Biometric Screening: Blood Glucose
A biometric screening is a set of laboratory tests and body measurements that help determine metabolic health. Many Americans complete a biometric screening annually, at their doctor’s office, a convenience clinic or perhaps even at their worksite. But many never receive much guidance around the results. This post is part of a five part series that will help you interpret your results and determine whether you need to take action to improve your metabolic health.
Part Two: Blood Glucose
Part TWO: Blood glucose
What is blood glucose?
Blood glucose, also known as blood sugar, is a test that tells you how much glucose is in your blood at any given moment. The main source of blood glucose is foods containing carbohydrates. The body can also make its own glucose, in the event that you haven’t eaten carbohydrates recently.
The exact amount of glucose in the blood is constantly fluctuating based on diet, exercise, stress and other factors. If your glucose dips too low, you will quickly experience severe symptoms such as shaking, sweating, dizziness or even passing out. High glucose is not as immediately obvious, but very high glucose can cause blurred vision, frequent urination, increased thirst and general fatigue.
The body works very hard to keep this number in a fairly tight range, much like the thermostat in your house works to keep the temperature at the number you set it to. A metabolically healthy person could fast for two days or eat a whole cake and their glucose would stay within the healthy range the whole time. Unfortunately, very few adults are fully metabolically healthy. Once insulin resistance is at play, we often have to “help” our blood sugar stay in range through a well-planned diet and exercise routine.
What should your blood glucose be?
When you get your blood glucose tested by a lab, the test is typically done in the morning, after an 8-hour or longer overnight fast.
Optimal fasting blood glucose is below 90 mg/dL.
Fasting blood glucose below 100 mg/dL is considered acceptable.
Fasting blood glucose is only one part of the story. It’s also important to know what your blood glucose is after you eat and throughout the day. Unfortunately most people do not have the opportunity to test this until they have already been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes. Testing your glucose at home requires either a glucometer or a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), both of which are considered medical devices that need to be ordered by a doctor. Glucometers allow you to self-test a small drop of blood at any time, while CGMs are worn on your upper arm and measure your blood glucose continuously for up to two weeks at a time. Luckily, it’s getting easier for people without any diagnosis to get CGMs and identify sub-optimal glucose patterns before true diabetes develops.
Optimally, blood glucose should never rise above 140 mg/dL, regardless of food and beverage intake.
Maintaining blood glucose below 180 mg/dL can lower your risk for the complications associated with high blood glucose.
Should You Worry?
In short, yes. Chronically high blood glucose levels cause damage throughout the body, especially in the smallest blood vessels. Your kidneys, eyes, fingers and toes are especially vulnerable. Uncontrolled high blood glucose is a top cause of kidney failure requiring dialysis, blurred and lost vision and numbness and tingling in fingers and toes. It is also strongly correlated with heart attack and stroke risk.
To make matters worse, high blood glucose is actually a fairly late manifestation of metabolic disease. By the time blood glucose is high enough to cause the problems listed above, a person has likely been insulin resistant for decades. Insulin resistance on its own is damaging to the body, so we do not want to wait until glucose rises to address it. Luckily, we have other tests that can detect insulin resistance, even if glucose is still “normal.”
What should you do?
Adopting a lower carbohydrate diet is almost always a necessary part of reducing blood glucose. Everyone can benefit from ditching overt sources of liquid carbohydrates like soda, energy drinks, juice, lemonade, sweetened coffee and tea. Food sources of highly refined carbohydrates should also be minimized. Candy, baked goods and white bread tend to be the biggest offenders. Beyond that, it can be really helpful to wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for a few weeks to see what amount of carbohydrates you can tolerate. Foods like fruit, potatoes, beans and whole grains are inherently healthy, but they come with a big dose of carbs. A CGM will give you real-time insight into how those foods affect your body.
Aside from diet, it is well established that walking immediately after a meal lowers blood sugar. And cardiovascular exercise in general helps the body use sugar more efficiently. A number of glucose-lowering medications are also available, but most do not address the root cause, insulin resistance, and thus metabolic disease continues to progress.
It’s helpful to have a care team on your side that can help you create a plan that is tailored to you. Click here to learn more about working with Tera to improve your metabolic health today.