Normal Blood Sugar Levels

How to Manage Your Diabetes Blood Sugar Levels

Everyone wants normal blood sugar levels. In fact, managing you diabetes blood sugar level (also known as glucose) is the core focus of your health. Everything else, diet, exercise, insulin, etc., is tangential to this topic, because every diabetes treatment is aimed at controlling the body's level of blood sugar or glucose.

What exactly are normal blood sugar levels? It is not as easy as you think. What might be normal for you, may not be right for others. One place to start is determining what your Normal Fasting Blood Glucose level is.

Just for fun (and to learn something too!), you may want to also check out this article on What is the Highest Blood Sugar Reading Recorded?.

Hyperglycemia and Hypoglycemia

Other challenges people face is that depending upon the circumstances the body can have high blood sugar levels, a condition called hyperglycemia, or low blood sugar levels, a condition referred to as hypoglycemia.

Either condition creates a unique set of problems that need to be addressed. Good blood sugar management requires a multi pronged approach, including monitoring, proper diet, exercise, and medication. Proper blood sugar management keeps you healthy, reduces diabetes complication, and simply makes you feel better.

Learning What Causes High and Low Blood Sugar Levels and, in particular How to handle high blood sugar is critical to your health.

Monitoring and Testing Your Diabetes Blood Sugar Level

For many diabetics, they need to self monitor blood sugar levels daily, often multiple times a day. This is usually done through a personal glucose meter. If you need help choosing a blood glucose meter, check out our Glucose Meter Review page.

A1c Testing

A1c Testing is also required. A1c refers to derived average glucose. At a minimum, The American Diabetes Association recommends that this test is done semi-annually, but can be done quarterly or even more frequently if warranted. The ADA has established the following blood sugar target levels.

Before Meals (Preprandial) - Between 70 to 130 mg/dL
One to Two hours after the start of a meal (Postprandial) - Below 180 mg/dL
A1c target level is 7% or lower (although some researchers propose lower levels).

UPDATE: In 2010, the ADA approved the A1C test as a diagnosis tool for diabetes. Test results between 6-6.5% is high risk for developing diabetes. A 6.5% or above is considered a diabetes diagnosis.

Insulin and Your Diabetes Blood Sugar Level

Insulin is the hormone that helps transfer glucose (sugar) from the blood to the cells. When insulin is either not produced or there is a resistance to insulin, then a person's blood sugar cannot be properly managed. Type 1 diabetics need insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar. Some type 2 and gestational diabetics also use insulin.

You may also be curious about How Is Synthetic Insulin Made. Alternatively, if you want to learn How to Boost Your Body's Insulin Production this is a fascinating article.

Probably the best info, especially for those who like to have a beer or glass of wine from time to time, is this article on What is the Role of the Liver and Blood Sugar Management?. Fascinating stuff!

Most diabetics worry about not having enough insulin, but from this article you should also be aware of the opposite situation: What is the treatment for hyperinsulinism?

Medications Help Achieve Normal Blood Sugar Levels

Type 2 diabetics often can benefit from medications that help control blood sugar levels. These medications assist with stimulating insulin production, increasing insulin sensitivity, lowering glucose output, and assisting with carbohydrate absorption. We have also done some reviews of individual medications including Novorapid and Novolog: Rapid Acting Insulin and Glyset and Diabetes: It's All About Control

Whew! This is a lot of information and should get you started on learning all about your diabetes blood sugar levels. Also, work with your doctor to determine your normal blood sugar levels.