Blood Glucose (Sugar) Levels
Blood glucose measurements give insight into how effective your body is in dealing with sugars from your food. Glucose is the body’s preferred source of energy. The highest energy demands come from your muscles and brain. When there is excess glucose it is stored away in tissues to be used at a later time with the help of the hormone, insulin. Insulin acts as a key that enables glucose transportation into the cells, allowing its use for energy production. A high blood glucose reading can indicate insulin resistance, which describes the cells’ ineffective responses to insulin, so there is less fuel (glucose) in the cells for energy production. This is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes mellitus. High blood sugar levels over a prolonged time can cause damage to your nerves, eyes, kidneys and heart in particular. Due to the inefficient hormone regulation of this condition, low blood sugar levels are a problem too, causing dizziness, weakness and fainting. It is essential to have healthy blood sugar levels to maintain optimum health and vitality.
What happens when we’re stressed? Our blood sugar levels increase as our body ensures that there is ample to deal with the increased demands. Stress can come in the form of psycho-mental or psycho-emotional stress but also physical stress through lack of sleep or toxicity. Research tells us in particular that lack of sleep is highly associated with diabetes mellitus. Sleep is one of the most important lifestyle factors determining health outcomes. It is during sleep that the body carries out its most important functions of cleaning up (detoxifying), repairing damaged cells, and restoring physiological balance. The body is under great stress when we get insufficient sleep as these processes cannot be completed and we degenerate quickly. Most people these days are running on a 1.5-hour sleep deficit on average. It is an important part of our population’s health decline. Caffeine, alcohol, sweet and refined starchy foods also significantly impact on blood sugar stability.