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Avoid Diabetes, Maintain These Normal Blood Sugar Levels

When, in conversation, people learn that I am a type-2 diabetic, I am often asked about blood sugar levels that characterize the disease and about and what are normal blood sugar levels for someone who does not have diabetes.

Not difficult questions to answer, I usually say that normal blood sugar levels for a non-diabetic person should be no higher than 108 mg/dL and that most people in the United States who have been diagnosed as having diabetes would possess a small hand-held measuring device, usually referred to as a glucometer. The glucometer can almost instantly measure a small amount of blood obtained from a pinprick, usually at to the end a fingertip. Although the problem for some people is that they are not aware they have diabetes.

The reason to know what are the accepted normal blood sugar levels, is to be able to know whether your own blood sugars fall into that safe range. If they do not, there is a real possibility that you are developing diabetes or a prediabetic condition, and that requires additional testing to make a determination. A simple explanation of how sugar is used by the body follows.

The sugar in the bloodstream is obtained from the food consumed each day, mainly from carbohydrates that are broken down by the body’s digestion system. The bloodstream carries the glucose to the cells of the body that need it to fuel their cellular activities that sustain life.

Blood sugar levels do not stay the same but fluctuate throughout the day, depending especially on food intake and exercise levels. Carbohydrates provide the major portion of sugars in the blood and food items with a high carbohydrate content, such as cakes, pastries, and rich desserts supply the highest amounts of blood sugars. A healthy body can maintain blood sugars at a safe and normal blood sugar level.

But some people have an impaired glucose management system that prevents the full absorption of sugar from the bloodstream into the cells and an increase of sugar, above normal level, occurs in the blood. When that situation continues to exist it becomes diabetes, a condition that cannot be cured or reversed.

With the aid of a glucometer, there are two recommended times during the day when measurement of blood sugars should be made. The first, referred to as a fasting blood sugar measurement, is usually taken in the early morning before breakfast after rising from eight hours of sleep. The second suggested blood test should be performed 2 hours after eating a meal. The target values for those tests are given below.

There is also another very important diagnostic test. To determine whether or not a person does actually have diabetes, requires a visit to a doctor who will requisition a more complex clinical blood analysis called a Glycosylated Hemoglobin blood test, also referred to as an A1C blood test. This test is able to measure the average blood sugars existing in the bloodstream during the prior 12-week period.

Units of measure used in blood sugar measurements:

The units of measure used in the United States for measuring blood sugars are milligrams per deciliter, written as mg/dL. However, in Canada and the U.K. and also in many other countries, blood sugars are measured in millimoles per liter, written as mmol/L. 1 mmol/L = 18 mg/dL. Both systems of measurement are used in the values given below.

Normal blood sugar levels, according to the American Diabetes Association, are as follows, in both mg/dLand mmol/L. Please note that values of other countries may vary a little:

1. Values less than 100 mg/dl (less than 5.6 mmol/l)) are considered as normal. In Canada, the official values are less than 6.1 mmol/L.

2. Two hours after eating a meal they should be less than 140 mg/dL (less than 7.8 mmol/L).

3. An A1c test result should be 6% or less to be normal.

Measurements higher than the above indicate the presence of diabetes or prediabetes. It should be noted that blood sugar values provided by national diabetes authorities are subject to adjustment from time to time as new data emerges.

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