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HomeExclusiveCan Infection Cause High Blood Sugar In Non Diabetics

Can Infection Cause High Blood Sugar In Non Diabetics




Are Frequent Utis A Sign Of Diabetes Or Is A Uti A Symptom Of Diabetes

A review from 2005 found that an astounding 50% of people with diabetes have some type of dysfunction of their bladder- that’s half of every man and woman with diabetes. There are quite a few theories which we have already discussed, but again, most of the newer theories and research have only been conducted on rats.

Another fact this review highlights is that women who have Type 1 diabetes have a higher risk for kidney infections , which can potentially damage the kidney’s function long term. This may lead to the need for a kidney transplant as the damage becomes severe.


Diabetes The Basics: Blood Sugars: The Nondiabetic Versus The Diabetic

BLOOD SUGARS: THE NONDIABETIC VERSUS THE DIABETIC

Since high blood sugar is the hallmark of diabetes, and the cause of every long-term complication of the disease, it makes sense to discuss where blood sugar comes from and how it is used and not used.

Our dietary sources of blood sugar are carbohydrates and proteins. One reason the taste of sugar—a simple form of carbohydrate—delights us is that it fosters production of neurotransmitters in the brain that relieve anxiety and can create a sense of well-being or even euphoria. This makes carbohydrate quite addictive to certain people whose brains may have inadequate levels of or sensitivity to these neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers with which the brain communicates with itself and the rest of the body. When blood sugar levels are low, the liver, kidneys, and intestines can, through a process we will discuss shortly, convert proteins into glucose, but very slowly and inefficiently. The body cannot convert glucose back into protein, nor can it convert fat into sugar. Fat cells, however, with the help of insulin, do transform glucose into fat.

The taste of protein doesn’t excite us as much as that of carbohydrate— it would be the very unusual child who’d jump up and down in the grocery store and beg his mother for steak or fish instead of cookies. Dietary protein gives us a much slower and smaller blood sugar effect, which, as you will see, we diabetics can use to our advantage in normalizing blood sugars.


If You Have Diabetes It Is Twice As Likely You Will Develop A Utiwhy

There are many factors that elevate the risk for UTIs for people with diabetes. Common sense would tell us that higher blood sugars increase the risk for all infections.

Well, believe it or not, the jury is still out on that theory for some odd reason. I could not find any recent research anywhere on this theory or for that matter on urinary tract infections in people with diabetes. My hope is more research will be considered since the complications associated with these infections can be life threatening.

According to a study by Nitzan et al “Urinary tract infections in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: review of prevalence, diagnosis and management”, UTIs are most common and severe with complicated outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes. The study presents the reasons people with diabetes are at a greater risk for urinary tract infections which I will outline here:

Likely Causes of Urinary Tract Infections in People with Diabetes:


  • Poor metabolic control
  • Use of catheters
  • Hospitalizations

Poor metabolic control is not completely understood as a cause of utis yet, so this is a great opportunity for researchers. The extra “sugar” in the urine builds up, causing the growth of extra bacteria which leads to the infection in the bladder.

We have already discussed a few of these, but let’s discuss the ones we haven’t.

Insulin Resistance In The Making How Does Insulin Resistance Occur

Your liver cells and muscle cells take up over three-quarters of the glucose produced by your meal. When your beta cells release insulin, the insulin drives the sugar from the blood circulation into the cells.


It is anticipated that the liver and muscle cells should be very responsive to the prompt by insulin to allow glucose inside those cells under normal circumstances.

The more responsive the cells are the more insulin sensitive you are.

However, there is a situation where even though your beta cells show a good first phase response, the amount of insulin released will not be enough to clear the circulating glucose from the blood.

This is because of what is happening peripherally in the receiving target organs –the liver and muscles.

The cells of the liver and muscles become stubborn. They become unresponsive to the insulin released. The liver and muscle cells are resistant to the signals from the insulin to allow the glucose into them.


