A blood test for sugar level is a laboratory test that is prescribed to any person during a diagnostic examination. Assign this analysis not only for a routine examination of a patient who came to the clinic, but also for examination of organs in the field of endocrinology, surgery, general therapy. The analysis is carried out in order to:

• find out the state of carbohydrate metabolism;
• find out the general indicators;
• confirm or deny the presence of diabetes;
• to know the glucose indicators in humans.

If the sugar level has some deviation from the norm, then they can additionally appoint glycated hemoglobin and glucose susceptibility analysis   (two hour sugar test sample test).

What level of reference values \u200b\u200bis considered normal?

You can find out the result of the analysis after a day from the moment of blood sampling. If an urgent analysis is prescribed in the clinic (marked “cito!”, Which means “fast”), then the analysis result will be ready in a few minutes.

Normal blood sugar levels in an adult range from from 3.88 to 6.38 mmol per liter. If the indicator exceeds the upper limit of normal, then this usually indicates the development of hyperglycemia or type 2 diabetes.

Antiemetics should prevent or significantly alleviate such ailments. If nausea and vomiting persist despite antiemetics, your doctor will prescribe more effective medications. Your doctor will prescribe medications for constipation. You should drink plenty of fluids, eat fiber-rich foods, and do some small exercise. Persistent constipation and abdominal pain should be reported to your doctor or nurse.

Fatigue is often accompanied by patients undergoing chemotherapy, especially at the end of treatment and a few weeks after the end of treatment. Do not overdo it and do not rest as much as possible. Low physical activity and short walks are allowed. If you feel sleepy, do not drive or operate machines.

A condition where the body lacks glucose is called hypoglycemia. Low indicators, as well as overestimated, may indicate not only the disease, but also some physiological indicators. An increased blood sugar level will be observed immediately after eating, and a lower level indicates prolonged fasting. Short-term hypoglycemia can also occur in diabetics who have recently injected insulin.

In newborn babies, the norm varies within 2.8 to 4.4 mmol per literand older children from 3.3 to 5.5 mmol per liter.

Value table:

All the above values \u200b\u200bare often the same in the laboratory diagnostic centers, but still some reference indicators may differ in different clinics, as diagnostic markers can be different. Therefore, the norm of values, first of all, will depend on the laboratory.

When is decryption considered incorrect?

False reference values \u200b\u200band incorrect decoding are the result of poor preparation of a person for laboratory analysis.

Be sure to give blood only in the morning on an empty stomach. An elevated level may occur after severe nervous stress or debilitating physical exertion.

In extreme conditions, the adrenal glands begin to work hard and secrete contrainsular hormones, as a result of which a large amount of glucose is released from the liver, which enters the bloodstream. Taking certain types of medications regularly can cause high blood sugar.

Some diuretics (diuretics), thyroid hormones, estrogens, glucocorticosteroids, some types of non-steroidal analgesics increase the level of sugar.   Therefore, if a person regularly takes such drugs or recently took before analysis, then the attending physician should definitely notify about it. If there were no disturbing factors in testing and preparation for it, then deviations from the norm in decoding the values \u200b\u200brequire additional testing.

What should be the proper preparation for blood donation?

To get the most accurate result, you need to carefully prepare for the tests. For this:

• the day before the tests you need to stop drinking alcohol;
• in the morning before delivery, it is allowed to use only clean water, and eight or twelve hours before measuring the indicator, you must completely limit the use of food;
• it is forbidden to brush your teeth in the morning, because the toothpaste contains monosaccharide (glucose), which penetrates the oral mucosa into the body and can change the level of the value obtained (few know about this rule);
• do not chew sutra chewing gum.

Blood sampling is done from the finger. You can find out your indicators at home, but this requires a glucometer.   The result is often inaccurate because the test strips with reagents, when interacting with air, are slightly oxidized, and this distorts the result.

Causes of High Monosaccharide

The causes of high blood sugar include:

1. eating food before delivery;
2. emotional, nervous, physical stress;
3. diseases of the pituitary gland, adrenal glands, pineal gland, thyroid gland;
4. epilepsy;
5. diseases of the pancreas and digestive tract;
6. taking certain medications (insulin, adrenaline, estrogen, thyroxine, diuretics, corticosteroids, glucocorticosteroids, nicotinic acid, indomethacin);
7. carbon monoxide poisoning;
8. development of diabetes.

