Nutritional Solutions To Avoid High Blood Sugar
Dr. Doyle says, The solution is to drink plenty of fluids and to keep your blood sugar down in the first place!
And the absolute most effective way to do that is to adopt a whole food plant based diet.
This is a diet based on vegetables, fruits, whole unprocessed grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, with minimal animal products and processed foods or sugars.
Diagnosing And Treating Hyperglycemia
Diagnosing hyperglycemia is done by assessing symptoms and performing a simple blood glucose test. Depending on the severity of the condition and which type of diabetes the patient is diagnosed with, insulin and a variety of medication may be prescribed to help the person keep their blood sugar under control. Insulin comes in short, long and fast-acting forms, and a person suffering from type 1 diabetes is likely to be prescribed some combination of these.
Individuals who are either diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or are considered at risk for the disease are recommended to make alterations to their diet, lifestyle habits and exercise routine in order to lower blood sugar and keep it under control. These changes generally help to improve blood glucose control, individuals with type 2 diabetes may require medication eventually. These can include glitazones, acarbose, glucophage or sulphonylureas.
What If Fasting Sugar Is Normal But Postprandial High
A high 2 hr pp blood sugar combined with a normal fasting blood sugar is a condition called pre-diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance. No need to bother with a HbAiC. Look for associated atherothrombotic disease risk factors such as cigarette smoking, dyslipidemia, and hypertension and treat those.
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How Are High Blood Sugar Levels Treated
To treat high blood sugar, it helps to know what is causing it. You might need to take more insulin or diabetes pills because you’re growing and eating more food, or you might need to get more exercise each day.
Having high blood sugar levels every once in a while isn’t a big deal. It happens to everyone with diabetes from time to time. But if your blood sugar levels are high a lot, your diabetes health care team will have to help you figure out how to get them back to a healthy level.
What Is High Blood Sugar Vs Healthy Blood Sugar
If youre frustrated that your high blood sugar, or HbA1c , hasnt gone down despite your best efforts to exercise more, eat fewer carbs, and check your blood sugar more often, there may be one sneaky habit you havent noticed: what you consider an okay blood sugar is actually a high blood sugar that needs correcting with a bolus of insulin.
Your A1c is the culmination of your blood sugar levels over the course of the prior 2-3 months, which means an A1c of 8.0 percent translates to eAG of 183 mg/dL.If your blood sugar is 183 mg/dL, this means that for a large part of every day, your blood sugar is either a little lower or a little higher than 183 mg/dL. Meanwhile, an A1c of 7.0 percent translates to 154 mg/dL. Merely a 30-point different, sure. But it has a tremendous impact on your A1c and overall blood sugar levels!
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You Know That Low Blood Sugar Can Make Your Head Spin But Can High Blood Sugar Too Make You Feel Dizzy Or Lightheaded
The answer is yes, but the way this happens is not what youd expect.
Connection Between High Blood Sugar and Feelings of Dizziness
High blood sugar can make you dizzy because of the physiologic response to high glucose levels, says Stacy Mitchell Doyle, MD, resident physician of FoodTherapyMD and long-time advocate of plant-based nutritional protocols.
In order to clear the sugar from the blood, your body will try to eliminate the sugar by urinating it out, explains Dr. Doyle. So the result is dehydration, which makes you feel dizzy.
The feeling wont be like the dizziness youd experience if you were to sit strapped to a rotating stool and rapidly swung around.
It also wont be the same sensation youd get if you were to suffer an attack of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. high blood sugar, dizzy
But the sensation could still be described as having a dizzy-like or lightheadedness feeling.
Test Before You Eat And Two Hours After
This will tell you how well your medication is controlling your blood sugar. It will also shed light on what food is boosting your sugar too highand thus should be avoided. “You should consult your health-care provider to develop a plan that works for you,” says Donna Rice, immediate past president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, who notes that the frequency and time of day you test will depend on how controlled your blood glucose is.
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Some Ways To Help You Prevent High Morning Readings
What should my blood sugar be when I wake up? It depends if you already have diabetes or not. However, you should also know what you could do to keep your blood sugar levels from rising in the morning. Here are few suggestions:
1. Manage Your Body Weight
If you are overweight, consider losing weight to make it easy to manage your blood sugar levels. It really helps when you have been recently diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Weight loss usually helps regulate hormones and increase insulin sensitivity to lower your blood sugar levels. To lose weight, pay attention to your diet first avoid processed foods, eat veggies and fruits, and cut the intake of less-healthy foods. Cranking up your physical activity may also help.
2. Have a Bedtime Snack
Eating something before you go to sleep may help stabilize your blood sugar. Your snack should contain no more than 20g of carbs. This keeps your liver from producing excess glucose while you sleep. Some of the most impressive carb-friend snack options are low-fat yogurt, frozen grapes, small piece of fruit, a serving of fresh salsa and tortilla chips, and soybeans.
