BALANCE is the key word in living well with diabetes.

BALANCE is the key word in living well with diabetes. 

Self-monitoring your blood sugar is the best way to let you know how well your plan is working. 

The information on the info graphic will help you figure out the reason your blood sugar has been either too high or too low. 

You can use this information to help you.

The 4 Main factors that influence blood sugar in the body. 

Food can increase blood sugar 

Stress can increase blood sugar

Diabetes Medication can lower blood sugar

Exercise or Physical activity can lower blood sugar

Other factors can raise or lower blood sugar, but these are the main factors. 

 Let’s review the American Diabetes Association recommended blood sugar levels. Ideally a before meal sugar would be between 80 and 130 and one to two hours after a meal a sugar of less than 180. 

Raising blood sugar

Food naturally raises blood sugar for everyone. The problem is eating too much food.  Ask yourself, Did I eat too much food? Did I eat food with too many carbohydrates? Many people think food is the only thing that raises blood sugar. Stress also raises blood sugar. If a blood sugar is high, ask yourself, Am I in emotional stress (angry, frustration, worry)? Did I injure myself? Am I in pain? Am I ill? 

Lowering blood sugar

Exercise/physical activity (moving the body) is wonderful and a fun way to help lower blood sugar! It does not mean only going to the gym doing an hour of cardio and sweating. Taking a leisurely walk will help lower blood sugar. Ask yourself, “what activity have I done today? Using our muscles helps the cells become more receptive to the insulin we take or make. Consistently taking diabetes medication, as prescribed, will help lower blood sugar. Ask yourself, Did I remember to take my diabetes medication? Did I take the right dose at the right time?

                      What does it exactly mean to balance the scale in a practical sense? 

Here are a few stories to give you an idea of what balancing the scale means:

I had a client ask me, “I don’t understand it, why did my sugar go low after lunch? “

We know food (specifically carbohydrates) raises blood sugar. For this woman, she happened to be shopping at the mall. She stopped and had a salad with her friend. About 1 hour later after her meal she experienced a low blood sugar. What do you think the reason is? Several things may have happened. First of all, she was walking. Exercise lowers blood sugar. You would think she would balance blood sugar by eating? Not so in this case.

She didn’t have that balance because she only had a salad with meat on it. She didn’t have enough carbohydrates at the meal. Non-starchy vegetables only for lunch may have not been enough. In the morning she took her glimepiride (a pill that helps lower blood sugar by helping the pancreas release more insulin.)  She had too many factors lowering blood sugar and not enough factors to increase blood sugar. That’s where there was an imbalance. To balance this situation out she ideally would have had some carbohydrate for lunch due to still getting the benefits of her diabetes pill and the benefits of exercise which lowered her blood sugar.

I suggested next time she have a carbohydrate such as kidney beans or another bean that is healthy on the salad. A piece of fruit would be a nutritious addition also. This would have helped balance the scale because the diabetes medication and the exercise were lowering blood sugar. 

                        My sugar is almost always high at bedtime? Why could that be?  

Many people eat their biggest meal of the day at dinner. Carbohydrates increase blood sugar. We need to have carbohydrates at our meal but sometime that can be too much. Some people also may forget to take their insulin until after a meal or even forget all together to take the insulin or diabetes pill. 

The imbalance would be too many carbohydrates at dinner (increasing sugar) and forgetting or delaying the diabetes medication (lowering sugar). Balancing the scale could be to eat less carbohydrates at the meal and remember to take the diabetes medication. 

If you have eaten the correct amount of carbohydrates and taken your medication as directed, the sugar may be elevated because of either emotional or physical stress. (Stress increases blood sugar). Try to balance the scale by walking or getting some activity to lower sugar.

Yes, without a doubt, diabetes care does involve learning, effort and figuring things out. It basically is,”trial and error.” 

The time and effort put in is definitely worth it when health is the goal. 

Learning to look at blood sugars and figure out how to balance the scale is a sure way to minimize the high and low blood sugars on a daily basis.