Why even non-diabetics should monitor their blood glucose levels

People choose to monitor their blood sugars for several reasons. Monitoring your glucose level regularly can help you stay on top of metabolic health issues before they become life-threatening and help you make healthier choices in your day-to-day life.

For diabetics, monitoring may be a matter of life or death; for non-diabetics, it can still offer some serious benefits.

Benefits of monitoring

Many people choose to monitor their blood sugar levels when they're on a diet. It's important to know your metabolic triggers or the things that make your blood sugar levels rise or fall. When you know what affects them, you can make adjustments to help prevent weight gain or help your weight loss efforts.

Monitoring provides data on how food makes your body function. When people eat foods that turn into glucose quickly, the results are often dramatic and obvious on a monitor. If you think that your weight-loss plan is working, but you're not seeing results on the scale yet, monitoring might help determine whether you're insulin resistant and unable to burn the stored fat on your body.

Monitoring can help you detect metabolic problems early if you're predisposed to metabolic issues like diabetes or metabolic syndrome. For example, if you have a family member with Type 2 diabetes, then monitoring can give you valuable insight into how your body responds to the foods that may be problematic for people who are predisposed to metabolic issues.

Monitoring can also clearly show how your social well-being and things like stress play a role in blood glucose spikes.

What are blood glucose levels and why should you monitor them?

Blood glucose levels are a measure of the amount of sugar in your bloodstream.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that blood sugar levels be kept as close to normal as possible. For people without diabetes, this usually means a fasting blood sugar level of 70-99 mg/dL and a blood sugar level 2 hours after eating of less than 140 mg/dL.

Monitoring your blood glucose levels can help you keep track of how well you're managing your risk of diabetes, as well as help you make better decisions about your nutrition and physical activity to prevent other dangerous complications from developing over time.

Complications from unmanaged diabetes can include:

- Blindness

- Kidney disease

- Nerve damage

- Foot ulcers

- Heart attack

- Stroke

There are a few different ways that you can monitor your blood sugar levels, including:

A home glucometer

When using a home glucometer, it's important to follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully. You'll need to prick your finger with a lancet to get a blood sample, and then place the blood sample on a test strip that will be inserted into the glucometer. The glucometer will then give you a reading. This is often called a snapshot tool.

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM)

This device can be worn on your body, and it will track your blood sugar levels at all times. Often this is called a "closed-loop" tool. This information can then be accessed by you or your healthcare provider so that you can make adjustments to your treatment plan as needed.

Urine test strips

Urine test strips are a quick and easy way to check your blood sugar levels. All you need is a urine sample and a few minutes to get a reading.

To use a urine test strip, you'll need to:

- Collect a urine sample in a clean container

- Dip the test strip into the urine for about 5 seconds

- Remove the strip and wait for the results

The amount of time it takes for the results to appear will vary depending on the brand of a test strip that you're using. Be sure to read the instructions carefully so that you know how long to wait before interpreting the results.

The results of a urine test strip will give you an approximate blood sugar level. However, it's important to note that urine test strips are not able to give you an exact reading because the concentration of glucose in your urine can vary.

Make your decisions from data and reduce risk factors

Whichever way you choose to monitor your blood sugar levels, it's important to keep track of the results so you can track patterns that offer insight into things like toxicity, poor gut health, and organ dysfunction.

Toxicity

Toxicity can refer to several different things, from environmental pollution to the negative effects of stress on your body. When it comes to metabolic health, toxicity can refer to the way that toxins in your environment and food can interfere with your ability to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Toxins are everywhere, and they can come from a variety of sources. Some of the most common sources of toxins include:

- Pesticides and herbicides in produce

- Heavy metals in water and air

- Chemicals in plastics and other household products

- Car exhaust

When you're constantly exposed to toxins, your body has to work harder to get rid of them, which can lead to several problems.

Poor gut health

When it comes to metabolic health, one of the most important factors to consider is your gut health. The gut plays a crucial role in metabolic health, and when it's not working properly, it can lead to several problems.

One of the most common problems associated with poor gut health is weight gain. When your gut isn't functioning correctly, it can't absorb the nutrients from food properly. This means that you'll be getting less nutrition from the food you eat, which can lead to weight gain over time.

Poor gut health can also lead to problems with digestion. This can cause you to feel bloated and gassy after eating, and it can also lead to constipation or diarrhea.

Other problems associated with poor gut health include:

- Malabsorption of nutrients

- Food sensitivities and intolerances

- Chronic inflammation or infections

Organ dysfunction

If metabolic health is bad, then the functions of different organs in your body can also be affected. Things like weight gain and insulin resistance affect both your metabolic and cardiovascular systems, which in turn affects your kidneys, liver, thyroid, heart, and more.

Glucose monitoring is the best indicator of our body’s response to diet and lifestyle and can be a great tool for the prevention of health problems

If you're proactive about managing your metabolic health and are a non-diabetic, you can help keep yourself healthy and prevent potentially serious complications from developing down the road.

By monitoring your blood sugar levels regularly and making healthy lifestyle choices, you can keep your blood sugar levels within a healthy range, manage your weight and stay on track towards achieving metabolic health benefits.

Your next steps towards optimal metabolic health & resources

Educate Yourself

If you are interested in learning more about monitoring your blood glucose and losing weight, Self-Made U can help.

Join our upcoming FREE Kickstart, Project New You. We will be taking a deep dive into how losing weight fast and forever starts with a focus on your metabolic health.

We will talk about biological factors, mental health, and the root cause of being overweight. This is unlike any other weight management program out there. Backed by research, we talk about the total transformation; psychological, physical, emotional and, metabolic.

Register for the FREE course, that starts on April 11 Today!

Apply what you learn

And if you want to start monitoring your blood, we have a few offers for you. Fora6 is a partner of Self-Made U and offers 10% off all their products. Use SelfmadeU10 at checkout.

Levels is our recommended brand for CGM's. Because continuous glucose monitoring is relatively new, it's difficult to access the monitors. Level currently has over a 50,000 person waitlist BUT they too are a partner of Self-MadeU and have offered all of our students a pass to skip the line.

Happy Monitoring!