The Importance of Blood Sugar Balance
The Importance of Blood Sugar Balance
Our bodies need energy in order to live. We get that energy from food, which is broken down in the body and is taken up by our cells—in the muscles, the brain, nearly everywhere—to be converted into energy that helps carry out nearly all of our body’s functions.
Glucose as Energy
One of the body’s primary sources of energy is glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar that is a breakdown product of the carbohydrates we eat.
Without enough blood sugar, our bodies wouldn’t work. Too much blood sugar can cause problems, too. That’s why we have hormone signalling pathways that help keep blood sugar stable within the normal range. But sometimes—and for many possible reasons—it can get thrown off a little or a lot, which can lead to a host of problems.
Blood Sugar Balance
In the hours after a meal, blood sugar rises as you digest the food you’ve just eaten, and then it falls back down again as your body uses that energy. How high your blood sugar spikes, how far it dips back down, and how long that whole process takes depends on several factors, including your individual biology, what you’ve eaten, and your activity levels. In general, the higher and faster your blood sugar spikes, the lower and faster it’ll drop back down.
The Hormones that Maintain Blood Sugar Balance
Blood sugar balance is maintained by our hormones. This balance ensures that the body has enough energy available when we need it, and it’s primarily maintained by hormones: insulin and glucagon.
Made in and released from the pancreas, insulin lowers blood sugar by instructing cells throughout the body to take in glucose. Some of this glucose is processed by the mitochondria to form energy (called ATP) that our cells can use. Excess glucose is stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen, and can also be converted to triglycerides and stored in fat cells.
When our blood sugar is low, the pancreas releases the hormone glucagon, which instructs the liver and muscles to turn stored glycogen back into glucose and release it into the bloodstream.
The body can also get energy from glucose in the bloodstream or it can even make new glucose from other compounds like amino acids (breakdown products of proteins).
There are other hormones involved in this process, too. Amylin and somatostatin inhibit the secretion of glucagon to lower blood sugar. Epinephrine, cortisol, and growth hormone make blood sugar rise, as glucagon does. Hormone changes that come with age make a difference, too: Our average baseline blood sugar levels tend to go up as we get older.
Metabolic Health and Blood Sugar Balance
Metabolism is the set of cellular mechanisms that generate energy from our food and environment in order to power every single cell in the body. When these energy-producing pathways run smoothly, we have optimal metabolic health.
Since all cells in the body require energy to function, metabolic health is foundational for wellbeing.
Clinically speaking, metabolic health is defined by optimal levels of five markers: blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference—without using medication. We can improve most of these markers by consistently making choices that keep glucose levels in a stable and healthy range.
Blood Sugar Affects Everything
By keeping blood sugar levels in a stable and healthy range, we improve our metabolic health, which affects other aspects of our health, including:
— Stable and sustained energy throughout the day
— Sharp memory and recall
— Sustained exercise endurance
— Fat burning ability and healthy weight
— Higher satiety and reduced cravings
— Balanced Hormones
— Stable mood, decreased anxiety and depression
— Clear skin and decreased wrinkles and acne
— Improved fertility
— Improved sexual health
— A high-functioning immune system
— Better ageing
— Lower Inflammation
— Improved sleep
— Healthier organs
— Lower risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, fatty liver disease, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and more
Tracking your blood sugar levels
It is helpful to track your blood sugar levels with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in order to see how specific foods and lifestyle behaviours impact glucose levels in real-time.
With our personal data in hand, we can then turn to the scientific literature to provide us guidance in reaching our goals.
What is good metabolic health in terms of glucose?
We take “good metabolic health” to mean our ability to keep average and fasting glucose levels in an optimal range, minimize post-meal glucose spikes, optimize insulin sensitivity, and exhibit flexibility in utilizing different energy sources — including stored fat and glucose — for fuel.
The beauty of striving for improved metabolic health is that it is in our control. Where we fall along the spectrum of metabolic health has largely to do with our dietary and lifestyle choices and is dependent on making consistent, well-informed decisions.
Normal and Optimal Glucose Levels (mg/dl)
Fasting
Pre-meal
Post-meal
Mean (24 h)
Normal
<100
72 — 90
<140*
89 — 104
Optimal
72 — 85
72 — 90
<110**
79 —100
*Glucose should return to pre-meal levels within 2-3 hours
**Glucose should not increase more than 30 mg/dl from pre-meal levels