A Different Sort Of Tree House
Starting from scratch might mean just taking a walk in the woods. A tree stump might just be laying around begging for a second life as a mouse dollhouse. This house by Maddie Brindley can be found complete with instructions at Mads Mouse House on WordPress with more information about the craftsman.
Flax Seeds And Chia Seeds
Chia and flax seeds are both rich in fiber and omega fatty acids and have a glycemic index score below 10. The fiber improves blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity by encouraging a steady rise in blood sugar, preventing roller coaster spikes and drops. This stabilizing effect helps you avoid a sluggish feeling after meals.
Theyâre also one of the most flexible foods on this list, making simple, tasty additions to your favorite salads, yogurt, and smoothies. You can even try making chia seed pudding as a low glycemic dessert option!
Focus On The Positives
As youre making the transition to a new diet and making lifestyle changes, it can be easy to feel like youre giving up old favorites. A good way to flip this on its head is to focus on the positives of new changes.
Improved mood, improved energy, better body weight, better fitness, improved control over your life and your blood health focus on the changes that you will be able to see happening in your body.
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When To Call For Medical Advice
It is important to note that very high blood glucose levels can be dangerous and it is important to be aware of the symptoms and risk factors of the following conditions:
- Diabetic ketoacidosis a short term complication most commonly associated with type 1 diabetes
- Hyperosmolar Hyperglycaemic State a short term complication most commonly associated with type 2 diabetes
If you are struggling to keep your blood glucose levels under control, speak to your GP or consultant who can advise you or refer you onto a diabetes education course.
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What Is Continuous Glucose Monitoring
Continuous glucose monitoring is another way to check your glucose levels. Most CGM systems use a tiny sensor that you insert under your skin. The sensor measures glucose levels in the fluids between your bodys cells every few minutes and can show changes in your glucose level throughout the day and night. If the CGM system shows that your glucose is too high or too low, you should check your glucose with a blood glucose meter before making any changes to your eating plan, physical activity, or medicines. A CGM system is especially useful for people who use insulin and have problems with low blood glucose.
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Aim To Get 7 9 Hours Of Sleep Each Night
Insufficient sleep is related to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. The CDC reports that even one night of poor sleep can negatively affect your body’s insulin efficiency. Sleep loss is also related to impaired glucose tolerance, so optimizing sleep duration and quality may help regulate your blood sugar.
How much sleep should you get? Studies have shown that both people who sleep less than six hours and those who sleep more than nine hours a night have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Aim for between seven and nine hours of sleep a night, and try to be consistent. Some great tips to improve sleep are:
- Dim lights 30 minutes before bed, and make sure the room is dark when you go to sleep.
- Turn off or mute your phone at night to prevent disruptive noise, light, or vibrations
- Try to have a consistent sleep schedule
- Include some exercise during the day, at least one hour before bed. Exercising too close to bedtime can make it hard for some people to fall asleep.
Make Physical Activity Part Of Your Daily Routine
Set a goal to be more physically active. Try to work up to 30 minutes or more of physical activity on most days of the week.
Brisk walking and swimming are good ways to move more. If you are not active now, ask your health care team about the types and amounts of physical activity that are right for you. Learn more about being physically active with diabetes.
Following your meal plan and being more active can help you stay at or get to a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, work with your health care team to create a weight-loss plan that is right for you.
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What About Caffeinated Drinks
Some studies suggest that caffeine impairs blood glucose management, although other research indicates that some caffeine is okay.
In a study conducted on 10 healthy men, it was observed that caffeinated coffee raised blood sugar levels8 whether the test subjects ate a high or low glycemic index meal. However, when these same individuals drank decaffeinated coffee, blood sugar levels did not change as much.
The takeaway: Caffeine affects everyone differently. If you hope to lower your blood sugar levels, it may be a good idea to limit caffeine intake.
When To Contact Your Healthcare Provider
Hyperglycemia can turn into a medical emergency like DKA and HHS that requires immediate intervention by your practitioner or a local emergency department. If you have two blood sugar readings of 300 mg/dL or more, or have blood sugar above your target range for more than a week, seek immediate medical help.
Signs of hyperglycemia include:
- Ketones in your urine
- Stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting
- Shortness of breath
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What If Home Remedies To Lower Blood Sugar Dont Work
When attempting to lower your blood sugar naturally, take the long view. You are talking about a lifestyle change, not a quick fix, says Asterino-McGeean. It may take a few weeks or months to see results.
What if youve been trying home remedies to lower blood sugar for a few months, and your blood sugar levels still wont budge? Asterino-McGeean says you should also schedule an appointment with your doctor. At this point, its time for a conversation with your healthcare provider to see whats going on and discuss your options. Together, you and your doctor can determine the next steps in caring for your health.
