levels down, you need to keep your cortisol and gluconeogenesis levels down. Theres no need for extra medication when you follow the seven tips that will follow.
Low Blood Sugar Levels In Diabetes
People with diabetes can have low blood sugar levels because of the medicines they have to take to manage their diabetes. They may need a hormone called or diabetes pills to help their bodies use the sugar in their blood.
These medicines help take the sugar out of the blood and get it into the body’s cells, which makes the blood sugar level go down. But sometimes it’s a tricky balancing act and blood sugar levels can get too low.
People with diabetes need to keep their blood sugars from getting too highor too low. Keeping blood sugar levels in a healthy range means balancing when and what they eat, and when they exercise with when they take medicines.
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Beware Of Low Blood Sugars
Remember, above all else, its very easy to over-treat a high blood sugar and wind up low. Then youll be tempted to binge-eat and wind up high again. This blood sugar roller coaster is exhausting and dangerous, too.
Frequently finding yourself on the blood sugar roller coaster means your approach to taking insulin and/or how you treat low blood sugars isnt working and needs some fine-tuning. Work with your healthcare team to reduce and prevent these wild swings to ensure your overall safety and quality of life!
How Do I Lower My Blood Sugar Level If I Have Gestational Pregnancy
A little more than 9.2% of pregnant women have gestational diabetes. It is very common that all women are tested during their pregnancy. If you havent yet, bring it up to your physicians attention. The cause is really unknown, but doctors believe that it is because the extra hormones that are released during pregnancy hinder the insulin sensitivity and increase the need for more insulin. It is very important to keep blood sugar levels under control because high blood sugars can lead to complications such as:
- Premature labor
- Pre-eclampsia which can lead to seizures
- Increased risk of the mother to develop type 2 diabetes later in life
Lowering blood sugar with gestational diabetes is a lot like the other ways mentioned above.
They include:
Breastfeeding after the baby is born is a great way to lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life as well as providing many benefits for the baby. Read this article / that I wrote about all of the benefits of breastfeeding.
Read Also: What Number Is Considered Low For Blood Sugar
Why Is A ‘sugar Crash’ Bad For You
If you often eat too many starchy or sugary foods, your body gets used to it. Then it starts to ignore the ‘make more insulin’ message. We call this ‘insulin resistance’.;It can lead to permanently high blood sugar levels.;And that can cause poor health, weight gain, low mood and even Type 2 diabetes.;
Want to take control and avoid the ‘sugar crash’?;Here are 5 great ways to lower blood sugar levels:
How To Lower Morning Blood Sugar Without Medication
Dr.;Danielle;Weiss is the founder of;Center for Hormonal Health and Well-Being, a personalized, proactive, patient-centered medical practice with a unique focus on integrative endocrinology. She enjoys giving lectures and writing articles for both the lay public and medical audiences. Dr. Weiss is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.;
Diabetes is a chronic disease where the level of glucose in the blood is too high . People with this condition often worry about high blood sugar levels in the morning. This is so common that it has a name: the dawn phenomenon. As our body prepares to wake up in the morning, it releases a surge of hormones, which can work against insulin and cause blood sugar level to rise. Also called the dawn effect, this can affect anyone and isn’t usually a problem because the body naturally produces insulin to correct it, but the bodies of people with diabetes may not be able to respond the same way. This results in consistently high blood sugar levels in the morning.
It is possible to lower your blood sugar level without medications through lifestyle and dietary changes. If simple lifestyle changes don’t work, people with diabetes should consult with their healthcare provider to determine the best approach to lower their blood sugar level in the morning.
Also Check: Does High Blood Sugar Cause Fatigue
What Is A Dangerous Blood Sugar Level
A normal blood sugar level is between 70 and 130 after you have been fasting for a few hours. Blood sugar levels can be dangerous if they are too high or too low.
