Normal Blood Sugar Levels and Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder that occurs when a person’s blood sugar levels are consistently above the normal levels described below.

To be free of diabetes, blood glucose levels should be between 70 to 99 mg/dL

That is the target diabetic level that you need to aim for in order to avoid developing diabetes, or prediabetes – according to the American Diabetes Association. This article explains the procedures used to measure for diabetic levels and defines the levels generally accepted as being normal. In addition, the target are given for cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure.

Do you have diabetes?
To answer that question requires a simple blood test that can provide a measurement of the amount of glucose that exists in the blood of a person at the time the sample was taken, usually hours or days before the laboratory analysis is made.

Measured in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) in the United States and in millimoles per liter (mmol/L) in most other countries of the world, the American Diabetes Association has established that a person who does NOT have diabetes will have fasting glucose levels in their blood in an amount between 70 to 99 mg/dL (3.9 to 5.5 mmol/L).

Additional details and other important target levels for blood pressure and cholesterol levels are given below.

The disease and its prevention
But first, a few diabetes facts that underscore the seriousness of the disease and the damage that can occur when the condition is left untreated and why it is a sensible health precaution to see a doctor and have a simple test from which the current state of health can be determined.

The important benefit of having a diabetic test is that diabetes can be prevented if its frequent precurser, a condition known as prediabetes, can be identified. However, once diabetes is diagnosed as a medical fact, the condition cannot be cured, only treated and managed with the advice and supervision of a doctor.

Facts released in the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet
Of the many dismal facts provided by the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, available from the American Diabetes Association, one of the worst is that there are an estimated 7 million adults and children in America who have diabetes but are unaware of it. This means they are not receiving essential treatment and because of that, slowly but surely their elevated blood sugar levels are causing damage to their tissues and organs, a situation that leads to the even more dire consequences that often follow when diabetes is left untreated for any significant length of time. Those complications include heart disease, kidney disease, eye disease that can cause blindness, blood vessel and blood circulation problems that might lead to gangrene and require the amputation of limbs, all like ticking time bombs and too unpleasant to contemplate.

Obviously the symptoms of diabetes are not always readily apparent or identifiable, certainly not to the 7 million referred to in the National Diabetes Fact Sheet. For this reason alone, that should be considered as an alert to the possibilities and the need for a test to determine potentially diabetic levels if they exist.

The blood tests to determine diabetic levels, if any
The tests, and there are two of them, are obtained from the same small sample of blood, usually taken from a vein in the arm in a virtually painless and speedy procedure performed by a health technician in a medical clinic. The sample is then assayed by a laboratory and the results provided to the consulting doctor.

The actual blood sample for testing, is usually provided in the morning after not having eaten for 8 hours or more, referred to as a fasting blood glucose sample. A blood sample obtained in this way enable two forms of blood testing, a fasting blood glucose test and another test referred to as an A1c blood test, also called a glycated, or glycosylated, hemoglobin test.

The A1c blood test – target level is less than 6%
The A1c test is valuable because it provides a measure of how much glucose has existed in the blood during the past 12 to 15 weeks or so. This is possible because the approximate lifespan of red blood cells is limited to about 120 days. Two or three millions of them are produced every second and in a healthy body, about the same number die every second. The red blood cells contain a substance called hemoglobin, a protein that binds with oxygen that is carried to the cells of the body.

The glucose that is derived in the process of digestion of food, eaten in the normal process of living, is also delivered into the blood stream and some of the glucose molecules become attached to the blood’s hemoglobin molecules. The A1c test provides a percentage measurement of how much glucose exists, the more glucose the higher the percentage. A person who does not have diabetes would normally have a measurement of less that 6%.

Other
When having blood tested for diabetic levels, it is customary to also analyze the same blood sample to measure chlolesterol levels, triglyceride levels, and possibly other blood components that can aid the doctor in determining the patient’s state of health.

Cholesterol
The two main types of cholesterol are defined by the amounts of LDL (Low density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein) in the blood.

According to publications of the Mayo Clinic, a leading health United States health authority, the targets are as follows:

Total cholesterol is to be below 200 mg/dL

LDL Cholesterol – sometimes referred to as the “bad” cholesterol.

The target is to have low levels of LDL cholesterol. A near ideal level for healthy people is from 100 to 129 mg/dL

For those people who are at a high risk of heart disease the target level is to be below 100 mg/dL

For those people who are at a very high risk of heart disease the target level is to be below 70 mg/dL
LDL cholesterol is to be below 100 mg/dL for those people who are at high risk of heart disease.

HDL Cholesterol – the “good cholesterol.
An HDL level below 40 mg/dL in men, or below 50 mg/dL in women, is rated as being poor.
The target is to have high levels of HDL cholesterol. An amount of 50 to 59 mg/dL would be reasonably good but an amount of 60 mg/dL would be better.

It appears that higher than normal levels of cholesterol may be prevalent in some families where, due to genetic make-up, the family members may be more likely to have higher cholesterol levels even if good dietary practices are followed. For this reason, if it is known that there is a family history of high cholesterol and heart disease, it is possible that a doctor may requisition more frequent tests and may request a determination of cholesterol levels at the first available age opportunity from about 20 years in order to establish a baseline reference value for future comparisons.

Triglycerides
There is another category of fats found in the blood called triglycerides. High levels of triglycerides can be harmful and according to the American Heart Association, triglycerides are linked to the occurrence of coronary artery disease in some people. Also, some scientists believe there is an increased risk of heart disease in people with diabetes who have high levels of triglycerides. The American Heart Association states that a normal triglyceride level is less that 150 mg/dL.

Blood pressure
Blood pressure is expressed in millimeters of mercury, abbreviated to mm Hg, and is usually measured in a doctor’s office using a special blood pressure measuring device. The results obtained are classified by their range as being variations of high, normal, or low and are read as two numbers that relate to the heart pumping and the heart at rest, typically 120 over 80 or 120/80 mm Hg.

What is being measure is the pressure exerted by the heart to pump blood to the body into the arteries, called the systolic pressure, and secondly, the pressure between heart beats when the heart is momentarily relaxed, called the diastolic pressure. A more detailed explanation can be found on the website of the American Heart Association.

An ideal adult blood pressure is below 120 systolic / 80 diastolic (120/80).

A blood pressure of 140/90, or higher, is considered to be high blood pressure.

In conclusion
The above details have been checked with publications of authoritative health authorities and are basic guidelines of the established ranges that are generally accepted as being “healthy”. But individuals differ and the fact that we are all unique in some respects should be taken into account when viewing the data provided here.

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