Almost every diabetic patient will encounter the trouble of elevated fasting blood sugar. For diabetic patients, if the fasting blood sugar exceeds 7mmol/L, it is considered excessive.
Why should diabetic patients pay attention to fasting blood sugar? What should they do if their fasting blood sugar exceeds 7mmol/L?
Why you should pay attention to fasting blood sugar
Fasting blood sugar represents the patient's basal blood sugar level without dietary load. It refers to the blood sugar measured after fasting for 8 to 10 hours, that is, the blood sugar in the fasting state in the morning. Blood sugar before lunch and dinner are not fasting blood sugar.
Fasting blood sugar can indirectly reflect the patient's basal insulin secretion level and liver glucose output under no sugar load stimulation, and can reflect whether the patient's medication the night before can effectively control blood sugar throughout the night and even the next morning.
Fasting blood glucose is less affected by other factors and has good reproducibility, so it can be used as an important diagnostic indicator of diabetes. Because fasting blood sugar is the basis of the day's blood sugar, if the fasting blood sugar is high, then the day's blood sugar is likely to be in the red high value stage.
When many patients encounter this situation, they often just increase the dose of medication or increase the amount of activity, but often ignore the truth behind high fasting blood sugar.
7 causes of elevated fasting blood sugar
1. Dawn phenomenon causes fasting hyperglycemia
If the blood sugar in the middle of the night is normal (5-8mmol/L), the fasting hyperglycemia in the morning may be caused by the secretion of blood sugar-raising hormones such as growth hormone and cortisol hormone at night, which is called the dawn phenomenon.
Countermeasures: If patients with diabetes experience elevated blood sugar and urine sugar between 5 and 9 in the morning, they can increase the evening injection dose or move the NPH injection time slightly later. The peak drug concentration of intermediate-acting insulin can be used to antagonize the dawn phenomenon. .
Diabetes patients who experience dawn phenomenon and need to adjust their medication are advised to consult a specialist and not to adjust their medications at will.
2. Excessive snacks at night lead to fasting hyperglycemia
Diabetic patients should eat three meals a day and snack in moderation. A large number of snacks is tantamount to chronic suicide. Particular attention should be paid to the timing of snacks.
Countermeasures: Eat a reasonable diet, distribute the energy of three meals according to 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 or 1/5, 2/5, 2/5, try to eat on time, do not eat before going to bed (unless hypoglycemia), Even if you eat before going to bed, you should divide the energy from dinner into the energy from eating before going to bed.
Diabetic patients should choose to eat before hypoglycemia occurs, and generally around 10 pm is the best time. If you wait until hypoglycemia occurs before eating a snack, it will lead to overeating, which is very detrimental to blood sugar control.
3. Sumujie phenomenon leads to fasting hyperglycemia
Monitor blood sugar at night (especially in the early morning). If the blood sugar at 3 o'clock in the middle of the night is low (<5mmol/L), and hypoglycemia occurs frequently at night, causing a rebound in fasting blood sugar the next day, This is the so-called Sumujie phenomenon.
This reaction is actually a self-regulation of blood sugar balance by the human body. When the human body experiences hypoglycemia, the secretion of glucagon hormones (such as epinephrine, glucagon, glucocorticoids, growth hormone, etc.) in the body increases, Promote the conversion of glycogen into glucose and raise blood sugar to help the body correct hypoglycemia. It is precisely because of this reaction that the blood sugar in the body will not be dangerously low.
Countermeasures: People who experience Sumuji's phenomenon should reduce the amount of insulin they take before going to bed, thereby reducing the incidence of nighttime hypoglycemia and allowing fasting blood sugar to return to normal.
4. Lack of exercise leads to elevated fasting blood sugar
Exercise can promote the utilization of glucose by peripheral tissues such as muscles, consume energy, reduce blood sugar and weight, and improve insulin resistance.
Countermeasures: Diabetic patients should choose aerobic exercise such as jogging, brisk walking, Tai Chi, and swimming. Moderate exercise after meals can help reduce fasting blood sugar.
5. Poor night’s sleep leads to fasting high blood sugar
Patients with this type of diabetes need to maintain emotional stability and relax at all times.
Countermeasures: Avoid rising fasting blood sugar due to excessive anxiety, and take sedative and sleeping drugs if necessary.
6. Various stress situations
In patients with trauma, surgery, fever, severe mental trauma, vomiting, fatigue, and acute myocardial infarction, blood sugar can rise rapidly and even induce diabetic ketoacidosis. Sudden changes in the working environment and living environment: causing the patient's temporary body failure to adapt may affect the increase in blood sugar.
Countermeasures: When acute infection or trauma or some special diseases occur, you should go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible and receive symptomatic treatment to avoid long-term high blood sugar levels, rather than adjusting hypoglycemic drugs at will.
7. Improper use of medication
Unreasonable drug selection. For example, the selected drug has a short duration of action, is better at controlling postprandial hyperglycemia, but is less effective at controlling fasting hyperglycemia.
Excessive use of antidiabetic drugs can also cause hyperglycemia. This is because hypoglycemia can cause sympathetic nerve excitement and increased secretion of glucagon hormones (such as catecholamines, glucagon, etc.), leading to a rebound increase in blood sugar.
This situation is mostly caused by excessive consumption of antidiabetic drugs or insulin at night, resulting in hypoglycemia in the early morning, and the clinical manifestation is fasting hyperglycemia.
Countermeasures: Choose the correct type of antidiabetic drug, such as long-acting insulin analogues to control fasting blood sugar. The amount of hypoglycemic drugs used must be carefully controlled and must not be overdosed.
If you are unable to find the cause of high fasting blood sugar, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible and let a professional doctor help you determine the cause of high fasting blood sugar and take the correct response.
