One of the vital ingredients of the blood is blood sugar. It forms the body’s own fuel, without which many cells could not exist. Closely related to blood sugar is the new common disease diabetes mellitus (type 2).
What is blood sugar?
A blood glucose test is used by doctors to further diagnose various diseases. The term blood glucose represents the amount of dissolved glucose in the blood. Ingestion of carbohydrates in any form – such as ordinary household sugar, from pasta, rice or bread – causes blood glucose to rise. The current blood glucose can be measured in a simple way in a quick test with blood from the fingertip. A blood sample taken at the doctor’s office allows the HbA1c value to be determined, which provides information about the course of blood glucose over a period of several months.
Medical and health functions, tasks, and meanings.
When carbohydrates enter the digestive system, the body begins to absorb the blood glucose into the blood. The pancreas releases the hormone insulin in needed amounts, which is the key that opens the cells to blood sugar. Once it is supplied with blood sugar, the cell can perform as expected. A blood sugar level that is too low, as often occurs in athletes and even more so in diabetics with too much insulin, leads to a functional failure of the cells, which in the worst case can mean death. The decisive factor here is that the body has its own blood glucose reserves, so that in the event of such hypoglycemia, emergency regulation can take place via the liver. If the blood glucose is too high (which usually indicates diabetes), the patient feels listless and exhausted, loses weight and feels unquenchable thirst combined with a strong urge to urinate. However, very high blood glucose levels are only acutely dangerous for type 1 diabetics. Physical exertion has just as much of an influence on blood glucose levels as an adequate supply of beverages. When muscle cells work during exercise, they respond much more readily to insulin than when they are inactive. This lowers blood sugar levels just as a healthy water balance has a positive effect on blood thinning.
Diseases, ailments and disorders
If the balanced interaction of blood sugar and insulin is disturbed, the patient suffers from diabetes mellitus. Here, two fundamentally different clinical pictures must be distinguished. Type 1 of the disease is when the pancreas has definitively stopped producing insulin. The consequence of this autoimmune disease is that the patient is dependent on external insulin via injections for the rest of his life. If the insulin is not administered, the blood sugar rises dangerously in a short time and a severe metabolic derailment (diabetic ketoacidosis) occurs which, if left untreated, inevitably leads to death. Type 2 diabetics, who make up by far the largest proportion of diabetes sufferers, are more likely to have to contend with the late effects of high blood sugar. This disease occurs more frequently in old age, which is why it used to be known as “old-age diabetes.” However, due to dramatically worsened eating habits in today’s society, many young people who are overweight also suffer from elevated blood sugar. In these cases, the pancreas is overloaded and does not produce enough insulin to transport the excess blood sugar into the cells. The cells, in turn, dull and become less and less sensitive to insulin. As a result, the patient is exposed to permanently high blood glucose levels (usually for many years) without complaining of serious acute symptoms. High blood glucose over the period of decades is the cause of a variety of diseases. What they all have in common is that small blood vessels and nerve connections are gradually destroyed. Everyone knows sugar as small, pointed crystals. Model-speaking, these crystals are pressed through narrow capillaries in the blood as blood sugar, which in the long run leads to the tearing of the tiny blood vessels. In the eye, for example, this regularly causes patients to go blind (retinopathy). Kidney function can also come to a standstill (nephropathy). Four out of five diabetes sufferers have high blood pressure, and many of them have what is known as a “diabetic foot,” which in extreme cases cannot be saved. In this way, the vital blood sugar takes on an importance that the body never intended for it.
