How to Reduce Fasting Glucose
Diabetes can lead to blindness, nerve damage, kidney disease, heart disease, amputations and other severe problems. Reducing your fasting glucose will help you avoid or at least delay complications from diabetes. Fasting glucose is your blood sugar level after eight hours of not eating. When you test your blood in the morning after eight hours of sleep, the result is your fasting glucose level. If the fasting glucose levels are high, you need to get them lower because of the severe complications you could encounter.
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Things You'll Need
- Testing meter
- Test strips
- Finger prick device
- Finger prick supplies
- Insulin pump
- Diabetes medication
Instructions
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Eat fewer carbohydrates and eat low glycemic index foods for supper, then exercise after supper to burn off some glucose.
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Eat a small snack in the evening to keep your liver from producing glucose. The liver will produce glucose when there is no food in your system. A small carbohydrate snack before bed can stop your liver from producing glucose during the night. This does not work for everyone, so you need to experiment. If it does not work for you, try something else.
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Make sure your blood sugar is not going too low during the night. If the blood glucose gets too low during the night, your liver will react by pumping glucose into your bloodstream, causing the level to increase. Test your blood at around 2 a.m. to see if you are having a low period during the night. This is common for people taking insulin. If you are low during the night, talk to your doctor to see what you can do about the problem.
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Get help if you have a sleep disorder. Not getting a good night's sleep can negatively affect your blood sugar levels, making them higher in the morning. Sleep apnea is a serious problem for diabetics, but treatment can help lower fasting glucose significantly.
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Manage your stress levels to lower glucose levels. Stress causes the body to produce hormones that work against insulin. By managing stress, you reduce glucose and also help your heart.
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Insulin pump therapy can help maintain the correct basal insulin level overnight, leading to greatly improved fasting glucose levels. Your body makes a small amount of sugar every hour during the day whether you are eating or not. When working properly, the pancreas makes a small amount of insulin, called basal insulin, to keep this sugar in balance. The pancreas is then supposed to make a larger amount of insulin at times when you eat. At night, the lack of basal insulin will cause high blood glucose, but an insulin pump can solve this problem.
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