signs and symptoms of diabetes | Diabetes Healthy Solutions

What is a Normal Blood Sugar Level?

The amount of sugar (glucose, measured in mg/dL) in the blood fluctuates throughout the day. Blood sugar levels usually depend upon what, how much and when you’ve eaten. Your levels can also change depending on your exercise regimen.

Depending on your treatment plan, your diabetes educator or doctor may recommend checking your blood glucose levels once a week or even up to 10 times a day. Rather than classifying blood sugar levels as being ‘normal’ or abnormal, you can think of them as being “at goal”, “in target” or “in range”.

Although the ADA (American Diabetes Association) provides clear guidelines for blood sugar goals for people living with diabetes, the goals usually vary depending on the time you’re checking your blood glucose.

Normal Blood Sugar:

Fasting normal blood sugar (before eating the first meal)

Normal fasting blood sugar level (no food for 8 hours) for a person without diabetes: 3.9-5.5 mmol/L (70-99 mg/dL)
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: 4.4-7.2 mmol/L (80-13 mg/dL)

Postprandial (Normal blood sugar two hours after meals)

Normal for people without diabetes: Lower than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL)
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: Lower than 10.0mmol/L (180mg/dL)

HbA1c

Normal for people without diabetes: Lower than 5.7%
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: Lower than 7.0%

Blood Glucose Levels and Diabetes

what is a normal blood sugar levels — Blood Sugar Levels Chart

Most people who have been diagnosed with diabetes have wondered at some point what their blood sugar level should be.

Although the responsibility of giving patients the answer to this question rests upon your doctor, physician, nurse practitioner or whoever diagnosed you, not every diabetes patient is given blood glucose goals.

In some cases, you might have been given your glucose goals a long time ago, and they have since been forgotten. However, this shouldn’t be cause for concern – we will discuss all that.

What is blood sugar, anyway?

Blood sugar (or glucose), is glucose that is in the blood. It mainly comes from the food we eat and the main contributors to blood sugar are foods that are rich in carbohydrates, such as fruit, pasta and bread. The cells in your body need sugar for energy in order to perform various functions such as breathing, moving, learning, and thinking. The brain is the body’s command center and it uses about 50% of the energy from blood sugar.

How do things go wrong?

The pancreas is responsible for releasing enzymes and hormones that metabolize food and help the body handle the high glucose levels. Insulin is the main hormone that helps manage blood glucose levels. This is where things can go awry. If your pancreas stops making insulin or doesn’t make enough of it, blood glucose levels can rise too high (type 1 diabetes). Another possible scenario is insulin resistance, where the cells have trouble using insulin properly. This is the main cause of type 2 diabetes.

High blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) can have a wide range of symptoms in the short term, including fatigue, frequent urination and weight loss. If untreated, serious complications can arise, such as ketoacidosis. In the long run (chronic high blood sugar levels), it can lead to more serious complications such as, heart disease, nerve damage, eye disease, as well as disease.

Measuring Blood Glucose Levels

Unless your blood glucose level is too high or too low, you may not always have the signs and symptoms of either low or high blood sugar. In fact, studies show that most people with type 2 diabetes rarely have the symptoms of high blood sugar. As a result, they may go undiagnosed for several years.

One of the best ways to know your blood sugar level is to check it using a glucose meter. The procedure is quite simple and straightforward. It involves doing a finger-stick with a lancet to draw a drop of blood onto the test strip and inserting it into the glucose meter for a reading.

An alternative way of knowing your blood glucose levels is by using a continuous glucose monitor. The continuous glucose monitor (CGM) reads glucose in the fluid stored between cells (interstitial fluid) approximately every 5 minutes.

While some doctors are able to provide patients with glucose meters free of charge, continuous glucose monitoring can be expensive, and is not covered by some health plans.

Therefore, it’s important to consult your health plan for clarification whether they have any “preferred” meters.

How do you get diabetes?

For many people they think that how do you get diabetes is like a cold or other minor illness that can be transmitted through air like a common cold or the flu. How do you get diabetes is hereditary or more serious than that.

There are several factors that can give a person a higher tendency with developing type I diabetes: hereditary factors, immune factors, and “triggering” factors such as stress or viruses. If both parents have type I diabetes the risk for developing it is less than 50%.

How do you get diabetes such as type II diabetes? There is a very strong heredity factor in developing type II diabetes. If one twin has type II diabetes the chance that the other twin will also develop it is 95%. Certain ethnic groups, such as African Americans, and Native Americans have a stronger tendency in developing type II diabetes possibly because of their diet or environmental factors. Obesity is a very large factor in getting type II diabetes. When a person is obese, the body has a harder time using the insulin therefore making an obese person more susceptible to getting type II diabetes.

How do you get diabetes such as gestational diabetes is when a young infant obtains diabetes while the mother is pregnant with he or she? When a pregnant lady develops diabetes during their pregnancy chances are more likely, 25-50% more likely that she will develop type II diabetes after her pregnancy. Diabetes is not something to mess with and if you think that you are getting diabetes or have any warning signs and symptoms of diabetes then you need to consult with your doctor or physician immediately so that you can take the precautions before it gets too out of control and is then hard to manage and maintain.

Info on type II diabetes

Have you been told that you are pre-diabetic and could possibly be developing signs and symptoms of diabetes? Have you been trying to find info on type II diabetes so that you know exactly what it is, how to take care of them and how to manage them healthy?

