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How To Know If Your Blood Sugar Is High


Symptoms When Your Blood Sugar Levels Are Too High

10 Alarming Signs Your Blood Sugar Is Too High

Hyperglycemia is difficult to detect if you dont pay close enough attention, but there are always symptoms. The best thing to do is to have a medical examination every 6 months in order to have your doctor monitor any changes occurring in your body.

A blood sugar test is normally very cheap and simple. A small amount of blood will be taken and checked. As for the symptoms you need to watch out for, here is a list:

Think About What’s Going On

Irene Dunbar, 73, of Durham, N.C., woke up one morning recently to discover her blood sugar was at 119, which is high for her. “I had a cold and had had orange juice yesterday and I normally do not drink orange juice and I thought, ‘I better not do that,'” she said. When she gets a high blood sugar reading, she tries to remember if she had anything recentlylike breadthat she knows are triggers, and avoids them next time.

I Feel Fine So I Dont Need To Test My Levels

Zanini points out that having high blood glucose can come as a surprise to anyone. âIt’s possible they didn’t notice any symptoms or were simply feeling ‘more tired than usual,ââ she says. âIt’s easy to attribute being tired to many other things. . .so this is why regular physicals with your healthcare provider are important.â The bottom line? Listen to your body, take note of symptoms as they arise, and consider monitoring your continuous glucose values.


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Test Before You Eat And Two Hours After

This will tell you how well your medication is controlling your blood sugar. It will also shed light on what food is boosting your sugar too highand thus should be avoided. “You should consult your health-care provider to develop a plan that works for you,” says Donna Rice, immediate past president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, who notes that the frequency and time of day you test will depend on how controlled your blood glucose is.

Slow Healing Of Wounds

Signs of high blood sugar levels that the body gives

Hyperglycemia causes a severe change in coagulation. This in turn causes a problem with the speed at which wounds heal. This change can also cause the appearance of hematomas or bruising.

If you notice that any wounds are taking a long time to stop bleeding, or that they dont heal as fast as normal, you need to address this. Once you get control of your blood sugar levels, this will cease to be a problem.

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What To Eat To Better Regulate Your Blood Sugar

While high blood sugar is the characteristic symptom of diabetes, your blood sugar can also be high even if you dont have the condition. To avoid making high blood sugar worse, it is important to make good dietary choices and choose foods that can help you regulate your blood sugar.

How Are High Blood Sugar Levels Treated

Treating high blood sugar levels involves fixing what caused them in the first place. Your diabetes health care team will give you specific advice on how to keep your blood sugar levels in a healthy range. But here are some ways to manage the common causes of high blood sugar levels:

Reason for High Blood Sugar Level What to Do
Not getting enough insulin or other diabetes medicine
  • Make sure that you take the proper type of insulin and the correct dose at the right time.
  • Check that insulin is not expired.
  • Make sure that all equipment is working properly.
  • Diabetes medicines may need to be changed or adjusted check with your diabetes health care team.
Not following the meal plan
  • Work with a registered dietitian to make adjustments to your meal plan as needed.
  • Adjust insulin/pills when you eat more or less than recommended on your meal plan .
Not getting enough exercise
  • Figure out a plan to make time for exercise.
  • Adjust your medicines based on the diabetes health care team’s instructions.
Illness or stress
  • Contact your diabetes health care team.
  • Continue to take insulin .
  • Check your blood sugar levels frequently.
Use of other medicines that can increase blood sugar
  • Contact your diabetes health care team if you start taking any other medicine.
  • Your insulin or pills may need to be adjusted while you take the medicine that’s causing high blood sugar levels.
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How Is Hyperglycemia Diagnosed

If you have diabetes and notice a sudden change in your blood sugar levels during your home monitoring, you should alert your doctor of your symptoms. The increase in blood sugar may affect your treatment plan.

Regardless of whether you have diabetes, if you begin experiencing any symptoms of hyperglycemia, you should speak to your doctor. Before going to your appointment, you should note what symptoms youre experiencing. You should also consider these questions:


  • Has your diet changed?
  • Have you had enough water to drink?
  • Are you under a lot of stress?
  • Were you just in the hospital for surgery?
  • Were you involved in an accident?

Once at your doctors appointment, your doctor will discuss all of your concerns. Theyll perform a brief physical exam and discuss your family history. Your doctor will also discuss your target blood sugar level.

If youre age 59 or younger, a safe blood sugar range is generally between 80 and 120 milligrams per deciliter . This is also the projected range for people who dont have any underlying medical conditions.

People who are age 60 or older and those who have other medical conditions or concerns may have levels between 100 and 140 mg/dL.

Your doctor may conduct an A1C test to determine what your average blood sugar level has been in recent months. This is done by measuring the amount of blood sugar attached to the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin in your red blood cells.

