Blood Sugar
What do the numbers mean?
Everyone should have their blood sugar tested at least yearly at their annual primary care provider visits. Some people actually need to check their blood sugar more frequently, sometimes up to eight times a day. But what do the numbers mean? In this article, I hope to simply explain how to interpret the results and help you understand exactly what the numbers represent.
What is a blood glucose measurement?
Let’s go over some basics. Blood sugar, also known as blood glucose, is a term that refers to the amount of glucose present in your blood stream. If you have too much blood glucose in your blood stream, called hyperglycemia, it can lead to a health condition called diabetes. If your blood sugar is too low, known as hypoglycemia, it can be very dangerous and result in seizures, coma, and even death. As you can see, it’s super important for everyone to maintain normal blood glucose levels.
Measuring blood glucose provides you with a number that’s considered to be normal, pre-diabetic, or diabetic. It is important to note that just because you test your blood glucose and your level falls into the diabetic category, it doesn't mean you have diabetes. However, it is something you should definitely mention to your healthcare provider for further evaluation. One blood sugar test result is not indicative of having diabetes, but it should not be ignored.
Fasting vs Non-fasting vs A1C
If things weren’t confusing enough around testing your blood sugar, there’s more. There are three different types of blood glucose measurements. Two of them, fasting and non-fasting, are a measurement of your blood sugar at a single moment in time. For example, if you test your fasting blood sugar at 2pm, the result of that test will be your blood sugar levels at 2pm that day. In contrast, the third type of measurement, called the A1C, represents your average blood sugar levels over the course of three months.
Most glucose monitors can be used to check both fasting and non-fasting blood glucose levels. However, when testing, it’s important to know which reading you’re getting because there are normal levels for both fasting and non-fasting. To my knowledge, there are no machines readily available at pharmacies that measure both fasting, non-fasting, and A1C measurements. Therefore, measuring the A1C must be done using a specific A1C monitor, usually done by a healthcare professional.
Now that you’ve got the basics down pat, let’s talk specifics.
Fasting
A fasting blood glucose level is a measure of your sugar levels when you haven’t had any meals or drinks, other than water, for the past eight hours. Here are the ranges of fasting blood glucose levels:
Normal: between 70 and 90
Pre-diabetic: between 100 and 125
Diabetic: more than 126
Non-Fasting
A non-fasting blood glucose level is a measurement of your glucose levels after you’ve had a meal. If you intentionally want to obtain a non-fasting measurement, its best to test your levels one to two hours after a meal. Here are the ranges of non-fasting blood glucose levels:
Normal: less than 140
Pre-diabetic: 140–199
Diabetic: more than 200
A1C
Unlike fasting and non-fasting glucose measurements, the A1C is a number that is a percentage of some scientific process that represents an average of your blood glucose levels over the course of three months. Mathematically, it is not a direct average of fasting and non-fasting levels, although, there is a way to calculate your average blood glucose from this number. But, that number isn’t really used much to help with gauging how your blood glucose levels are doing. The A1C is an important reading that you and your healthcare provider should be paying attention to. This is because you may test your fasting and non-fasting blood glucose levels periodically, but those readings may not a good representation of your overall blood glucose levels. For example, you may only test your blood glucose in the morning, and that number might always come back to be normal. But what about the rest of the day? With meals, and other daily activities, your blood sugar levels are always changing. Your levels could be very different after meals, or at bedtime. This creates a lot of value in knowing your A1C since it gives you a better look at your overall blood sugar levels. Here are the ranges of A1C levels:
Normal : Less than 5.7%
Pre-diabetic: Between 5.7–6.4%
Diabetic: More than 6.5%
Hypoglycemia
When testing your blood glucose, if your level is below 70, you’re considered to have hypoglycemia. People can often feel the symptoms of low blood glucose, but this can vary from person to person. And while you may not feel any symptoms at some levels of hypoglycemia, the lower this number goes, the more symptoms you’ll feel and the more dangerous it could be to your health. Having too low of a blood sugar level can lead to seizures, coma, and even death.
The good news is, treating hypoglycemia is simple, you just need sugar! Juice, raisins, candy bars, honey and milk are all things that someone can take if they have low blood sugar. These can quickly fix hypoglycemia and bring your glucose levels back above normal. Most pharmacies even sell glucose tablets and glucose gel tubes so that you can conveniently keep a burst of sugar with you in case of an emergency.
Your Glucose Goals
If you’ve been told you have diabetes, the goals for your blood glucose levels will usually be for your numbers to be in the pre-diabetic to normal levels. However, this should be discussed and decided upon with your healthcare provider. Please don’t use the numbers in this article to create your own blood glucose goals as everyone’s situation can be different and the right levels for you can only be properly established with a healthcare professional who knows your medical history.
As always, do not start or change the way you use a medication without first speaking with your pharmacist or healthcare provider. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about your blood sugar or managing diabetes. Hope this was helpful!
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
-Richard
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Richard Waithe, PharmD | Richard@MedVize.com
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