Sugar, essential to life Sugars of various simple and complex chemical compositions exist in many of the foods that we eat each day. After food is processed by the body's digestive system, any complex sugars in the foods are reduced to the simpler form of sugar called glucose. The glucose then passes into the bloodstream to circulate throughout the body where it is an essential source of fuel that is required by the billions of cells of the body in order to provide energy to drive the cellular metabolic activities that sustain life. In healthy people, the amount of sugar that circulates in the blood is regulated by processes of the body to within a specific range that does no harm to any tissues or organs. However, that regulatory system can sometimes, for several possible reasons, become impaired with the result that above normal blood sugars can exist with the potential to cause heath complications if the situation is not rectified. Higher than normal blood sugar levels that exist for an extended period of time lead to a serious disease called diabetes, a disease for which there is no cure and one that requires careful management and control of the amounts of glucose that enters and remains in the body. To do so usually requires making dietary changes, adding a degree of exercise and physical exertion and, in some cases, special prescription medications. There are several well-known symptoms that can lead a person to suspect they may be experiencing diabetic or pre-diabetic episodes. And individuals who are overweight or obese and who take little exercise are at much higher risk of developing diabetes, especially as they reach the years of middle age. However, the only way for a person to know whether they have above normal blood sugars is by having a sample of their blood tested, a simple procedure that is prescribed by a physician and is usually carried out at a licensed clinical facility, or a hospital, or perhaps at a doctor's office. A laboratory analysis of the blood sample provides the essential information regarding the amount of glucose that exists in the blood by measuring the percentage of hemoglobin molecules that have glucose attached to them. Hemoglobin is a major component of blood and the hemoglobin-glucose association is usually referred to as glycosylated hemoglobin or glycated hemoglobin. The test is referred to as an A1c, or HbA1c test. The target level to show no diabetes present is 6% If the amount is 7% or higher, it indicates that diabetes is possibly present and additional tests may be necessary to confirm the possibility or otherwise. For non diabetic people, the A1c test need only be performed every year or two, subject to the doctor's advice but a person who is diagnosed as having diabetes will probably have the blood test every 3 or 4 months because of the need to monitor carefully the progress of the disease. Self-administered blood test necessary for the person with diabetes On a day-to-day basis, the levels of sugar circulating in the blood varies, related especially to the types and amounts of food eaten and the frequency and elapsed time between meals. A person with diabetes will need to perform a self-administered test each day to more closely monitor their blood sugar levels. The target levels for the person with diabetes is given below and, for comparison, the normal levels of a non-diabetic person are also shown. The units of measure in the United States are milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and in most other countries are millimoles per liter (mmol/L). The U.S. numerical values can be multiplied by 18 in order to obtain the values for the other countries. Target levels for the person with diabetes: â™ Fasting levels (in the morning before breakfast or eating any food): between 70 and 130 mg/dL â™ 2-hours after eating: less than 180 mg/dL For comparison, the normal levels of a person who does not have diabetes are: â™ Fasting levels (in the morning before breakfast or eating any food): less than 100 mg/dL â™ 2-hours after eating: less than 140 mg/dL
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