Causes of Low Monosaccharide

1. a strong feeling of hunger;
2. severe alcohol poisoning;
3. diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (acute or chronic pancreatitis, enteritis, side effects that sometimes develop after surgery on the stomach);
4. severe violation of metabolic processes in the human body;
5. liver disease (obesity, cirrhosis);
6. overt form of obesity;
7. tumorous tumors in the pancreas;
8. disturbances in the activity of blood vessels;
9. diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system, stroke;
10. sarcoidosis;
11. acute poisoning with rat poison or chloroform;
12. in the presence of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia develops after an overdose of exogenous insulin or sugar-lowering drugs. Also, a diabetic will have hypoglycemia with vomiting after eating or due to skipping meals.

Subjective signs of increased glucose in the body

The increased content of monosaccharide in the body often entails the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.   Signs of type 1 diabetes include:

1. strong and chronic feeling of thirst, the patient can drink about five liters of water per day;
2. such a person smells strongly of acetone from the mouth;
3. a person feels a constant feeling of hunger, eats a lot, but moreover, he is losing weight;
4. due to the large amount of fluid drunk, polyuria develops, a constant desire to emit the contents of the bladder, especially at night;
5. any damage to the skin does not heal well;
6. the skin on the body often itches, a fungus or furunculosis appears chronically.

Very often, the first type of diabetes begins to develop within a few weeks after a recent viral illness (measles, rubella, flu) or severe nervous shock. According to statistics, a quarter of patients with type 1 diabetes do not notice any symptoms of a terrible pathology. Often it happens that the patient falls into a hyperglycemic coma, and only after that in the hospital he is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Symptoms of the development of hyperglycemia of the second type

This disease develops in stages over a couple of years. Usually affects people closer to old age. The patient is constantly experiencing deterioration of well-being, a state of fatigue, wounds on the body heal poorly, vision is deteriorating, memory is suffering. Few people think that this is the development of hyperglycemia, therefore, doctors usually diagnose it in patients by accident. Symptoms are as follows:

1. Memory problems, blurred vision, fatigue.
2. Skin problems: itching, fungus, wounds heal poorly.
3. Great thirst + polyuria.
4. Women have chronic thrush, which is difficult to treat.
5. At the terminal stages of the disease, a person begins to lose weight greatly.
6. There are ulcers on the legs, feet, it hurts to walk, my legs go numb, and tingling is felt.
7. In half of the patients, the pathology is asymptomatic.
8. Often, hyperglycemia can be accompanied by kidney disease, sudden strokes or heart attacks, loss of vision.

The normal functioning of your body depends on how stable your blood sugar is. When we consume sugar or carbohydrates, the body turns them into glucose. Our body uses it as energy to provide various functions, from the work of neurons or nerve cells in the brain, to processes that occur at the cellular level.

  What is sugar level?

Blood sugar is the amount of glucose in your blood. The value of glucose (sugar - hereinafter referred to) in the blood, most often, is measured in millimoles per liter or in milligrams per deciliter. For humans, the blood sugar norm ranges from 3.6 mmol / L (65 mg / dl) to 5.8 mmol / L (105 mg / dl). Of course, the exact value for each individual.

  How the body controls blood sugar

It is very important that the sugar level is normal. It must not be allowed to be slightly higher or slightly lower if it falls sharply and goes beyond the norm, the consequences can be very serious, such as:

• Confusion, loss of consciousness and subsequently - coma.
• If sugar is elevated, it can darken and blur before your eyes, you will feel very tired.

Principles of Regulation

If the sugar level is between 3.6 and 5.8 mmol / l or 65 and 105 mg / dl, then they say that this is the normal blood sugar level in a healthy person.

To maintain blood sugar, our pancreas produces two different hormones that maintain it at the right level - it is insulin and glucagon (polypeptide hormone).

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone produced by pancreatic cells that is released in response to glucose. Most of the cells in our body need insulin, including: fat cells, muscle cells, and liver cells. This is a protein (protein), which consists of 51 types of amino acids and performs the following functions:

• Tells muscle and liver cells to accumulate transformed glucose as glucogen.
• Helps fat cells generate fat through the conversion of glycerol and fatty acids.
• It instructs the kidneys and liver to stop the production of their own glucose through the metabolic process (gluconeogenesis).
• Stimulates muscle and liver cells to produce protein from amino acids.

To summarize the above, it can be concluded that insulin helps the body absorb nutrients after eating, lowering blood sugar, amino acids and fatty acids.

