The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or GlycoMode Website treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment. To quickly lower your blood sugar, try doing some light exercise for 5-10 minutes, such as taking a short walk. However, you should avoid exercising for more than 15 minutes, since this will cause your blood sugar to drop too low. Alternatively, if you’re at home, take a warm shower for about 15 minutes to help the insulin flow through your body and lower your blood sugar quicker. You can also eat some protein to help stabilize your blood sugar, like a tablespoon of sugar-free peanut or almond butter. Alternatively, make a sandwich with whole wheat bread or porridge with oatmeal, since whole grains can also lower your blood sugar. For more tips from our Medical co-author, including how to keep track of your blood sugar during exercise, read on!
Why should people without diabetes monitor glucose levels? Only 7% of the U.S. Today, more than 120 million Americans have prediabetes or diabetes, and 84% of people with prediabetes don’t even know they have it. What’s more, 9 of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. In short, too much glucose and insulin can have serious consequences for anyone. Fortunately, the beauty of striving for better metabolic health is that much of it is in our control. Maintaining stable glucose ranges can improve energy, endurance, memory, mood, and cognitive performance. Levels’ goal is to help you improve metabolic fitness by alerting you to foods and lifestyle choices that negatively impact glucose levels, so you can make healthier, more informed decisions. What is the metabolic health crisis? Can’t I just look at a glycemic index to see how foods will affect me? Glycemic index (GI) indicates how quickly your body processes the carbohydrates in a particular food, and can be a useful guide to what might cause a glucose spike.
For example, potatoes have a high GI, so they can cause a spike even without added sugar. But how we each respond to food goes beyond the macronutrient composition of the food itself. You might respond well to bananas and have a big spike when you eat rice, while someone else may have the opposite response. Individual differences, such as the composition of our gut microbiome, how well we sleep, exposure to stress, physical activity, and our genetics can all contribute to those unique reactions. The more you know about how your body responds, the easier it becomes to make healthy choices. Why does Levels measure glucose and not insulin? Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas that allows glucose to move from our blood into our cells, where it can be stored or converted to energy. When glucose is too high too frequently, we produce too much insulin.
Over time, that can lead to insulin resistance, a condition associated with serious chronic disorders including heart disease, cancer, stroke, dementia, and infertility. However, insulin cannot be tested continuously at home. Continuous glucose monitors (CGM) makes glucose simple to measure yourself, and since the body releases insulin in response to glucose elevation in the blood, CGMs can help coach people to eat for fewer glucose spikes and therefore minimize excess insulin. What are normal levels of insulin and why don’t we test it more? What is a healthy range for glucose levels? The International Diabetes Federation recommends that for people without diabetes, glucose levels should remain below 140mg/dL after meals and return to pre-meal levels within 2-3 hours. However, there are no standardized, universally accepted criteria for what “normal” or “optimal” 24-hour glucose values are for non-diabetic people wearing CGMs. Levels recommends maintaining glucose levels between 72-110 mg/dL, limiting post-meal glucose rises to no more than 30 mg/dL from pre-meal levels, and maintaining an average glucose of 100 mg/dL or lower.
