Why I Track My Blood Sugar Even Though I Don’t Have Diabetes

It’s not very often you hear someone who is fit and healthy saying they are checking their glucose levels.

But I do, why?

Once I discovered how my blood sugar affected my mood, energy and overall health, I committed to tracking my glucose so I could know where I was at vs just guessing or waiting for my annual labs.

In 2019, when my fasting glucose came in at 96 from my routine labs and my doctor sent me a note saying my labs were “normal” and I did not need to change anything, I was confused. I was at the top of the range and thought to myself, “how can I improve this?” With anything in my life, I go all in when I decide to make a change. Here’s a few reasons why you should consider tracking your blood sugar, even if it’s only occasionally!

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1. Optimizing My Metabolic Health for Fertility

If you know a little of my story, I started Glucose Glow Up after facing a couple of years of unexplained infertility. I needed to optimize my health to have a healthy cycle and ovulate. My glucose levels were dysregulated, and annual labs weren’t giving me enough data. Striving for optimal health is crucial, especially when preparing to grow a family.

Optimizing health can be challenging, and it’s even harder once you’re already pregnant. Egg quality is affected three months prior, so the efforts I made paid off in the long run.

Knowing that glucose and insulin issues before pregnancy could cause future complications, I aimed to optimize my levels during this period and tracked them throughout my pregnancy.

Research shows that even a 5 mg/dL increase in pre-pregnancy fasting glucose levels can raise the risk of gestational diabetes and macrosomia, and these issues can persist in future pregnancies.

High maternal glucose levels are associated with complications such as pregnancy loss, macrosomia, preeclampsia, c-sections, and long-term metabolic effects on the child.

It’s believed that elevated maternal glucose levels can cause mitochondrial defects in the egg before implantation, affecting the embryo’s metabolism. So, maintaining balanced glucose levels is crucial for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

2. Energy and Mood Stability

Large spikes and crashes in glucose can negatively affect our energy levels and mood. As someone with anxiety, I started to see how my diet impacted me negatively once I started tracking my glucose. I experienced low energy, irritability, and mood swings. I was basically the definition of hangry.

I would eat breakfast at home, drive to work and eat another snack. Something with oats was usually my go to. Overnight oats, oatmeal, energy balls etc. Then I would be hungry from sitting at my desk and go find a cookie or bagel or something in the office kitchen. I was never not eating.

Studies have shown that individuals with higher glycemic variability are more likely to experience mood disturbances and lower energy levels. This is because rapid changes in blood glucose can affect brain function leading to symptoms like fatigue, irritability, and anxiety .

Although we could assume that poor self-management may cause more glycemic variability, it is shows greater glycemic variability results in more frequent episodes of hyper- and hypoglycemia, which may contribute to depression as well as anxiety.

As a consequence, one’s ability to perform self-management can be more challenging and negatively impact his or her overall quality of life.

I sometimes feel we and myself included like to try and find something to blame for why we feel a certain way, but do we ever consider the food we’re consuming?

So in this study, they were not coached on how to manage their diabetes, they were just tracked. With proper education what if we could heal and eat to maintain our mental wellness?

3: Empowerment

I believe in feeling empowered and taking ownership of my health. While I value doctor’s appointments and lab results, I want to dig deeper. Using my glucometer at home, I no longer had to guess about my health.

We all track various things like sleep, steps, workouts, run distances, and heart rate. I added glucose tracking to the list. I don’t track it all the time, but I know I can start whenever I feel off track. This empowered me to make informed decisions and actively participate in my health journey instead of waiting for directions.

Tracking health metrics empowers individuals to understand their bodies better and make proactive decisions. For example, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices provide real-time data on glucose levels, helping users identify patterns and make informed choices about their diet and lifestyle. This proactive approach can lead to better health outcomes and a greater sense of control over one’s well-being .

Nothing is guaranteed, but if there are preventative measures we can take, I would go for it. Tracking blood sugar levels, even in the absence of diabetes, enables early detection of potential issues and allows you maintain optimal health in the long run.

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MEDICAL REFERENCES

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3317401/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10477073/
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fetal-macrosomia/symptoms-causes/syc-20372579