I am a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic and doing research into how to manage everything. I keep seeing to keep blood sugar under 180mg/dl and damage starts there. But why?
Wouldn’t everyone be different? Also what is so damaging at that number? I understand the damage to the kidneys overworking to clean the sugar out but why would it hurt blood vessels in the extremities and eyes?
Is it just that the sugar thickens the blood too much or something?
Basically I understand that high blood sugar causes damage but why? And why specifically at 180mg/dl?
In: Biology
Blood doesn’t “thicken” due to high blood sugar, a common misconception. It is a symptom in and of itself, it means that your cells aren’t taking in sugar from the blood stream to burn as energy due to lack of insulin (which tells cells to take in sugar to burn as energy) or insulin resistance (cells start ignoring the insulin).
The problem with this is that cells don’t get the energy that they require to function and start to die and lose nerve endings starting with the feet (diabetic neuropathy), the blood sugar killing happens after diabetic neuropathy sets in, any damage to the foot can’t be felt and can easily become infected without the person realizing it, leading to infections entering the blood stream (this is why diabetics sometimes end up having a foot/feet amputated).
Also your body starts burning fat stores instead of using the readily available sugar which can cause too many acids in the blood stream called ketoacidosis. The extra thirst is due to your body trying to flush out the extra sugar through the kidneys.
You should really aim to keep your blood sugar under 130 not 180. That number has been researched over the years and it has been scientifically proven that having blood sugar continuously over 180 is where most if not all of the harm to the body occurs.
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