What is the level of blood sugar?
The level of blood sugar is the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Also known as serum glucose level. It is expressed as millimoles per litre (mmol / l).
Normally, blood glucose levels stay within narrow limits throughout the day: 4 to 8mmol / l. But they are higher after a meal and usually lowest in the morning.
In diabetes the level of blood sugar moves outside these limits until treatment. Even with a good control of diabetes, the level of blood sugar is derived sometimes even outside of this normal range.
Why control of the levels of blood sugar?
For reasons that are not well understood, when very high levels of glucose in the blood are present for years, leading to damage to small blood vessels.
This in turn increases the risk of developing late-stage complications of diabetes, such as:
* Retinopathy (eye disease)
* Nephropathy (kidney disease)
* Neuropathy (nerve disease)
* Cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, hypertension, heart failure, stroke and problems caused by poor circulation, such as gangrene, in the worst case.
With Type 1 diabetes, these complications can begin to appear 10 to 15 years after diagnosis.
It is often less than 10 years after diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, because this type of diabetes is often present for years before it is recognized.
By keeping the blood sugar stable, significantly reduce their risk of these complications.
How do I measure the levels of blood sugar?
Good advice
Home testing kits come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
A pharmacist or nurse clinic diabetes can recommend the best model.
You can usually get a blood glucose in the metro little or no cost through the clinical diabetes.
Testing strips are available on NHS prescription.
You can learn to measure levels of blood sugar quickly and simply with a home blood glucose test kit. All kits have at least two things: a measuring device and a strip.
To check the level of sugar in his blood, put a small amount of blood on the strip. Now place the band in the product. After about 30 seconds to show the level of glucose in the blood.
The best way to take a sample of blood by pricking the finger with a lancet that strong designed to penetrate the skin only to the extent necessary to extract a drop of blood.
What should be glucose levels?
The ideal values are:
* 4 to 7mmol / L before meals.
* Less than 10mmol / l 90 minutes after a meal
* Around 8mmol / l at bedtime.
How often should blood glucose was measured?
It depends on your lifestyle - the needs of a person with diabetes who is also an instructor of PE are very different from someone who sits at a computer all day.
If you use insulin
In general, people who have type 1 diabetes should measure their blood sugar levels daily before meals. Some days one or two tests can be done, whereas in another four or five might be necessary.
The measurement of the levels of blood sugar in the morning before any meal gives an indication of the amount of insulin needed overnight.
If you have type 2 diabetes being treated with insulin, you should also follow this schedule.
If oral treatments
If diabetes is treated with tablets or a special diet (type 2), should measure their blood glucose levels once or twice a week - either before meals or 90 minutes after a meal.
It must also make a profile of 24 hours once or twice a month. This means the measurement of glucose levels before each meal.
Not everyone with type 2 diabetes has to carry out regular checks of blood glucose.
For the elderly and people with other medical problems, it is often sufficient to control glucose in the urine - usually before breakfast and dinner.
This is because while a good control of diabetes is important, cardiovascular complications (heart attack, stroke, angina pectoris) is the leading cause of severe illness and death in people with this type of diabetes.
Therefore, people with type 2 diabetes will benefit from the fight against the factors contributing to their cardiovascular risk by:
Or controlling blood pressure more rigorously
Or lowering cholesterol levels with medication
Or the beginning or increasing exercise
Or quit.
Levels of blood glucose at bedtime
The level of blood sugar at bedtime should be between 7 and 10 mmol / l.
If the blood glucose is too low or too high at bedtime, you may need to adjust your food intake or insulin dose. Be sure to discuss this with your doctor.
At what other times the levels of blood glucose should be measured?
The blood glucose should be measured at any time of discomfort or think your blood sugar level is too high or low.
If you have type 1 diabetes and have more than 20mmol / l glucose in the blood, you have to use a strip of urine to verify the presence of ketones.
If organs are ketones in the urine is a warning sign of diabetic acidosis. If this is the case, you should consult your doctor immediately.
How is the level of blood sugar control over a period of time?
A test known as the HbA1c test can show the average level of blood sugar during the last six to eight weeks.
The proof is in HbA1c levels in a sample of blood.
Term clock
Hemoglobin
The substance in red blood cells that binds and transports oxygen throughout the bloodstream.
HbA1c is a compound produced by the chemical reaction between hemoglobin and glucose in the blood. HbA1c is also known as glycosylated hemoglobin.
High blood sugar levels to produce more HbA1c. But because the process happens over several weeks, an upturn occasional high blood sugar is not enough to influence the level of HbA1c.
This means that only consistently high levels of glucose in HbA1c due to the height - and why HbA1c used as a measure of diabetes control.
* HbA1c is about 6 percent of total hemoglobin in people without diabetes. This is the aim of targeting with strict blood sugar control - although 7 percent or less is very good.
* HbA1c of 7.5 percent shows just diabetes control.
* HbA1c above 8.5 percent demonstrates the lack of control of diabetes.
Any increase in the level of HbA1c indicates poorer diabetes control.
The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) Group was 20 years of research long trial in diabetes.
It showed that for every 1 percent increase in HbA1c, a person with type 2 diabetes is 30 percent more likely to develop late-stage complications arising from damage to small blood vessels.
In type 1 diabetes, the same relationship between high levels of HbA1c and strengthening the development of complications was demonstrated by the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial in the United States.
Based on a text by Dr Jan Erik Henriksen, and Dr Henning Bech-Nielsen, professor and consultant
source: netdoctor.co.uk
Blood Sugar Level
| http://our-medical-center.blogspot.com/2007/12/sugars-effect-on-your-health.html The average American consumes an astounding 2-3 pounds of sugar each week, which is not surprising considering that highly refined sugars in the forms of sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup are being processed into so many foods such as bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and a plethora of microwave meals.  |
In the last 20 years, we have increased sugar consumption in the U.S. 26 pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year! Prior to the turn of this century (1887-1890), the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! Cardiovascular disease and cancer was virtually unknown in the early 1900's.
