High Glucose: Understanding Physiology, Levels, Approaches to Measuring

Welcome to HighGlucose.org! On our website we address the issue of elevated blood glucose levels. Our purpose is to give you the understanding of sugar metabolism, measurement approaches and explain some physiological aspects. Understanding how things work in your body gives your a key to a better control of vital processes, improving your lifestyle and, possibly, putting your blood level within normal limits. Knowledge is your power and better management of your body processes, health and life in general.

About half of americans have either diabetes or elevated blood glucose at the moment. The numbers are even higher if we add those who have been diagnosed with high glucose levels in the body at least at some point in their life (pregnancy, acute pancreas inflammatory diseases, other conditions that might affect one's glucose measurement results at least for a certain period). These numbers also include people with pre-diabetes, a condition where diabetes has not yet manifested yet blood sugar is higher than average.

A few quick facts on the issue:

• People with elevated blood glucose are more vulnerable to diabetes and cancer, heart desease, kidneys and nervous system damage.

• About half of patients who suffered from their first stroke had high glucose levels.

• Patients with high glucose levels are also more likely to develop complications after a stroke and will require a longer stay in the hospital.

• Gyperglycemia may result in pre-eclampsia for both pregnant mothers and their unborn children exposing them to previously unknown additional risks.

• Women are exposed to higher risks of dementia and other mental diseases as they grow older if they have maintained high glucose levels.

• There is also a high risk of colorectal tumor development for both sexes, which can gradually develop to colorectal cancer.

• Diabetes and pre-diabetes cost millions of dollars in health care.

But how come that the problem of elevated blood glucose became so acute? Should I blame myself for my blood sugar disbalance?

These are common questions those who face the diagnosis for the first time ask themselves.

Let's look back. The truth is that for millions of years of its history, evolvement and adjustment the human body has been adapting to lack of glucose and not surplus of it. For the same reason, the mechanisms responsible for the effective storage of nutrients and supplies have been more vital as opposed to just burning the fuel effectively, which also caused the obesity problem in the end in people who... simply might have a better chance of surviving a famine or food shortages millons, thousands of years or even centuries ago. In fact, the human body has a mechanism that enables it to function more or less normally for about 2 days without glucose coming in and yet without any expenditures from the body supplies, deprivation or impact on the work of the body's systems. And that's one of the reasons why shifts between 1-2 days of diet and the same periods of high calory food consumption are ineffective for weight loss.

One of the reasons why humankind crahsed into the blood glucose issue so vulnerable to it is simply because the problem of too much sugar never existed, until the last decades.

Industrial epoch made glucose and foods elevating glucose levels highly accesible to people in many countries, including the US. This happened in a matter of decades while the metabolism remained the same and a human body is still tuned for craving sweets and fast calories. As a result, commercial production of such food is booming while healthy / whole food production have been less profitable due to lower demand. Roughly speaking, the cost of setting up a production line to non-healthy and healthy foods is approximatly the same, but non-healthy food sells better and in larger amounts which allows to keep prices lower, while the healthy foods became more expensive, even though quite often their production might be cheaper from the very beginning as it involved less processing. People buy unhealthy food simply because it is cheaper and more delicious so more of such food is produced and that wheel keeps on turning.

Another factor often missed out is medical advancements of the past decades and the resulting growth of average lifespan. A one grows older, many of the body's functions and mechamisms sooner or later naturally become impaired, including metabolism and sugar uptake. That's a genetically provisioned process and there is little to be done about it so far. Of course, the speed of this process is also genetically conditioned, is different in different people and depends on one's lifestyle. Just like it is with cancer, today many people are simply able to live up to their diebetes which was impossible earlier. And that is good news because the disease can be controlled and in some cases reveresed! What is crucial is being informed and taking action timely.

Our website does not provide medical advice. We do our best to keep our explanations simple enough and yet convey the scientific and biological concepts the right way. Unfortunately, there are physiological conditions when lifestyle alone is not enough to keep your blood sugar within safe ranges. This is another reason why it is absolutely necessary to consult your healthcare provider if you exprience high glucose symptoms or a blood test shows results higher than expected healthy ranges. If you aren'e feeling confident of one healthcare provider do not hesitate to consult with another doctor as their approaches may differ and some may work better for you.

By taking early measures that help detect and reduce high glucose levels your can expect to lead a longer, healthier life and eliminate the expensive costs of late treatment side effects for both finances and the body.