Normal Blood Sugar Levels

Why is it so important that you maintain normal blood sugar levels?

The criteria for diagnosing diabetes mellitus is as follows, according to the World Health Organization and National Diabetes Data Group:

• Symptoms of diabetes plus random blood sugar levels > 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL)
• Fasting plasma sugar > 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dL)
• Two-hour plasma sugar > 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL) during an oral glucose (sugar) tolerance test

You only need to fulfill one of those criteria once now, and once in another day to be diagnosed as having diabetes. Or you can be diagnosed as having diabetes by having really high blood sugar levels or having really bad symptoms of diabetes (such as diabetic coma or diabetic complications).

These cutoff point values of normal blood sugar levels are important to us because research has shown that persons with higher-than-normal blood sugar levels have exponential or tremendously increased risk of diabetes complications. These risks are dependent on two factors: The degree of severity of your higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, and the length of time you failed to maintain normal blood sugar levels.

Besides that, research has also shown that if you have a:

• Fasting blood sugar levels of 5.6-6.9 mmol/L (100–125 mg/dL) or
• 2-hour blood sugar levels of 7.8-11.1 mmol/L (140-199 mg/dL) during an oral glucose tolerance test

Then, it would mean that you are at 25-40% risk over the next 5 years of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Besides, even at these levels, you already have higher risks of having cardiovascular diseases.

Do you already know what are your own blood sugar levels? It’s absolutely important to maintain normal blood sugar levels because of the many implications of diabetes mellitus, which we will go into later. If you have risks of having higher than normal blood sugar levels or if you are worried about having diabetes mellitus, go for a blood sugar test today!

For those who have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, explore ways to achieve normal blood sugar levels here.

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