Have you ever noticed that numbers are important in health? Your date of birth is important. The age women started their menstrual cycle is important. The year you had surgery is important. How many days it takes you to recover from the flu is important. The age you first started smoking is important.

Your heart rate should be 60-72 beats per minute. Your blood pressure is two numbers such as 120/80 and the top number is usually 100 plus your age. (It’s best to keep that number to no higher than 140.) The bottom number is 70 to 80; if it goes past 90, your health care provider is concerned about your blood pressure and he will look to put you on medication.

Blood sugar levels are also important to know. The range is 70 to 110 mg/dl (3.9 to 6 mmol/l) or 80 to 120 mg/dl (4.4 to 6.7 mmol/l) depending on the clinical laboratory that does the testing. When blood sugar is measured, it is taken either after a meal or after a long overnight period of fasting. To determine whether or not someone has diabetes, doctors look at fasting blood sugar levels. When the level is between 100 to 125 mg/dl (5.5 to 6.9 mmol/l), health care providers say you are pre-diabetic. When the level is greater than 125 mg/dl (7 mmol/l) you have type 2 diabetes.

When a person with type 2 diabetes is monitoring his own fasting blood sugar, he should aim for 83 to 87 mg/dl (4.6 to 4.8 mmol/l). This is the ideal fasting blood sugar level. If the level is less than 70 mg/dl (3.9 mmol/l), the health care provider would say that the person had hypoglycemia or low blood sugar at that particular point in time.

There’s one additional number that is important for diabetics: the Hemoglobin A1C value (HbA1c). This number tells the doctor how well you, the patient, has been regulating your blood sugar levels over the last two to three months. This means that anyone who is a diabetic really can’t cheat on their diet and eat meals filled with carbohydrates, (such as pasta, pretzels, ice cream, and doughnuts all at the same meal) and expect that their health care provider won’t figure out that they have been cheating! But actually you would be cheating yourself!

Normal Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels are less than 6.5%. Diabetics usually have levels 7% or higher; sometimes more than 11%!

Stay true to your goal to maintain good health and reverse your type 2 diabetes. Do it with proven methods. Join the ranks of those who have beaten this condition called type 2 diabetes.

Your high fasting blood sugar level is one of the telltale signs, a symptom of type 2 diabetes. Normal fasting glucose levels of a non-diabetic are 70 to 110 mg/dl (3.9 to 6mmol/l) or 80 to 120 mg/dl (4.4 to 6.6mmol/l) depending on the clinical laboratory. The diabetic fasting glucose range is 126 mg/dl (7mmol/l) or above.

Diabetes medications are not always prescribed for type 2 diabetes; this decision is usually made by your health care provider and will be based entirely on your particular case. The higher your fasting blood sugar level though, the more likely your health care provider will prescribe one of the medications.

The type of medication given to a person with type 1 diabetes is different than that given for type 2 diabetes. Anything that interferes with the mechanism that the body uses to regulate blood sugar may cause diabetes. It can happen because the cells that secrete insulin die off, or when those cells fail to respond to the signals that tell them to make insulin. Therefore, the pancreas of a person with type 1 diabetes is unable to create the quantity of insulin needed. Now the pancreas of a type 2 diabetic makes plenty of insulin but insulin receptors in the cells have lost their ability to respond to it … so the person with type 2 diabetes is making more than enough insulin. A type 2 diabetic would never be able to share their medication with a person with type 1 diabetes … sharing medication is against the law anyway!

Often type 2 diabetics are given oral medications which are in the category called biguanides. One example of a biguanide is Metformin, the generic name of the drug marketed as Glucophage. This drug lowers blood sugar levels by decreasing the amount of glucose produced by the liver. Metformin also increases the amount of insulin the muscles in your body recognize as insulin and then uses, and is one of the most prescribed medications for type 2.

Some health care providers will prescribe medications that stimulate the beta cells of the pancreas to release more insulin. Drugs that are used to do this fall into the category of sulfonylureas and meglitinides and perhaps you will be prescribed these drugs if your pancreas has been working so hard that its cells are not capable of producing enough insulin.

Type 1 diabetics need insulin itself in the form of injections.

Though many people are able to bring their blood sugar levels back to within the normal range by following a healthy eating plan, not everyone is willing to stick with a restrictive diet. This is often the reason a health care provider will assume that dietary changes will not solve your blood sugar problems and prescribe oral anti-diabetic medications.

There is also the possibility he may wait on prescribing any medications and advise you to follow a healthy eating plan, lose weight and start an exercise program and review your progress in three months.

Anti-diabetic medications are an add on … they alone will not reduce your blood sugar levels; a healthy lifestyle is still needed if you have type 2 diabetes.

If you have already developed the habit of self-monitoring your blood sugar levels several times a day, this is something to celebrate. Checking your blood sugars regularly is imperative for everyone diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Those with type 2 diabetes who self-monitor their blood sugars are way ahead of the game compared to those who do not. When you know what your sugar level is, it’s possible to make changes and adjustments in what you are doing for the rest of the day.

Maintaining tight control of your sugar levels… that is keeping them as near as possible to normal… significantly reduces your risk of complications.

The question is when should blood sugar levels be checked?

• these levels should be checked on fasting
• knowing this level gives you an indication of how your day is going to be
• when your fasting level is high… you may be eating less and/or exercising more

Many diabetics want to know when specifically they should take the fasting blood sugar level:

The best time is before your activities of the day get started. This includes before:

• shaving
• cleaning
• showering

The next time of the day to take a glucometer reading is:

• one to two hours after you eat a meal

If you take the reading one hour after you eat:

• this will provide you with valuable information about how well your meal was constructed.

How high did your blood sugar go? Is it normally 150 mg/dL (8.3 mg/dL) and after a pasta meal, your blood sugar shot up to 175 mg/dL (9.72 mmol/L)? If so, it would be wise to analyze the meal and see what nutrients were off kilter… what caused this issue? The protein, fat or carbohydrates?

Usually in a pasta meal, there is not enough protein. People often think that eating pasta noodles with tomato sauce, bread and butter and maybe a small glass of wine is a great meal. However, this type of meal doesn’t have enough protein in it! There may be about 4 or 5 grams but what you need is at least 25 grams. That’s a deficit of about 21 grams. The meal is predominantly carbohydrate, in other words it’s carbohydrate rich and those carbohydrates will, of course, cause a blood sugar spike. This will then create a burst of insulin so that this spike can be lowered. You are then left with a blood sugar level that will go up and down, up and down for the rest of the day.

As well, if you have more glucose in your body than your cells need, insulin takes the extra blood glucose and transports it into fat storage. This step is important because having abnormally high blood sugar levels is called type 2 diabetes and is very damaging to your body. Self-monitoring is one of the best ways to help you overcome your type 2 diabetes.