When Is Your Sugar Level Too High

How Do I Measure My Own Blood Sugar

Measuring your glucose yourself is very easy. You need a blood glucose meter, lancets, a lancing pen and glucose test strips. The test strip is placed in the meter first. Then place the pricker against the side of your finger and press it until you hear a click. You can hold the drop of blood that now appears against the test strip. The meter will now determine your glucose value.

Want to see what to do step by step? We have a special blood glucose meter instruction page for this, with a video and step-by-step guide.

How Is It Treated

If you have diabetes and notice any of the early signs of high blood sugar, test your blood sugar and call the doctor. They may ask you for the results of several readings. They could recommend the following changes:

Drink more water. Water helps remove excess sugar from your blood through urine, and it helps you avoid dehydration.

Exercise more. Working out can help lower your blood sugar. But under certain conditions, it can make blood sugar go even higher. Ask your doctor what kind of exercise is right for you.

Caution: If you have type 1 diabetes and your blood sugar is high, you need to check your urine for ketones. When you have ketones, do NOT exercise. If you have type 2 diabetes and your blood sugar is high, you must also be sure that you have no ketones in your urine and that you are well-hydrated. Then your doctor might give you the OK to exercise with caution as long as you feel up to it.

Change your eating habits. You may need to meet with a dietitian to change the amount and types of foods you eat.

Switch medications. Your doctor may change the amount, timing, or type of diabetes medications you take. Donât make changes without talking to them first.

If you have type 1 diabetes and your blood sugar is more than 250 mg/dL, your doctor may want you to test your urine or blood for ketones.

When Is My Blood Sugar Too Low Too High Or Normal

Glucose, also known as blood sugar, is an important fuel for your body, absorbed from your blood. But why is your blood sugar so important? And what happens if your body does not absorb glucose from your blood properly? And how do you know if your blood sugar is too high, too low or normal?

Here you can read all about your blood sugar and find out why it is important to keep a close eye on your blood sugar level and how you can do this with a Glucose OnCall Extra.

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Take Your Insulin As Prescribed

High blood sugar occurs when your body has too little insulin, or your body cant use insulin properly. Administering insulin can bring your blood sugar levels down.

Talk to your doctor about how much rapid-acting insulin you should administer when your blood sugar is high.

You may want to check your blood sugar about 1530 minutes after taking insulin to make sure your blood sugar is going down and that its not dropping too low.

A Few Final Notes On Keeping Blood Sugar Stable

Taking an active, intentional approach to your blood sugar levels is crucial to your quality of life and overall health, ONeill says. Avoiding too-high or too-low blood sugar levels will help you avoid adverse symptoms and health complications, and staying within your target range can enable you to feel your best and do whatever you want to do in life, she says.

Test your blood sugar regularly, listen to your body, and dont ever hesitate to reach out to your doctor.

Additional reporting by Karen Appold.

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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.

Check Your Blood Glucose Levels

For many people with diabetes, checking their blood glucose level each day is an important way to manage their diabetes. Monitoring your blood glucose level is most important if you take insulin. The results of blood glucose monitoring can help you make decisions about food, physical activity, and medicines.

The most common way to check your blood glucose level at home is with a blood glucose meter. You get a drop of blood by pricking the side of your fingertip with a lancet. Then you apply the blood to a test strip. The meter will show you how much glucose is in your blood at the moment.

Ask your health care team how often you should check your blood glucose levels. Make sure to keep a record of your blood glucose self-checks. You can print copies of this glucose self-check chart . Take these records with you when you visit your health care team.

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What To Do When Blood Sugar Is High

According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 34.2 million Americans, or 10.5 percent of the population has diabetes of that number, 26.8 million are diagnosed and 7.3 million are undiagnosed. For these individuals, hyperglycemia is a major concern that must be carefully monitored and avoided. Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, is a term that describes a condition in which the concentration of glucose in the bloodstream gets too high. When people have high blood sugar levels regularly, the condition can cause damage to the organs, blood vessels, and nerves, as well as other health effects. If youre wondering what to do when blood sugar is high, there are several strategies that can help bring your blood sugar down quickly in an emergency and prevent spikes in blood sugar over time.

