How Is Blood Sugar Regulated In The Body
Blood sugar balance is maintained by your hormones. This balance ensures that the body has enough energy available when you need it, and its primarily maintained by hormones: insulin and glucagon.
Made in and released from the pancreas, insulin lowers blood sugar by instructing cells throughout the body to take in glucose . As glucose enters the cells to be used as energy or stored as glycogen, there is less left in the blood.
Glucagon makes blood sugar rise. When blood sugar levels are too lowtypically several hours after you eatthe pancreas releases glucagon. Glucagon instructs the liver and muscles to turn stored glycogen back into glucose and release it into the bloodstream.
There are other hormones involved in this process, too. Amylin and somatostatin inhibit the secretion of glucagon to lower blood sugar. Epinephrine, cortisol, and growth hormone make blood sugar rise, as glucagon does. Hormone changes that come with age make a difference, too: Our average baseline blood sugar levels tend to go up as we get older.
Don’t Shortchange Your Sleep
Getting enough sleep at night is crucial for overall health and wellbeing, but especially for blood sugar control. Sure, one night of shortened or interrupted sleep may not have a detrimental effect, but don’t kid yourself that you can get away with too little shut-eye regularly without it causing an imbalance in blood sugar levels.
“It’s recommended that we snooze for seven to nine hours per night, and missing out on quality sleep can trigger stress hormones that increase blood sugar levels,” Harris-Pincus explains.
Plus, stress is unhealthy in general, and it can lead to an increase in cravings, moodiness, physical discomfort, GI distress, and higher risk of disease, among other various concerns.
Are There Any Newer Technologies To Prevent Hypoglycemia
We are lucky that in this day and age, we can predict hypoglycemia and prevent it through technology like continuous glucose monitors, explains Dr. Shah. Additionally, he notes that there are newer insulins available to help decrease episodes of hypoglycemia.
One of our roles as your doctor is to educate every patient about the self-management of diabetes and to create a personalized care plan, explains Dr. Shah. By self-managing your condition you will really feel empowered enough to take control of your health.
Dr. Shah is located at the Hackensack Meridian Health Medical Group Diabetes Center, part of Hackensack Meridian Health Medical Group. Call to schedule an appointment at the office in Old Bridge.
Resources
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Natural Ways To Lower Blood Sugar
Whether you have symptoms of high blood sugar or youve been diagnosed with diabetes, you may be wondering how to lower blood sugar naturally. While blood sugar may be improved with home remedies, people with diabetes should not stop taking their medication or change their dosage without talking to their healthcare provider. But in addition to medication, you can try these natural remedies for lowering your blood sugar. Also consider the opposite, if you do not follow these healthful ways to lower blood sugar, the medication that your physician prescribes may never effectively control your blood sugars.
Low Blood Glucose During Sleep
Your blood glucose level can drop while you sleep and stay low for several hours, causing serious problems.7 Symptoms of low blood glucose while you sleep can include
- crying out or having nightmares
- sweating enough to make your pajamas or sheets damp
- feeling tired, irritable, or confused after waking up
Although you may not wake up or notice any symptoms, low blood glucose can interfere with your sleep, which may affect your quality of life, mood, and ability to work. Having low blood glucose during sleep can also make you less likely to notice and respond to symptoms of low blood glucose during the day.
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How To Keep Blood Sugar Stable: Greatist Tips
1) Eat healthy carbsWhen it comes to healthy living, much of the advice for people with diabetes is applicable to those without diabetes. Sidse, our Nutrition and Health Consultant, has some tips on what counts as healthy eating with Food and Diabetes!
Carbs are largely converted into glucose. This makes carbohydrates central to blood sugar stability. So, while opting for generally healthy food is a good idea, you should also try thinking about precisely what kind of carbs you need.
How many carbohydrates you need depends on each person but many would advise around 45% of daily calories should be carbs. At the same time, some studies suggest that a low-carb diet can help with stable blood sugar.
As for what kinds of carbs: avoid refined carbs found in processed food because they have been stripped of nutrients and fibre. This leads onto the next point
2) Eat fibrous foodFibre is the one carb that isnt broken down into glucose, and aids with a slower digestion. This means you should have less of a spike directly after eating food with fibre.
3) Keep track of what youre eatingThis goes almost without saying. But sometimes its easy to take that second helping of food without thinking about what youre doing.
Try out Hedias logbook and food database on the app from or the App Store!
Meanwhile, intense exercise can release adrenaline, which can also raise blood sugar levels.
Or, even better, try it for yourself by downloading it from or the App Store!
Daily Habits For Healthy Blood Sugar
A quick bio lesson: Your body needs energy to maintain normal function. You get that energy from food, which your body breaks down into smaller parts and can either absorb and use or excrete. When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into glucose, a simple sugar thats your bodys primary source of fuel. Glucose travels through the body in your bloodstream, and its taken up by cellsin the muscles, the brain, nearly everywhereto be converted into energy that helps you carry out nearly all your bodys activities, from solving problems at work to running marathons.
