Diabetes-Related High and Low Blood Sugar Levels

Prevention

Although high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) have very different symptoms and treatments, they are both caused by blood sugar and insulin imbalances. The steps you take to control your blood sugar level will help prevent both high and low blood sugar levels.

Be sure to have identification with you at all times that says you have diabetes. This will help other people take steps to care for you if you are not able tell them about your medical condition.

You can take steps to prevent high and low blood sugar emergencies.

• Follow your treatment plan.
• Monitor your blood sugar levels regularly to detect early changes before an emergency develops. Treat your symptoms of high or low blood sugar quickly to prevent more problems.
• Control your stress.
• Limit how much alcohol you drink.

Monitoring and controlling blood sugar levels

Use home blood sugar tests to determine whether your blood sugar is in the safe range. Work with your health professional to set your individual treatment goals. If you can consistently maintain this level of control, you will have very few blood sugar level emergencies.

Control stress

No matter how skilled you are at monitoring and controlling your blood sugar levels, you are still at risk for high or low blood sugar levels that are brought on by stressful situations. Stress can affect your body's blood sugar levels in two ways:

• It changes the way your body uses insulin, which is mostly a problem for people with type 2 diabetes.
• It can cause you to change the way you take care of yourself, a problem for all people with diabetes.

Stress can be both mental and physical. Some examples of stress include an illness, a bad day at work, and a tough problem at home. When you are under stress, your blood sugar levels change. For more information, see the topic Stress Management.

• Prevent high blood sugar emergencies from diabetes.
• Prevent high blood sugar emergencies in children with diabetes.

Blood sugar levels and exercise

You can keep your blood sugar levels under control when you exercise, so that you do not become too hungry or make your blood sugar level drop. There are two ways to keep your blood sugar levels under control:

1. At the meal before your planned exercise, you can take less insulin, OR
2. Before you exercise, eat some carbohydrate.

Keep a quick-sugar food with you during exercise in case your blood sugar level drops low.

Vaccinations

Your health professional may recommend that you get vaccinations, such as a flu(What is a PDF document?) shot or pneumonia(What is a PDF document?) shot, to prevent you from those illnesses.

Other places to get help

The American Diabetes Association has a lot of information on diabetes and can link you to support groups. For more information, call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383) or see the organization's Web site: http://www.diabetes.org/home.

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Author:	Jan Nissl, RN, BS	Last Updated: November 18, 2006
Medical Review:	Martin Gabica, MD - Family Medicine Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism
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