Info on type II diabetes can be found in a wide variety of places such as online, through your local library, through your local health department, from the American diabetes association as well as your doctor or physician.

Info on type II diabetes can be very beneficial if you or someone you know has been diagnosed with type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is diabetes in which the person needs to take insulin in order to keep their body well maintained and all of their organs working intact with each other.

Info on type II diabetes is a great thing to read up on if you are working in the medical profession and find yourself working around diabetics or have someone that is in your family or close to you that has diabetes. You can never have too much knowledge on medical issues such as type II diabetes, how to treat them, what triggers them and how to maintain them.

Type II diabetes is a tricky disease and there are many factors that can set them off or trigger them as many may say. There is also ways to maintain them and by knowing all of this will help anyone in the long run because it is something that needs to be done in order to keep your body healthy and your diabetes maintained.

So if you or someone that you know has type II diabetes it is always a good thing to find all the info on type II diabetes that you can out.

What are the Early Symptoms of Diabetes?

So how do I tell if I have Diabetes?

Have you been having to go to the bathroom more frequently than normal? Can you not keep yourself hydrated? Did you know that these may be signs and symptoms of diabetes?

Symptoms of diabetes can vary from person to person but most of the time the signs and symptoms are going to be the quite similar. Type 2 diabetes usually tends to start as quite a silent disease – you can certainly not even be aware that you have it! Quite often, the early symptoms of diabetes like

fatigue,
poor vision
reduced libido
lethargy
going to the bathroom more frequently,

tend to be just put down to “getting older” or some other reasons. Quite often a person that is diagnosed with diabetes has more than likely had the disease for five to ten years, but not know about it.

Most younger age people in their early 20’s and even younger, will notice themselves wanting drink more often and feeling like that they can’t get enough to drink, while others may feel like they are staying in the bathroom all the time with frequent urination.

What do I do If I notice These Early Symptoms of Diabetes?

Once you start to notice the symptoms of diabetes, or things that you think may be diabetes such as frequent urination or constant drinking of fluids when you normally don’t, then you may want to consult with your doctor or physician and let them know what is going on so that you can be tested for diabetes as early as possible.

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

Often times when you have contacted your doctor about having signs and symptoms of diabetes, he or she will have you come in and get a fasting blood glucose test (Known as an OGTT) Oral glucose tolerance test. This involves an initial blood test and then you will be given a large amount of glucose to drink – followed by a second blood test a couple of hours later.

This will determine the rate that the glucose is cleared from your blood and you return to normal. A fasting blood glucose test is painless and very simple to have.

The Oral Glucose Tolerance Test is normally of a morning after you have been fasting over night. Drinking water beforehand is permitted, but no tea, coffee or juice.

Healthy Persons Results : The blood sugar level from the second test, should be below 7.8mM

Indication of Prediabetes : The blood sugar level from the second test would read between 7.8mM and 11.1mM

Diabetes : The Blood sugar level from the second test would be higher than 11.1mM

If you were to have 2 random blood sugar level results coming back at higher thatn 11.1mM, OR a fasting glucose test result higher than 7.8mM on 2 separate occasions, this would certainly confirm you have diabetes mellitus.

Symptoms of diabetes are generally the same for all ages but may just be seen at various times rather than all at once. For older people it may take longer to show symptoms of diabetes while younger people may experience them all at once. Most important, is once you do recognize the symptoms, you need to get help!

Is Depression a Symptom of Diabetes?

It’s not surprising that people who have been diagnosed with diabetes would also become depressed or anxious about what is happening to them and also about developing the complications that come with diabetes.

Diabetics really need to try and stay as motivated and positive as possible in order to be able to fight their disease. Depression is something that can and will interfere with your motivating forces, so if you are feeling anxious and depressed, see your heath care professional and have it addressed.

What other Symptoms of Diabetes should I watch for?

Losing appetite
Feeling anxious and often teary
Lack of interest in your hobbies or regular activities
Lack on interest in relationships
Feeling pessimistic and sad on a regular basis
You have difficulty sleeping, or you wake very early in the morning
Having little energy and feeling constantly lethargic.

Read here for the recent advances in diabetes research!

How to test for diabetes

How to test for diabetes can occur in several different ways, the most popular is by a fasting blood glucose test that can be performed in your doctor’s office.

How to test for diabetes can be done for a variety of reasons such as if a person is expecting a baby and is experiencing signs and symptoms of diabetes or pre-diabetes then a doctor or OBGYN may request that the mother is tested for diabetes.

Other reasons that a pregnant lady could be tested for diabetes is because they are over the age of 40 and/or has a strong family history of diabetes.

How to test for diabetes can also be done through a urine sample. A fasting blood glucose test can be done by taking a urine sample to see if your glucose level falls into the category of diabetes or pre-diabetes.

If a person is diagnosed as having pre-diabetes it can often times be treated through diet and exercise. Often times by changing up a person’s diet and lowering the amount of sugar that they ingest will take care of any pre-diabetic symptoms.

If a person is diagnosed as having full blown diabetes then generally they will be asked to monitor their blood glucose level for a few days to a few weeks often times more than once a day, once in the morning fasting and once in the evening after meals have been eaten and then they will be called back into the doctors’ office for proper insulin level adjustment and medication adjustment.

How to test for diabetes is often times tested through a fasting glucose test which is performed in the doctor’s office where the patient will be required to come in fasting and then asked to drink a bottle of sugar water and then after waiting a short period of time the urine or blood will be tested for glucose levels to determine if a person is diabetic or not.

how to test for diabetes