The root cause of type 2 diabetes is chronically high blood sugar levels primarily caused by a mixture of genetic factors and lifestyle choices. In most cases people with type 2 diabetes had elevated blood sugar levels for a good period of time as a result of making poor lifestyle choices. Even in those who have genetic predispositions for diabetes the majority of those people could have prevented the condition by living a more active lifestyle and eating better foods.
If you haven’t yet I’d invite you to read this post on normal blood glucose levels to get a taste for what you should expect of a healthy body. You may also want to see this post to learn how to check your blood sugar levels unless you want to go to the doctor’s office every time.
High Blood Sugar Levels
High blood sugar levels should be classified in two different buckets. There are chronically high blood glucose levels and elevated glucose levels measured in the short term. Depending on the time of day and the amount of time since you last ate and the type of foods you recently ate high glucose levels will be different.
High Blood Sugar Spikes
Typically in the morning you haven’t eaten anything for 6-10 hours and this should be the lowest readings you have all day long. Ideally you want to be below 100 mg/Dl however if your fasting blood sugar levels in the morning are over 120 then this is considered high and a doctor may diagnose you with diabetes or prediabetes at this point.
After healthy meals your blood sugar levels shouldn’t climb above 140 mg/Dl however depending on the types of foods you eat your blood sugar may spike high before slowly returning to normal. Diabetics really need to manage what they eat to keep their blood sugar levels in a safe range. In the worst of cases poor management of glucose levels can lead to ketoacidosis where you are actually at risk for coma or death. This is not usually a problem however if extremely high blood sugar levels in the vicinity of 240 mg/Dl or higher occur very often then this risk is absolutely present.
Some people go well above glucose levels of 240 but these levels are extremely high and even if they are just short term spikes due to poor choices of food, missed insulin injections or a mixture of the two they should be dealt with immediately.
In summary short term spikes in blood sugar can be experienced due to factors you can completely control. Stay on top of your medicine and insulin injections if you need them, stay active, and eat the right foods at all times. Spikes in blood sugar can occur rapidly and can be life-threatening in the very short term such as hours and days.
Chronically High Blood Sugar Levels
The other main classification of high blood glucose is the long term or chronically elevated numbers that comes with prolonged diabetes that has been controlled fairly well but not perfectly. Basically type-2 diabetes implies a systemic condition where your body doesn’t respond well to normal levels of insulin. This may be because your body produces insulin but not enough for your high levels of blood sugar to bring glucose levels down efficiently. It may also be because you are consistently spiking high sugar levels on a daily basis due to the poor food choices you make. In any event if you manage to keep your blood sugar from spiking too high in the short term and end up experiencing somewhat high levels of glucose day after day, month after month and year after year then these slightly elevated levels of glucose in the blood start to take their toll on the body.
Long term chronically high blood sugar levels are usually characterized as an average fasting blood sugar count in the vicinity of 120-140 mg/Dl over the course of decades. Many diabetics with fairly managed sugar levels can get their levels lower than this but also experience bad stretches where they are higher. Most tend to average slightly elevated sugar levels in the long run and as a result tend to have more glucose and insulin in the blood at all times than those with normal blood glucose levels.
Chronically high glucose levels may make short term spikes more problematic but even if this risk is controlled the symptoms of high glucose over many years manifests as major diabetic complications such as foot ulcers, poor circulation, neuropathy, and is the leading cause of diabetic amputations. Extremely high glucose in the blood may be very serious and threatening in the short term but in the long term high chronic levels of glucose can be very disabling and can shorten lifespans significantly.
Notable Recommendations
If you have high blood sugar you need to be seeing your doctor regularly and following his or her advice. You should also be on a proper blood sugar management plan covering your diet and your exercise regimens. This is hard for some people to accept but it is necessary. For more on this see this post on lowering your blood sugar levels naturally. And if you think you may be developing neuropathy make sure to read this post on the symptoms of diabetic neuropathy in feet.
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