Take Steps To Control Your Blood Sugar Level

What Are The Alarming High Blood Sugar Symptoms & Signs?

Although high blood sugar and low blood sugar have very different symptoms and treatments, they are both caused by blood sugar and insulin imbalances. The steps you take to control your blood sugar level will help prevent both high and low blood sugar levels.


Be sure to have identification that says you have diabetes, such as a medical alert bracelet, with you at all times. This will help other people take steps to care for you if you are not able tell them about your medical condition.

You can take steps to prevent high and low blood sugar emergencies.

  • Follow your treatment plan.
  • Monitor your blood sugar levels regularly to detect early changes before an emergency develops. Treat your symptoms of high or low blood sugar quickly to prevent more problems.
  • Control your stress to prevent your blood sugar level from increasing slowly over several days.
  • Limit how much alcohol you drink. Do not drink alcohol if you have problems recognizing the early signs of low blood sugar.
  • Take precautions when you are driving and do not drive if your blood sugar is low.

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Youre Getting Yeast Infections More Often Than Usual

Hyperglycemia may lead you to get more frequent genital yeast infections. The culprit is often a type of yeast known as Candida albicans, per the ADA. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in females the symptoms can include: vaginal itching, redness or soreness pain during sexual intercourse pain or discomfort during urination and thick, abnormal vaginal discharge. While yeast infections are common in people who dont have diabetes, having more glucose in your blood puts you at higher risk of getting them. The yeast feeds off the glucose, and if your blood sugar is high theres more glucose in the urinary tract, explains Bandukwala. Uncircumcised men with hyperglycemia are also at risk, he says.

Were also seeing this happen a little more now with patients who take SGLT-2 inhibitors, which force the body to expel more glucose through the urine, the endocrinologist adds. The FDA has added a warning to the prescribing information for SGLT-2 inhibitors about a far more rare and potentially fatal genital condition, known as necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum, or Fourniers gangrene .


How To Test For Ketones

You can use a urine test strip or blood ketone meter and ketone test strip to test for ketones at home. Testing either urine or blood is important, but when possible, a blood test is preferred because it gives you and your care team more precise information about your ketone levels. Because urine may have been in the bladder for some time, the results from these tests may show levels that are either higher or lower than the ketone levels that are actually circulating in your body. It is also very important to know that urine test trips degrade over time, so if you are using this method, you need to look at expiration dates carefully.

Your diabetes care team can give you specific directions about when you should check for ketones, but in general, you should check for them when your blood glucose is 240 mg/dL or higher. You should also check for ketones if you notice any of the DKA symptoms listed above or if you are sick it is possible to have ketones while your blood glucose levels are within range .

At-home urine test strips will change color to show the level of ketones in the urine. They typically report results as negative, trace, small, moderate or large. Blood ketone meters will provide a number that indicates the ketone levels. The following ranges are generally used:

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What Is Normal Blood Sugar

Normal blood sugar or blood glucose levels are between 80 and 130 mg/dL. That number is an average of what is normal for individuals with diabetes. When blood sugar levels are too high, the person may experience hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia can be characterized by extreme thirst and urination, blurred vision, or shakiness, sweating, dizziness, or confusion. When the person has low blood glucose, they may experience hypoglycemia which can be characterized by sweating, dizziness, or confusion.


The range of normal blood glucose levels for people with diabetes is between 80-130 milligrams per deciliter . A persons individual level will depend on many factors including how old they are, their ethnicity, their weight and height, and the activity theyve performed recently.

Blood Sugar Levels: What’s Normal What’s Not And How To Measure

Pin on Health

What do blood glucose levels mean and what range is healthy? Here’s what you need to know.

Sugar can lead to high blood sugar and contributes to the development of diabetes.

We all want to keep track of our health in every way we can — you may weigh yourself, keep track of your blood pressure or monitor your resting heart rate. But how close of an eye do you keep on your blood sugar?

People with diabetes are all too familiar with their blood sugar levels, but the rest of us might not even think about it much. However, consistently high blood sugar levels can coexist with Type 2 diabetes and cause serious health conditions like kidney disease, nerve problems or stroke.


While that’s no reason to panic, when it comes to our health, it’s important to know exactly what’s going on inside of our bodies. Without further ado, let’s get into what blood sugar means, how to measure it and everything else you need to know.

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How Can I Treat And Manage Hyperglycemia

People with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can manage hyperglycemia by eating healthy, being active, and managing stress. In addition, insulin is a critical part of managing hyperglycemia for people with type 1 diabetes, while people with type 2 diabetes may need oral medications and eventually insulin to help them manage hyperglycemia.

