Why is blood glucose so important?
A. Glucose is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the glucose from the blood into the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can cause problems: • The cells of your body become starved for energy. • High blood glucose levels may hurt your eyes, kidneys, nerves or heart over a period of time.
Glucose is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the glucose from the blood into the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of into cells, it can cause problems: • The cells of your body become starved for energy. • High blood glucose levels may hurt your eyes, kidneys, nerves or heart over time.
Glucose is a very important energy source in the body. If it is too low, then key organs of the body such as the brain will be starved of energy. In extreme cases this will lead to coma and death. If the blood glucose level is too high, then patient might start producing excessive urine (polyurea), feeling hungry and thirsty. A characteristic smell of Ketone may be present. In extreme case damage to kidney, irregular heart beat and coma may occur. It is therefore important to keep blood glucose within the normal levels. Diabetes test are useful ways of determining the blood glucose level. These tests can be performed at anytime. There are two times times which are commonly quoted: Random blood glucose and Fasting blood glucose. As the name implies, a random blood glucose tests are done at anytime and is very useful to do when a diabetic patient is feeling unwell all of a sudden. This is to enable him indentify if the sudden feeling of unwell has anything to do with his blood glucose. T
