High blood sugar is not something you "feel"
November is diabetes awareness month. According to the International Diabetes Association, there are about half a billion people living with diabetes worldwide and half of them are not even aware that they have diabetes!
Why is that?
Simply because
High blood sugar is not something you "feel".
As with high blood pressure which can easily go under the radar unless checked, you could be walking around with somewhat elevated blood sugar levels for DECADES and you will have no idea.
Higher than optimal blood sugar causes as much, if not more, damage than high blood pressure, yet how many times, after measuring your blood pressure has your Dr said "Lets now prick your finger and check your blood sugar"? Or encouraged you to do so at home? I suspect, zero.
Doctors will generally check your fasting blood glucose once a year (assuming you go for a check up that often). If it is <100mg/dl you get a pat on the back and off you go.
This, however, is an arbitrary cut off. You could test one day and be at 99 mg/dl and the very next day, after a crappy night of sleep, you could be at 110 and the day after that, if you do your blood test 3hrs after waking up instead of 1hr, you could be at 120 (the so called "dawn effect").
More importantly, however, this test shows very little about your body's ability to deal with the glucose coming from your meals. You could have a "normal" fasting blood glucose reading yet be experiencing significant and frequent blood sugar spikes after your meals.
A 2018 study from Stanford University found just that.
Study participants were given a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) which measured their blood glucose non-stop and were each asked to eat 3 different types of breakfast (cornflakes with milk plus raisins, a cereal bar, or a bread and peanut butter sandwich).
The study found that even individuals considered to have normal blood sugar levels by standard measures had high blood glucose spikes after the meals, with glucose levels reaching prediabetic and diabetic ranges in several participants.
More than half of these "healthy" participants spiked to the same levels as those of people who were prediabetic or diabetic and almost everyone (80%) spiked after the milk and cornflakes breakfast.
Make of that what you will, but to me this points to 2 things:
- Keep track of your blood sugar! We live in a world where technology makes it very easy and not very expensive to do so at home - no need to wait for your annual blood test which does not even come close to telling you everything you need to know.
- Whatever you do - don't eat corn flakes for breakfast!