All Entries Tagged With: "diabetes"
Will drinking alcohol increase my risk of nerve damage?
It will if you drink too much. Alcohol is a drug that is toxic to the nerves. Even people who do not have diabetes can get quite severe neuropathy if they drink too much alcohol.
I am not overweight, so why do I have diabetes?
Two things need to happen for anyone to get diabetes. If you don’t make enough insulin, then your body will not be able to keep your glucose level in the normal range.
How long after a meal should you test your blood glucose?
How fast your blood glucose rises and how high it gets and how long it stays up after eating depends a lot on what it was that you ate. If you ate a jelly sandwich on white bread and washed it down with regular pop, your blood glucose would go up very quickly but would not stay high for long, so checking your blood glucose one hour after the meal would probably catch the peak.
Why can I eat the exact same thing two days in a row and get totally different blood glucose results afterward?
One of the hardest things to deal with when you have diabetes is learning to live with how unpredictable everything is. It is unfair that you can do the same things on two days and get different results.The
problem is that there are lots of things that you do every day that are imprecise and that you have very little control over.
Why can I go to bed with a good blood glucose number, sleep all night, and wake up with a higher number?
This really baffles and frustrates a lot of people who have diabetes. Let’s say you did everything right, ate just the right amount of healthy food, took the right amount of your pills or insulin, and went to bed feeling good about yourself with a blood glucose that was 130 mg/dL (7.2 mmol/L), say.
What blood glucose targets should I be aiming for?
You should try to get your blood glucose levels as close to the normal non-diabetic range as you can without ruining your life with too much hassle, expense, weight gain, or problems from low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).
What is a normal blood glucose level for someone with diabetes?
There is no single answer for this. Whether you have diabetes or not, a normal blood glucose varies throughout the day. The normal range for blood glucose when you wake, after you have had nothing to eat for eight to ten hours (a fasting blood glucose), is between 70–100 mg/dL (3.9–5.9 mmol/L).
How often should people with diabetes check their blood glucose?
I often hear doctors and nurses saying things like, “All diabetic patients should check their blood glucose level four times a day!” Sometimes they say “five times a day” or “seven times a day,” perhaps “twice a day if you have type 2 diabetes, and four times a day if you have type 1 diabetes.”
Why should I test my blood glucose if I feel fine?
Some people will “swear blind” to me that they can “tell” when their blood glucose is too high and when it is too low, and so they don’t ever need to test their blood glucose. I know better than to argue with them. They are usually partly correct.
Does the fasting blood glucose need to be taken at the same time every day?
You don’t have to test at exactly the same time every day, but your blood glucose is likely to be different at 9:00 a.m. than it was at 7:00 a.m., even if you have not eaten or exercised in between times.