What happens next is that the second phase insulin release is prolonged. The second phase response is prolonged because the beta cells have to make and release lots more insulin to force a response by the resistant liver and muscle cells.

This lack of response by the liver and muscle cells to allow glucose inside their cells despite a persistent prompt by insulin is described as insulin resistance and is indeed how insulin resistance occurs.

This is called hyperinsulinemia.

Meaning they’ve become resistant!


Ask Your Doctor How Often You Should Be Checking Your Blood Sugar

Non Diabetic Hypoglycemia Diet: When & What to Eat

Blood sugar control is crucial when you’re living with type 2 diabetes. Dips and spikes can not only make you feel cranky and sluggish, but they can also wreak havoc on your personal health.

The most serious effects of blood sugar swings are a higher risk for diabetes-related health complications such as stroke, heart disease, and nerve damage .

For the record, the American Diabetes Association notes that you have diabetes if one of the following applies to you:

  • Your blood glucose after fasting is 126 milligrams per deciliter or higher.
  • Your blood glucose two hours after eating a meal is 200 mg/dl or higher.
  • Your hemoglobin A1C is 6.5 or higher.

The tricky part is that with type 2 diabetes you may not feel it when blood sugar levels are too high, according to the ADA. It feels different for everyone. “Not everyone will have the same symptoms, and some individuals will have no symptoms at all,” says Lori Zanini, RD, CDE, a Los Angeles–based former spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.


RELATED: The Best and Worst Foods to Eat in a Type 2 Diabetes Diet

Because blood sugar management is so important to your overall health with type 2 diabetes, you need to take action if you think your levels may be out of control, even if you’re feeling totally fine.

What Causes Vaginal Infections And What Are The Best Treatments

Dr. Dokken answers the question: ‘What Causes Vaginal Infections In Diabetics?’


? — Question: What causes vaginal infections and what are the best treatments?

Answer: Women with diabetes are at higher risk for developing vaginal infections than women without diabetes, and, in addition, if the woman’s diabetes is not well controlled and her blood sugars are consistently high, that creates an environment of high sugar in the mucus membranes, and of course, that includes the vagina, and this creates a good environment for the overgrowth of both bacteria and yeast. So, those are the two main areas of infection, the two main causes of infection — vaginal infection in women — are bacteria and yeast.

If it’s a bacterial infection, the woman would need an antibiotic for treatment, and a yeast infection can be treated with anti-fungal agents. So it’s important for a woman to see her primary care provider or gynecologist to have this condition diagnosed as probably one or the other.

The caveat is, if a woman has had a yeast infection recently and the identical symptoms come back, and she’s very confident that it’s another yeast infection, she might be able to use an over-the-counter cream or suppository to treat that infection. And, in addition, if the yeast infection is recurrent, she could ask her health care provider for a prescription for an oral anti-fungal agent like fluconazole.


Diabetes And Urinary Tract Infections Things You Need To Know

In this article we will cover everything you need to know about diabetes and your risk for Urinary Tract Infections. Do you have an increased risk of Urinary Tract Infections now that you have diabetes?

We will cover what a Urinary Tract Infection is, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment guidelines, as well as why they are more common in people with diabetes.

More importantly, we will discuss steps you can take to prevent them!


Type 2 Diabetes Can Be A ‘devastating Diagnosis’ Says Expert

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Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition whereby the body cannot produce enough insulin or the insulin it does produce is not sufficiently processed by the cells. While this may seem harmless, insulin is tasked with regulating blood sugar – the main sugar found in blood. It is vital to maintain a delicate balance of blood sugar as uncontrolled rising glucose is known to affect the skin and cause a variety of skin diseases.

Diabetic patients at higher risk of infection from COVID-19 – study 


High Blood Sugar: 13 Reasons Your Glucose Levels Are Rising

It’s a fact of life that blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day. These ups and downs depend on a handful of factors, like when you wake up, what you eat, the medications you take, and how you manage stress. So, some variation is normal, to the point that you might not even notice it. 

