There was a health fair this weekend here in Lynchburg. Seven families were shocked to find out that a loved one had a high blood sugar. Two kids and five adults now have a serious problem. None of these people suspected they had a problem. How could this be?
Typically, people associate diabetes with symptoms of drinking a lot and urinating a lot, but it can be a stealthy disease. Many can have high blood sugars for months or years before getting a diagnosis. And if that is not bad enough, high sugars damage your body, and that damage can be happening without you knowing about it.
High blood sugars raise your risk for heart disease, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, eye problems and blindness, cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia. Not good!
Are you at risk for diabetes?
Here are some clues:
- Do you have a family history of diabetes?
- Did your mother have gestational diabetes?
- Were you an underweight baby?
- Are you overweight?
- Do you have a dark colored ring around your neck?
- Do you have trouble losing weight?
- Are you always thirsty?
- Are you urinating too frequently?
- Do you come from African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, American Indian ancestors?
- Do you have high triglycerides (a blood test)?
If your answer to even one of these questions is yes, then you should consider checking your blood sugar.
An easy test is a fingerstick blood sugar using a glucometer, a machine that measures blood sugars. You can buy a glucometer at any drugstore without a prescription, and they all come with a few test strips in the package.
What do the blood tests mean?
| Great! | A little high | Prediabetes | Diabetes | |
| Before eating | Less than 85 | 85-99 | 100-125 | Over 125 |
| 1 or 2 hours after eating | Less than 120 | 121-140 | 141-199 | Over 200 |
What tests can you ask your doctor for?
- Hemoglobin A1C. This gives an indication of your average blood sugars over the previous 6-8 weeks. Ideal is less than 5.2, prediabetes is 5.7-6.4, and you likely have diabetes if it’s 6.5 or higher.
- Oral glucose tolerance test. You must fast for this test. A fasting blood sample is followed by a set amount of a sugary drink. I like to test insulin and blood sugar at baseline, 1 hour and 2 hours after the sugary drink. See the table above for how to interpret the blood sugars. Insulin levels should never rise above 30 at any time during the test. You can actually do this yourself, at home, by checking your blood sugars before and at one and two hours after you eat.
Here is the good news: if your tests are not normal, there are many things you can do to bring your blood sugars down without medication!
Abnormal tests
If you have abnormal blood sugars or an elevated HgbA1C, first start by taking a good look at your life. What do you eat? How do you move? How do you balance stress and relaxation? How are your relationships, your job, your sense of purpose in life? Do you have a zest for life? What toxins are you exposed to, and how can you decrease that exposure? How much Electromagnetic Radiation are you exposed to?
If your blood sugar is very high, it’s a priority to start doing things to bring the sugars down. I can help with that, and so can many other practitioners..
Strategies to bring your sugars down
Change the way you eat.
Eating lots of proteins like meats, eggs, fish, poultry, and healthy fats like lard, tallow, butter, ghee, chicken fat (schmaltz), duck fat, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and avocados will keep you from being hungry and feeling deprived while greatly improving your blood sugars.
Get moving.
Exercise is great to help bring down blood sugars and help your endocrine system work more effectively. Resistance exercises like weight lifting are especially helpful for those with blood sugar problems. Also important are cardio exercises, like walking, running, biking, and flexibility exercises: stretching, yoga, Pilates.
Consider whole food supplements.
Herbs like cinnamon, bitter melon, banaba, and gymnema are among the many used for centuries in other cultures to treat diabetes. Talk with your doctor or a knowledgeable practitioner about dosing and how to choose a high quality product.
Avoid artificial sweeteners.
Just because they have no calories, does not mean they have no effect on your blood sugar or your metabolism.
Address your stress.
Stress, whether emotional (just have an argument with someone important?), physical (joint pain, chronic headaches, and the like), poor dietary choices, lack of exercise all cause your body to react to the threat. This is extremely important if there is a dangerous situation, because your body sends blood to your legs to help you escape, and raises your blood sugar so those muscles have energy to run.
For most of us, though, we have stress – every day. Stress will keep your blood sugar high – every day! I often recommend deep breathing, prayer, meditation, journaling, movement, time in nature, gratitude as tools to help balance the sympathetic (fight or flight) system with the parasympathetic (rest/digest/repair/detoxify/reproduce) system. I also find programs in limbic training extremely helpful. My favorite program is called Primal Trust™. These types of programs teach new ways of thinking, and new ways to send messages to the body that all is safe. If the body doesn’t feel safe, then healing doesn’t happen very well or at all.
Get enough sleep.
Most adults need 7-8 hours/night to allow time for the body to repair. Do you get enough sleep? Do you sleep well? Do you feel rested and refreshed when you get up, or do you drag out of bed after hitting the snooze button a few times?
It is so much better to discover if you have a problem with your blood sugar early, before it progresses into diabetes. But even if you already have diabetes, the best time to start making changes to your life is NOW! Many people have stopped some or all of their diabetes medications by changing their eating, exercise, stress, sleep.
To your health,
Dr. Patty Powers
Patty Powers, MD, is an expert in helping kids and young people who struggle with weight, thyroid and blood sugar problems. Learn more by picking up her free report at www.drpattypowers.com