What factors influence glucose levels | What factors cause deviations from the norm
Women rarely check blood sugar levels, while this is an important indicator of health that can help prevent the occurrence of serious diseases, including diabetes. The blood glucose level in women changes with age, often due to hormone fluctuation (menopause or pregnancy) and many other reasons. Before eating, the norm can fluctuate up to 6.1 mmol / L, and after eating, up to 7.8 mmol / L. It depends on the diet of a woman, her functional condition. Therefore, with excess weight, the normal level of blood glucose will be higher, but at the same time, the woman will not formally have diabetes mellitus.
What factors influence glucose levels?
Before labs, you do not need to adhere to a special diet or limit yourself to something, but you should not overeat. Avoid alcohol, as it has a lot of sugar and this may affect your results. It is also worth avoiding heavy physical and mental stress, which increase blood sugar. With dubious results, they take blood again, this analysis is done one and a half to two hours after eating. Tests can determine the degree of deviation from the norm and based on this you can choose the method of how to increase or decrease glucose to normal values.
The blood glucose rate in women has a direct correlation with the proper functioning of the liver, since excess sugar is stored here after taking in food. If the liver does not work well, then excess glucose is released into the blood. Excess carbohydrates are stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. If the liver does not work well, then excess glucose is released into the blood. For example, an adult and healthy woman weighing 75 kilograms has 326 grams of glycogen. If a woman consumes a lot of glucose or sugar, her blood level will increase significantly, this phenomenon is called “food hyperglycemia”, and it is not associated with diabetes.
Increased blood sugar in women can manifest as pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism, and pancreatic cancer. The reasons for the increase are recognized during a comprehensive study. Low sugar can be the result of debilitating diets and rejection of sweets.
What factors cause deviations from the norm?
First of all, this is an insufficient or unhealthy diet, stress, smoking and alcohol. Also, sugar levels are affected by medication, metabolic disorders, heart attack and burns. Other causes may be a decrease and increase in the number of female sex hormones (adolescence, pregnancy, menopause), excessive physical activity, as well as increased or reduced weight.
In women, blood sugar levels may change a few days before the onset of menstruation, which returns to normal at the end of the cycle. The highest peaks are usually recorded in the morning. Also, women with diabetes during menopause notice a sharp increase in sugar and the occurrence of hypoglycemia. During attacks of hypoglycemia, a woman may feel chills, severe weakness, and a rapid pulse. This is due to changes in hormonal levels and jumps in estrogen levels. For the same reason, insulin production is reduced, and in such cases, doctors increase the dosage of insulin injections. In such situations, it is recommended to more often measure your sugar level with a glucometer and record your results in a diary. It is necessary to accurately calculate the dose of insulin according to the glucometer and consumed food. Do not drastically change the dosage due to such sudden jumps, over time, sugar should stabilize.
The norm of blood glucose in women: 6.1 mmol / l before meals and 7.8 mmol / l after.
Particular consideration of blood glucose is required during pregnancy. The woman’s body is undergoing changes associated with the need to supply the unborn baby with nutrients, so sugar levels may also differ from the norm. Sometimes blood sugar can be elevated in healthy women (without diabetes), this disease is called “pregnancy diabetes”, or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
It is diagnosed in a small number of pregnant women, and after childbirth the blood glucose level returns to normal, however, in the future, the woman remains at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This type of diabetes often has no visible signs, so it is recommended that all women undergo a diagnosis of carbohydrate metabolism during pregnancy. Diagnosis is carried out in two stages, and the doctor who is following up can inform the patient.
The fundamental principles for the treatment of GDM are:
- lifestyle modification (diet and moderate physical activity);
- insulin therapy when it is not possible to achieve blood glucose targets on diet therapy.
The use of any oral hypoglycemic drugs during pregnancy is contraindicated.
- Daily self-monitoring of blood glucose using plasma calibrated glucometers. If a pregnant woman with GDM is only on diet therapy, then self-monitoring should be carried out on an empty stomach and after 1 hour from the start of main meals; if on insulin therapy – then at least 7 times a day (before and 1 hour after meals and at night).
- Self-monitoring of ketonuria (level of ketone bodies in the urine) 1 time in 2 weeks.
The likelihood of having GDM increases if a woman has relatives with diabetes, is overweight, or has become pregnant after 35 years of age.