Blood Sugar Control Factors

This is information assembled from the ADA website, and a number of other sources, written as I understand it. Cross reference and double check the accuracy of what I am presenting.

Balancing blood sugar properly is more than just a matter of getting the right amount of food for the right amount of insulin. There are, in fact, four distinct factors which must be balanced properly in order to insure good control and the best possible health.

1. Insulin. You only have direct control over this if you inject insulin. Otherwise your control over it is indirect, and effected by medications or supplements which improve production, but which cannot compensate on a meal by meal basis the way injected insulin can.

2. Food intake. This means both QUALITY, and QUANTITY. To control blood sugar levels precisely, you really have to count carbs, and if your diabetes is very sensitive, you may also need to count fats and protein. But carb counting is the minimum. There is a whole page on this site on that topic, so refer to it to learn more about how to do so effectively if you need to do so.

3. Activity. You'll burn more sugar when you are active than when you are not. And muscles do not require insulin in order to use sugar, they can use it directly. So your need for sugar will increase, but your need for insulin will not, meaning that you may be more subject to blood sugar lows when you are very active, and more subject to blood sugar highs when you are sedentary.

4. Weight. Insulin serves two purposes in the body. It helps cells use the available sugar for immediate energy use, and it also enables storage of the extra as fat. So if you consume more carbohydrates than you need for daily use, you'll not only need more insulin to compensate for the extra sugar, your body will store the extra as fat. This is why many websites warn that some people gain weight when using insulin injections - it is NOT a side effect of insulin use, it is, as it always has been, a side effect of consuming more than is needed.

So once you have devised a meal plan (a diabetic counselor can help you with this), you'll need to adjust it, based on your particular results, and your activity levels. This can take practice to learn how your body responds, because individual differences can be huge.

All four of these factors must be balanced, though. If your blood sugar numbers are perfect, but you are gaining weight, then you'll develop more insulin resistance, and other conditions which make it harder in turn to control your blood sugar.

If you have perfect numbers, but you are losing weight that you do not have to lose (or if you are pregnant), then you need to increase your food intake and your insulin.

Most people have a generally predictable activity level each day, or a routine for those times when they are more active. Even if those times come only occasionally, a little observance and some careful observation (and blood sugar testing) can help you to know how you are responding. Once you know your averages, then you can plan ahead and avoid problems. At first you may be adjusting a lot, or having to watch for highs or lows, but later it gets more predictable.

For people who are not using injectable insulin, the balance is just as critical, depending on which direction your problems tend to run. When I was pregnant, it was hard to eat enough to keep from losing weight, without having my sugars run too high when I was not on insulin. I learned that 5 minutes on the treadmill would bring my sugars down 10 points, but that was not helpful because that sugar then just went to the activity, and I still lost weight. I required supplemental insulin to keep from losing too much. Once I was on the insulin, I had to monitor my weight to make sure I did not gain too much.

Intentional weight loss is a totally different topic. It is known that for overweight people, losing weight will help their blood sugar control, but balancing the factors when you do so can be a multi-faceted issue.

When you get these factors in balance though, your body is given the best possible foundation for health and longevity.

Written by Laura Wheeler, Owner of Firelight Business Enterprises, Inc.