What the heck is glucose and why is it important to me?
One of the joys of getting to my age is I am on Medicare. I’m not sure if I can get out of Medicare, but that’s for another article. I find it interesting when I got into Medicare my doctor now sends me reminders to come in for my annual Medicare physical.
So I make my appointment and off I go. Of course, you have to do the fasting blood work. Why is it that when you have to fast for a blood test all you can think of is eating?
There are days I skip meals because I’m so busy I don’t have time to eat. I’m not that hungry then, strange. Back to the physical. Everything was good, well sort of, my glucose was 108. Not the worse, but it’s creeping higher over the years.
It’s a little harder to get up
I suspect most people as they start to age become more aware of physical problems. You wake up and it’s a little harder to get up. Your energy levels aren’t what they used to be. You can’t eat like a kid anymore. Going to the buffet isn’t the fun it use to be.
You go for a physical and the doctor says there are some things we need to talk about. All of these are points I’ve been running into over the last several years.
My doctor said the blood glucose level is something that needs to be watched. So I started to look more into what a glucose reading of 108 means. In many of the charts and articles, I’ve seen it saying I’m pre-diabetic.
Now, what does pre-diabetic mean? According to the Mayo Clinic, the food we eat enters our bloodstream as sugar. Your pancreas then releases insulin in your blood system to bring the sugar into your cells as an energy source. The bottom line it fuels your cells.
As your glucose level rises it’s an indication that the insulin isn’t working as well as it should. It’s like watching TV and seeing the same commercial over and over. You’ll your less likely to pay attention. When this starts to happen, your pancreas boosts the insulin to get the cell’s attention, hey take this stuff in. This is known as insulin resistance.
This is where problems begin, and it’s a slow process. Think of the frog that’s in a pot of water. You put the pot on a low flame and the frog doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. Your slowly rising glucose levels are something you probably can’t tell.
Insulin resistance conditions to watch for
Symptoms of insulin resistance are subtle. They include
· Feeling hunger
· Your feet and hands feeling numb and/or tingling
· Being thirsty
· Having more infections
· Sores take longer to heal
· Your vision becomes blurry
· Need to urinate more often
· Unexplained loss of weight
· Being tired
As your glucose levels rise, damage to your body’s systems begins to occur. Areas that are most susceptible in a prediabetes environment and become long-term points of damage have been linked to your heart, blood vessels, and kidneys.
Prediabetes is stressing these systems long before you are recognized with type 2 diabetes. You also become a candidate for silent/unrecognized heart attacks, sometimes also called silent heart attacks.
It seems that the rising glucose levels and insulin levels set off a cascade of effects on the systems of your body. Remember pancreas is working harder to put out more insulin because the cells aren’t taking in the glucose. Since cells aren’t getting enough energy, they must work harder.
Your body reacts to the rising glucose and insulin level by telling the kidneys to work to remove the glucose which increases the amount of urine which means a greater need to urinate. Your blood becomes thicker with higher levels of insulin and glucose. This causes irritation to the blood vessels, especially in the heart.
The irritation creates the opportunity for blood clots and the build-up of plaque. The irritated vessel walls become less flexible and rise in blood pressure. Areas of the body with small blood vessels and capillaries may begin to break because of pressure and rigidness.
This affects your eyes, brain, and kidneys. As you can see all of your body is affected. The cells aren’t getting enough energy to keep up with the demand, you become tired because the muscle aren’t able to get enough energy, and the body can’t remove the insulin and glucose so irritation rises, it goes on and on.
Is this a life sentence?
So is this a life sentence, are you doomed, no. You can reverse the effects with lifestyle changes. But you will have to be diligent for the rest of your life. The sooner you can make the changes the less damage will occur. Damage that has occurred most likely can’t be repaired, but you can eliminate future damage if you change.
What are changes that you can make? The following points describe things you can do to create a healthy lifestyle change.
Eat a healthy diet – Depending on when you discover you are prediabetic or type 2 diabetic will help define the urgency of making changes to your diet. If you are diagnosed as type 2 diabetic then you have high glucose levels and damage occurs. You should work with a qualified professional on creating a diet plan. If prediabetic a profession can certainly help, but common sense can go a long way to helping get you back to a normal glucose level. Either way, watch the carbs you eat. Move away from processed or packaged foods.
Be active – Being active means doing something. It doesn’t have to be extreme, but something you can enjoy. You need to wake up the body. Again depending on your health, follow your health care professional’s advice on levels of activity. Take a walk. Add to the distance over a period of time. You need to use the glucose in your system. Being active will wake up your body and mind.
Lose weight – If you can begin eating a healthy diet and being active you’re going to be on the way to losing weight. Cutting back on carbs and sugars will reduce the body’s need to store fat. Being active will require more energy than being a couch potato.
Maintain healthy blood pressure – Since prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are causing inflammation your cardiovascular system is being stressed. Lower blood pressure will help reduce the stress and limit additional damage.
Monitor your cholesterol – Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes have been shown to throw off your cholesterol balance. Your bad cholesterol gets higher, and the good cholesterol gets lower. Your triglycerides also climb in response. All this paints a picture of plaque build-up in your arteries.
Don’t smoke – enough said, don’t do it. Think of the money you’ll be able to save and be able to breathe better when you go for that walk to be active and lose weight😊.
Wrapping it up
Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes can be reversed. It will take effort to accomplish. All of this is a response to the lifestyle we have created. Much of what we eat today is manufactured so we want more of it, a subtle addiction to food. We’re eating more carbs and sugars today than we have ever eaten before. It is time to quit being sheep and demand healthy food products. It’s time to get away from our electronics and get out in the world. Take action, live healthily, and live longer. What the heck is glucose and why is it important to me, provides information on glucose and how it affects your body’s systems.
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H/T: Mayo Clinic, WebMD