Ignoring blood sugar level changes altogether, though, means you’re ignoring a valuable marker of your health. Especially if you start to have new or unfamiliar symptoms like fatigue, thirst, or brain fog . Learning these symptoms and their causes will give you the tools to better understand your own body, then take the right actions for better long-term metabolic health.      

Whats Your Risk Of Death From Undiagnosed High Blood Sugar


This DECODE European Study old it may be, did demonstrate that the relative risk of death from heart disease and strokes increases by 1.5 times when your blood glucose after 2 hours post 75gms glucose test is between 140mg/dl – 200mg/dl . See Red arrow in Chart below.

I want that figure to sink in for a moment. People who have a result between 140mg/dl – 200mg/dl are not considered diabetic but prediabetic. That piece of research is telling us the risk of death of prediabetics is already high.

The sad thing is that millions of people like you and I are walking around not knowing that we may have pre-diabetes simply because we have not been tested.

…and also because we do not show any symptoms.

Worse still is, that same research does tell us if you your blood sugar is above 200mg/dl your relative risk of death actually doubles.

John Fuller several years ago also did a classic piece of research where he gave 18,403 British men aged between 40 – 60 years of age 50gm of glucose load. John secured the results of the test and just simply followed the individuals up for 7.5 years to see what their mortality risk was over time.

He wanted to know if increases in blood glucose after 2 hours of the 50gm glucose load would be a risk factor for heart disease or death.

John and his colleagues found the men who had 2-hour blood glucose levels below 96mg/dl did not suffer any significant mortality.

Experts Have Warned That People Can Develop Diseases Post

During the first wave of the pandemic, pre-existing diabetes appeared to be one of the major risk factors that lead to the development of more severe Covid-19 illness. Patients become more likely to experience cytokine storms and require ICU care. The disease can lead to new onset of type 2 diabetes in patients, which has persisted even after finishing the steroid course and post-recovery from the illness. Interestingly, many of these individuals did not have risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes.

In most of the patients infected by the virus, blood glucose levels quickly rise. Further, treatment with steroids exacerbates the blood glucose problem. During the first year of the pandemic, many patients with type 2 diabetes presented with diabetic ketoacidosis, which is otherwise rare in patients with type 2 diabetes, raising the suspicion if the virus directly affects the pancreatic insulin-producing cells.

Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes Are Very Different Conditions

Learning about the different types of diabetes—there are several ways glucose can be mismanaged by the body—can be an important preventive strategy. Type 2 diabetes, in which your body develops insulin resistance, is the most common type of diabetes and often develops later in life . Genetics and lifestyle play a role in type 2 diabetes, which can sometimes be delayed or prevented by sticking to a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, and avoiding weight gain. Type 1 diabetes, however, can not be prevented with lifestyle choices. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops making insulin due to an autoimmune attack; it can be diagnosed in children and young adults and is sometimes called “juvenile diabetes.”

Artificial Sweeteners Dont Benefit Blood Sugaror Do They

Pin on Diabetes Pathophysiology

There’s mixed reviews about the impact of artificial sweeteners on blood sugar level. Some research has suggested that the sweet taste is enough to trick your body’s response, as if it was actually receiving sugar. But, the sweetener stevia may hold some promise for actually reducing blood sugar, according to one study. “Some research suggests stevia may have a beneficial impact on blood glucose levels, however, more research needs to be done in this area,” Palinski-Wade says.

For What Reason Is My Glucose High Even With Medications

On the off chance that your glucose varies, for the time being, your primary care physician may need to modify your portion or timing or may propose that you attempt alternate medications. You may need to change your drug after a specific measure of time. Watch your eating routine. You may need to eat less.