Glucagon

Glucagon is a protein produced by alpha cells. Regarding sugar levels, it has a similar effect on cells, but the opposite of insulin. When the sugar level is low, glucogen instructs the muscle and liver cells to activate glucose in the form of glucogen, by glycogenolysis. Stimulates the kidneys and liver to generate its own glucose by gluconeogenesis.

As a result, glucagon collects glucose from various sources inside our body in order to maintain it at a sufficient level. If this does not happen, then the sugar level will become very low.

  How does the body understand when it is necessary to normalize sugar levels?

During the day, a normal balance between insulin and glucogen is maintained in the blood. We give an example of what processes occur in the body immediately after eating. After you have eaten, your body receives amino acids, fatty acids and glucose from food. The body analyzes them and launches beta cells in your pancreas to produce insulin in the blood. This process tells the pancreas not to secrete glucogen in order to stimulate the body to use glucose as a food source. Insulin rises with sugar levels and directs it to muscle cells, liver for use as an energy source. Thanks to this, the level of glucose, amino acids and fatty acids in the blood is maintained from going beyond the norm and helps to maintain the sugar level at a stable level.

There are times when you skipped your breakfast or during the night your body needs additional resources to maintain sugar levels in order until the next meal. When you haven’t eaten, your body’s cells still need glucose to function properly. When blood sugar drops due to a lack of food, pancreatic alpha cells begin to produce glucogen so that insulin ceases to be produced and command the liver and kidneys to produce glucose from glucogen stores through metabolic processes. This helps keep sugar levels stable and avoid unpleasant health effects.

  Diabetes

Sometimes the body fails, disrupting the metabolic process. As a result, enough insulin ceases to be produced, or the cells of our body begin to react incorrectly to it, as a result, the blood sugar level rises. This metabolic disorder is called diabetes.

  What blood sugar level is considered normal

Adults

The concentration of glucose on an empty stomach in a healthy person should be between 3.6 and 5.8 mmol / l (65 and 105 mg / dl).

A sutra on an empty stomach, the blood sugar norm in adult men and women should be between 3.8 and 6.0 mmol / l (68 and 108 mg / dl).

Two hours after ingestion of food or drinks containing a large amount of carbohydrates, the values \u200b\u200bshould be from 6.7 to 7.8 mmol / l (from 120 to 140 mg / dl).

Children

Blood sugar in children 6 years of age and younger is considered to be between 5 mmol / L (100 mg / dl) and 10 mmol / L (180 mg / dl) before meals. Before going to bed, these values \u200b\u200bshould be 6.1 mmol / L (110 mg / dl) to 11.1 mmol / L (200 mg / dl).

In children from 6 to 12 years old, the sugar level should be between 5 mmol / L (90 mg / dl) and 10 mmol / L (180 mg / dl), before going to bed 5.5 mmol / L (100 mg / dl) and 10 mmol / l (180 mg / dl). For children aged 13 to 19, the numbers should be the same as for adults.

  Blood Sugar Tables

The graph below displays a summary of blood sugar levels, however, does not provide 100% accuracy. Consult your healthcare provider.

Sugar (glucose) summary

Sugar reading values \u200b\u200bwith a little description of what they are talking about

Sugar values \u200b\u200bin relation to health risk

  Signs of Abnormal Sugar Levels

When the blood sugar norm is outside the acceptable range, the following symptoms appear:

Thirsty

If you are constantly thirsty, you may have increased sugar, which can be a sign of diabetes. When the body cannot maintain normal sugar levels, your kidneys begin to work more actively to filter out its excess. At this point, they consume additional moisture from the tissues, which leads to frequent urination. Thirst is a signal to replenish the missing fluid. If it is not enough, dehydration will occur.

Fatigue

Overwork and a feeling of fatigue can also be a signal of diabetes. When sugar does not enter the cells, but simply remains in the blood, they do not receive enough energy. Therefore, you may feel slightly tired or overworked to the point where you want to take a nap.

Dizziness

Feeling confused or dizzy may be signs of high sugar. Sugar is necessary for the normal functioning of your brain, and its lack can be very dangerous, up to functional disorders, if you do not pay attention to this problem. Even a regular glass of fruit juice can bring sugar back to normal. If dizziness often bothers you, consult a doctor to correct your diet or treatment in general.

Legs and arms swell

Diabetes and high blood pressure are two factors that can lead to kidney problems and impair fluid filtration. Because of this, excess fluid may accumulate in the body, which is a hello to swelling of the arms and legs.

