SOLUTIONS TO INFERTILITY: WHY DOES YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL RISE AND FALL?

April 23rd, 2009

After a meal, glucose produced by the breakdown of food (digestion) is absorbed through the wall of the intestine into the bloodstream. At this point, there is, quite naturally, a high level of glucose in the blood. Your body takes what it immediately needs for energy and then produces insulin from the pancreas in an attempt to reduce the excess. Glucose that is not used immediately for energy is changed into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles to be used later. It’s this finely tuned system that usually keeps the glucose level in your blood at a healthy well-balanced norm.

To maintain this balance, your body works in a similar way to the thermostat on a central heating system. Just as the thermostat clicks into action as temperatures rise or fall, so your natural ‘thermostat’ clicks into action as glucose levels rise and fall. When your ‘thermostat’ recognizes that there is too much or too little, your body takes action:

• When the glucose level falls too low adrenalin is released by the adrenal glands and glucagon is produced by the pancreas. Glucagon works in the opposite way to insulin and increases blood glucose by encouraging the liver to turn some of its glycogen stores into glucose to give us quick energy.

• If the blood glucose level stays low for a period of time, hypoglycemia – low blood sugar – can occur. Symptoms include irritability, aggressive outbursts, palpitations, forgetfulness, lack of sex drive, crying spells, dizziness, fears and anxiety, confusion, inability to concentrate, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, muscle cramps, excessive sweating and excessive thirst.

• Alternatively, when the glucose level rises too high, insulin is produced by the pancreas to lower it. If the blood sugar level remains too high, this causes the symptoms of hyperglycemia – high blood sugar level. The extreme form of this is diabetes. With this condition, insulin is supplied from outside the body by injection to bring the level down. The greater your weight, the higher your risk of developing diabetes. Obese people have a 77 times higher chance of developing it.

During a normal day, the amount by which your blood sugar level rises and falls depends on two main factors: what and when you eat or drink.