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High blood sugar or hyperglycemia is an increase in blood glucose in excess of 5.5 mol. Normally, the body must cope with the processing of a moderate amount of sugar that comes from food. Of course, there are times when a person consumes glucose in excess of the daily norm. It can be a birthday, a New Year's feast, a picnic or a tasting of confectionery. Then a single increase in sugar to 6.6 mol cannot be considered a pathology. But regular high blood sugar indicates a tendency to progression of diabetes.
How to determine high blood sugar without a glucometer
You should take a closer look at yourself in the following cases. If at least one of these statements suits you, immediately find out your blood sugar level.
- Some close relatives have been diagnosed with diabetes. This disease is genetically transmitted. Moreover, not children, but grandchildren of a diabetic are more susceptible. Parents should take a close look at their child’s eating habits. If a 4-5 year old baby cannot get enough of one serving of food, often asks for supplements, doesn’t imagine eating without sweets and desserts, urgently check his blood glucose level.
- You have Alzheimer's. This disease affects the transmission of insulin impulses in the hypothalamus, because the disease affects the functioning of the brain.
- You are overweight and even obese. Typically, this ailment affects people leading an inactive lifestyle. Exercise, whether jogging, swimming, aerobics, Pilates, a gym, helps to process carbohydrates, and with them sugar. If you are not friends with sports, and dreams of losing weight remain dreams, think about the level of glucose in the blood.
- Hormonal disorders. A polycystic ovarian tumor, problems with the thyroid gland, a cyst in the kidney - all this indicates a hormonal failure. Just in case, give blood for the presence of sugar in the nearest clinic.
- You have endless stress at work and at home. The fact is that during stress, the hormones cortisol and adrenaline are secreted by the adrenal cortex. They release glucose from cells. Insulin does not cope with the processing of such an unexpected amount of glucose, and the level of sugar in the blood rises significantly. Remember how in an unpleasant situation it dries in the mouth and throws in a fever? This is all the action of stress hormones. A single situation does not affect the production of insulin. But regular stress may well lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.
- Prolonged or uncontrolled medication. Particularly dangerous are antibiotics, which in large quantities disrupt the pancreas and adrenal glands. It even happens that a person goes to the hospital with bronchitis, and after a month or two discovers the presence of diabetes mellitus.
- Passion for alcohol, smoking and drugs. It's no secret that smoking kills. But not immediately and not in the literal sense. First, the liver will be "killed", then the pancreas. Diabetes will be an unpleasant addition to other problems.
- Unhealthy diet. Fatty foods, sausages, lard, pasta with stew, a minimum of salads and a lot of sweets - all this provokes the development of hyperglycemia.
What symptoms should alert with high blood sugar
Both men and women experience the same symptoms with high blood sugar.These include the following:
- A heightened sense of thirst. Sometimes healthy people experience this in the morning when they grab a sausage sandwich for breakfast and drink coffee with sugar. By 10.00 in the morning there is an acute need for water, a brackish coating appears on the lips. But this phenomenon is not constant, it is enough to start the morning with a glass of fresh clean water, and soon everything comes back to normal. People with high blood sugar have a constant thirst. Glucose dehydrates, so a person is constantly thirsty.
- Frequent urination. This is due to paragraph number 1. Excess water should be removed from the body so that there is no intoxication with decay products, and edema does not begin.
- Dramatic weight loss (with type 1 diabetes). The beta cells produced by the pancreas begin to “eat” autoimmune cells, losing the ability to produce insulin. Blood sugar rises, glucose does not penetrate into cells, including muscle fibers. The body does not receive nutrition (carbohydrates), and goes on to process its own muscle and adipose tissue. The same thing happens with stress. The body is attacked by the hormones cortisol and adrenaline from the cells, and the person literally melts before our eyes. With hyperglycemia, depletion occurs quickly, and at first it can even please. But after the destruction of fat reserves begins the processing of muscle protein. And this is already taking on unhealthy forms. Beautiful female forms disappear, dehydrated skin fades and wrinkles, and a person acquires a clearly unhealthy appearance.
- Dramatic weight gain (for type 2 diabetes). This type of diabetes is usually caused by malnutrition, overweight, and obesity. If a person begins to gain weight (age-related changes), this may be a symptom of excess blood sugar.
- Smell of acetone from the mouth and from the body. This particular odor appears during the ketone diet. Its essence is to consume a minimum amount of fats and carbohydrates so that the body begins to process adipose tissue. But with diabetes, fatty oxide occurs regardless of the diet. In addition, a person begins to have a headache, he feels weakness and lack of strength.