If you dont have diabetes and have any of the signs and symptoms of hyperglycemia, call your healthcare provider. Together you can work to manage your hyperglycemia.

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Causes Of High Blood Sugar

The leading causes of high blood sugar or hyperglycemia include:


Diet: Glucose comes from food, so what you are eating causes high blood sugar. Carbohydrates are the most common culprit as they are broken down into glucose very quickly in the body. High-sugar foods, high-fat foods, and processed foods also cause blood glucose spikes and should be replaced with healthier options.

Stress: When you are stressed, more stress hormones and chemicals are released, which drives blood sugar levels up too. If the stress is only temporary, this is not a serious issue, but if you experience chronic stress or an anxiety disorder, you may experience high blood sugar levels more often.

Metabolic Syndrome: These are a collection of conditions that occur at the same time and increase your risk for type 2 diabetes. High blood pressures, excess fat around the waist, and high cholesterol or triglycerides are examples of these conditions. When these occur in the body together, your risk for diabetes increases as does your blood sugar and the risk for potential complications.

Physical Inactivity: A lack of physical activity contributes to elevated blood sugar. When you are physically active each day, insulin works more efficiently, and your blood sugar can be maintained.

How Does Diabetes Affect Your Feet And Legs

HOW DO YOU FEEL IF YOUR BLOOD SUGAR IS HIGH OR LOW?

If you’re managing diabetes, you may encounter problems with your feet and legs, two common complications of the disease. Diabetes puts you at higher risk for calluses, corns, bunions, blisters, and ulcers and high blood sugar means these minor injuries and alterations may become gateways to potentially disabling infections.


But you can take several steps to help keep your feet in good shape, including wearing specialized footwear, having regular foot exams, and performing low-impact exercise.

Why does this complication occur in the first place? First, know that high blood sugar levels damage nerves. Researchers arent exactly sure how this damage happens, but they think that blood sugar may have a negative effect on the nervous systems cells and enzymes, according to the Joslin Diabetes Center. These damaged nerves may lead to diabetic neuropathy, a condition in which you lose feeling in your feet or your hands.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, neuropathy occurs in about 70 percent of people with diabetes, and its symptoms can result in harmful infections. After all, if you can’t feel your feet, you won’t be able to notice cuts, sores, or pain. And if you cant feel these irritations and wounds, they may lead to infection, and untreated infections can lead to gangrene, which in turn can require amputation.

Additional reporting by Carlene Bauer

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What Causes High Blood Sugar

A variety of things can trigger an increase in blood sugar level in people with diabetes, including:

  • stress
  • missing a dose of your diabetes medicine or taking an incorrect dose
  • overtreating an episode of low blood sugar
  • taking certain medicines, such as steroids

Occasional episodes of hyperglycaemia can also occur in children and young adults during growth spurts.

Signs Of High Blood Sugar

Someone who has been diagnosed with diabetes will be familiar with how it feels to have hyperglycemia. But for the millions of people who have diabetes or prediabetes and are unaware of it, knowing the signs of high blood sugar could prompt them to seek care and get a diagnosis as soon as possible.

While type 1 diabetes symptoms can come on suddenly and severely, its important to note that type 2 diabetes symptoms can creep up gradually and be so mild that theyre not noticeable, the NIDDK explains. And most people with prediabetes actually have no symptoms, per the NIDDK. So its extremely important to get screened if you have risk factors, like having a family history, being overweight, or being over age 45, the NIDDK says.

Still, there are many potential signs of high blood sugar in the short and long term that it doesnt hurt to be conscious of, especially if you are at elevated risk.


Early on, hyperglycemia can make you feel off in a variety of ways:

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A Few Final Notes On Keeping Blood Sugar Stable

Taking an active, intentional approach to your blood sugar levels is crucial to your quality of life and overall health, ONeill says. Avoiding too-high or too-low blood sugar levels will help you avoid adverse symptoms and health complications, and staying within your target range can enable you to feel your best and do whatever you want to do in life, she says.

Test your blood sugar regularly, listen to your body, and dont ever hesitate to reach out to your doctor.

Additional reporting by Karen Appold.

Diabetes Medications That Work With The Pancreas

15 Easy Ways To Tell If Your Blood Sugar Is Too High

Most people who have type 2 diabetes need to take prescription medications, some of which act specifically on the pancreas to lower A1C.

Sulfonylureas and Meglitinides

How they work: Lower blood sugar by encouraging the pancreas to produce more insulin

DPP-4 Inhibitors

How they work: Block the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 4, which increases the amount of GLP1 in the body

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

How they work: Mimic the effects of the hormone GLP-1, which triggers your pancreas to produce more insulin after you eat and decreases glucagon. These drugs also help you feel full after a meal and slow the rate at which the stomach empties, which may help you lose weight

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