Carbohydrates in our diets along with a portion of the protein we eat are turned into glucose, which is what gives cells most of their energy and helps fuel the majority of the body’s many functions. Insulin levels rise and fall in accordance with our diets and are also impacted by levels of other hormones, such as cortisol. Aim to get between seven to nine hours of sleep per night, ideally by sticking with a normal sleep/wake schedule – in order to balance hormones, curb stress responses, and have enough energy to exercise and keep up with your day. If you’re generally healthy (you don’t have diabetes) and you haven’t eaten anything in the past eight hours (you’ve been “fasting”), it’s normal for blood sugar to be anything between 70-99 mg/dL (less than 100 mg/dL). Blood sugar is measured in terms of milligrams of sugar per dL of blood, and measurements are most often taken in the morning after you’ve been fasting through the night.
It is important to understand exactly what are healthy blood sugar levels. Diabetes is a serious disease in which your body has trouble controlling the level of sugar in your blood (also called “glucose”). The use of cinnamon is healthy for the body. If you do have a history of diabetes, fasting continuous glucose meters should ideally also be below 100 mg/DL, which might need to be managed through the use of insulin. To prevent hypoglycemia, the body has developed a complex and redundant system of responses that include a reduction in insulin secretion, an increase in the secretion of glucagon, epinephrine, growth hormone, and cortisol, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system. At the same time, blood glucose levels can remain elevated, which damages the kidneys, heart, arteries and nerves – which in turn affects the whole body negatively. Over time, having high blood sugar can cause damage to your eyes, nerves, heart, blood vessels, and kidneys. Over time, having high blood sugar from diabetes can cause damage inside your kidneys.
Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease. It can also help slow or even stop kidney disease from getting worse. It can also help you maintain kidney health. This is known as chronic kidney disease (CKD). Controlling blood sugar helps lessen your risk for getting kidney disease. If you catch diabetes in the prediabetes stage, a smart regimen of regular exercise and a healthy (often low-carb) diet can actually prevent you from developing the disease! People who tend to experience fluctuating, “abnormal” blood sugar levels include anyone with prediabetes or diabetes; those eating a poor diet, high in sugar, refined grains, artificial ingredients and packaged foods; people who skip meals, don’t eat enough or who fad diet; anyone who doesn’t eat around the time of exercising, before or after workouts, to help refuel; people who don’t get enough sleep and live with high amounts of chronic stress; pregnant women (who can be at risk for gestational diabetes); and people with a history of insulin resistance/diabetes in their families. These comes with many side effects that are indicative of prediabetes or diabetes, including fatigue, sugar cravings, changes in blood pressure, weight loss or gain, nerve damage, and nervousness.
Signs of high/low blood sugar include fatigue and low energy levels; sugar/carb cravings; excessive thirst; weight fluctuations/weight loss; increased urination; mood swings, nervousness or jitteriness; blurred, worsening vision; slow healing of skin wounds, dryness, cuts and bruises; frequent infections; heavy breathing and trouble exercising; and tension headaches. But once you have low or high blood sugar level it becomes a matter of concern. What’s Considered Normal Blood Sugar? When we eat carbohydrates or proteins, blood sugar rises, which alerts the body to produce more insulin in order to bring levels back to normal by ushering sugar to cells. In people who have diabetes (whether type 1 or type 2), cells stop responding to insulin the way they should and the process described above starts to break down. Elevated blood sugar levels maintained for an extended period of time can push someone who is “prediabetic” into having full-blown diabetes (which now affects about one in every three adults in the U.S.).
