Maybe you’ve been there, at your annual physical exam with your primary care physician, when they pull up your lab values and tell you your fasting glucose was slightly elevated, but they will continue to watch it. Of course, by the time they talk to you about your cholesterol and schedule your screening exams, you may have already forgotten your blood glucose was abnormal! But what does that number actually tell you, and why should you care?
Blood glucose, or blood sugar, is a measure of the glucose in your blood at the time of testing. Glucose is essential to the body’s functioning; all of our cells need sugar to survive! Glucose plays a vital role in cellular respiration, which is how our cells produce energy to fuel our body. When we eat something containing glucose, our bodies metabolize it as energy. But our cells can only process so much sugar at once, so our body is also releasing a hormone called insulin, which allows us to store the excess glucose to use later. Our bodies modify and store glucose in our liver, our muscle tissue, and our fat cells, which can be released in our fasting states to maintain blood glucose. Ideally, these mechanisms all work together and keep our glucose in a therapeutic range; however, we know this is not always the case.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune response against the cells that produce insulin, rendering them useless and requiring the person with diabetes to receive external insulin. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance, where the body is not producing sufficient insulin and the cells do not respond as well to insulin, resulting in excess sugar in the blood. When we live chronically with too much sugar in the blood, it overloads the energy-producing mechanisms in our cells, causing cellular damage, systemic inflammation, dehydration, and more. We know over time, this causes damage, especially to the small blood vessels in our eyes, kidneys, and extremities; but this could also be causing mood disruption, weakened immune response, heart disease, fatigue, and more, which is affecting your day-to-day life!
Of course, we expect blood sugars to fluctuate in people with diabetes, but even if you haven’t been diagnosed with diabetes, it’s very likely your blood sugar is experiencing ups and downs throughout the day, just due to the nature of the food you are eating! Consuming glucose creates a blood sugar spike, and subsequent fall, all within a 2-hour window! So if a lot of our diet is composed of sugars and starches, we may be experiencing these fluctuations all day and not even realize it. You could be feeling energy and mood variations throughout the day caused by fluctuations in your blood sugar.
Luckily there are steps all of us can take, whether diagnosed with diabetes or not, to keep our blood sugars in range more effectively day-to-day. If you are already dealing with a diagnosis of diabetes, know that it is not your fault and it’s nothing to feel ashamed about, there are numerous factors that go into a diagnosis. Your body is just telling you it’s time to make some changes! Studies show us that the number one way to control blood glucose and prevent the complications of diabetes is through lifestyle modification, not medication. Try eating protein and/or fiber, like cheese or nuts, with your simple sugars and starches to create less of a blood sugar spike, and see how your energy levels react. It’s been shown that walking even just for 10 minutes after consuming a meal will help to reduce post-meal blood sugars. Maybe try starting your day out with protein and fiber rather than carbs and sugar. You would be surprised how even just making these small changes can affect your day, your energy, and your life!
We have an upcoming class as part of our Living Well series on November 7th that is focused on blood sugar, and if you are interested in going more in-depth on this topic, you can call 563-207-8932 or sign up here. We also offer sessions with our health coaches who can help you on your health journey and partner with you to tailor goals to fit your lifestyle and improve blood sugar control.
~Anna King, BSN, RN
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