Diabetics should monitor their blood glucose levels. This is because spikes and drops can have dangerous health effects. However, recently, people without diabetes have become obsessed with managing their blood sugar levels.
On social media, users have denounced blood sugar spikes for many issues, including weight gain and lack of sleep. Some have begun tracking levels with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a device that sticks under the skin and measures blood glucose levels in real time.
But if you don't have diabetes, do you really need to look at your blood sugar level? This is what experts say.
Blood glucose, or glucose, is the main sugar found in the blood, and is the main source of energy in the body. Your body breaks down the carbohydrates you eat into glucose and releases them into the bloodstream. So your blood sugar levels after meals are especially after eating foods with added sugar, such as desserts and sweet drinks.
However, food isn't the only place that can inhale blood sugar. Some amazing triggers include:
Sleeping lack of tan At the time of dehydration of coffee (even without sweeteners)
If blood sugar levels are high, the pancreas releases insulin and defeats it. If cells stop responding to insulin, excessive glucose in the blood for a long period of time can lead to insulin resistance. This increases blood sugar levels and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Experts agreed that people who do not have diabetes generally do not need to monitor their glucose levels.
Frequent spikes are not ideal, but it's fine to have a slight increase in blood sugar levels after eating them. Blood glucose levels fluctuate completely normal within certain ranges. In a 2019 survey, non-diabetic blood glucose levels were about 4%, or about an hour each day, going outside the normal range (70-140 mg/dl).
“Your body is actually very good at controlling glucose within its normal range,” Sang Kim, MD, associate professor at the Endocrinology Department at Stanford University School of Medicine, told Health. “It's unfair to be attached to small rises in glucose.”
“There are a lot of pushes [CGMs] On social media, Kim added. “But no one needs to wear this.”
Raymund Herzog, MD, an endocrinologist at Yale Medical Diabetes Center and an associate professor at Yale Medical School, agreed that constant monitoring of glucose with CGM can help healthy people worry unnecessarily that something is wrong.
Additionally, CGM was originally designed for people with diabetes, so measurements can be distorted for people without a condition. “The accuracy of the sensors remains limited, especially in healthy people who do not suffer from diabetes,” Herzog told Health.
Even if the measurements are accurate, blood sugar levels are just one metric, Kim said. If food does not spike blood sugar levels, it does not mean that it is automatically healthy.
“If you have a pancreas that is working well, you can eat cookies and glucose may not skyrocket, but that's not good for you,” she explained.
Rather than tracking blood sugar, Herzog said people should aim to eat healthy diets rich in fiber, plant-based foods and lean protein.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggests.
Instead of juices that undergo regular physical activity, apply fruit beyond processed sugar treatments at regular hours, with less healthy weight aids.
Herzog said CGM could be helpful for people diagnosed with prediabetes if their blood sugar levels are higher than normal but are not sufficient to be called diabetes. CGM helps this group recognize and improve blood sugar levels and prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.
For everyone else, CGM would not be worth the cost, Herzog said.
“I always say, 'Go ahead and try it,'” Kim added. “But there's no data to show anything useful, whether someone is obsessed with their spikes or whether they need to pay for the service to track this.”