Why should you maintain a normal range blood sugar level?-by Dr harold Gunatillake
Transcript:
Why should we maintain a normal range blood sugar level, and that is our topic of talk, today?
A non-diabetic individual maintains a normal range blood sugar, due to the normal hormonal and metabolic activities of the pancreas and the liver. This is done by storing glucose as glycogen in the liver to make the blood sugar level remain steady between meals and during sleep. When blood glucose falls, cells in the pancreas secrete glucagon from the alpha cells of the Islet cells, and glucagon instructs the liver to convert the stored glycogen to glucose, making glucose more available and sustained in your blood stream.
The pancreas further secretes insulin in the Islet beta cells, which enables the blood sugar to courier to specific cells in the body, such as the fat cells called lipocytes, which stores the sugar as a fat called triglyceride.
This process is called lipogenesis where the excess acetyl CoA generated by glycolysis i.e., breakdown of glucose, is converted into fatty acids, triglycerides, cholesterol, steroids, and bile salts.
These stored triglycerides when released into your blood as blood triglycerides may increase the risk of diabetes, and diabetes increases triglyceride levels, too.
The two are intertwined. So, if you are a diabetic, with high triglycerides in your blood, you are at a great risk of heart attack or stroke than those with normal triglyceride level.
The important lesson is that one should lower the intake of high glycemic foods to avoid this situation.
A fasting blood sugar of a non-diabetic is less than 100mg/dL 5.6mmol/L.
A person with diabetes should strive to achieve fasting blood sugar levels below 131mg/dL and levels following meals below 180 mg/dL. what is referred as the post-prandial level.
Through lifestyle changes, right low glycemic diets, exercise and maintaining a normal body weight, a diabetic should aim to achieve this range daily to prevent complications.
In terms of the blood sugar memory test, a diabetic should have an average blood sugar level during the day below 154 mg/dL should give a HbA1C level of below 7%.
So, the question arises why a diabetic should strive to achieve the above ranges, and what happens if you just eat, drink and merry with no concern to your blood sugar levels.
When your blood sugar is high and not controlled, you may tend to pass more urine, more frequently. You may feel thirsty, and other problems related to your high blood sugar.
If you do not control your blood sugar level it can take a toll on every organ in your body, such as the heart and blood vessels, Eyesight, kidneys, nerves, gastro-intestinal tract, including gums and teeth.
How does increased blood sugar affect the heart and blood vessels?
Increased blood sugar affects the blood vessels in many ways. High blood sugar can decrease the elasticity of the arteries and make more resilient or resistant to the pressure from the heart pumping blood, resulting in high blood pressure.
This leads to narrowing of the blood vessels, reduces blood and oxygen supply to the internal organs, including the heart muscles.
Narrowing of blood vessels leading to increased peripheral resistance led to high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease.
Damage done to the large blood vessels is known as macrovascular disease, while microvascular disease refers to damage to minute blood vessels as in the glomeruli in the kidneys.
Macrovascular disease due to thickening of the vessels, can cause heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease called atherosclerosis in the limbs.
Atherosclerosis is the most common cause of chronic arterial occlusive disease of the lower extremities, resulting from uncontrolled blood sugar levels.
Do not wait for the day your doctor to tell you that your leg needs amputation. Think of it and control your blood sugar level consistently.
Microvascular disease can cause problems in the eyes, kidneys, and nervous system.
This could happen in the heart too, due to the minute branches of the main coronary arteries getting occluded with plaques and clots. These vessels are lining the inner walls of the heart muscle and lead to patches of dead tissue referred to as necrosis.
In such a situation you may be unfit for open heart surgery or insertion of stents into the blocked main arteries of the heart.
Diabetic Macular Oedema
Up to 1 in 10 people with diabetes develop diabetic macular oedema.
High blood sugar weakens the blood vessels in your eyes. That can make them leak or grow out of control in your retina, the light-sensitive area at the back of your eyes. This is called diabetic retinopathy. When fluid seeps into your retina, it can cause diabetic macular edema.
There is no cure for diabetic macular oedema, but treatment can help slow progression of the condition and prevent blindness.
A healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly, eating lots of veggies, fruits and tight control of blood sugar levels are recommended when you have macular edema.
How does diabetes cause kidney damage?
High blood sugar levels with time can cause damage to the minute blood vessels in your kidneys.
Diabetic nephropathy or chronic disease of the kidneys have no symptoms early. Having high blood pressure with uncontrolled diabetes will cause early kidney damage. The damaged kidneys filter becomes ‘leaky’ and lets albumen from the blood leak into the urine. This is referred to as micro-albuminuria.
It is good to know that most people with diabetic kidneys may not progress to kidney failure needing dialysis.
Your doctor will do a blood test to assess the kidney functions routinely when you are a diabetic.
There are two important tests that he will get done in addition to the blood electrolytes- blood creatine level and eGFR.eGFR stands for Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate.
eGFR is the best test not measure your level of kidney function and determine your stage of kidney disease.
A normal eGFR for adults is greater than 90 mL/min/1.73m2, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
With age it drops and when it drops below 60mL/min you are having early chronic kidney disease.
A diabetic can maintain his blood sugar level within the normal range, like a non-diabetic, with proper low glycemic fiber-rich diet, regular exercise, keeping the weight down, with or without medication, irradicating stress factors through the practice of yoga.
It is important to take fish oil as a supplement for blood vessel health to keep them soft and elastic.
Damage to nerves.
How does high uncontrolled blood sugar damage your nerves?
Half of all people with diabetes have nerve damage. The nerve cells called neurons are damaged or destroyed.
Researchers have found that uncontrolled high blood sugar damages.
the nerves and interferes with their ability to send signals, and this condition is called diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
This type of neuropathy is also called distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy. It generally affects the feet and legs followed by hands and arms. The symptom of this neuropathy is worse at night.
You may have numbness and reduced ability to feel pain or temperature changes.
Some may feel tingling and pins and needles. Cramping of muscles and so on.
Nerve damage from diabetes cannot be reversed because the body is unable not repair nerve tissues that have been damaged.
You may be having early diabetic neuropathy, but symptoms often do not begin until many years after diabetes has been diagnosed.
The carbs you eat in your daily food is converted into glucose in the gut.
If you eat processed carbs like white rice and white bread your blood sugar immediately will rise in the blood. If you have uncontrolled diabetes there will be spiking of the sugar level in your blood.
It is always advisable to eat unprocessed carbs if you are a diabetic so that the absorption of glucose from the digested carbs will be slow.
In non-diabetics the glucagon secreted by the pancreas, and prompt insulin secretion will normalize the blood sugar level within two hours.
But, unfortunately, this God -given control is lacking among diabetics.
With strict discipline, diabetes can be reversed, but cannot be cured, whatever the pundits say.
Exercise daily to reduce the insulin resistance and make it more sensitive. That is the answer to reverse diabetes.
Hope this video talk was useful.
Take care and goodbye for now.
