The Human Body – Blood Glucose Levels

What are Blood Glucose Levels?

If you have diabetes, managing your blood glucose level is an important part of managing your condition. That’s because high blood sugar levels can cause long-term complications.

When you have diabetes, your body isn’t able to get the sugar from blood into cells, or make enough, or any, insulin. This causes high levels of blood sugar, or high glucose levels. The carbohydrates in food cause blood sugar levels to go up after meals.

When you eat foods that contain carbohydrates, the digestion process turns them into sugars. These sugars are released into the blood and transported to the cells. The pancreas, a small organ in the abdomen, releases a hormone called insulin to meet the sugar at the cell.

Insulin acts as a “bridge,” allowing the sugar to go from the blood into the cell. When the cell uses the sugar for energy, blood sugar levels go down.

If you have diabetes, there’s either a problem with the pancreas producing insulin, or the cells using insulin, or both.

The different types of diabetes and diabetes-related conditions include:

• Type 1 diabetes is when the body stops making insulin.
• Type 2 diabetesis usually a combination of the pancreas not making enough insulin and the cells not using insulin well, which is called insulin resistance.
• Prediabetes is usually when the cells do not use insulin well.
• Gestational diabetes is when you develop diabetes in your second or third trimester of pregnancy.

Keep reading to learn more about checking and managing your glucose levels.

When to check blood Glucose levels

Talk to your doctor or healthcare providers about the best times to check your blood glucose. Optimal times vary for each person.

Some options include:

• after fasting (after waking or not eating for eight to 12 hours), or before meals
• before and after meals, to see the impact that the meal had on your blood sugar
• before all meals, to decide how much insulin to inject
• at bedtime

Bring a record of your blood sugar results to appointments with your doctor so you can review it and make changes to your treatment if necessary.

How to check

You will need to take a blood sample to check your blood glucose levels. You can do this at home using a blood glucose monitor. The most common type of blood glucose monitor uses a lancet to prick the side tip of your finger to draw a small drop of blood. Then you place this drop of blood on a disposable testing strip.

You insert the testing strip into an electronic blood glucose meter before or after the blood is applied. The meter measures the level of glucose in the sample and returns a number on a digital readout.

Another option is a continuous glucose monitor. A small wire is inserted beneath the skin of your abdomen. Every five minutes, the wire will measure blood glucose levels and deliver the results to a monitor device worn on your clothing or in a pocket. This allows you and your doctor to keep a real time reading of your blood glucose levels.

https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/understanding-glucose-levels#when-to-check  [1]