Without enough blood sugar, our bodies wouldnt work. Too much blood sugar can cause problems, too. Thats why we have hormone signaling pathways that help keep blood sugar stable within the normal range. But sometimesand for many possible reasonsit can get thrown off a little or a lot.
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Broccoli Or Broccoli Sprouts
Sulforaphane is a sulfur-containing compound naturally found in cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli and broccoli sprouts. Sulforaphane can help lower blood sugar by increasing glucose uptake from the bloodstream by regulating signaling proteins that control liver cells and their response to insulin.
Liver cells produce ceramides, fatty lipid molecules that can cause insulin resistance. Sulforaphane has been shown to block an enzyme involved in the synthesis of ceramides. By inhibiting this gene, sulforaphane can decrease ceramide levels and improve insulin sensitivity by decreasing insulin resistance. When insulin sensitivity is increased, the body has an improved ability to release insulin when blood sugar is high to bring levels back down.
Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli also contain glucosinolates, sulfur, and nitrogen compounds that can improve insulin sensitivity and reduce glucose levels in the blood.
What To Eat When You Wake Up
You should eat a small meal as soon as possible after waking. A good breakfast should consist of protein, such as scrambled eggs, plus a complex carbohydrate. Try these:
- hard boiled eggs and a slice of whole-grain bread with cinnamon
- a small serving of steel-cut oatmeal, like this protein-packed oatmeal with blueberries, sunflower seeds, and agave
- plain Greek yogurt with berries, honey, and oatmeal
In addition, be mindful of your consumption of juices. Stick to 100% juice varieties that do not have added sweeteners, and limit your intake to 4 to 6 ounces. Dilute the juice with water or choose a big glass of water with lemon instead.
Steel-cut oatmeal is lower on the glycemic index than other types of oatmeal, plus it contains lots of soluble fiber. Soluble fiber helps slow down carbohydrate absorption, which helps keep your blood sugar stable. Make sure to choose a type with no added sugar or corn syrup.
Also, caffeine may affect blood sugar in some people. Decaffeinated coffee or herbal tea may be your best bet for a hot breakfast drink. Discuss caffeine intake with your doctor to determine if its an important factor for you.
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Why Does Blood Sugar Go Up At Night
There are many factors that can cause your blood sugar to increase at night. For example: what food you ate during the day, how much and when you exercised, whether you ate snacks before bed, the timing of your insulin doses, and your stress level. You can experience different patterns of high blood sugar at night. You may start with high glucose when you go to bed, start the night in range but go high several hours later, or spend most of the night in range until the hours just before you wake up. By identifying your bodys patterns, you can figure out what is causing your high blood sugar and how to address it.
Common causes of a glucose increase at night include:
Keeping Your Blood Sugar Steady
With certain strategies, you can help prevent spikes in your blood sugar levels, says Toby Smithson, RD, LDN, CDE,a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the founder of DiabetesEveryday.com.
Rather than focus on things you shouldn’t have, try incorporating the following foods and healthy habits into your daily type 2 diabetes routine:
Go nuts. Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and pistachios contain healthy fat that slows the body’s absorption of sugar. But be sure to limit how many nuts you eat in one sitting because even healthy fats contain calories, Smithson says. Just six almonds or four pecan halves have the same number of calories as one teaspoon of butter.
Eat whole grains. Oat bran, barley, and rye are fiber-rich foods that contain beta-glucan. This soluble fiber increases the amount of time it takes for your stomach to empty after eating and prevents spikes in blood sugar. Remember, though, that these foods are still carbohydrates. “Whole grains will still raise your blood sugar, just not as quickly and as high as processed foods,” Li-Ng says.
Veg out. Packed with fiber, non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, cucumber, and carrots can also help prevent surges in blood sugar levels while providing essential nutrients.
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Focus On Eating Nutrient
Use fresh ingredients and avoid processed foods. When you fill your plate with colourful, whole foods that are minimally processed and low GI, they work to lower your blood sugar levels and avoid spikes, while foods with added sugars can heighten glucose levels. A perfect example is this Roasted Sweet Potato and Brussels Salad.
Signs Your Blood Sugar Is Out Of Whack And 12 Ways To Balance It Naturally
Raise your hand if any of these sound familiar:
- You take the term hangry to an all new level.
- If you miss a meal, you are super irritable and say things you later regret.
- You feel like a brand new person after you eat.
- You find it super difficult to lose weight.
- You constantly crave sugar.
- You always feel thirsty and use the bathroom a lot.
- You often feel anxious and sluggish.
- You find it difficult to concentrate and stay focused.
- You have trouble sleeping through the night.
- Your cuts and bruises seem to take a long time to heal.
If you are sitting there thinking, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”, the problem could be that your blood sugar is out of whack.
But don’t stress. Fortunately, there are simple things you can do to better balance your blood sugar, improve your energy, enhance your mood, productivity and metabolism. But before we get to that, let’s go back to the basics.
