March 15, 2021

Beware! Diabetes and Blood Sugar (BS) Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS)

In this article, I would like to talk about blood glucose levels and diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that is very much related to oxidative stress. There are a number of criteria (parameters) to diagnose diabetes.

 

 

First, there is fasting blood sugar (FBS). This refers to the blood glucose level 8 to 12 hours after a meal, that is, when there is no food in the stomach. For example, if you have a blood glucose level of 120 g/dl (grams per deciliter) or higher the day before your blood test after skipping dinner, you may clearly be pre-diabetic.

Next, there is blood glucose on demand (BS). This is a blood glucose level that is measured independently of meal times. For example, it is normal for blood glucose levels to be higher after eating a meal. Therefore, it is not suitable for use in diagnosing diabetes.

Another parameter is hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). It measures how much sugar is bound to the hemoglobin in red blood cells. This number reflects the average value over the past three months or so, and if it is high, it is clearly diabetes.

However, even if the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is normal, there are some people who experience “blood glucose spikes” where the blood glucose level jumps very high after a meal. When this spike in blood glucose occurs, insulin is naturally released, which lowers the blood glucose level. However, since the spike in blood glucose level is followed by a sudden drop, it causes damage to blood vessels.

For this reason, it has recently become clear that just because your hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is normal does not mean that you do not have diabetes. Therefore, if you think you may have diabetes, you should also find out if your blood glucose level jumps after eating.

 

How much do we now know about the relationship between diabetes and oxidative stress?

There are some things we are learning about the relationship between oxidative stress and diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, in which the insulin that was originally produced normally becomes difficult to produce.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which the cells of the pancreas are damaged by various oxidative stresses, resulting in the loss of insulin production. In other words, before the blood glucose level rises, the pancreatic cells are under oxidative stress.

When the blood glucose level rises, the oxidative stress rises even higher. This is what happens. In this way, oxidative stress is related to type 2 diabetes from the onset to the development of the disease.

It is also known that oxidative stress is the cause of the complications of diabetes, such as clogged blood vessels in the limbs, damage to the retina due to atherosclerosis, and renal failure in the kidneys.

Are there any cases in which diabetes values have decreased due to lowered oxidative stress levels?

One of the complications of diabetes is called peripheral neuropathy.

The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy are tingling and pain in the hands and feet. As it progresses, the disorder causes a loss of sensation. Five people with peripheral neuropathy were able to lower their oxidative stress with antioxidants, and their symptoms such as tingling in their hands disappeared in about six weeks.

There is also a diabetic rat called SDT fatty rat (SDT fatty rat) used in rat experiments, which has very high blood glucose levels and causes complications. Without treatment, almost all of these rats develop strong cataracts after about 25 weeks. The data shows that if antioxidants are administered to these rats to lower oxidative stress, cataracts almost never occur.

Finally.

I talked about the reference values for diagnosing diabetes and the relationship between diabetes and oxidative stress. Even if the value to be diagnosed as diabetes is higher than the reference value, it may return to the reference value by improving lifestyle and lowering oxidative stress. I believe that trying to lower oxidative stress in combination with lifestyle improvement will help you maintain good health.

 

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