How to bring blood sugar down quickly without insulin

• Ask a Doctor
• Doctor’s Response
• What Can You Do to Bring Your Blood Sugar Down Quickly? Topic Guide

Ask a Doctor

My son’s wife is diabetic, and they’re planning a backwoods camping and hiking trip that will last 16 days. They’ve never done anything like this before, and I worry about them. I trust my daughter-in-law to take all the necessary precautions, but what if something happens and she loses her insulin on the trail? What is the first aid for a diabetic emergency? What can you do to bring your blood sugar down quickly?

Doctor’s Response

When you have diabetes, your blood sugar may spike for a number of reasons, including eating a heavy meal, not taking medication as directed, lack of exercise, illness, or stress.

The fastest way to bring down your blood sugar (glucose) levels is to take insulin, but this should only be done as prescribed by a doctor. The next quickest way to lower blood sugar is to exercise. But if your blood glucose is above 240 mg/dl, you should check your urine for ketones. If ketones are present, exercise may not be recommended.

Reducing the amount of food you eat at mealtime may also help. A doctor or dietician can make recommendations if changes in your diet or meal plan could help.

As medical science has advanced, there has become a big push to get tighter and tighter control of blood sugar levels. The highs and lows needed to be smoothed out to get as close to normal physiology as possible. This has become the mantra for diabetic care. Just like an elite athlete who is always training, the person with diabetes always needs to be working to maintain normal blood sugar levels. This is a relatively new concept. Not so long ago, the hope was that one insulin injection a day would be enough to return those with diabetes to their normal state. Blood sugars were allowed to fluctuate over a wide range, and patients and their doctors were comfortable with the trade-off. Once or twice a day shots didn't affect lifestyle. But just having "OK" control of blood sugar levels wasn't "OK".

Research showed that blood sugars should be kept within a tight range of normal, and technology should adapt to make that happen. Smaller glucose meters were developed. Insulin pumps became more routinely used. Children with diabetes weren't ostracized; they too could do what they wanted and their friends took the needles and blood tests in stride.

There are no days off. Diet, exercise, and medication need to be optimized every day to maintain body performance, avoid the complications of diabetes, and prolong a long and healthy life. The difference is that the reward for all this work comes later. An athlete will be cheered every day on the field. The individual with diabetes gets to cheer thirty years later playing with grandchildren.

For more information, read our full medical article on diabetes.

References

Benjamin Wedro, MD, FACEP, FAAEM coauthored this article.

REFERENCE:

American Diabetes Association. Hyperglycemia (High Blood Glucose). 7 December 2018. 2 January 2019

Christy L. Parkin, MSN, RN, CDE. How Do I Quickly Bring Down My Blood Glucose? January 2011. Diabetes Forecast. 2 January 2019

Yes, it’s possible to lower your blood sugar quickly! Not everyone’s blood sugar (glucose) levels will tumble in 3 days, but scientific evidence strongly points to the use of a healthy lifestyle (good food, daily exercise, and a positive mindset) can help you reverse diabetes in as quickly as two to three weeks. Nearly 10% of the U.S. population has diabetes. Are you ready to make a change? Here’s how you can lower your blood sugar quickly.

How do you feel when your blood sugar is too high?

The symptoms can be subtle – the increase in thirst, or more frequent urination. So many people do not even realize that they need to lower your blood sugar level. If you don’t, you are at a greater risk of developing diabetes. It can take up to 12 years for diabetes to develop. Evidence shows the ability to reverse diabetes is greater when a healthy lifestyle is emphasized early.

How to lower your blood sugar naturally

Nearly 10% of the U.S. population has diabetes, and globally rates are expected to double by 2030. Significant evidence shows you can lower your blood sugar quickly, and even reverse diabetes by adopting a healthy lifestyle:

• In the United Kingdom, researchers successfully lowered blood sugar and reverse diabetes by implementing a combination of a lifestyle change and weight loss.
• In urban locations in Africa, scientists have found educational programs help prediabetic adults alter their lifestyle to effectively lower blood sugar levels.
• The most extensive study was completed in the United States and was called the Diabetes Prevention Program Randomized Trail. The study observed 3,234 men and women with pre-diabetes over a three-year period. The researchers found a healthy lifestyle was more effective than medication in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes. One third of the adults took a placebo, another took metformin (a medication for diabetes), while the final third of the adults adopted lifestyle changes that were similar to the Pritikin Program (daily healthy eating of low-calorie dense foods, and daily exercise of at least 30 minutes five days a week). Adults who adopted a lifestyle change were twice as likely to reduce the progression of their pre-diabetes into type 2 diabetes than the control group.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as the Pritikin lifestyle, is twice as effective as medication in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes.

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