3. Have an Active Lifestyle
A Quick Tip
Apple Cider Vinegar & Cheese Before Bed
One small study found that having 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with 1 oz cheese before bed may help reduce morning glucose by 4% to 6%.
Cheese on its own may reduce it by 2% but the acetic acid in the vinegar exerts additional positive influence. The best apple cider vinegar to use is this one by Braggs. If you cant stomach the vinegar, you can also purchase capsules. As for best cheese, cheddar is one of the best choices here, though you could try other options if you wish.
*NOTE: this tip alone is proving to help many people.
TESTIMONIALS:
After 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar & 1 oz cheese last night, my FBS in the morning is 98. It works! ~Dianne
I tried the vinegar and cheese before bed. It actually worked. My fasting reading was lower this morning. Thanks!~Michelle
Try it yourself: 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with 1 oz cheese before bed.
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Improving Fasting Blood Sugar Levels
If a person does not have perfect fasting blood sugar levels, yet the levels are not quite high enough to be considered diabetes, they should take it as an opportunity to improve their health and achieve average blood glucose levels prior to developing type 2 diabetes. Usually, high blood sugar levels have to do with a poor diet, but even more often they have to do with a person’s lack of exercise and physical activity.
A number of medical studies have shown a dramatic relationship between elevated blood sugar levels and insulin resistance in people who are not very active on a daily or regular basis. Many of the same studies have also shown that the most efficient way of improving insulin resistance is to increase the amount of physical activity. Doing so helps a person to achieve weight loss, increase blood flow and circulation, as well as lower blood sugar levels.
Determining The Right A1c Goal For You
Just because a normal blood sugar range of 70 to 130 mg/dL is considered the healthiest doesnt necessarily mean thats the appropriate goal range for you especially if you have type 1 diabetes, or take insulin as a person with type 2 diabetes.
The reason this may not be the right goal for you is that extremely tight blood sugar management in people taking insulin can potentially lead to frequent low blood sugars which can be dangerous.
Achieving extremely tight blood sugar management, like a range of 70 to 130 mg/dL, also often requires a strict nutrition plan, more frequent than usual blood sugar monitoring, precise medication management, and most importantly, years of experience studying your own blood sugar levels.
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Other Types Of Glucose Testing
Random glucose testing isnt a substitute for your normal glucose testing schedule. You should also perform fasting tests and tests after meals, as suggested by your doctor.
A fasting blood glucose test is usually performed upon waking, before you eat. Testing after meals measures glucose levels around two hours after the start of a meal. Different testing times will yield different results. These are affected by:
- the food youve eaten
- medications youre taking
- any exercise youve done
For some people, its important to test every day. This helps you get a sense of your overall blood sugar control and can help you make treatment decisions. Testing is the best way to learn how your blood sugar is affected by your lifestyle, medications, or both.
Maintain A Healthy Weight
Losing weight helps control blood sugar levels. Being overweight is linked to increased incidents of diabetes and greater occurrences of insulin resistance.
Studies show that reducing weight by even only 7 percent can reduce the chances of developing diabetes by 58 percent.
It is important to note that a person does not need to achieve ideal body weight to benefit from losing 1020 pounds and keeping it off. Doing so will also improve cholesterol, reduce the risk of complications, and improve a persons general sense of well-being.
Eating a healthful diet full of fruits and vegetables and getting enough exercise can help a person lose weight or maintain their currently healthy weight.
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Starvation Can Cure Type 2 Diabetes
A new study shows that starvation can cure type 2-diabetes, just like gastric bypass surgery. Again, there is no need to explain the effect of the surgery with other speculative theories. The resulting starvation reverses diabetes. And the starvation isnt even necessary to do that. Guardian: Low-calorie diet offers hope of cure for type 2 diabetes Unnecessary starvation If a type 2 diabetic stops eating the symptoms of diabetes starts to go away. But starvation or surgery are unnecessarily painful ways to do it. Luckily diabetics can eat real food to satiety, as long as they avoid sugar and starch. The food that quickly turns into simple sugars in the gut. Cutting away their stomach or starving themselves is not necessary. All they need is good food. More Across the river for water: Surgery for diabetes PS A Gastric Bypass operation protects from eating too much carbohydrates in two ways. Number one: you can only eat miniature portions of anything. Number two: the smaller amounts of starch you eat is not digestedd as easily as the duodenum with the starch-digesting enzyme amylase is diverted from direct contact with the food.Continue reading > >
How Food Affects Blood Sugar
When you eat food, your body breaks it down into essential parts:
- Carbohydrates
- Fats
- Vitamins and minerals
All parts are necessary in a healthy diet, but the three types of carbohydrates are particularly important when it comes to your blood glucose level. While the general rule is that the more carbohydrates you eat, the higher your blood sugar level, not all three types of carbohydrates convert to blood sugar at the same rate.
