So between my last doctor’s visit and the one I just had, my fasting blood glucose went up eight points, though still within the (somewhat high) range of normal listed in the test results. Although I’m underweight, or on the underweight side of normal, I’ve also gained a bit of weight — 4 pounds maximum.
I’ve been seriously looking into exercise and cutting down on soda anyway, but how concerned should I be with this result? I assume it’s more than “not at all,” but how much more?
If by “blood glucose” you mean they did a finger-stick, took a drop of blood and they gave you a number that’s gone from, say, 110 to 118, that’s probably not a big deal.
If instead you’re talking about the A1C test and it went from 6 to 14, that’s huge and your doctor should have told you all about it.
For the first number, for instance, if I have a single carb serving (a slice of bread), my glucose will go up 100 points. I could probably raise my glucose 8 points just by thinking about food.
Ah, didn’t realize there were different tests.
It definitely wasn’t the second; the doctor specifically noted that it was “normal,” which was defined in the test results chart as double digit numbers. It was from a blood draw (and I hate needles, so I remember this all too clearly).
No you were pretty clear - fasting blood glucose (FBG).
Still under 100? I’d still exercise and cut down on soda but not because of that.
Moving over 100? Would start getting more concerned. That get officially labelled as “pre-diabetes.”
Getting closer to 126 than to 100? 126 is the cut-off for a FBG to be called diabetes, lots more concerned.
Yeah, the chart defines “normal” as under 100, and I am still below that.
As for the exercise, still thinking about how to go about it, but that’s another thread…
Exercise doesn’t need to be aggressive stuff in the gym. All you really need to be is non-sedentary. Can you walk a mile most days? That’s enough to make a big difference.
If in doubt, cut out the sodas and cut down on the use of sugar. But the blood glucose level is not very stable, which is why they do the A1C (which measures the percentage of your blood hemoglobin that is tied up with glucose), which changes very slowly, if at all.
If your number has gone up every time, even if it’s still, under, so that you have progressed from, say, hypoglycemia to normal, that is still cause for concern.
This happened to me after I was pregnant, and it is probably because I gained a permanent 15 pounds after having a baby, but my doctor was concerned because there is a strong history of diabetes in my family, like 6 out of 8 great-grandparents, 2 grandparents, 2 out of 3 aunts and uncles (albeit, type 2, not one, as in the case of the grandparents), and my father died of pancreatic cancer before he had a chance to get diabetes.
If you have a family history of diabetes, kidney disease, or pancreatic cancer, your doctor may be watching you more closely than she would otherwise.
Just so you know, flukes and lab flub-ups do happen. My glucose screening for gestational diabetes came back 173. I was very surprised since I had always had hypoglycemia, and any number over 80 was very strange-- often I was as low as 40, and walking around feeling just fine, because I was used to it. Anyway, I went back for the longer test, and had not one number above 100, so the doctor thought it was possibly either a lab error, or even a person who mistranscribed 173 for 73.
But anyway, it’s about trends. If you go up just a little, but each time, it’s just a little more, every time, that’s more of a concern than if you leap up once and go back down.
However, cutting back on sugar is always a good idea. Personally, it’s something that was always a struggle for me (the concern was for my teeth more than my blood sugar) because I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners-- until Splenda came out. That stuff is way better than anything else. Give it a try. You might find that cutting back on sugar isn’t so bad.
Yeah, no reason to overanalyze it. Get up. Move. Repeat.
Does some value of “move” seem more fun or doable for you than another? That’s the one to start with.