8 Things That Affect Your Blood Glucose Levels

There are so very many things that affect your blood glucose levels that it’s hard to know where to begin. Everything from the type and amount of food you eat, to how hot it is that day are known to have an effect. The eight items below are amongst the top things that affect your diabetes:

1. Caffeine - depending on how much coffee, and other caffeine rich beverages you drink in a day, can have an effect on your metabolism, causing fluctuations in your readings. A higher metabolism will cause you to burn more calories, thereby affecting the insulin dosage needed to control your diabetes. Drinking 5 or more caffeine rich products, (coffee, diet soda, cocoa [also sugar rich]) can increase your blood sugar. Caffeine affects two hormones, glucogon and adrenaline, which in turn release sugars stored in the liver.
2. Heat - A hot day, or even a shower or bath that is too hot will affect your sugars. Heat can cause your sugar levels to fluctuate. According to the Mayo Clinic, diabetics often have damage of the sweat glands affecting the body’s ability to cool down. Dehydration can be a result of a hot day, as well as a result of high blood glucose levels. High levels cause the body to excrete more urine, causing dehydration if one does not increase their intake of caffeine free fluids like water, seltzer, and sugar-free drinks. Heat can cause dehydration as well and could result in the more serious affects of heat exhaustion. Remember, try to keep out of the direct sunlight on a hot day, drink lots of fluids, exercise in the cool of the morning or late evening. You may find, like me, that you just cannot take the heat like you did before the diabetes.
3. Exercise - exercise must be carefully done and balanced, with readings taken before and after to make sure that your levels are not dropping. If you are feeling at all strange for any reason, take a reading even in the middle of your routine.
4. Weight loss - Though generally good for the overweight diabetic, weight loss will have a great effect on how much insulin you have to take. So will weight gains.  If you are on oral medications, weight loss can affect the amount you need to take of these as well. Certainly, if you are overweight, working on losing the excess will be most beneficial, but don’t take over-the-counter medications and weight-loss formulas without being under the care of and with the approval of your doctor(s) and health care professionals. Combine diet and exercise for the best results if you are able to, again, under your doctor’s supervision.
5. Medications - Everything from your diabetes medications and insulin changes, to over-the-counter medications such as cold tablets, headache medications, vitamin supplements etc., can change or affect your blood glucose. Have caution in taking ANY medications or supplements and please, talk to your doctor first, then your pharmacist before taking anything.
6. Illness - Fluctuations in your sugar levels is very common when one is ill. Some of it is due to the fact that, many times, your appetite is low when you are ill. The medications, be they prescription or other remedies, can interact with the diabetes medications you are on and should only be taken on the advice of your physician. Often too, your pharmacist will have an even better idea of what will or will not react with any medications you are on.
7. Food - What you eat, how much you eat, when you eat - all will have an effect on your glucose levels. Carbohydrates turn in to glucose in the blood far more readily than protein or fats. Some green vegetables, like lettuce and celery, have little or no effect on glucose levels, while white rice or potatoes have a dramatic effect. Always include a protein with whatever you eat. A handful of nuts is great with a snack. A piece of cheese (1-2 ounces) will help slow down the absorption of carbs into the blood stream as glucose. 
8. Sleep - Though a lack of good sleep patterns has been pretty well researched, and links have been discovered between that and the development of diabetes, the effects of poor sleep patterns can be extrapolated to affect those who already have diabetes. A lack of sleep, either in total or in the stages of sleep, can effect glucose resistance. This means that the cells that take up the insulin for use in the body aren’t working properly. Lack of proper sleep also affects your immune system in staving off colds, flu, heart ailments, and infections, all of which also affect or are affected by diabetes.

I know that many more things can affect your diabetes control and I can’t begin to go into them all in one article. Do your research. Know how your body feels. Be aware. Test often. These go a long way toward your control and overall health.