Related Reading:

What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of High Blood Sugar Levels

Signs of high blood sugar levels include:

  • Peeing a lot: The kidneys respond by flushing out the extra glucose in urine. People with high blood sugar need to pee more often and in larger amounts.
  • Drinking a lot: Someone losing so much fluid from peeing that often can get very thirsty.
  • Losing weight even though your appetite has stayed the same: If there isn’t enough insulin to help the body use glucose, the body breaks down muscle and stored fat instead in an attempt to provide fuel to hungry cells.
  • Feeling tired: Because the body can’t use glucose for energy properly, a person may feel unusually tired.
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Can I Have Elevated Blood Sugar Without Having Diabetes

Yes, a number of things can cause high blood sugar but most of the time it is due to having diabetes. But it can also be due to other causes. These include medications such as beta blockers, epinephrine, thiazide diuretics, corticosteroids, niacin, pentamidine, protease inhibitors and some antipsychotics. Illegal drug use of amphetamine can produce high blood sugar. Some of the newer, double action anti-depressants like Zyprexa and Cymbalta can also cause significant high blood sugar.

Another cause of high blood sugar is when the body is in a state of physical stress associated with critical illness like a stroke or heart attack. An active blood infection, known as sepsis, is often seen with blood sugar levels that are high. During these times of stress, the body releases its own hormones that can raise blood sugar. The level that the blood sugar reaches can change from person to person and should not be used as a diagnosis of diabetes. Further testing, such checking blood sugar levels after not eating for 8 hours or checking a special test of red blood cells can show if there really is a diagnosis of diabetes.

Insulin Resistance Can Cause Blood Sugar To Be Too High

“Blood glucose levels are controlled by two pancreatic hormones: insulin and glucagon,” Zuckerbrot says. The pancreas makes insulin to help the body absorb glucose . “The pancreas secretes insulin at low levels in between meals and while we sleep,” says Idie Clement, RN, certified diabetes educator of Piedmont Atlanta’s Diabetes Resource Center. “When we eat, insulin is secreted quickly and takes the sugar from the blood stream so it can create energy and keep the blood sugars in normal range.”

Basically, insulin helps the body absorb glucose. But with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, the body’s insulin resistance leads to a buildup of glucose in the blood. People with type 2 diabetes can combat insulin resistance and control their blood sugar with a combination of diet, exercise, oral medication, and sometimes injecting additional insulin. People with type 1 diabetes, however, always need to take insulin to survive because it’s an autoimmune condition that destroys the insulin-producing cells in the body.

Glucose Levels May Be Linked To Dementia And Alzheimers

There may be more kinds of diabetes than we know, such as type 3c, which occurs after pancreatitis. But there’s yet another type that researchers have been exploring. “Researchers are looking at how sugar affects the brain—specifically, some are referring to Alzheimer’s disease as type 3 diabetes because of this research,” Clement says. This isn’t exactly surprising given the brain’s reliance on glucose for proper functioning. In addition, diabetes can damage blood vessels, which can prevent your brain from getting the blood flow it needs. One study of over 2,000 participants found that glucose levels in those who went on to develop dementia were elevated—even among people without diabetes. The findings suggest high blood sugar could be a risk factor for dementia.

How Long After Eating Does Blood Sugar Return To Normal

I get asked often how long after eating should blood sugar return to normal. Well, the simple answer to that question is; blood sugar should return to normal within about 2 hours of eating.

Ideally, blood sugar should be back to normal values at 1 hour and half. That is if you are metabolically competent. Of course, if it’s taking longer, then your metabolic competence is being called to question.

To fully understand this, I have to explain how this whole blood sugar regulation shenanigan works when you eat. Brace yourself…

Here we go…

Your pancreas has some some cells scattered inside it called beta cells. These beta cells manufacture, store and release insulin when needed. You will always have some insulin in your blood circulation at any point in time in the 24 hours of the entire day.

You will never have zero insulin level at anytime. This is called Basal Insulin release.

When you eat, your pancreas is called into action straightaway. Eating causes a rise in blood sugar. A blood sugar rise is a clarion call for the beta cells of the pancreas to release insulin over and above the usual basal insulin release.

A blood sugar rise over 100 mg/dl, would trigger a release of the stored insulin to bring back the blood glucose to normal levels. This is called First Phase Insulin Release.

