Normal Blood Sugar Levels and Diabetes

High blood sugar levels are a common factor in the disease called diabetes, a serious and potentially life-threatening health condition. There are many additional complications that can arise from poorly controlled diabetes, some of which are referred to at the end of this article, together with a link to additional reading.

Types of diabetes: There are three main types of diabetes, referred to respectively as Type-1, Type-2, and Gestational Diabetes, all characterized by higher than normal blood sugar levels. Types 1 and 2 are incurable forms of the disease while gestational diabetes is normally a temporary condition that affects only a small percentage of women when they may become pregnant. More than 90% of all diabetes cases fall into the type-2 category. The following discussion refers to type-2 diabetes and its related condition, prediabetes.

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Persistent high blood sugar levels are the classic warning signs of diabetes and something to be very concerned about if you have been advised by your doctor that your blood sugars fall into that category.

It is unlikely that a person would know whether their blood sugars are high without having visited a doctor who would have sent them for a standard blood test from which the blood sugar levels that have existed for the prior three months can be determined.

In such a case, after reviewing a patient’s blood test results, the doctor would certainly advise the patient of the pertinent facts, warn them of the consequences and further advise them on what to do to deal with the situation. More than likely, future treatment under the care of the doctor will be necessary.

The good news: High blood sugars can be treated and diabetes prevented

When first learning that high blood sugar levels exist, it does not necessarily mean that diabetes is present, at least not yet, but left untreated the risk of becoming fully diabetic is very high. But the fortunate thing is that the high blood sugar condition can be reversed, and doing so is essential in order to avoid a greatly diminished quality of life in the future because once diabetes becomes a reality the damage is done, there is no cure and no reversal for the disease.

The bad news: Sometimes it is too late for prevention

However, it is also necessary to add that many times when that first blood test is obtained the patient will already be diabetic — but just not aware of the fact. It happened to me that way, that was my own personal experience. Like many of my fellow diabetics, I was diagnosed immediately after having a routine annual checkup, I never knew until then that high blood sugar levels had been circulating throughout my body for a long time.

From the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet
The discovery without prior warning that a person has diabetes is not unusual. In fact, in January of this year, the American Diabetes Association and other health authorities released a document titled “The 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet” which reported that there are an estimated 7 million people in the United States who have diabetes and are unaware of that fact. Even more alarming is the estimate that there are tens of millions more who have the condition referred to as Prediabetes.

But Prediabetes is reversable
Prediabetes, as its name suggests, frequently precedes diabetes proper. Both diabetes and prediabetes are conditions involving high blood sugar levels but the major difference is that prediabetes can be reversed and need not necessarily lead to diabetes.

Reversing prediabetes with a change in lifestyle
It is thought that most diabetics once suffered from and passed through the phase now referred to medically as prediabetes. Reversing prediabetes usually requires commitment to a change in lifestlyle. Like most people with diabetes, those with prediabetes are frequently overweight and follow a sedentary way of life.

To lower the existing high blood sugars to normal, or at least to a safer level, and to avoid the inevitable path to diabetes, it is imperative to make lifestyle changes. Most frequently those involve the implementation of dietary changes and the addition of regular exercise, where possible and appropriate for the individual. In some instances prescription medications may be necessary.

It is important to note that the changes required to prevent prediabetes are much the same as the changes and treatment for diabetes – so if those changes will be required anyway, it makes much better sense to make them before diabetes takes hold.

And here is why you must avoid diabetes:

Statistics from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet indicate the following under the heading of Complications of Diabetes:

Heart disease and stroke

• The risk of having a stroke is 2 to 4 times greater among people with diabetes
• Heart disease death rates are 2 to 4 times higher in people with diabetes compared to non-diabetic people. In diabetic adults of 65 years and older, heart disease is the primary cause of death
• Most adult diabetics suffer from high blood pressure – usually requiring medication

Blindness

• Diabetes is the major cause of all new cases of blindness among adults from 20 to74 years of age.
• In a recent 3 year period, 2005 to 2008, over 4 million Americans with diabetes who were aged 40 years or older had diabetic retinopathy, which is damage to the eye than can lead to blindness or severe loss of vision.

Kidney disease

• Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. Many people with diabetes depend on kidney dialysis to survive or require a kidney transplant to survive.

Diabetic Neuropathy — Nervous system diseas

• About 60% to 70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage caused by the excess levels of blood sugar that damage tissues and organs as it circulates in the bloodstream. It is difficult to treat and can cause significant discomfort – as it does in my own life.

Amputation

• More than 60% of non-traumatic amputation of lower-limbs occur in people with diabetes.
• In 2006, in the United States, approximately 65,700 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes.

In closing
Please check out the scenario, based on my personal experience, of what typically happens when you first hear from your doctor that you have type-2 diabetes. It can be found together with diabetic diet related topics on our companion website at Diabetic Food List.

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