What is Diabetes really?

Diabetes basically means blood sugars that are higher than they should be. Groups of doctors and scientists looked at blood sugars from hundreds of thousands of people and then looked to see who had problems with eyes, nerves, heart etc. The folks with those health problems tended to have fasting morning blood sugars above 6.6mMol, or above 11.1 after eating. This is how they decided on the blood sugar number that means “diabetes.”{{more}}

People who have Diabetes generally have high blood sugars even without eating anything. In fact, one of the ways doctors find people have Diabetes is by checking a blood sugar first thing in the morning. And you ask, why should my sugar be high if I didn’t eat anything? Must be the sweet potato from last night… Well not really. Much of the food we eat is completely absorbed and gone from the system in a few hours. So unless you ate that sweet potato at 5 o’clock in the morning, that is not the main reason why your blood sugar is high at 8 AM. In order to keep our brain working while we sleep, our liver actually MAKES sugar for us. If you do not have Diabetes, this sugar is no problem. But if your body can’t handle it, then your sugar measurement is high when you wake up, even though you ate more than 10 hours ago.

Some folks have a blood sugar in the morning that is not too bad, but it shoots up after they eat. Do not be fooled, this is also Diabetes. And you say, well OF COURSE my sugar went up because I had something sweet, that just makes sense. But does it? If that were true, every school child with a mouthful of sweeties would have Diabetes. If you feed a bag of sugar to someone without diabetes, their blood sugar will not go above 120 mg/dL or 6.6 mMol. So the usual argument (one I have heard) about the golden apple juice making your sugar high is not always the whole story. If golden apple juice gave you a sugar higher than 200 mg/dL or 11.1 mMol, then you have diabetes.

Some of you are already arguing with me about what I just wrote. Bring it on! I welcome feedback and questions: send your letters to the Searchlight or e-mail me at endodocs@endocrinehelp.com. I will use some questions in discussion in future, so you just might see your letter.

Later Vincies!

Anita Ramsetty, MD endodocs@endocrinehelp.com
Medical Director Endocrine Care Group
www.endocrinehelp.com