Blood sugar

One of the vital ingredients in blood is Blood sugar. It forms the body's own fuel, without which many cells could not exist. The new widespread disease diabetes mellitus (type 2) is closely related to blood sugar.

What is blood sugar?

The term Blood sugar stands for the amount of dissolved glucose in the blood. The ingestion of carbohydrates in any form - such as ordinary table sugar, from pasta, rice or bread - leads to an increase in blood sugar.

The current blood sugar can be measured in a simple way in a quick test with blood from the fingertip. Taking a blood sample from the doctor enables the HbA1c value to be determined, which provides information on the blood sugar level over a period of a few months.

Medical & health functions, tasks & meanings

When carbohydrates enter the digestive system, the body begins to absorb them Blood sugar into the blood. The pancreas releases the hormone insulin in the required amount, which is the key to opening the cells for blood sugar.

Once it has been supplied with blood sugar, the cell can perform as expected. A blood sugar level that is too low, as it often occurs in athletes and especially in diabetics who are given too much insulin, leads to the loss of function of the cells, which in the worst case can mean death. It is crucial here that the body has its own blood sugar reserves so that in the event of such hypoglycemia, emergency regulation can take place via the liver.

If the blood sugar is too high (which usually indicates diabetes), the patient feels weak and drained, loses weight and feels an insatiable thirst combined with a strong urge to urinate. A very high blood sugar level is acutely dangerous only for type 1 diabetics.

Physical exertion has just as much influence on blood sugar as adequate drink intake. If the muscle cells work during exercise, they react much more easily to insulin than when they are not moving. This lowers the blood sugar content just like a healthy water balance, which results in positive blood thinning.

Illnesses, ailments & disorders

Is the balanced interplay of Blood sugar and insulin is disturbed, the patient suffers from diabetes mellitus. Here, two fundamentally different clinical pictures have to be distinguished. Type 1 of the disease is when the pancreas has finally stopped producing insulin. As a result of this autoimmune disease, the patient is dependent on third-party insulin via injections for the rest of his life.

If the insulin is not administered, the blood sugar rises dangerously in a short time and serious metabolic imbalance occurs (diabetic ketoacidosis), which, if left untreated, inevitably leads to death. Type 2 diabetics, who represent by far the largest proportion of diabetics, have to struggle more with the long-term effects of high blood sugar. This disease occurs more often in old age, which is why it was previously known as "old age sugar".

However, due to the dramatic deterioration in eating behavior in today's society, many young people who are overweight also suffer from high blood sugar. With them, the pancreas is overloaded and does not produce enough insulin to carry the excess blood sugar into the cells. The cells, in turn, become dull and are less and less sensitized to insulin. As a result, the patient is exposed to consistently high blood sugar levels (usually for many years) without complaining of any serious acute symptoms.

High blood sugar over a period of decades is the cause of a multitude of diseases. What they all have in common is that small blood vessels and nerve connections are gradually destroyed. Everyone knows sugar as small, pointed crystals. As a model, these crystals in the blood are pressed through narrow capillaries as blood sugar, which in the long term leads to the tearing of the tiny blood vessels. In the eye, for example, this has the consequence that patients regularly go blind (retinopathy).

The kidney function can also come to a standstill (nephropathy). Four out of five people with diabetes suffer from high blood pressure, and many of them have what is known as a "diabetic foot" which, in extreme cases, cannot be saved. In this way, vital blood sugar takes on a meaning that the body never intended for it.