When is blood sugar too high?

Hi there.

Broadly speaking, there are two norms which should be considered in deciding whether blood sugar is to high. The first of these norms says that your sugars should not go over 8. If it goes over 8, it is a matter for concern, but it is not a crisis. When however, sugar levels go over 10, then you are in troubled waters because that is when the sugar forms minute little crystals in the blood stream. These little crystals initially rip the walls of capillary vessels to shreds, hence the dilation of blood vessels in the eye etc. This later goes on to affect bigger and bigger blood vessels and I am not going to go down that road at the moment.

I am not a doctor, but being a diabetic for the last 14 years, I am of the firm belief that the general norm is only the starting point for good diabetes management. What you need to do, is to determine what is good blood sugar and what is not, with reference to your particular circumstances, provided of course that it is understood that whatever is said and done, sugars over 10 are unacceptable and you might need to take this matter up with your doctor if you are in private care.

Of course, judging by newer diabetes medications such as Byetta, Onglyza and Victoza, to mention a few examples, your problem may not be to do with insulin, but you could be lacking in the production of a hormone called DPP4 while another hormone, Glucagon-like peptide could be in abundance. Your insulin may be perfect but you can still have these high sugars. When last did your doctor perform a full battery of liver and kidney function tests on you? This could be the key to your problem.

Regarding the matter of determining your own norms, the million-dollar question is always this: what other problems do you have stemming from diabetes?

In muy case I suffer from a diabetic related depression. If I have huge fluctuations in my sugar levels, I fall into a deep depression and it is not psychosematic either. I can at any time guess my blood sugar levels to within 0.5 of a point and when my sugars jump around like they do from time to time, I get depressed and there is nothing I can do to prevent it. In that event, I can also be quite a handful and I therefore owe it to people around me to try and keep this problem in hand.

In order to address the problem, I have, in conjunction with my care team, decided that my sugar averages should be between 5 and 7, but preferably, between 5 and 6.5 and my fasting sugars should sit between 5 and 6. If my sugars drop below 5, I tend to get very tired and irritable and if my fasting sugar goes below 5 I will not, on a morning I am scheduled to do gymn, do gymn at all, in case I go hypoglycaemic either in the gymn or while travelling between home and the gymn.

If there is interest in the subject of how one determines one’s norms, I am prepared to post an article here in which I explained how I went about determining my own norms and how I help others to determine their own norms.

There are just two things to bear in mind here. The first is that if the norms you have determined, are too easy to reach, chances are that you might not be doing the thing right. Diabetes management is hard work and determining personal norms, like everything else, requires hard work–but having said that, you can live a full life, work hard at it and not go hungry.

The second thing that I want to mention here is that you must firmly understand that there is no such thing as a good universal norm. I am extremely blessed because I am able to maintain sugar levels which are very similar to a non-diabetic, but this does not mean that everybody must do that and you are going to have as many norms as there are people who have diabetes and who try to manage it.

The article I wrote, is not very scientific on the face of it, but it has worked for me and the system has also worked for other diabetics I have helped. It is really plain common sense. If there is an interest in this article, I will gladly publish this article here.
Hi there.

Broadly speaking, there are two norms which should be considered in deciding whether blood sugar is to high. The first of these norms says that your sugars should not go over 8. If it goes over 8, it is a matter for concern, but it is not a crisis. When however, sugar levels go over 10, then you are in troubled waters because that is when the sugar forms minute little crystals in the blood stream. These little crystals initially rip the walls of capillary vessels to shreds, hence the dilation of blood vessels in the eye etc. This later goes on to affect bigger and bigger blood vessels and I am not going to go down that road at the moment.

I am not a doctor, but being a diabetic for the last 14 years, I am of the firm belief that the general norm is only the starting point for good diabetes management. What you need to do, is to determine what is good blood sugar and what is not, with reference to your particular circumstances, provided of course that it is understood that whatever is said and done, sugars over 10 are unacceptable and you might need to take this matter up with your doctor if you are in private care.

Of course, judging by newer diabetes medications such as Byetta, Onglyza and Victoza, to mention a few examples, your problem may not be to do with insulin, but you could be lacking in the production of a hormone called DPP4 while another hormone, Glucagon-like peptide could be in abundance. Your insulin may be perfect but you can still have these high sugars. When last did your doctor perform a full battery of liver and kidney function tests on you? This could be the key to your problem.

Regarding the matter of determining your own norms, the million-dollar question is always this: what other problems do you have stemming from diabetes?

In muy case I suffer from a diabetic related depression. If I have huge fluctuations in my sugar levels, I fall into a deep depression and it is not psychosematic either. I can at any time guess my blood sugar levels to within 0.5 of a point and when my sugars jump around like they do from time to time, I get depressed and there is nothing I can do to prevent it. In that event, I can also be quite a handful and I therefore owe it to people around me to try and keep this problem in hand.

In order to address the problem, I have, in conjunction with my care team, decided that my sugar averages should be between 5 and 7, but preferably, between 5 and 6.5 and my fasting sugars should sit between 5 and 6. If my sugars drop below 5, I tend to get very tired and irritable and if my fasting sugar goes below 5 I will not, on a morning I am scheduled to do gymn, do gymn at all, in case I go hypoglycaemic either in the gymn or while travelling between home and the gymn.

If there is interest in the subject of how one determines one’s norms, I am prepared to post an article here in which I explained how I went about determining my own norms and how I help others to determine their own norms.

There are just two things to bear in mind here. The first is that if the norms you have determined, are too easy to reach, chances are that you might not be doing the thing right. Diabetes management is hard work and determining personal norms, like everything else, requires hard work–but having said that, you can live a full life, work hard at it and not go hungry.

The second thing that I want to mention here is that you must firmly understand that there is no such thing as a good universal norm. I am extremely blessed because I am able to maintain sugar levels which are very similar to a non-diabetic, but this does not mean that everybody must do that and you are going to have as many norms as there are people who have diabetes and who try to manage it.

The article I wrote, is not very scientific on the face of it, but it has worked for me and the system has also worked for other diabetics I have helped. It is really plain common sense. If there is an interest in this article, I will gladly publish this article here.