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A fasting bs level of 90 indicates you are neither prediabetic nor diabetic. In fact anything within a range of 80 to 120 would be considered normal. Stress can elevate your blood sugar so don't stress yourself out over this or anything needlessly. Even if there is diabetes in your family, if you stay on a healthy diet (Mediterranean is best), maintain an age and height appropriate weight, and get plenty of exercise, you can keep Type II diabetes at bay indefinitely or certainly avoid complications. Keep in mind that there is no cure and it is hard for most people to reverse diabetes - it is a progressive disease. Try to avoid at all costs letting diabetes get control of your life.
I wonder where people get their information?
70 - 99 is normal for non-diabetics. If your fasting BG is 100 that is on the upper end of "normal". Fasting at 120 is diabetic. I am a full T2 diabetic and my fasting is around 104. I do watch my carb intake quite a bit. My A1C which is considered very good for a diabetic was a 5.2 (103) at the end of June. I am on medication plus I watch my carbs. One without the other would not work as well. The meds do not work miracles, you have to help them along with diet. If you wake up and test at a 100 is not cause for panic. It is still OK. 120 however is not!
Quote:
Normal blood glucose numbers Fasting
Normal for person without diabetes: 70–99 mg/dl (3.9–5.5 mmol/L)
Official ADA recommendation for someone with diabetes: 80–130 mg/dl (4.5–7.2 mmol/L) 2 hours after meals
Normal for person without diabetes: Less than 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L)
Official ADA recommendation for someone with diabetes: Less than 180 mg/dl (10.0 mmol/L) HbA1c
Normal for person without diabetes: Less than 5.7%
Official ADA recommendation for someone with diabetes: 7.0% or less
I have a blood sugar in the mid 90's so I've become conscientious about watching it and talked to my doctor about it. He told me that he had his blood sugar checked and it was 113, close to the diabetic range. He proceeded to work out and change his diet and when he had it rechecked, it was 93. It is possible for BS to drop that much and is all it takes working out and eating better? I've just never heard of what seems like a fairly substantial drop of 20 mg/dl.
Type II, or non-insulin dependent diabetes will sometimes go away if you change your diet and lose substantial weight. Generally, Type II diabetics are overweight, but some are not. I'd be interested in knowing if you physician lost a substantial amount of weight or not.
I don't know that I would agree that 113 is "close to the diabetic range". Any blood glucose measurement between 80 and 120 is normal. If its a "fasting blood glucose measurement" than I would be more concerned if it was taken at any time.
I got a 99 on a test conducted on August 8th. That freaked me out. Not sure how it could have gone down so much but I redid the 89 test and got the same result. Are there other factors that could lead it to have been higher than normal for that one test? It was a test done in the morning after having not eaten anything in more than 8 hours (during which I was sleeping). I was kind of stressed out that morning and conducted the test at work. After getting the 99, I redid the test hoping it was an error of some sort and got a 100.
Stress or getting less sleep will affect your BG.
It's not a fixed number that is always going to stay the same all the time. If you're stressed, don't sleep enough, eat more carbs than usual the night before, don't wash your hands well before testing, are coming down with a cold, or have gotten a steroid shot recently, all of those things can raise it. Exercise can lower it. Supplements or medications that you take can lower it and some supplements and medications can also raise it. (Sudafed raises mine...sometimes I take it before bed and I'll have a 99 reading in the morning rather than my usual 85 or 89).
My husband has had a 99 on a random fasting test before (he's not diabetic but about once a month he tests using my meter) and he was worried because my BG that same morning was 73, but I'm on meds to lower mine and he's not.
It's not a fixed number that is always going to stay the same all the time. If you're stressed, don't sleep enough, eat more carbs than usual the night before, don't wash your hands well before testing, are coming down with a cold, or have gotten a steroid shot recently, all of those things can raise it. Exercise can lower it. Supplements or medications that you take can lower it and some supplements and medications can also raise it. (Sudafed raises mine...sometimes I take it before bed and I'll have a 99 reading in the morning rather than my usual 85 or 89).
My husband has had a 99 on a random fasting test before (he's not diabetic but about once a month he tests using my meter) and he was worried because my BG that same morning was 73, but I'm on meds to lower mine and he's not.
Are you considered diabetic since you use medicine to keep it low? Otherwise, I wouldn't think someone with BS in the 70's would be. My doctor wouldn't diagnose me as diabetic with a mid-90's fasting glucose.
I have a blood sugar in the mid 90's so I've become conscientious about watching it and talked to my doctor about it. He told me that he had his blood sugar checked and it was 113, close to the diabetic range. He proceeded to work out and change his diet and when he had it rechecked, it was 93. It is possible for BS to drop that much and is all it takes working out and eating better? I've just never heard of what seems like a fairly substantial drop of 20 mg/dl.