Low blood sugars can be caused by not eating enough, or by trying to lower your sugar too quickly. A blood sugar under 60 is considered dangerous. It can lead to confusion or loss of consciousness, which can be deadly. It is important to have a snack with you at all times in case this happens to you. If it does happen, think about what you did or didnt do that lead to the low number. If it happens often, start writing things down to help you track what the cause is so that you can avoid it.
High blood sugars over 300 are pretty concerning.; A lot depends on what your sugar typically runs. If you are normally in the 200s, then a sugar of 320 wouldnt affect you the way that it would for someone whose typically runs 150.
If your blood sugar gets too high, then you may have Ketoacidosis. What happens is that the body does not have enough insulin to use the glucose cells, so it starts to break down fat and muscle for fuel. This causes ketones to enter the bloodstream and causes a pretty bad chemical imbalance. Ketones can also be found in your urine, which is an easy way to test. Signs of Diabetic Ketoacidosis are:
- Fruity smelling breath
- Loss of vision
- An abnormal increase in blood sugar
You should also seek medical attention for this as well to rehydrate your body before any complications happen.
Manage Your Carb Intake
Your body breaks carbs down into sugars , and then insulin helps your body use and store sugar for energy.
When you eat too many carbs or have insulin-function problems, this process fails, and blood glucose levels can rise.
However, there are several things you can do about this.
The American Diabetes Association recommends managing carb intake by counting carbs and being aware of how many you need .
Some studies find that these methods can also help you plan your meals appropriately, further improving blood sugar management (
The recommended daily intake of fiber is about 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. Thats about 14 grams for every 1,000 calories .
Summary
Eating plenty of fiber can help with blood sugar management. Soluble dietary fiber is the most effective.
Also Check: What Is High Blood Sugar Levels Chart
Get A Head Start On Protein
Breakfast seems to be a particularly good time to load up on protein. In a study published in April 2015 in the;Journal of Nutrition, people with diabetes who ate 25 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast had lower blood sugar spikes after both breakfast and lunch than those who ate less. Reduced-fat cheese and egg whites are excellent , according to the ADA. Other protein-rich ideas for breakfast when you have diabetes include a breakfast burrito, for example. But because people respond differently to different;foods, says Champion, its important to keep tracking your blood sugar to see how various breakfast foods affect you specifically.
Ramp Up Your Movement Each Day
Exercise helps improve blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin sensitivity and the bodys ability to use glucose as energy, according to the American Diabetes Association. In type 2, exercise helps improve insulin resistance, says James G. Beckerman, MD, a cardiologist in Portland, Oregon. The end result is lower blood sugars.
Crandall Snyder tells patients that exercise is like spring cleaning for the body. It takes the stored form of glucose and uses it for energy so the next time you eat carbohydrates there’s a place to put it, she says.
Because exercise can immediately reduce blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, work with your healthcare team to determine the right amount of activity and timing for you. A study published in September 2017 in Frontiers in Endocrinology found exercising 30 minutes after the start of a meal is usually best for maintaining blood sugar controls.
Learn more about managing your blood sugar in Diabetes Daily’s article “HbA1C: Everything You Need to Know.”
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How Long Does It Take To Reverse Diabetes
When Jeff first came to the Pritikin Longevity Center several years ago, he was a type 2 diabetic.
But by his third day of eating and exercising Pritikin-style, his blood sugar had plummeted to normal, non-diabetic levels. By the third day it happened that quickly! recalls the Pritikin guest.
There is much we can do with a healthy lifestyle alone, no medications needed, to prevent diabetes. How long does it take to control diabetes with food and fitness? Find out below.
And by the third day, I got this burst of energy, says Jeff. I felt as good as I did when I was in high school. And all this without taking any medications just eating healthy and exercising. Thats all it was!
Not everyones blood sugar tumbles as quickly as Jeffs, but there is plenty of research affirming that a healthy diet like the Pritikin Eating Plan combined with daily exercise can profoundly reduce blood sugar levels in just two to three weeks time.
Guests at the Pritikin Center learn about the best foods for reversing diabetes at a Diabetic Luncheon with Kimberly Gomer, Director of Nutrition.