Beans Legumes And Lentils
Beans, beans, theyre good for yourdiabetes! This powerhouse food is full of protein, fiber, and magnesium. Beans are proven to slow down digestion and prevent blood sugar spikes after meals.
Beans dont only improve blood sugar levels, but theyve been found to help prevent the onset of diabetes, as well.
Not only that, but eating beans regularly can help improve cholesterol levels, according to the American Heart Association, and can help cardiovascular health, if youre regularly replacing your red meat consumption with a bean entrée, instead.
Since heart disease is the number one cause of death for people with diabetes, adding beans to your diet is an excellent idea!
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What Can I Eat To Keep My Blood Sugar And Cholesterol Low
Cutting out refined carbs and eating whole foods can help you lower these markers at the same time.
Q: My blood test shows prediabetes and a cholesterol score of 208 mg/dl . Im finding it difficult to know what to eat because the recommended diets for these conditions seem contrary. For example, fruit is said to be acceptable on a low-cholesterol diet but not on a low-blood-sugar one, while meat is the opposite. How can I balance this out?
Many people who have high blood sugar also have high cholesterol levels. However, both can be managed with a healthy diet. Whats more, for some, its possible to reverse prediabetes through diet and lifestyle changes .
Its common to see misinformation about what foods are bad for certain conditions, including high cholesterol, prediabetes, and diabetes. Nevertheless, the overall quality of your diet is most important.
The three macronutrients carbohydrates, proteins, and fats have different impacts on both blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
For example, sources of carbs like bread, pasta, and fruit affect blood sugar more than sources of protein or fat. On the other hand, cholesterol-containing fat sources, such as dairy and meat, have a greater effect on cholesterol than on blood sugar.
Keep An Eye On Your Carb Intake
Lumina/Stocksy
Paying attention to carbohydrates is important for people with type 2 diabetes. Carbs are what cause your blood sugars to potentially fluctuate, Crandall Snyder says.
How many carbs per meal is ideal? Its tailored to each individual, says Weisenberger. How much you exercise, your weight, and your age can all affect how long sugars stay in your system, according to the CDC. A typical starting point for people with diabetes is to limit carb intake to 200 to 245 grams per day, which amounts to about one-half of your daily calories coming from carbs, according to the CDC. From there, make adjustments according to your blood glucose readings or as recommended by a dietitian, Crandall Snyder says.
And keep in mind that carbs arent only found in the usual culprits, like bread, potatoes, and pasta. They are also in fruits, vegetables, sweets, and dairy, so you have to take all of those into consideration as well, Crandall Snyder says.
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Make It A Priority To Eat Breakfast
We often dont feel hungry first thing in the morning, or dont have time to make a meal. Then when lunchtime comes, you find yourself starving for food and you end up eating a huge meal. Studies show that skipping breakfast corresponds to higher blood glucose levels. Moreover, it can affect your blood glucose level for the entire day. Starting your day with a healthy, fiber and protein-rich breakfast will help regulate blood sugar and keep you feeling your best throughout the day.
Breakfast doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as easy as an egg on whole grain toast, or mixed berries with high-protein yogurt and nuts. Check out this unique spin on a classic: avocado superfood toast.
What Causes Low Blood Sugar
Low blood sugar has many causes, including missing a meal, taking too much insulin, taking other diabetes medicines, exercising more than normal, and drinking alcohol. Blood sugar below 70 mg/dL is considered low.
Signs of low blood sugar are different for everyone. Common symptoms include:
- Shaking.
- Dizziness.
- Hunger.
Know what your individual symptoms are so you can catch low blood sugar early and treat it. If you think you may have low blood sugar, check it even if you dont have symptoms. Low blood sugar can be dangerous and should be treated as soon as possible.
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How Do You Feel When Your Blood Sugar Is Too High
Whether you are at risk for diabetes mellitus or already have it, its essential to listen to your body for signs of high blood sugar. The following symptoms can indicate that your blood sugar is higher than normal, a condition called hyperglycemia:
- Headache
- Hunger
- Trouble thinking or concentrating
Its important to monitor your blood sugar because severely elevated blood sugar levels can lead to a life-threatening medical emergency and result in coma or other dangerous conditions. Elevated blood sugars over years can cause long-term effects such as poor wound healing, nerve, blood cell, and kidney damage, heart disease, stroke, and vision problems.
Keep in mind that, in many cases, low blood sugar follows an episode of high blood sugar, says M. Kara, MD, the founder of KaraMD. Repeat episodes are sometimes considered a precursor to diabetes.
