Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
By Denise A. Pancyrz – Diabetes Reversal & Holistic Lifestyle Coach, Speaker, Author
Falling into a trap of looking at one number or a single parameter when it comes to diabetes can be very misleading. On the surface, this chart makes sense and seems clear cut. Let’s step through the following process of reviewing a few examples and learn to read between the lines.
A. Susan has a fasting glucose of 85 mg/dL, which is in normal range. Two hours after breakfast, her glucose increased to 135 mg/dL. Her post meal glucose is also within range of less than 140 mg/dL.
B. Barry has a fasting glucose of 100 mg/dL. Two hours after breakfast, his glucose increased to 150 mg/dL. Both readings are slightly out of range.
C. Dave has a fasting glucose of 135 mg/dL. Two hours after breakfast his glucose is 155 mg/dL. Both readings are out of normal range.
Who needs help with their meal planning?
Are you thinking it can’t be answered because we don’t know what each person consumed? For this exercise, we are only targeting the increase of glucose tied to food consumption. Of course, I always advocate for healthy options.
I’m leaning toward Dave doing a better job managing his breakfast. (We don’t know if Dave is taking diabetes medication, so there is always more to the story. For now, we will keep it simple.)
You may be thinking, “Don’t be crazy, Denise, Susan must be managing the best, her fasting and post meal readings are within normal range.”
There are several facets I suggest reviewing when verifying if you are heading toward diabetes, managing, or reversing the effects of diabetes. Using a single form of information is never really enough to make an optimal decision.
As a coach, one red flag is Susan and Barry actually have something in common. In both cases, after eating their meal, their glucose increased by 50 points. While Susan’s readings are in normal range, I would start looking at the food Susan had for breakfast. Is there a metabolic impairment slowly inching her into diabetes?
Barry’s fasting glucose is beginning to inch above the recommended upper limit of 99. Based on the information in front of us, Barry may be considered as having prediabetes. Gathering more information would be prudent for Barry. Pairing this information with his A1c result can start shedding more light on his health. Additional lab tests are available to gather even more information.
It is clear that Dave has diabetes. He also knows it’s never too late to make changes which is why Dave had the lowest glucose increase even with this disease. At least for breakfast, Dave is learning to make changes to his diet, his glucose only increased 20 points from 135 to 155. Eventually, I would expect to see his premeal and post meal glucose start to decrease if Dave’s meal choices continue to improve.
As you see, you can fall within the parameters of a chart, but it never tells the whole story. This chart is a guide. It gives us parameters to start comparing your glucose levels. Based on this demonstration, the goal is to help you realize that just like an iceberg, there is more information to it!
Don’t sell yourself short when it comes to your health. One chart, one test, one opinion may lead you down the wrong path. With holistic lifestyle changes, we look at many aspects of your life and health to work toward an optimal outcome.
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