How Can I Treat And Manage Hyperglycemia

People with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can manage hyperglycemia by eating healthy, being active, and managing stress. In addition, insulin is a critical part of managing hyperglycemia for people with type 1 diabetes, while people with type 2 diabetes may need oral medications and eventually insulin to help them manage hyperglycemia.

If you dont have diabetes and have any of the signs and symptoms of hyperglycemia, call your healthcare provider. Together you can work to manage your hyperglycemia.

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How To Prevent Hyperglycaemia And Lower Your Blood Sugar Levels

Testing your blood sugar levels regularly can help you spot the signs of hyperglycaemia. But there are some steps you can take to either prevent a hyper from happening or to bring down your blood sugar levels.

You can start by making sure you are aware of your carbohydrate portions and how they may be affecting your blood sugar levels after eating. Carb countingis one of the ways you can manage this. Avoid foods that have a high glycemic index and choose low GI foods that can help manage your blood sugar levels more effectively. Increase the fibre in your diet. This can help slow down carbohydrate digestion, which can help limit the rise in your blood sugars.

Try to maintain a healthy weight as this promotes regular blood sugar levels in the body. Be as active as possible, regular exercise can help your body process more of the sugar.

Remember to take your insulin and other diabetes medication, and always take them correctly. Continue to take your diabetes medication even if you are ill and not eating.

Concentrate on your emotional wellbeing, get a quality nights sleep and find ways to manage your stress. Stress can cause hormones to be released, which keep your blood sugar levels high.

If your blood sugar levels continue to be high, or youre unsure of what to do, contact your doctor for further guidance.

Why Is Managing Blood Sugar Important

Keeping blood sugars at target levels helps people with diabetes avoid serious complications from the disease. High blood sugar can cause many ill effects, which can be sudden, such as acid buildup in the bloodstream, or occur gradually over time.

Over time, keeping blood sugar at unhealthful levels can damage small and large blood vessels in several organs and systems, leading to serious consequences, such as:

• vision impairment and blindness

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High Blood Sugar: Causes Complications And How To Lower Blood Sugar

Your body breaks down glucose for energy using the insulin produced by the pancreas. This is required for our bodies to function. Illness can have an impact on the way our pancreas functions. Read this to learn how high blood sugar can affect your health.

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Your body requires energy to function, and this energy comes from food. Specifically, your body breaks down glucose for energy using the insulin produced by the pancreas.

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes cause impairment to this breakdown of sugar in the body, causing blood glucose levels to become irregular. When glucose is not broken down into energy, it can build up in the bloodstream and then becomes a health problem.

Your pancreas produces insulin, which breaks down glucose. With type 1 diabetes, the cells that produce insulin are mistakenly attacked by your immune system. As a result of this autoimmune condition, blood sugar levels can become dangerously high without intervention.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when your body no longer responds to insulin as well as it should and then also causes glucose to accumulate in the blood.

Can Hypertension Cause Diabetes

A meta-analysis appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2015 looked at data for more than 4 million adults. It concluded that people with high blood pressure have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

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The combined impact of diabetes and high blood pressure can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and other health problems.

In 2012, researchers quoted figures suggesting that of people with type 1 diabetes and 5080% of those with type 2 diabetes have high blood pressure in the United States.

There are three ways in which high glucose levels in the blood can increase blood pressure:

• The blood vessels lose their ability to stretch.
• The fluid in the body increases, especially if diabetes is already affecting the kidneys.
• Insulin resistance may involve processes that increase the risk of hypertension.

Controlling blood sugar levels and blood pressure can help prevent complications.

