Going to the doctor’s office can be stressful, especially if your physician says, “You have elevated blood glucose levels.” It’s a saying that is becoming more common every year. It’s important to understand what elevated glucose levels mean and how it affects you. Glucose is another word for the sugar that our bodies use as fuel. It comes from our diet in the form of carbohydrates and, to a lesser degree, from protein and fats. To use that sugar for energy, the glucose must get into your body’s cells. This is done when a hormone called insulin, which works like a key to a locked door, opens the “door” to the cells in your body so that the sugar can be processed into energy. For some individuals, their bodies either don’t produce enough insulin or that insulin isn’t working efficiently to help sugar enter the cell. Because of this, the glucose levels start to increase in the blood, resulting in elevated blood glucose levels.
Why is It Important to Check One’s Blood Glucose?
Elevated blood glucose levels can cause a number of health issues in the long term, including diabetes, a condition where your blood glucose levels remain too high. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to serious complications like blindness, nerve damage and even amputations. For those without diabetes, elevated blood glucose levels can cause fatigue, increased thirst, weight gain and a number of other symptoms. If you have elevated blood glucose levels, your physician may tell you that you need to check your blood glucose four times a day or more. This often involves pricking fingers to draw out a drop of blood to test blood glucose. This reading gives a snapshot of the amount of sugar in the blood at that one point in time.
What are the Different Blood Glucose Levels?
A normal morning fasting (this means before eating any meal) blood glucose level is between 70-100, a fasting reading between 100-126 indicates prediabetes (a condition where blood glucose levels are high but not to the point of diabetes), and a reading above 126 on two separate readings indicates diabetes (a condition where the body doesn’t make enough insulin or that insulin doesn’t work properly, causing high blood glucose levels). Another test for measuring blood glucose levels is called an A1C, which measures the average amount of glucose in your blood over the past three months. An A1C test result of less than 5.7% is normal, a result of 5.7% – 6.4% indicates prediabetes and a result of above 6.4% indicates diabetes.
Measuring blood glucose levels can show how your body is reacting to the foods and medicines being consumed and allow you to notice trends. The main difficulty with getting this valuable information is that it traditionally required frequently poking one’s fingers with a needle to draw blood, which can be uncomfortable. A newer method of checking one’s blood glucose level is by using continuous glucose monitors.
What are Continuous Glucose Monitors and Why are They Helpful?
Continuous glucose monitors work by continuously measuring blood glucose levels 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They look like a small button that sticks to the skin on your arm. They have a small needle the size of a hair that stays right under the skin level and usually lasts 7-14 days. These devices are linked to your phone through an app or a monitoring device and give you continuous readings. Continuous glucose monitors are used most often by individuals with diabetes who require insulin injections. They provide real-time data on how insulin impacts blood glucose levels. They also help physicians adjust medications and insulin to suit the needs of the patient, all without having to repeatedly prick one’s fingers. While management of diabetes is the most common use for these devices, they have many other uses as well.
Connecting What You Do and Eat with How It Affects Your Blood Glucose
With an estimated 30% of individuals having metabolic syndrome in the United States, the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and other conditions is a growing concern. Metabolic syndrome refers to a combination of abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood glucose, elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol. Most of these measures have to do with the foods we eat and how our body uses them for energy and growth. As mentioned earlier, blood glucose levels can give us helpful insights into how our body is using the food we eat. Continuous glucose monitors have been shown to help improve one’s blood glucose levels even before prescribing medication. This is because they provide live data on how our lifestyle is affecting our health, encouraging individuals to make lifestyle changes. For example, an individual can see what eating a donut and drinking a large caramel macchiato every morning does instantly to their blood glucose levels and compare that to eating fresh vegetables with salmon the next day. This often encourages people to make healthier lifestyle choices. Besides patients with diabetes and prediabetes, many healthy athletes also use continuous glucose monitors to help optimize their exercise performance.
Conclusion
The use of continuous glucose monitors is growing every day. For those making lifestyle changes to prevent the dangerous side effects of uncontrolled diabetes to athletes who are looking for an edge in training and diet, continuous glucose monitors can provide valuable insights. While prices for continuous glucose monitors can be high, you can still discuss options with your primary care physician about prescription coverage or options for temporary use, making them a helpful option for individuals wanting to track their glucose levels while avoiding multiple daily finger pricks.
If you’re interested in learning more about continuous glucose monitors, here are a couple of resources. You can also reach out to your primary care doctor for more info. If you need a primary care doctor or are looking for a new one, NGPG has many providers you can book an appointment with online.