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Focus On Fruits And Vegetables As The Primary Source Of Carbohydrates
Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, which slows down carbohydrate digestion and so helps prevent a spike in blood glucose and insulin levels.
Sugar and simple carbohydrates, on the other hand, are quickly digested and cause a rapid spike in blood sugar levels the exact spike we want to avoid.
Go For A Walk After You Eat
Beyond avoiding the couch, there is something you can actually do to help your blood sugar levels after a meal. Lace up those sneakers, and go for a walk to help balance blood sugar levels further. You’ll even walk off some of those calories, as an added perk.
“Taking a walk after a meal will help to minimize the rise in blood sugar since your muscles will use that glucose for fuel,” she explains.
Something quick, like 10 to 20 minutes, will do the trick, and it’s a bonus if you can get outdoors for some fresh air and exposure to nature, which may further boost your mood and help you de-stress.
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How To Lower Blood Sugar Naturally
Blood sugar, also known as glucose, is the main sugar in your blood and your bodys main source of energy. Blood sugars vary all day. A normal fasting blood sugar is less than 100 mg/dl. Blood sugars anytime of day regardless of when or what the last meal was should always be under 200 mg/dl. Blood sugars exceeding these two levels could signal prediabetes or Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot produce enough insulin or use insulin properly to correct blood sugars to safe levels.
Ways To Lower Your Blood Sugar With Breakfast
Say goodbye to spikes and crashes before lunchtime.
High blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, can affect those with type 1 and 2 diabetes as well as prediabetes. It can happen when you eat something with too much sugar or too many simple carbs, forget to take your insulin, or even when youre sick or stressed.
Whatever the reason, everyone can agree the signs and symptoms of high blood sugar are no fun. According to the American Diabetes Association, indications that your blood sugar is too high include extreme thirst, a frequent need to urinate, and exhaustion. And if left untreated, high blood sugar can quickly develop into a life-threatening condition called ketoacidosis. Yikes!
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What Causes Low Blood Glucose In People With Diabetes
Low blood glucose levels can be a side effect of insulin or some other medicines that help your pancreas release insulin into your blood. Taking these can lower your blood glucose level.
Two types of diabetes pills can cause low blood glucose
- sulfonylureas, usually taken once or twice per day, which increase insulin over several hours
- meglitinides, taken before meals to promote a short-term increase in insulin
The following may also lower your blood glucose level
If You Keep Getting Exercise Lows
Youâll need to make a few changes. Talk to your doctor about options like:
- Adjusting your insulin or medications
- Eating more before you work out
- Changing the kind of workout you do or how long you do it
Show Sources
American Diabetes Association: âBlood Glucose Control and Exercise,â âDKA & Ketones,â âHypoglycemia .â
Lakewood Hospital/Cleveland Clinic. âType 2 Diabetes: Pre-Exercise Blood Sugar Guidelines.â
Sheri Colberg-Ochs, PhD, professor of exercise science, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va.
Joslin Diabetes Center: âWhy Do Blood Glucose Levels Sometimes Go Up after Physical Activity?â, âWhy Is My Blood Glucose Sometimes Low after Physical Activity?â Why Canât I Exercise with Ketones?â
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Snack Healthfully Between Meals
If you find yourself grouchy after breakfast but before lunch, then its time to start packing yourself a healthy snack that will keep you feeling balanced and satisfied until your lunch break. A protein-rich serving of almonds is an excellent choice, and exceptionally easy to carry along with you. Choose wisely, and youll find the foods you eat to keep you adequately fueled for your day.
Lifestyle Tips For Stable Blood Sugar
Exercise also helps to improve your insulin sensitivity this means that your cells dont ignore insulins call to get excess sugar out of the blood. Not to mention, when you exercise, your muscles are using up that sugar they absorbed from your blood. But you already knew that exercise is healthy, didnt you?
Would you believe that stress affects your blood sugar levels? Yup! Stress hormones increase your blood sugar levels. If you think about the fight or flight stress response, what fuel do your brain and muscles need to fight or flee? Sugar! When you are stressed signals are sent to release stored forms of sugar back into the bloodstream, increasing blood sugar levels. So, try to reduce the stress youre under and manage it more effectively. Simple lifestyle tips are regular meditation, deep breathing, or gentle movement.
Sleep goes hand-in-hand with stress. When you dont get enough quality sleep, you tend to release stress hormones, have a higher appetite, and even get sugar cravings. Sleep is crucial, often overlooked, factor when it comes to keeping your blood sugar stable. Make sleep more of a priority it will do your blood sugar good.
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How Long Will It Take To Lower My Blood Sugar
If you have high blood sugarin a non-emergency situationthere are several things you can do to lower your blood sugar right away. Follow these steps in order:
Sometimes people with diabetes can go into diabetic ketoacidosis or hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome, a medical emergency requiring immediate medical care. The symptoms are subtle but look out for:
- Shortness of breath
- Excessive urination
- Abdominal pain
If you experience these symptoms, call your healthcare provider immediately and follow their guidelines. If you cannot reach a physician emergently, call 911.