What's sweet, red, sticky, and deadly? Too little of it, and you go into hypoglycemic shock. That can kill you if left untreated. Too much of it, and you waste away slowly. Chronic overexposure to sugar will degenerate your tissues and organs. Yes, getting blood sugar right is extremely important. Today, I'm going to explain how and why we measure blood sugar, what the numbers mean, why we need to control it, and how to maintain that control. What is Blood Sugar? First, blood sugar is tightly controlled in the body. The average person has between 4-7 grams of sugar circulating throughout their body in a fasted state-that's around a teaspoon's worth. How does that work when the average person consumes dozens of teaspoons in a single day? Again, Glyco Care Blood Sugar Formulametabolic health support it's tightly controlled. The majority of the sugar "in our system" is quickly whisked away for safekeeping, burning, or conversion. We store as much of it as glycogen in our liver and muscle as we can.

We burn some for energy. And, if there's any left over, we can convert it to fat in the liver. But sometimes, sugar lingers. In diabetics, for example, blood sugar runs higher than normal. That's actually how you identify and diagnose a person with diabetes: they have elevated Glyco Care blood sugar supplement sugar. There are several ways to measure blood sugar. The basic finger prick: Prick your finger, produce a few drops of blood, place blood on test insert, test blood sugar level. It's the most common method. Fasting blood sugar: Your blood sugar level when fasted. These tests are usually taken first thing in the morning, because that's the only time most people haven't eaten in the last few hours. Postprandial blood sugar: Your blood sugar after eating. These tests measure your blood sugar response to food; they also measure your ability to dispose of blood glucose. HbA1C: Average blood sugar over 2/3 months.

HbA1c measures the degree of glycation of your red blood cells’ hemoglobin; this is an indirect measure of how much blood sugar your cells are exposed to over time, since a red blood cell that’s exposed to more sugar in the blood over its life cycle-2-3 months-will have more glycation. Thus, A1c seeks to establish the average level of blood sugar circulating through your body over the red blood cell’s life cycle, rather than track blood sugar numbers that rapidly fluctuate through the day, week, and month. It’s a measurement of chronic blood sugar levels, not acute. The continuous glucose monitor: A wearable device that measures your blood sugar at regular intervals throughout the day and night. This is becoming more common. The beauty of the CGM is that you get a visual display of blood sugar's rise and fall throughout the day in response to meals, workouts, fasts, stress, etc. Since elevated blood sugar does its damage over the long term, seeing the entire daily trend is more illuminating than taking single snapshots with a finger prick.

It's similar in power to HbA1c, only with greater accuracy. What's "Normal" Blood Sugar? According to the American Diabetes Association, any fasting blood sugar (FBG) under 100 mg/dl is completely normal. It’s safe. It’s fine. Don’t worry, just keep eating your regular diet, Glyco Care blood sugar formula and did you get a chance to try the donuts in the waiting room? They only start to worry at 110-125 (pre-diabetic) and above 125 (diabetic). This may be unwise. As for postprandial blood glucose, the ADA likes anything under 140 mg/dl. How about HbA1c? A "normal" HbA1c is anything under 5.7. And 6.0 is diabetic. That’s what the reference ranges, which mostly focuses on diabetes. What does the research say? That 5.7 HbA1c isn’t looking so great. What's "normal" also depends on your baseline state. Healthy FBG depends on your BMI. At higher FBG levels, higher BMIs are protective. If you’re very low-carb, postprandial blood glucose will be elevated after a meal containing carbs.

This is because very low-carb, high-fat diets produce physiological insulin resistance to preserve what little glucose you have for the tissues that depend on it, like certain parts of the brain. The more resistant you are to insulin, the higher your blood glucose response to dietary glucose. HbA1c depends on a static red blood cell lifespan. A1c seeks to establish the average level of blood sugar circulating through your body over the red blood cell’s life cycle, rather than track blood sugar numbers that rapidly fluctuate through the day, week, and month. If we know how long a red blood cell lives, we have an accurate measurement of chronic blood sugar levels. The clinical consensus assumes the lifespan is three months. Ironically, people with healthy blood sugar control might have inflated HbA1c levels. One study found that folks with normal blood sugar had red blood cells that lived up to 146 days, and RBCs in folks with high blood sugar had life cycles as low as 81 days.7 For every 1% rise in Glyco Care Blood Sugar Formulametabolic health support sugar, red blood cell lifespan fell by 6.9 days.