Why High Blood Sugar Levels are Dangerous to Health
Higher than normal blood sugar levels characterize diabetes, a serious disease that is known to afflict more than 20 million Americans. Higher than normal blood sugar levels are also associated with a related disease condition called Pre-Diabetes that, if left untreated, can often develop into a full Type-2 form of diabetes.
Blood and sugar
Sugar exists in the blood quite naturally. The sugar that is carried in the bloodstream is called glucose and is obtained from the foods and beverages eaten everyday. Sugars, depending on their chemical structure, can be simple or complex, glucose is a simple sugar and like all sugars is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are a category of essential nutrients, together with proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water, needed to keep us alive.
When carbohydrates in foods are eaten, the body’s digestive process breaks them down to their simple form of glucose which then passes through the intestines and enters the bloodstream that circulates and carries the glucose throughout the body where it is taken up by the body’s cells that use the glucose as a source of energy.
Normal Blood Sugar Levels
In America, blood sugar levels are measured in metric units of milligrams per deciliter, mg/dL, where there are one-thousand milligrams to a gram and a deciliter is one-hundredth of a liter.
The normal levels of sugar in the blood range narrowly from 64.8 and 104.4 mg/dL, although they are usually higher for about 2 hours after meals and are usually lower in the morning after an overnight’s sleep.
Why blood sugars rise above normal levels
To enter the cells of the body, the glucose requires the assistance of a hormone called insulin that is normally manufactured in response to rising blood sugar levels by an organ in the body called the pancreas. But sometimes the production of the essential insulin becomes impaired and insufficient amounts become available, and in some individuals, usually children or young adults, the supply ceases altogether, leading to type-1 diabetes. Alternatively, the cells of the body become resistant to insulin, blocking its role of conducting the blood glucose into those cells. The result is that the glucose remains to a large extent in the blood, an unhealthy condition.
Why the higher than normal blood sugar levels are dangerous
When the condition of high blood sugar levels exists for a long period of time, it is called diabetes. If left untreated and allowed to persist, the high blood sugar condition damages the small blood vessels of the body and increases the risk of developing many other serious health conditions, some of which are life threatening.
The statistics tell the story, the principal diabetes authorities of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, jointly published a report called the National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2007, the latest year for which full statistics are available, reporting that
¨The risk of stroke for diabetics is 2 to 4 times higher than it is for non-diabetics.
¨The death rate for diabetic adults is also about 2 to 4 times higher than it is for non-diabetics.
¨The leading cause of kidney failure is diabetes.
¨The leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 20 years and older is diabetes.
¨Over 60 % of all non-accident amputations are associated with diabetes.
¨In 2005, the latest year of available data, diabetes was associated with almost 235,000 deaths, making it the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.
Cure and treatment
There is no cure for diabetes, although research efforts never ceases in trying to find the cause and the cure, but until that is achieved the treatment and management of the disease is mainly centered on lifestyle changes of diet, exercise, and weight control and, in some case, prescription drugs.
The lifestyle changes require the adoption of an appropriate dietary plan. A diabetic diet plan can include almost all available food items and can be tailored to meet the personal preferences of the individual diabetic. A nutritious diabetic diet attempts to limit the consumption of simple carbohydrates, the sugary sweet foods that can cause sharp upward spikes in blood sugar levels. Also the diabetic diet limits the amount of saturated fats to be consumed and the daily amounts of foods eaten should not provide more calories than are needed to equal the amounts of energy expended in all the activities of the day.
Overweight people are at higher risk of developing diabetes and prevention and treatment of diabetes requires that efforts be made to bring body weight to within a range considered as healthy. Exercise may play a part in that and the type of exercise must vary with the physical abilities or infirmities of the individual concerned but frequent exercise of any sort is beneficial.
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