Blood Glucose Basics

When you were first diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor probably sent you home with a lot of information. Even if you've been living with diabetes for years, you may still have questions about what diabetes is.

What is glucose?

It sounds like a technical term, but glucose is just a fancy name for sugar. Blood glucose (or blood sugar) is your body's main source of energy and comes mostly from carbohydrates in many of the foods that you eat.

What is insulin?

Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas. Your body needs insulin to turn the blood glucose from the food you eat into energy.

What is diabetes?

People with diabetes don't produce enough or any insulin. This results in a buildup of too much glucose in the blood. In addition, cells don't have the energy they need to do their work.

Why is blood glucose important?

To operate at peak performance, your body needs to keep blood glucose levels within a normal range. If you have too little glucose, you run out of energy; too much, and the extra glucose will be stored and cause weight gain and long term complications.

Monitoring blood glucose

You should check with your health care provider about whether and how often to monitor blood glucose. Assuming you have been told to monitor, you will need a blood glucose meter, test strips, a lancet (which is a small device that pricks the skin to obtain a blood sample) and a log to record your blood glucose readings over time.

What causes blood glucose to rise and fall?

There are many factors that cause changes in blood glucose levels for a person with diabetes. The main factors are the food you eat, exercise, illness, stress and medications.

Blood glucose goals

For most people, the goal is to keep blood glucose levels between 70 and 130 mg/dl before meals and less that 180 mg/dl after meals. Your doctor may have different goals for you.