Hypertension and type 2 diabetes also share similar risk factors. These include:

• having excess weight and body fat
• following an unhealthful diet

Other factors that increase the risk of hypertension include:

• having a high fat or high sodium diet
• high alcohol consumption
• low levels of potassium
• other chronic conditions, such as sleep apnea, kidney disease, or inflammatory arthritis

Lifestyle factors are crucial for managing both blood glucose and blood pressure.

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Your Legs And Feet Are Swollen

When there’s too much sugar in the system, it can pull water into cells, which will swell up over time if you don’t get these fluids moving through your body regularly.

The American Diabetes Association claims that people who have diabetes tend to have legs and feet up to five times larger than they should be, which can lead to complications within the circulatory system, including infections and reduced blood flow.

If you notice your feet and ankles begin to swell up, make sure to keep them elevated when possible. It’s important to treat swelling as soon as possible by elevating your legs higher.

Make Physical Activity Part Of Your Daily Routine

Set a goal to be more physically active. Try to work up to 30 minutes or more of physical activity on most days of the week.

Brisk walking and swimming are good ways to move more. If you are not active now, ask your health care team about the types and amounts of physical activity that are right for you. Learn more about being physically active with diabetes.

Following your meal plan and being more active can help you stay at or get to a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, work with your health care team to create a weight-loss plan that is right for you.

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Which Blood Glucose Meter Should I Use

If you are going to measure your glucose with a blood glucose meter, it is wise to make sure that the blood glucose meter is TUV and ISO certified. This ensures that the meter gives reliable results and has minimal deviation.

The Swiss Point of Care On Call Extra Glucose Meter is both ISO and TUV certified. With this meter you can measure your glucose very easily and quickly. The meter needs very little blood and gives an accurate result within four seconds.

The large print makes it easy to read the value. The device stores up to 300 measurements so that you can keep track of your blood sugar level for a certain period of time.

With the supplied travel case you can also easily take the glucose meter with you to work or on holiday. Do you appear to have a high blood sugar level? Then go and see your GP.

Eat The Right Carbohydrates

The two main kinds of carbohydrates simple and complex affect blood sugar levels differently.

Simple carbohydrates are mainly made up of one kind of sugar. They are found in foods, such as white bread, pasta, and candy. The body breaks these carbohydrates down into sugar very quickly, which causes blood sugar levels to rise rapidly.

Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more sugars that are linked together. Because the chemical makeup of these kinds of carbohydrates is complicated, it takes the body longer to break them down.

As a result, sugar is released into the body more gradually, meaning that blood sugar levels do not rapidly rise after eating them. Examples of complex carbohydrates include whole grain oats and sweet potatoes.

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Avoiding High Blood Sugar And Dka

No matter how well they take care of themselves, people with diabetes will sometimes have high blood sugar levels. But the best way to avoid problems is to keep your blood sugar levels as close to your desired range as possible, which means following your diabetes management plan. Checking your blood sugar levels several times a day will let you know when your blood sugar level is high. Then you can treat it and help prevent DKA from happening.

High blood sugar levels don’t always cause symptoms, and a person who isn’t testing regularly might be having blood sugar levels high enough to damage the body without even realizing it. Doctors may use the HbA1c test to find out if someone has been having high blood sugar levels over time, even if the person has not had obvious symptoms.

Here are some other tips for avoiding high blood sugar levels and preventing DKA:

• Try to eat all your meals and snacks on time and not skip any.
• Take the right amount of insulin.
• Check your blood sugar levels regularly and your ketone levels when your diabetes management plan recommends it.
• Stick to your diabetes management plan.

For People With Type 1 Diabetes

Contact your doctor or go to hospital if:

• Vomiting stops you from drinking and makes eating difficult
• Blood glucose levels remain high
• Moderate to large ketones are present in the urine.

In type 1 diabetes, high blood glucose levels can progress to a serious condition called Ketoacidosis.

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How Are High Blood Sugar Levels Treated

Treating high blood sugar levels involves fixing what caused them in the first place. Your diabetes health care team will give you specific advice on how to keep your blood sugar levels in a healthy range. But here are some ways to manage the common causes of high blood sugar levels:

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