High and Low Blood Sugar

It is important that a person with diabetes can identify the symptoms of high and low blood sugar. How a person is treating and managing their diabetes will determine if they experience these symptoms.

High Blood Sugar

Often before a person is diagnosed with diabetes they will experience symptoms of high blood sugar, also called hyperglycemia. Symptoms of high blood sugar include increased thirst, increased urination, fatigue, headaches, and blurred vision. It is important to check your blood sugar if you have diabetes and you start to experience these symptoms. If these symptoms continue and your blood sugar remains elevated, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider. If you do not have diabetes and you develop these symptoms, you should make an appointment with your primary care provider so that they can determine what is causing these symptoms.

Low Blood Sugar

Besides dealing with high blood sugar, a person with diabetes could also experience low blood sugar—also called hypoglycemia. A low blood sugar level can happen if a person with diabetes takes too much diabetes medication, eats less food than usual, or is more active than usual.

Low blood sugar is typically only a concern if a person is taking certain diabetes medication such as sulfonylurea (glyburide, glipizide, glimepiride) or insulin. If a person has a low blood sugar, their symptoms may include sweating, shakiness, dizziness, fast heartbeat, or confusion. If you develop any of these symptoms, you should check your blood sugar. A low blood sugar is anything less than 70 mg/dl. If you have a blood sugar reading less than 70 mg/dl, you should eat or drink something with sugar or fast acting carbohydrates. Some examples of this may include ½ glass of fruit juice, ½ can of regular soda, fruit snacks, several pieces of hard candy, or 1 cup of milk. Once you have eaten, you should wait 15 minutes and then recheck your blood sugar. If it is still less than 70 mg/dl, you should have another item from the list above. You should continue to repeat these steps until your blood sugar is above 70 mg/dl. If you have multiple episodes of low blood sugar, be sure to let your primary care provider know so that adjustments may be made to your treatment plan.

If a person has diabetes, it is important that they can identify the symptoms of high and low blood sugar. For more information regarding this topic feel free to reach out to Fort HealthCare’s Diabetes Education and Support Specialists.

Krames. (2022). High and low blood sugar. Type 2 Diabetes. (pp. 19). Krames, LLC.