Those with prediabetes may be prescribed medication to keep blood sugar levels in check. There are also ways to lower your blood sugar naturally. Keeping your blood glucose levels in the healthy range decreases your risk of diabetes complications. Those with Type 1 diabetes will need insulin regardless of their good habits.
Best Foods For Low Blood Sugar
For patients with diabetes, monitoring blood sugar levels is a part of daily life.
Low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, can occur for many people with diabetes who are on certain medications, including insulin and sulfonylureas. It can occur for a variety of reasons including skipping a meal, exercising strenuously, taking too much insulin or consuming alcohol, especially on an empty stomach.
Low blood sugar can be as minor as a slight inconvenience or as serious as a life-threatening emergency. Thats why it is important to boost blood sugar before it becomes problematic.
Angela Norton, a diabetes educator at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, has diabetes herself, so she knows firsthand the tips and tricks of keeping blood sugar on track. Although blood glucose is considered normal if above 70 mg/dL, Norton says patients with diabetes should not wait until they reach below that threshold to take action.
Treat when you feel the symptoms, even if your blood sugar is not below 70, because as long as it is less than 100, it may be dropping fast, she says.
When it comes to treatment, Norton shares these five foods to help boost low blood sugar.
1. CandyWhen hypoglycemia occurs, patients should follow the 15-15 rule. Consume 15 grams of carbohydrates to raise blood glucose and check your levels again after 15 minutes. When the numbers return to normal, eat a snack to stay on track.
Gummy candies contain carbohydrates, which have a large impact on blood sugar levels.
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Why Focus On Food
Many people ask, why focus on food, when you can just take extra medication like insulin or Metformin?, and thats a great question.
The aim of diabetes is not simply taking as much insulin as possible to fight high blood sugars, but to find a good balance of anti-inflammatory foods that you enjoy, incorporated into a healthy lifestyle with plenty of sleep, exercise, and stress management techniques, to create a sustainable way to manage your diabetes.
Focusing on foods that are anti-inflammatory and help regulate your blood sugar will not only improve your diabetes management, blood sugar levels, and HbA1c levels, but it will also make your weight management easier.
Youll suffer fewer extreme high and low blood sugars, and managing your diabetes wont be as joyless. It will be a big help. And with diabetes, we can use all the help we can get!
Below are the top 10 expert-recommended foods to help you regulate your blood sugar better:
It May Lower The Risk Of Common Diabetes Complications
This spice does more than lower fasting blood sugar and decrease blood sugar spikes following meals.
It may also lower the risk of common diabetes complications.
People with diabetes have twice the risk of heart disease as people without it. Cinnamon may help lower this risk by improving established risk factors for heart disease .
A review of controlled studies in people with type 2 diabetes found that taking cinnamon was associated with an average decrease in bad LDL cholesterol of 9.4 mg/dL and a decrease in triglycerides of 29.6 mg/dL (
22 ).
However, this research has only been completed in test tubes and animals. Further studies in humans are needed to confirm these findings.
Summary:
Cinnamon may help lower the risk of diseases related to diabetes, such as heart disease and Alzheimers disease.
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How To Lower Blood Sugar Immediately
Michael Menna, DO, is a board-certified, active attending emergency medicine physician at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York.
If you have high blood sugar, a condition also known as hyperglycemia, theres too much sugar in your blood and not enough insulin in your body to lower it. In people with diabetes, hyperglycemia can be caused by things like eating too many carbohydrates, lack of physical activity, stress from an illness or infection, nondiabetes medications , or skipping or not taking enough glucose-lowering medication.
Hyperglycemia requires immediate treatment to prevent serious complications, including nerve, tissue, and organ damage diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome . While taking rapid-acting insulin is the quickest way to lower your blood sugar, there are other ways like exercising and staying hydrated that can help. In cases of an emergency, contact your healthcare provider immediately.
Changing Habits And Changing Your Life
With over 30 million people suffering from diabetes in the United States alone, blood glucose control is one of the biggest challenges facing people in the 21st century.
The good thing is that there are many other people right there with you struggling, transforming their lives, and maintaining their health after getting control of their blood glucose.
Thats why we founded Mastering Diabetes, so we could bring all of those people together, offer coaching, community, and guidance through every step, and see real life-changing results.
There are multiple ways to take advantage of this proven, evidence-based program, with plans ranging from DIY resources to intensive coaching programs. See below to learn more and join Juston and many others.
Stop Guessing What to Eat
Get Delicious Recipes Sent to Your Inbox Every Week!
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Gestational Diabetes Guide: What to Do, Eat, and Avoid
+ References
Mastering Diabetes has strict guidelines for scientific references in our articles. We rely on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, governmental organizations, and reputable medical organizations. We do our best to avoid using non evidence-based references in all articles. The references in this article are listed below.
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