The "glycemic index" is a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels, with each food being assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the absorption and digestion process, which provides a more gradual, healthier infusion of sugars into the bloodstream. On the other hand, a high rating means that blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin to drop blood-sugar levels. These rapid fluctuations of blood-sugar levels are not healthy because of the stress they place on the body.
One of sugar's major drawbacks is that it raises the insulin level, which inhibits the release of growth hormones, which in turn depresses the immune system. This is not something you want to take place if you want to avoid disease.
An influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sugar, you're making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Complex carbohydrates tend to be absorbed more slowly, lessening the impact on blood-sugar levels.
Sugar depresses the immune system.
We have known this for decades. It was only in the 1970's that researchers found out that vitamin C was needed by white blood cells so that they could phagocytize viruses and bacteria. White blood cells require a 50 times higher concentration inside the cell as outside so they have to accumulate vitamin C.
There is something called a "phagocytic index" which tells you how rapidly a particular macrophage or lymphocyte can gobble up a virus, bacteria, or cancer cell. It was in the 1970's that Linus Pauling realized that white blood cells need a high dose of vitamin C and that is when he came up with his theory that you need high doses of vitamin C to combat the common cold.  |
We know that glucose and vitamin C have similar chemical structures, so what happens when the sugar levels go up? They compete for one another upon entering the cells. And the thing that mediates the entry of glucose into the cells is the same thing that mediates the entry of vitamin C into the cells. If there is more glucose around, there is going to be less vitamin C allowed into the cell. It doesn't take much: a blood sugar value of 120 reduces the phagocytic index by 75%. So when you eat sugar, think of your immune system slowing down to a crawl.
Here we are getting a little bit closer to the roots of disease. It doesn't matter what disease we are talking about, whether we are talking about a common cold or about cardiovascular disease, or cancer or osteoporosis, the root is always going to be at the cellular and molecular level, and more often than not insulin is going to have its hand in it, if not totally controlling it.
The health dangers which ingesting sugar on an habitual basis creates are certain. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, move mood swings, provoke personality changes, muster mental illness, nourish nervous disorders, deliver diabetes, hurry heart disease, grow gallstones, hasten hypertension, and add arthritis.
Because refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins, they must draw upon the body's micro-nutrient stores in order to be metabolized into the system. When these storehouses are depleted, metabolization of cholesterol and fatty acid is impeded, contributing to higher blood serum triglycerides, cholesterol, promoting obesity due to higher fatty acid storage around organs and in sub-cutaneous tissue folds.
Because sugar is devoid of minerals, vitamins, fiber, and has such a deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, major researchers and major health organizations (American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association) agree that sugar consumption in America is one of the 3 major causes of degenerative disease.
A good source of supplies for diabetics is diabeticdrugstore.com. They offer healthy eating diabetic food, hard to find sugar free candy and medical alert jewelry for diabetes care.
Honey is a simple sugar
There are 4 classes of simple sugars which are regarded by most nutritionists as "harmful" to optimal health when prolonged consumption in amounts above 15% of the carbohydrate calories are ingested: Sucrose, fructose, honey, and malts.
Some of you may be surprised to find honey here. Although honey is a natural sweetener, it is considered a refined sugar because 96% of dry matter are simple sugars: fructose, glucose and sucrose. It is little wonder that the honey bear is the only animal found in nature with a problem with tooth-decay (honey decays teeth faster than table sugar). Honey has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 calories/tablespoon, compared to the 48 calories/tablespoon found in table sugar. The increased calories are bound to cause increased blood serum fatty acids, as well as weight gain, on top of the risk of more cavities.  |
Pesticides used on farm crops and residential flowers have been found in commercial honey. Honey can be fatal to an infant whose immature digestive tracts are unable to deal effectively with Botulinum Spore growth. What nutrients or enzymes raw honey does contain are destroyed by manufacturers who heat it in order to give it a clear appearance to enhance sales. If you are going to consume honey, make sure it is raw, unheated honey. Good to use in special cures, but not as an every day food. It is not much better than white or brown sugar.
Here is a list of ways sugar can affect your health:
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Source: http://www.nancyappleton.com/
Sugar and cancer
Of the over 4 million cancer patients being treated in the U.S. today, almost none are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy other than being told to "just eat good foods." Many cancer patients would have a major improvement in their conditions if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel: GLUCOSE. By slowing the cancer's growth, patients make it possible for their immune systems to catch up to the disease. Controlling one's blood-glucose levels through diet, exercise, supplements, meditation and prescription drugs - when necessary - can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer treatment program. The saying "Sugar feeds cancer" is simple. The explanation is a little more involved.
| German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., the 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. The gist of his Nobel thesis was this: malignant tumors frequently exhibit an increase in "anaerobic glycolysis" - a process whereby glucose is used by cancer cells as a fuel with lactic acid as an anaerobic by-product - compared to normal tissues.(1) The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from the cancer cells is then transported to the liver. This conversion of glucose to lactate creates a lower, more acidic PH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid build-up.(2,3) Therefore, larger tumors tend to exhibit a more acidic PH.(4) |  |
Hence, cancer therapies should attempt to regulate blood-glucose levels through diet, supplements, exercise, medication when necessary, gradual weight loss and stress reduction. Since cancer cells derive most of their energy from anaerobic glycolysis, the goal is not to eliminate sugars or carbohydrates entirely from the diet but rather to control blood-glucose within a narrow range to help starve the cancer cells and boost immune function.
http://our-medical-center.blogspot.com/2007/12/sugars-effect-on-your-health.html
