Problem - Fasting blood sugar level 120

by BDSingh
(Renukoot,UP,India)

QUESTION: My wife is having sugar level (fasting ) 120mg/dl. She is taking medicine. Today at about 11.45 AM (after breakfast at about 10 AM ) she felt very nervous & was sweating.

She started weeping & did not look lunch. At about 3 PM she went to doctor. After checking BP was found normal. Blood sugar was 133 mg/dl.

Dr said that this might have happened due to low blood sugar. PL advise.

Regards
BDSingh



ANSWER: Hi Singh,

If your wife has blood glucose level of 120mg/dl after 10-12 hours of fasting, that seems quite good to me.

Keep in mind that there is a tolerance in the blood glucose for diabetics; the same I see for your wife. In other words, we can accept certain sugar levels that are high.

However, this does not mean that she will sleep peacefully; No. She must do her best to keep her fasting blood sugar at least around 100mg/dl. Therefore, she must try it hard.

In general, when someone is sweating and he/she feels nervous and the hands are shaking, those are definitely signs of hypoglycemia.

This condition is very frequent in patients who are suffering from diabetes and it is caused by low blood glucose level.

As you probably know the organism, especially the brain, needs a lot of glucose in purpose to execute its normal function. When there is not enough glucose, the organism is trying

to compensate it by increasing the blood flow in certain critical areas like brain, heart and lungs.

For that reason the blood flow in the skin is reduced which is explaining the seating and the paleness.

There are several things your wife can do in purpose to prevent the developing of hypoglycemia.

1 - First of all, your wife is supposed to carry something sweet, like candies or chocolate, with her. When she feels the first symptoms of hypoglycemia, she is supposed to eat it in purpose to elevate the amount of glucose in the organism.

Actually, your wife should train herself in recognizing the signs of hypoglycemia as all the diabetics do. The vice-versa, your wife should train herself in recognizing the signs of hyperglyemia (very high blood glucose) as well.

2 - The second thing is to make your wife eat regularly. When she is eating regularly, small meals, several times a day, she is going to maintain constant amount of glucose in plasma, and will not face drastic oscillations in blood glucose.

3 - Besides this, your wife has to check her blood glucose regularly and to test her HbA1c every one or two months.

Changes in HbA1c are going to show if there is something wrong with the treatment of diabetes she is actually having. If the results are high, then, you must work with her doctor for the best treatment and control of diabetes.

Hope it helped! All the best!

Dr.Alba