I have a friend who had had her blood sugar monitored, because there was a family history of diabetes/at-risk population. In spite of the monitoring, it snuck up on her suddenly, somehow. She woke up one morning to find that she'd gone blind!! She's an artist, and teaches art at the university level--it's her life and her livelihood! She called the doc, got tested, and immediately bought an exercise machine for the home, a stair-stepper, I think. She used it twice daily for 3 weeks (and beyond). Her eyesight returned. She got tested after 3 weeks, and the nurse said she'd never seen someone bring their sugars down so fast!
Yes, it works. Best to do the diet & exercise as a preventive, than as a remedy after the fact, of course.
Are you considered diabetic since you use medicine to keep it low? Otherwise, I wouldn't think someone with BS in the 70's would be. My doctor wouldn't diagnose me as diabetic with a mid-90's fasting glucose.
When I was diagnosed, my A1C was 9.6 and my fasting BG was 180. I was taking a really strong steroid for a bleeding problem. I had to have surgery for the bleeding problem, and during the blood tests before surgery, they diagnosed me with diabetes. It's been a couple of years now and my doctor insists that once you're diagnosed, you're always diabetic and always have to take medication for it. Once I was able to stop taking the steroid, my BG went back to normal levels pretty quickly. My A1C has been 5.2 every time I've been tested since then, and I was hoping to stop one of the diabetes meds and just keep taking metformin, but my doctor says the other medication is the only thing keeping my numbers low and I can't stop taking it. I'm actually going to switch doctors because I'm tired of the side effects of the medication.
When I was diagnosed, my A1C was 9.6 and my fasting BG was 180. I was taking a really strong steroid for a bleeding problem. I had to have surgery for the bleeding problem, and during the blood tests before surgery, they diagnosed me with diabetes. It's been a couple of years now and my doctor insists that once you're diagnosed, you're always diabetic and always have to take medication for it. Once I was able to stop taking the steroid, my BG went back to normal levels pretty quickly. My A1C has been 5.2 every time I've been tested since then, and I was hoping to stop one of the diabetes meds and just keep taking metformin, but my doctor says the other medication is the only thing keeping my numbers low and I can't stop taking it. I'm actually going to switch doctors because I'm tired of the side effects of the medication.
Don't take the doctor's word for it. Find out for yourself. I like to do "controlled" tests with my meter. You can do the same. After all they are not with you all the time and constantly monitoring. Take your reading first thing in the morning and take just the metformin. Wait for the metformin to take effect (1 - 2 hours). You can take another reading just to see if the metformin by itself has done anything. Have a meal and wait a couple of hours and take another reading. Is your BG back down to target? If your pancreas functioning adequately, the metformin should be enough. If your BG is not down to target then there's your answer.
I do tests like this all the time. I know that for myself the metformin does not bring my BG down enough. I also take glimepiride (2mg) which is a Sulfonylurea which acts by increasing insulin release from the beta cells in the pancreas. Glipizide is another drug in this class. There's a major drawback to taking this type medication. They are know to "burn out" your pancreas over time. If that happens then there's no choice but to go on insulin (like T1's).
There's two things at play with T2's. Insulin production/release and insulin resistance. You may have just the latter in which case the metformin is enough. It's that way for a lot of T2's. Unfortunately I am too far along and don't fall into that category.
Harry,
I'm NOT diagnosing in any way, but a FBS in the 80-100 range is in the normal range. Some slight fluctuations from test to test are normal depending on stress levels, activity levels etc. To answer your original question, decreased in FBS are absolutely possible with improvements in diet and exercise.
Harry,
I'm NOT diagnosing in any way, but a FBS in the 80-100 range is in the normal range. Some slight fluctuations from test to test are normal depending on stress levels, activity levels etc. To answer your original question, decreased in FBS are absolutely possible with improvements in diet and exercise.
So going over 100 is also possible (like 101-102, etc)? I would imagine meters have some margin of error as well. I tested this morning twice and got 94 on one test and 99 on another. Some of what has been said in this thread has confused me. So what is the diabetic vs. non-diabetic range? 120+ fasting=Diabetic? That's what the doctor told me but some of what has been posted here makes it seem like 100 is the cutoff. Your post as well lists 100 as the cutoff.
The link above from The Mayo Clinic lists 126+ as the cutoff:
Quote:
A blood sample will be taken after an overnight fast. A fasting blood sugar level less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L) is normal. A fasting blood sugar level from 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L) is considered prediabetes. If it's 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L) or higher on two separate tests, you have diabetes.
Keeping a food diary has been mentioned. How detailed should it/does it need to be?
Last edited by HarryWarden; 08-24-2016 at 10:32 PM..
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