Can you answer some questions about high blood sugar?!
Question: What is considered dangerously high?
How would one feel?
What are the damages or side effects from it?
What can you do to immediately lower it?
Answers: What is considered dangerously high?
How would one feel?
What are the damages or side effects from it?
What can you do to immediately lower it?
Good questions.
I am a type one diabetic, have been for twenty three years.
Dangerously high is anywhere above 120 when considering your daily blood sugar. Normal levels are from 70 to 100 or 85 to 120 depending on what your doctor likes. For diabetics, some feel way too low at 100, others feel way too high at 120.
If your bloodsugar is high and depending on how high, it may take a while for you to feel it but you definitely will. You will feel sick, like you have the flu, you may get headaches and stomach cramps, you may feel bloated, and you most likely will be very very thirsty, which will make you feel more bloated. If you are very high, you will probably feel more like you have the flu-throwing up, upset stomach, because your body doesn't have anywhere to go with that sugar sitting in your blood.
Dangers of high bloodsugar are a lot of things. First your organs will slowly shut down, most likely if you have high blood sugars your pancreas is already not working or shut down, but next comes your kidneys and you liver. High blood sugars will effect your heart, your energy, your ability to have kids, to loose weight or gain weight. You will most likely always feel tired and always feel sick. Eventually you could loose conciousness from being too high-which also happens from getting too low.
Unfortunately lowering it immediately is not an option, you have to work at it. If you have to take insulin shots to regulate it, this takes some practice to find out just how much to take depending on what you eat, your daily activity level, and how fast your body works. Taking too much insulin could nose dive you down, which is just as dangerous. If you don't need to take insulin shots, most likely you will need to adjust your diet. Meaning diet sodas, instead of regular cokes, sugar free juices, limiting candy intake, watching the foods that you eat, all foods contain natural sugars, breads, pastas, fruits, are the most common and the ones we tend to forget about when we look at our bloodsugar level and go "what the heck, I ate healthy all day."
I hope this information is helpful and informative.
Dangerously high glucose level would be above 300.
I get a headache, nasty temper, and am really tired.
Damage happens to tiny blood vessels and nerve endings at any time after glucose goes over 125. These tiny vessels and nerves are usually in the feet, hands and eyes, first. But if any of them are being affected you can bet the heart and lungs are being hurt too.
Go to the ER and get an insulin injection to bring it down. Otherwise get back on your meds and food plan and go for a nice walk.
The roller coaster of spiking glucose numbers and back to normal or below is a nasty trip. And it doesn't stop with just one trip around the circuit. It can go on for weeks.
It is better to stabilize slowly and stay at a lower glucose level with no spiking and rapid reverse.
Dangerously high: 8.5 and up.
How would one feel: Worsened eye sight, bad balance.
Side effects: Over time it can cause loss of feeling in feet. Cause blindness, and loosing sensation in limbs.
Immediately lower: Inject insulin, take some exercise.
Dangerously high? If you mean right now - danger of going into a ketoacidotic coma and dying, then you're looking at 400-500 and up (I've seen over 1000 on occasion). If you mean dangerous in the long run, then anything over 125 fasting.
As for how you would feel, most likely just fine (though you would probably be peeing a lot and quite thirsty) until the levels began to get very high, then you would become confused and sleepy and eventually lapse into a coma.
The side effects from diabetes are many, you can get retinopathy (damage to the retina) which can lead to blindness, kidney damage (which can lead to failure and the necessity of dialysis), heart disease, strokes, peripheral neuropathy (which can cause pain or numbness), peripheral vascular disease (poor circulation) which can necessitate amputations. And that's just what I can think of off of the top of my head....
As for how to treat it, see you doctor, there are many medicines, but as they lower blood sugar, many of them carry the risk of lowering it too much, which can be just as, if not more, dangerous, so it's important to get medical help.