Numbness and tingling

Nerve damage can also be a symptom of chronic sugar control problems. As a result of this, your hands and feet are numb, you feel pain in your limbs when the surrounding temperature changes.

You are losing sight

What does visual impairment look like.

High sugar and pressure combined can damage the sensitive organs of your eyes and lead to poor vision. Diabetic retinopathy occurs as a result of damage to blood vessels inside the eye, which is a common problem of age-related vision loss. Fog before the eyes, dots, lines or flashes are a signal for contacting a doctor.

As well as other symptoms, such as:

• Stomach problems (diarrhea, constipation, incontinence);
• Rapid weight loss;
• Skin infections;
• Unhealed wounds.

Important: Symptoms of diabetes of the first level are manifested sharply, they are pronounced and long-lasting. In the second type of diabetes, symptoms appear slowly, they are difficult to recognize, they may not appear at all.

  How to measure sugar

A device for measuring blood glucose.

It is very easy to measure the blood sugar level, for this there are special, individual devices - glucometers. Each such device comes complete with special test strips.

In order to measure on a strip, it is necessary to apply a small amount of blood. Next, you need to place the strip in the device. Within 5-30 seconds, the device should generate and display the result of the analysis.

The best way to take a blood sample from your finger is to pierce it with a special lancet, which serves for these purposes. When piercing a finger, it is necessary to pre-treat the puncture site with medical alcohol.

Tip for choosing a device:
  There are a huge number of various models of different sizes and shapes. In order to choose the right one, it is best to consult with your doctor and clarify the advantages of this model over the others.

  How to lower sugar

Sugar levels are measured on an empty stomach. In a healthy person, the blood sugar norm is 3.6 - 5.8 mmol / l (65 - 105 mg / dl). Measuring its level, we can say that the result will be 3 values:

• Normal sugar (blood glucose on an empty stomach).
• Violation of glycemia - prediabetes (glucose on an empty stomach is increased to a maximum value from 6.1 to 6.9 mmol / l (from 110 to 124 mg / dl).
• Diabetes (high sugar levels reaching 7.0 mmol / L (126 mg / dl) or higher).

If the level of sugar in your blood is at the highest level - in the stage of prediabetes, this does not mean at all that you will have diabetes in the future.

This is an occasion to begin to lead an active lifestyle and be treated before the disease begins to develop and take over, and probably to prevent it altogether.

Dr. Greg Geretive, Head of the Department of Endocrinology at St. Peter’s Hospital, Albany, New York.

In order for the blood sugar to be normal, you need:

• Maintain optimal body weight;
• It is necessary to eat properly, adhering to special diets (which include a lot of vegetables, fruits, fiber, few calories, fats, alcohol is excluded);
• Get enough sleep and give enough time to rest:
• go to bed and get up at the same time, falling asleep do not look at the TV screen, computer or your phone;
• do not drink coffee after dinner;
• Training for at least 30 minutes a day (including exercise, aerobics and other aerobic exercise).

  Can diabetes be completely cured?

There are currently no known methods or drugs to cure diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body cannot produce insulin, because the cells responsible for its production are completely destroyed. Science does not yet know how to restore or replace them. You will need insulin constantly to maintain sugar levels.

With type 2 diabetes, the body simply does not know how to properly use the produced insulin (this malfunction of the body is called - insulin resistance).

However, through exercise and a proper diet, you can control your sugar levels and live a normal life.

Literature

Conklin V., Complete Instruction for a Normal Life with Diabetes, 2009;
  National Institute of Diabetes, Digestion and Kidney Disease: "Getting rid of diabetes: keeping diabetes under control", "Hypoglycemia", "Kidney disease and diabetes", "Nervous disorders and diabetes";
  National Institute of Nervous Disorders and Strokes: Bill of Peripheral Neuropathy;
  American Medical Association, American Diabetes Aid Association, John Wiley and his Sons, 2007;
  National Kidney Disease Association: "How Your Kidneys Work";
  Noumeurs Foundation: "Type 2 diabetes: what is it?";
  University of Washington Women's Health: Understanding Diabetes;
  Home P., Mant J., Turnet S. - "Management of type 2 diabetes: a conclusion based on the leadership of the NICE Institute." BMJ 2008; 336: 1306-8;
  American Diabetes Association: "Testing Your Glucose Level," "Neurotheramia."