- Wounds and cuts heal poorly. White blood cells, the main fighters of the body with infection, cannot fully function without glucose. Any injury, whether it is a scratch or a bruise, will heal for a long time and slowly, inflammatory processes worsen, provoking purulent infections (in advanced cases).
- Sight is deteriorating. Increased sugar changes the structure of the lens of the eye, so with diabetes, the likelihood of glaucoma, cataracts, retinal detachment is high.
Despite the symptoms common to men and women, gender differences also exist. Women and men have their own characteristic symptoms of high sugar:
- In women, itching of the skin is observed, and in men, early baldness. Metabolic processes are disturbed, sugar crystals penetrate the skin cells, it loses the ability to remove toxins through the pores. The skin becomes uneven, its surface itches and itches. Specific vesicles appear on the arms and legs. Due to the insufficient nutrition of the hair follicles, the hair in men falls out in a much larger amount than is required.
- Gynecological problems in women and sexual disorders in men. If the cause of hyperglycemia is hormonal disorders, a woman simultaneously has gynecological problems: polycystic ovaries, amenorrhea, cervical erosion. In women with diabetes, pregnancy also proceeds unsuccessfully. Although, knowing her peculiarity and taking measures, a woman with diabetes may well give birth to a healthy baby, and not one. In men, due to damage to blood vessels and poor blood supply, a lack of erection and even sexual desire is often observed.
- In men, diabetes is accompanied by nightly urination, resulting in the impression that he has prostatitis. Women observe an increase in excreted urine, because increased sugar dehydrates.
- Withering of the skin and wrinkles. Again, due to dehydration, the skin loses the necessary moisture. The girl, even at a young age, has flabby and flaccid skin, places of peeling appear on the body, and dandruff eats on her head.
How to eat to lower blood sugar
It would seem that to reduce blood sugar, sweets should be excluded, and glucose levels will return to normal. The less sugar comes from food, the less insulin is required for its absorption by the body. But not so simple. There is such a thing as a glycemic index. It means how much a particular product increases glucose levels when consumed. These are the so-called “fast” carbohydrates, broken down in a short period of time and stored in the form of fat deposits on the waist and hips. These products do not provide nourishment to the body, in fact, they are useless, but, as a rule, are appetizing and tasty. High glycemic index (GI) foods include:
- any pastry: rolls, pies, loaves, bagels
- sweet carbonated drinks
- chips crackers
- honey
- sugar
- mayonnaise
- sweet cherry, melon, watermelon, grapes, banana
- dried dates
- fried and baked potatoes
- rice noodles and rice flour
- canned fruit in syrup
- instant cereals
- popcorn, cornflakes, popped rice
- condensed milk, caramel, granola
- glazed cheese, sweet curd, halva, milk chocolate
- boiled potatoes, corn and potato starch
All of the above products have a GI of 70% or higher. This means that 70% of the carbohydrates in these foods are glucose. They must be completely eliminated from your diet. And include those products whose GI is below 40%. Bet on the following:
- dill and parsley
- boiled crayfish, seaweed,
- whole fish, including oily and smoked
- water, tea without sugar, mineral water
- all vegetables without heat treatment
- unsweetened cottage cheese, even fatty
- fillet of turkey, chicken, rabbit
- almost all fruits
- whole grain cereals on the water
- ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato juice
- nuts, seeds, olives
In people with diabetes, beta cells are destroyed in the pancreas, so they need to eat foods rich in zinc. It is involved in the synthesis of insulin, but zinc-containing foods should not be taken with calcium-containing foods. There is a lot of zinc in liver, eggs, mushrooms, asparagus, young peas, buckwheat, onions, garlic, etc.
Do not forget that the heat treatment of the product significantly increases its GI. So, raw carrots has a GI of 35 units, and in boiled form it rises already to 85 units. The glycemic index of beets increases in boiled form from 30 to 65 units, “jacket” potatoes - 60 units, mashed potatoes already 90, for raw beans - 27 units, in canned 75 due to the addition of sugar. But white cabbage does not affect anything. It stores GI in 15 units, both raw and boiled or pickled. As well as apples (35 units), fish, seafood, fruits, if they are not canned.
Homemade recipes against high sugar
Brew sage and drink it several times a day.
Tincture of buds and lilac leaves. Pour 2 tablespoons of lilac buds with two glasses of water. Let it brew for the night. Then strain and drink during the day.
Egg cocktail with lemon. Squeeze the juice of lemon, stir it with an egg and drink each time before eating.
There are many ways to lower your blood glucose, but prevention is best.Go in for sports, refuse flour and sweets, focus on vegetables and fruits. If glucose readings are a concern, consult your endocrinologist.
Video: how to lower blood sugar folk remedies
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