WHEN BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS ARE TOO HIGH, YOU SHOULD DO A TEST

If you have diabetes, you know it’s important to monitor blood sugar levels (or blood glucose levels). You have to keep those concentrations stable. Having too much blood sugar can make you feel fatal, and if you have it often, it can be very bad for your health.

What is having a excess of blood sugar?

a blood glucose level is the amount of glucose in the blood. Glucose is a sugar that comes from the food we eat, and it is also formed and stored within the body. It is the main source of energy for our body’s cells, and it is transported to each and every one of those cells through the bloodstream.

Hyperglycemia is the medical word used to refer to high blood sugar levels. Hyperglycemia occurs when the body cannot make insulin (type 1 diabetes) or when it does not respond adequately to insulin (type 2 diabetes). The body needs insulin so that the glucose in the blood can enter the body’s cells, which use it as an energy source. In people who have developed diabetes, glucose builds up in the blood, causing hyperglycemia.

Having too much sugar in your blood for long periods of time can cause serious health problems if left untreated. Hyperglycemia can damage blood vessels that carry blood to vital organs, which can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and neurological problems. These problems do not usually affect children or adolescents who have had diabetes for a few years. But they can appear in adulthood in some people with diabetes, especially if they haven’t been treated or controlled properly.

Blood sugar concentrations are considered high when they are above the reference ranges considered normal. Your diabetes health care team will tell you what those margins are for you.

What are the causes of high blood sugar levels?

Managing diabetes is like triple juggling because you need to consider the following three things:

1. medicines you take (insulin and/or diabetes pills)

2. the food you eat

3. the amount of exercise you do

These three things should be well balanced. If any of them get out of sync, the same can happen with your blood sugar level. An excess of blood sugar can usually be caused by:

not taking diabetes medicines when you should or should not take them in the right doses

not following your diabetes diet plan correctly (like overeating on a special occasion without adjusting the doses of diabetes medicines)

not getting enough exercise

have a disease, such as the flu

stress

take other types of medicines that affect the effects of diabetes medicines.

Having a high blood sugar level in isolation is not often a cause for alarm; it happens from time to time to everyone who has diabetes. But if you have a lot of hyperglycemias, explain it to your parents and your diabetes health care team. You may need to change your insulin doses or your diet plan, or you may have a problem with your medication delivery equipment, such as an insulin pump that is not working properly. In any case, be sure to ask for help normalizing your blood sugar level.

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of a High Blood Sugar Level?

Signs of hyperglycemia include:

Urinating a lot: The kidneys work by expelling excess glucose through the urine. People with hyperglycemia need to pee more often and in larger amounts.

Drinking a lot: Because you are losing a lot of fluid through pee, you are often very thirsty.

Losing weight despite not having lost your appetite: If there is not enough insulin to help the body use glucose, glucose will have to break down muscle and stored fat in an attempt to provide fuel to hungry cells.

Being exhausted: Since the body cannot properly use glucose as an energy source, the person may feel unusually tired.

What is diabetic ketoacidosis?

When the body does not have enough insulin, glucose remains in the blood and cannot enter the cells to be used as an energy source. This can happen, for example, when a person skips an insulin dose or when their insulin needs suddenly increase (such as when they are sick with the flu) and doses have not been adjusted as appropriate.

When the body can’t use glucose as fuel, it starts using fat. When this happens, chemicals called ketones or ketones are released into the blood. Some of these ketone bodies, like the excess glucose, are passed through the urine.

A high concentration of ketonic bodies in the blood can be problematic because it makes the blood acidic. An excessive amount of acid in the blood alters the chemical balance of the body and causes the symptoms listed below. In people with diabetes, this problem is called diabetic ketoacidosis, abbreviated as CAD. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a very serious condition that, if left untreated, can lead to coma or even death. The good thing is that it can be prevented and treated.

Diabetic ketoacidosis is most often given in people who have type 1 diabetes, but sometimes it can occur in people with type 2 diabetes.

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Diabetic Ketoacidosis??

Symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis do not usually occur all at once; they usually appear slowly over the course of several hours. People with diabetic ketoacidosis may:

• be exhausted

• be very thirsty or urinate much more than usual

• have a dry mouth or show signs of dehydration.

These symptoms are caused by having too much blood sugar, which usually occurs before a person develops diabetic ketoacidosis. If the person is not treated, he or she may have the following signs of diabetic ketoacidosis:

• abdominal pain

• nausea and/or vomiting

• breath with a fruity smell

• rapid and deep breathing

• confusion

• loss of consciousness ("diabetic coma").

Checking for diabetic ketoacidosis

How can you tell if you have diabetic ketoacidosis? Since the symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis look like those of the flu, it’s important to measure your blood sugar and ketone body levels in urine (or blood) when you’re sick or when you think you might have symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis.

Since ketonic bodies appear in the urine (as well as in the blood), the concentration of ketonic bodies can be measured at home by analyzing a urine sample. If the urine test is negative, it usually means that the symptoms are not due to diabetic ketoacidosis.

Follow your diabetes management plan about when you should measure your ketone body concentration and what you should do if you get a positive result. In some cases, your health care team may need to use special test strips to also measure your ketone body concentration in your blood.

How is diabetic ketoacidosis treated?

Diabetic ketoacidosis is very serious, but it can be treated if you go to the doctor or hospital right away. To feel better, a person with diabetic ketoacidosis needs to receive insulin and fluids through an IV (IV), that is, through a tube that is inserted into a vein in the body.

Tell your parents or someone on your health care team if you have any of the symptoms of ketoacidosis or if you feel sick and don’t know what to take to control your diabetes.

Always wear a medical identification bracelet or necklace where it says you’re diabetic. That way, if you don’t feel well, whoever’s helping you will know to call for medical help. This medical ID may also contain the phone number of your doctor or one of your parents.

Avoiding hyperglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis

No matter how well they take care of themselves, people with diabetes will sometimes have high blood sugar levels. But the best way to avoid problems is to keep your blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible, which means following your diabetes management plan to the letter. By measuring your blood sugar level several times a day, you can tell when it is too high. Then you can treat it and help prevent diabetic ketoacidosis.

Hyperglycemia does not always cause symptoms, and a diabetic person who is not often measured blood sugar concentration may be having high enough sugar levels to harm his or her body even without realizing it. Doctors can use the glycosylated hemoglobin test (abbreviated HbA1c) to find out if a person has been having high blood sugar levels for a while, even if they have not had clear symptoms of hyperglycemia.

Here are some other tips to avoid high blood sugar levels and prevent diabetic ketoacidosis:

Try to make the main meals and snacks at the right times and don’t skip any.

Inject yourself with the right amount of insulin.

Measure your blood sugar levels often, and your ketones when your diabetes management plan recommends it.

Follow your diabetes management plan to the letter.

Dowshen, S. [2018] When the blood sugar level is too high. KidsHealth. Recovered from: https://kidshealth.org/es/teens/high-blood-sugar-esp.html#catsports-psychology