The Opposite Extrerme

Now that I have discussed low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), I felt it would be good to focus on the opposite side: high blood sugar (HBS). Hyperglycemia is the medical term for HBS. Since our normal range for blood sugar is 80-120 mg/dL, anything over 120 is technically high. HBS is impossible to avoid for diabetics, no matter how carefully you manage your disease. It's easy to assume that diabetics can easily control their blood sugar by watching their diet and taking their insulin. However, blood sugar is affected by more than just what you eat!!! Things that affect blood sugar include: -exercise -mood/emotions -stress -illness -amount of sleep you get -other health conditions -medications you take -diet -traveling All these things have the potential to raise or lower blod sugar, and the effects are different for everyone, and may not be the same every time. Of special note are: Exercise typically will lower blood sugar if you are within your normal range at the time, but that effect may not kick in for several hours. If you exercise while you are already high, the exercise can make you go higher instead! Moods and strong emotions, like anger or excitement can make you go high. Stress, whether emotional or physical, can make you go high. Illness causes all kinds of haywire for diabetics, making you go high and low regardless of treatment. I'm sure I will post specifically about illness in the future because it is s big topic on its own. Some medications are known to affect blood sugar, so it is important to be aware of the potential effects any meds may have on blood sugar, insulin absorption, or efficacy of type 2 oral meds. So, can anyone control their feelings? Can anyone have full control of their stress level? Can anyone completely prevent getting a cold or any other illness? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! This is impossible for anyone to do, so it is equally impossible for any diabetic. That is why controlling blood sugar is so difficult! :( HBS has its own list of symptoms. Some of them are similar to the symptoms of low blood sugar (convenient, I know...) . Again, these symptoms vary from person to person and day to day, and also vary depending on how high you are. Some do the symptoms I know or have seen include: -frequent urination -extreme, insatiable thirst -confusion -anger, frustration, irritation, crankiness -unable to think clearly -poor memory and retention -unable to sit still (may look like hyper activity in kids) -giddy, excited, hyper -fast speech -incoherent speech, incomplete sentences/thoughts -headache -blurry or fuzzy vision -coma -death Just like with low blood sugar, you may not feel any symptoms when you are high, so it is important to check your blood sugar instead of going by how you feel. High blood sugar is scary for 2 major reasons. The most important is that long-term HBS is what actually causes irreversible damage to the disbetic's body, leading to scary complications and possibly death. I will deal with thee complications in another post because this is a big subject by itself. The second reason HBS is scary are the last two items on the symptoms list--coma and death. Prolonged HBS leads to a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This is just as scary for a diabetic parent or spouse as any low is. Again, this is a big topic, so I will fully address it in another post, but I will say that DKA is the main reason for hospitalization for diabetics, and it is guaranteed to happen regardless of how carefully you try to prevent it. The goal in managing diabetes is to achieve normal glycemia, or blood sugars as close to that normal range as possible. The less variation from that normal range, the less at risk you are to developing complications early. With the basic info I have provided, it should be obvious that this is as very difficult goal. No one can be perfect all the time. So we just strive to do the best we can, one day at a time. :)