A healthy blood sugar level depends on your body's ability to effectively metabolize sugar. Too much sugar in your blood can be harmful to your health, since it puts stress on your organs and nervous system. Your blood sugar level often depends on when and how much you last ate, and there are multiple tests that health providers use to check it. Your responsibility is knowing how to interpret the result, but always ask your physician if you have questions about your blood sugar.
Sugar Metabolism
The cells in your body take sugar from your bloodstream and use it to create energy that is used to keep your heart beat regular, your muscles warm, and for many other purposes. However, your cells need insulin, a hormone secreted by your pancreas, to move glucose from your blood across the cellular membrane, into the interior of the cell. Abnormally high blood sugar, also known as hyperglycemia, is a result of insufficient insulin production, impaired cellular sensitivity to insulin, or a combination of the two conditions.
Fasting Blood Glucose
The most common test of blood sugar content is the fasting blood glucose, or FBG test. For an accurate test, you must fast starting at midnight the day that your blood is drawn. A healthy fasting blood glucose level is between 60 to 110 mg/dL. An FBG of 115 to 125 mg/dL indicates a condition called prediabetes, or impaired fasting glucose. An FBG of 126 mg/dL or greater on at least two occasions is used to diagnose diabetes mellitus.
Dietary Sugars
While you may ingest many different kinds of sugars in your diet, your body breaks these sugars down into glucose, fructose, or galactose, otherwise known as simple sugars and monosaccharides. Furthermore, your liver can convert both fructose and galactose into "look-alike" glucose molecules that your cells can use to generate energy. That is why the blood tests for sugar measure glucose; it is the primary sugar circulating in your bloodstream.
Testing Intervals
The US National Institutes of Health recommends that adult men and women obtain a fasting blood glucose test once every three years starting at 45 years of age. The NIH recommends earlier and more frequent testing for certain people, including diabetics, overweight individuals and those with a family history of diabetes; people with hypertension or high blood cholesterol; or who self-identify with a high-risk racial or ethnic group such as black, American Indian and Hispanic American.
References
- "Present Knowledge in Nutrition"; Barbara Bowman; 2001
- U.S. National Institutes of Health Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia; Diabetes; 2011
- U.S. National Institutes of Health Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia; Type 2 Diabetes; 2011