The 1st Phase Insulin Release is triggered within a couple of minutes of commencing your meal.

Attention UK Readers: You may try this Blood Sugar Optimizer available on

Can Infection Raise Blood Sugar Levels In Nondiabetics

Even if you do not have diabetes, you can experience drops and spikes in blood sugar levels for many reasons. If your blood sugar level gets too high or too low, you might develop many symptoms and/or health problems. Stress, poor diet, illness and infections can all cause your blood sugar level to change, and if you notice the warning signs, it is important to talk to your physician about the best treatment approach.

What Is Normal Blood Sugar Levels After Eating For Non

What Causes Low Blood Sugar In A Non Diabetic Person ...

It would be remiss of me, if I left you hanging without letting you in on what normal blood sugars should be after eating if you are non-diabetic.

What’s the point of telling about blood sugar spikes in non-diabetics if I don’t reveal what normal blood sugars should be after eating.

The essential point here though is; the importance of non-diabetics having a control on their diet. What you eat has either a positive effect on your health or a negative one.

Let me repeat that.

Non-diabetics are obliged to take control of their food choices, if they are to avoid the health implications of blood sugar highs. This is the whole point of this exercise.

You may want to use the figures below as your non-diabetic blood sugar chart if you like. It works just the same way.

So, below is your non-diabetic blood sugar or glucose chart and this is what is recommended by the American College of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Of particular interes,t are the values there that represent what you, as a non-diabetic should be aiming for at 1 hour after eating and 2 hours post meal. They represent what should be normal blood sugar levels after eating your meal.

As you can see; it is anticipated that your blood sugar should peak 1 hour after you have eaten but some foods may swing either way.

For instance, an oatmeal may peak just beyond the 1-hour mark compared to a bagel, doughnut or potato fries which might peak much earlier.

Some Antibiotics Are Observed To Increase Blood Sugar:

A significant twist in this story is that apart from the drug of our consideration, i.e Amoxicillin, some antibiotics increase blood sugar. These mainly include fluoroquinolones that many studies have found to cause hyperglycemia, especially in diabetic patients.

Another drug Gatifloxacin was also found to disturb normal levels of blood sugar.  So in 2006, this antibiotic became prohibited by the FDA for diabetic patients. Even this medicine was banned in the UK. Again the mind needs logic that how antibiotics increase blood sugar means how it is possible.

In 2015 researchers found that some antibiotics can change the microbiome of the gut, disturbing glucose up taken by cells by changing their sensitivity. In this way, the glucose in the blood is increased, and here the real culprit is not other than the antibiotic. So especially diabetic people should take antibiotics with care and try to avoid them.

But to prevent antibiotics, they should also prevent infections so that there is no need for medicine. This discussion shows that there is some link between antibiotics and blood sugar levels.

What Happens To My Blood Sugar Levels When Im Stressed

During stressful situations, play a role in blood sugar levels. Stressful situations include infections, serious illness or significant emotion stress.

When stressed, the body prepares itself by ensuring that enough sugar or energy is readily available. Insulin levels fall, glucagon and epinephrine levels rise and more glucose is released from the liver. At the same time, growth hormone and cortisol levels rise, which causes body tissues to be less sensitive to insulin. As a result, more glucose is available in the blood stream.

When you have type 2 diabetes, low blood sugars from too much medication or insulin are a common cause of stress. The hormonal response to a low blood sugar includes a rapid release of epinephrine and glucagon, followed by a slower release of cortisol and growth hormone. These hormonal responses to the low blood sugar may last for 6-8 hours –  during that time the blood sugar may be difficult to control. The phenomena of a low blood sugar followed by a high blood sugar is called  a “rebound” or “Somogyi” reaction.

When you have type 2  diabetes, stress may make your blood sugar go up and become more difficult to control – and you may need to take higher doses of your diabetes medications or  insulin.

During times of stress, individuals with diabetes, may have more difficulty controlling their blood sugars.


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