How blood sugar levels can affect your health
Jan 11
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Just what is blood sugar level?
A person’s blood sugar level (often called serum glucose level or plasma glucose level) is simply the quantity of glucose (sugar) present in their blood at any time.
Exactly why is glucose significant?
Glucose (also called dextrose) is a simple sugar that is generated by the human body from the carbs we ingest. It’s required for a wide variety of imperative physiological processes. In particular, it’s really important because it provides energy to our cells, nervous system as well as the brain.
Glucose is transported from the intestinal tract or liver to body cells through the bloodstream, and is made available for cell absorption through the hormone insulin, generated by the pancreas.
Glucose that is not directly used as an energy source by brain cells, intestinal cells and red blood cells is taken to the liver, adipose tissue and muscle cells, where it is assimilated and stored as glycogen. This glycogen can be changed back to glucose and returned to the bloodstream at any time when insulin is low or absent.
Just how is blood sugar level tested?
Blood sugar is commonly measured in molecular count, the unit for which is mmol/L (millimoles per liter). Additionally it is often measured as a weight in grams, the unit for which is mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter).
What’s a healthy or regular blood sugar level?
In general, your body maintains its blood glucose level at a reference range of between 3.6 and 5.8 mmol/L (or 64.8 and 104.4 mg/dL).
The mean regular blood glucose level in human beings is around 4 mmol/L (or 72 mg/dL), though the level obviously changes throughout the day. As perhaps you might suspect, glucose levels tend to be at their lowest early in the day, prior to the first meal of the day and increase after eating for one to two hours by a couple of milliMolar. However, when it comes to diabetics, blood sugar varies more widely - see further below.
How does blood sugar / glucose levels threaten your health and well-being?
As pointed out above, glucose gives one’s body with the energy that it requires to perform very important biological functions. Too little sugar / glucose (a low blood sugar level) or an over-abundance of sugar / glucose (a high blood sugar level) can bring about considerable health threats and blood sugar levels outside of the normal range could very well be indicative of a medical condition.
Hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia
A constantly high blood sugar level is called hyperglycemia, whilst low levels are generally known as hypoglycemia.
Hypoglycemia is a life-threatening condition. Symptoms include lethargy, reduced mental performance, irritability, shaking, twitching, lack of strength in arm and leg muscles, pale colouration, perspiration, paranoid or hostile demeanour and fainting. In severe instances, brain damage is a possibility.
By contrast, hyperglycemia can involve suppressed appetite in the short term, with longer term health issues including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and eye, kidney, and nerve damage.
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is characterised by chronic hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels) either because the body fails to produce enough insulin, or because their cells do not respond to the insulin that’s produced. It happens to be the most typical disease linked to failure in blood sugar regulation.
For people with diabetes, it is of course particularly important to keep blood sugar levels within standard ranges, or else major health complications can arise. For example, nephropathy (kidney disease), neuropathy (nerve disease), retinopathy (eye disease) and cardiovascular diseases (heart diseases).
Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance (a manifestation of polycystic ovarian syndrome) is yet another example of a medical condition where blood sugar levels are very important. In this case, the individual’s body does not recognise the consumption of sugars and carbohydrates which means that it continues to pump out insulin which is not actually needed. If this keeps up for a protracted time period, the pancreas can pack up and cease to produce insulin altogether. If care is not taken by those who have this condition to ensure a well-balanced diet and balanced blood sugar levels, it has the potential ultimately lead to type two diabetes.
What else can have an impact on blood sugar levels?
Various factors could affect an individual’s blood sugar level. For instance, it can be temporarily elevated as a result of intense stress (such as trauma, stroke, myocardial infarction, surgery or sickness) or on account of drug / medication use, which can cause glucose levels to go up or reduce.
Alcohol intake also triggers an initial spike in blood sugar, but eventually has a tendency to cause levels to drop.
Maintaining your blood sugar level under control
Making positive and healthy lifestyle choices (and, if required, modifications) is a great starting point in keeping your blood sugar levels under control. For instance, taking regular physical exercise and (if need be) slimming down in a sensible and healthy way.
Dietary modifications, particularly, can be very helpful in keeping blood sugar levels within normal ranges. For all those with restricted diets (such as diabetics), it can certainly be a struggle to ensure an ideal intake of nutrients and vitamins each and every day. Lots of people find that top quality, nutrients-fortified meal replacement powders / shakes can help with this.
MEALtime is a liquid meal / meal replacement drink that’s rich in quality protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, nutritious herbs and psyllium husks. What’s even better, it is suitable for diabetics and others wanting to maintain healthy, stable blood sugar levels because the only sugars included are those found naturally in the ingredient fruits.
MEALtime is a fast and simple way to fuel up on the go. Not only does this meal replacement / protein shake contain an array of important vitamins and minerals, but it also has important amino acids, ginseng and aloe vera for energy!
Naturally, prior to changing your eating habits or taking health supplements, always be sure to talk to your doctor or qualified health practitioner (particularly if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on medications).