The foods that fit into each carb category include:
- Starches, or complex carbohydrates: Starchy vegetables, dried beans, and grains
- Sugars: Fruits, baked goods, beverages, and processed food items like cereals or granola bars
- Fiber: Whole wheat products, chickpeas, lentils, berries, pears, and brussels sprouts
The glycemic index helps you find out which foods can increase or help decrease blood sugar levels. Based on a scale ranging from 0 to 100, high-indexed foods are rapidly digested, absorbed, and metabolized, resulting in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels, while low-indexed foods produce smaller fluctuations in your blood glucose.
The American Diabetes Association advises adding lean sources of protein and heart-healthy fats to help reduce the overall glycemic impact of a meal or snack.
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Blood Sugar Level Chart By Age
Blood sugar levels tend to rise with age due to an increase in insulin resistance and decrease in insulin sensitivity. In one study by the National Health Institute , each extra decade of age was linked to a 2.7 mg/dl increase in fasting glucose, and a 4.5 mg/dl increase in 2-hour post-prandial glucose levels.
How To Treat Hyperglycemia
Just as there are immediate complications of hyperglycemia and long-term complications of hyperglycemia, there are also immediate and long-term treatment recommendations.
If you or someone you know are showing signs of either DKA or HHS, emergency treatment is required either via the emergency room or admission into the hospital.
Most instances of hyperglycemia are not emergent, though and can be treated at home in a variety of ways.
- Fast-acting insulin: Individuals with type I diabetes and those with type II diabetes on sliding scale insulin can use a bolus of fast-acting insulin to correct hyperglycemia. Insulin injection is the only way to immediately treat high blood sugar. You should start to see the blood sugar drop within about one hour, but you will not see the full effect for about 3-4 hours after injection. If your blood sugar does not start to come down after 3 hours, consider checking your insulin vile to make sure that it has not passed the expiration date or that there is nothing floating in the bottle that might have contaminated the medication. Contact your doctor if thereâs no improvement in blood sugar. Oral medications work in a variety of ways, but none of them are used to treat high blood sugar in the moment.
A diagnosis of diabetes can be overwhelming and it can be difficult to know where to start. Take things one step at a time. Set SMART goals and check in with your progress frequently. Treating hyperglycemia is just one part of managing diabetes.
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How To Check Blood Sugar
There are basically two main tests which are conducted to determine whether someone has diabetes.
Impaired fasting glycemia testWhen being tested for diabetes by a impaired fasting glycemia test, blood sugar levels will normally be taken after around eight hours of fasting.
Impaired glucose tolerance testAn impaired glucose tolerance test involves taking a concentrated amount of glucose and then measuring blood sugar levels after two hours.
In a healthy person, a normal blood glucose level is between 72 mg/dL and 108 mg/dL . Read on how to check blood sugar values.
For checking your blood sugar level, you will need:
Medical alcohol to clean the skin where you will prick your finger, a sterile tool to prick your finger, some test strips and a glucose meter to read the test strip.
| Glucose mg/dL or mmol/L level | Value |
|---|---|
| more than 198 mg/dL or 11.0 mmol/L anytime | possible diabetes |
High Vs High Blood Sugar
The trick, in this scenario, is to adjust the way you think of “high” BG. Sure, we all know 300 mg/dL is “high.” But, if you’re looking to get that 8.0% A1C down to a 7.0%, 183 mg/dL should now resonate with you as “high” as well. It sounds so easy! But when you try putting it into practice, it can actually be quite tricky. So you see a 183 mg/dL on your meter screen what do you do to correct it? It’s not high like a 300 mg/dL high, but it’s still, technically, “high” if the goal is to get to 7.0%. But are you registering it as such? If not, it’s OK! Here are the steps to take to change that mindset, and reach your A1C goal.
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Blood Sugar Basics: What Is Blood Sugar
The term blood sugar refers to the sugar, or glucose, that is floating around in your bloodstream at any given time. Blood sugar, or blood glucose is the main source of sugar found in your blood, and comes from the food you eat. I
f you are monitoring your blood sugar, it is important to keep these numbers in check according to the American Diabetes Association .
Your blood sugar needs to be in the right range for you to be healthy. At least some glucose is necessary for your muscle, liver, and some other cells to use as fuel so they can function.
At least some sugar is necessary for your cells and organs to function properly. When our blood sugar levels get too low, it is called hypoglycemia. Without enough glucose as fuel, we lose the ability to function normally. This can make us feel weak, dizzy, and sweaty. And it can even lead to loss of consciousness.
On the other hand, blood sugar levels that get too high are also harmful, this is called hyperglycemia. Our blood sugar levels can get too high when we dont have enough insulin, or when our insulin isnt working well. This is the case for people who have prediabetes or diabetes. If it isnt treated, high blood sugar can lead to serious problems that can be deadly
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that keeping blood sugar levels in the target range is vital. It can help us prevent serious health concerns like heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease, for example.