Measuring Fasting Blood Glucose Level of 126 - Is that high?

QUESTION: I am 62 year old have High Blood Pressure, controlled by tablet. Time to time i check my blood sugar,it was ok,but i checked yesterday it was 126 fasting. i am not a smoker,drinker,not even overweight.

Please advise how i can control.

ANSWER: Hi Sunil,

It is very good that you are checking your blood glucose from time in time, and everyone has to do this, especially those, who are above the age of 50, and are suffering of High blood pressure (HBP) as you are.

In purpose to remind you I will mention that, the normal blood glucose level is between 64.8 - 104.4mg/dl. However, some laboratories are having different values, because of the differences in the reagents and apparatuses.

Yes, at first look it is seems that a fasting blood glucose of 126 is a little bit high, but it is not in your case.

First of all, you have to know that people who are above the age of 60 are having slower metabolism compared to the metabolism of the younger people.

Having slower metabolism, means that your body needs more time to metabolize and transform the glucose in energy or constructive elements.

Besides this, your body needs more time to put the glucose inside the cells. This slowdown is leading to accumulation of glucose in blood, which is characterized by blood glucose elevation.

In addition, high blood glucose is not the only symptom as there exist certain (early) signs indicating for diabetes. Some of these symptoms include - drinking a lot of water; frequent urination, increased hunger, etc. As long as you do not have those signs, you don’t have to worry about diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Next, you are saying that you are treating your high blood pressure with pills. Keep in mind that some of those drugs can interfere into the glucose metabolism, causing high blood sugar.

If this is the case, you can discuss this with your doctor about the chances of developing diabetes you might have. Furthermore, ask your doctor to change therapy if he/she thinks this is the case, because, once this factor will be eliminated, your blood glucose will go back to normal again.

You are asking what to do to bring your fasting blood glucose back to normal level again?

1.First, ask your doctor if the drugs you are taking for high blood pressure are the cause of this elevation.

2.Try to adjust your diet according to the slowdown of your body's metabolism.

Try to reduce the amount of carbs acquired at dinner. Eating too much carbs in the evening will impede your organism to metabolize the glucose during the night.

Because of this, when you are eating limited amount of carbs in the evening, your organism will easily metabolize them during the night and the result is going to be normal blood glucose in the morning.

3.Other important thing is to start doing exercises according to your HBP and age requirements. This will improve very much your metabolism, because with exercises you will reduce the concentration of glucose in your blood.

Just walk for 30 minutes in the evening, and this will reduce the your fasting blood glucose level.

4.However, if you are still worried about your glucose level, you can always perform A1C test as it will show how your blood sugar has changed the last 3 months. Pay attention to the fact that the concentration of A1C has to be lower than 6.5%.

Hope it helped!

Dr.Alba

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