Signs of High Blood Sugar: Stop It Before Diabetes Takes Over

I love chocolate and sweets, and I know many people who love it as well. One of the misconceptions is that eating chocolate will cause high blood sugar. Actually, sugar is present in many more foods than chocolate (e.g., white flour and white flour-based products are also high in sugar). Nevertheless, it’s important to talk about the signs of high blood sugar, because it is one of the most troublesome diseases of the 21st century. What is awful is that children today suffer from diabetes, and it all comes down to bad eating habits and an unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Any diabetes treatment plan includes control of blood sugar.

Source: ritely.com

That being said, let’s take a look at the problem, causes, and signs of high blood sugar you should not ignore.

What are high blood sugar levels?

In order to understand what classifies as high blood sugar levels, we must understand the normal levels first. These numbers are for people without diabetes. Normal blood sugar can be divided into three groups: fasting, before meals, and after meals. The normal fasting blood sugar level on awakening should be under 100 mg/dl. A before-meal blood sugar level is normal when it is between 70 and 99 mg/dl. Two hours after your meal, the blood sugar level should be less than 140 mg/dl. Now, just as there are two types of normal blood sugar levels (fastening and before a meal are almost the same), there are two types of high blood sugar.

• Fasting hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) is when your sugar is above 130 mg/dl on awakening, before meals, or after not eating or drinking anything for 8 hours.
• Postprandial (after a meal) hyperglycemia is when your sugar levels are higher than 180 mg/dl two hours after your meal.

While one may have high blood sugar from time to time (for example, after a big, fatty meal), it is not normal to constantly have a high blood sugar level. Constant hyperglycemia can lead to damage to your blood vessels, damage to your organs, and damage to your nerves. Type 2 diabetes is a potentially deadly condition.

Signs of high blood sugar can be divided into two groups: mild high blood sugar symptoms and severe high blood sugar symptoms. Mild symptoms include increased thirst, increased urination, weight loss, fatigue, increased appetite, dry mouth, and dry skin. Severe high blood sugar symptoms include blurred vision, extreme thirst, hot and dry skin, drowsiness, belly pain, weak pulse, fast heart rate, and fruity breath odor. We will explain all these signs one by one.

Excessive urination

Medically called “polyuria,” excessive urination is one of the three main symptoms of high blood sugar (along with excessive thirst and hunger). Excessive urination happens as a chain reaction to the two other symptoms. It all starts in the blood, where, due to a high blood concentration, intracellular fluids are pulled into the bloodstream. Think of it as your body’s reaction to balance the concentration of glucose. Your body dilutes the blood, and the glucose concentration is brought to normal. However, this increases the volume of fluid in your blood. At the same time, your kidneys can’t work properly, and as a result, they discharge large amounts of urine.

So, your cells are pumping water into your bloodstream, and the only organ that can reabsorb that fluid—your kidneys—is not working properly. So, you have an urge to urinate. Now, excessive urination is classified as more than 2.5 quarts per day. This doesn’t apply to people who drink a lot of water (like bodybuilders when they need to remove fat from their body). The normal urine output is 1.5 quarts per day.

Excessive thirst

We mentioned that there is a chain reaction in your body, and that urination goes along with thirst and hunger. As you might assume, since your body is throwing away fluids, you need to replenish those fluids. If not, you’ll dehydrate. Thirst signals are triggered in your brain as soon as you start urinating more and more. People with diabetes often misunderstand and misinterpret the connection between urination and thirst. People think that urination is a result of thirst. In reality, it works the other way around. So, a common misconception is that you are urinating because you “drinking a lot of water lately.” Continue Reading  >> Page 2