The purpose of this write-up is to make life sweet not the blood. Our cells must use sugar to transform it into energy to live every minute

Type one is a sugar management problem in the human body where the body does not produce insulin and it is seen rather at an early stage of life.

 

Whereas type two is a condition when the cells are not able to respond to the insulin activities and at times insulin production is also not enough. Genetic coding is one of the factors, however, lifestyles make things worst or better when it comes to sugar metabolism. 

 

Blotchy eyes, blurred vision, progressive kidney disease, heart attack and stroke are the serious conditions high blood sugar may lead to. 

 

The simplest possible way is to know the status of sugar metabolism by doing a simple blood sugar test at different timings to know the spikes of sugar surge in the blood. Early morning high sugar level is detected in many pre-diabetes conditions. After seeing several thousand blood sugar tests personally, I can suggest monitoring blood sugar tests at different times of the day:

Morning fasting; 2 hours after lunch; randomly during the day; pre-dinner, 2 hours after dinner, midnight and early morning to have a fair idea about the sugar metabolism cycle.

There are reference value guidelines which are equally valid throughout the day as per the eating schedule:

 

Fasting Normal for people without diabetes: 70-99 mg;

The official recommendation for people with diabetes: is 80-130 mg.

 

Tests 2 hours after meals and even in random timing

Normal for people without diabetes: Less than 140 mg;

The official recommendation for people with diabetes: Less than 180 mg.

 

Glycosylated haemoglobin tests (HbA1c):

Normal for a person without diabetes: Less than 5.7%;

The official recommendation for people with diabetes: is 7.0% or less.

When there is numbness in the arms and legs, called diabetic neuropathy the most initial indicator, if not attended appropriately then more intense symptoms appear:

a.            Experiencing ever hungry immediately after eating 

b.            Unusually thirsty and desire to urinate frequently 

c.            For no reason, there is a weight loss or gain issued

d.            Experiencing exhaustion and fatigue all the time

e.            Difficulties focusing on one work

 

The biggest mistake we tend to make is to ignore the symptoms and take them casually, whether it be blurred vision, weight loss/gain, numbness, or warm feet conditions. Prediabetes condition is seriously important to be handled appropriately as they are reversible.

 

There is quite a few simple and careful change in lifestyle, that may bring the condition to your grip and you can make your life sweet again but for the blood. Allow me to reemphasize in physical activities correct a lot of health issues while at the same time exhausting the excess sugar in the blood.

 

Try to establish a deep relationship with nature and prefer natural foods and fruits to refined food and packed juice. Fibre plays a great role in reducing the glycemic index of food we take by reducing the speed of breakdown of carbohydrates in digestion. The abundance of excessive sugar in the blood creates a sugar metabolism crisis in the body and the system gets into malfunctioning, resulting – in high blood sugar or a sudden decline in sugar level caused by excessive insulin production, a condition known as hypoglycemia, and both could be very dangerous at times.

 

Lifestyle changes not only control the sugar level but also improve the insulin sensitivity of cells.

 

Keeping your body in shape does make you feel better and keep your sugar level right as well. Life is more beautiful when you are physically shaped up and physiologically responsive. Body weight has relation to a better nervous system while not forgetting heart and bone health.

 

Drinking water and keeping hydrated are vital to flush excess sugar from urine and maintain easy conditions for kidneys in action.

The complex human body does a lot of repair work when the body takes a rest and goes to sleep. Proper sleep is the key to better hormone balance and a great condition for sugar metabolism.

 

Since the story of blood sugar management revolves around the power of knowledge of blood sugar levels at different times of the day, one should be aware of having a testing facility within his reach. Science has gone very far and home use devices have become a reliable alternative to visiting health centres. Moreover, post-pandemic, we have learnt that visiting crowded health institutions for small reasons is rather counterproductive, so needed to avoid it. We got to be aware of a few things before we choose the home use device to monitor blood glucose levels at home. Hence please verify following conditions are met by the vendor:

a.   The product must be from credible and R&D-based companies.

b.    Developed countries are also using the same device- worldwide availability 

c.    ISO 15197 certification is the diabetes monitoring device-specific quality certificate.

d.    The device must be able to test capillary or venous blood as a sample.

e.    Specially we measure in mg/dl in Nepal as the measurement unit.

f.     Test strips must be available, or else the machine cannot be used in future.