Hyperglycemia is primary reason behind long-term complications of diabetes

Hyperglycemia occurs when blood glucose levels rise beyond normal levels. Unlike hypoglycemia there are typically no immediate negative side-effects, however it is hyperglycemia that tends to be the long-term battle of most people with diabetes.

Because those with Type 1 diabetes are not able to produce insulin, there is the constant danger of rising blood glucose levels, especially after meals. Over the long run (years) if you suffer consistently from hyperglycemia you are at more danger of nerve and organ damage. All of those nasty side-effects of diabetes (blindness, heart disease, amputation of limbs, etc) are all a result of long term hyperglycemia.

On a more immediate front, if someone is suffering from extreme hyperglycemia over the course of days, they are very likely to contract ketoacidosis, which can have very serious complications.

Hyperglycemia in people with Type 1 diabetes is almost always a result of either missing a dose of insulin or miscalculating the number of carbohydrates they just consumed and thus taking an insufficient dosage of insulin.

How can you identify Hyperglycemia in your child?

Everyone will be slightly different in their symptoms. However, hyperglycemia is typically associated with either headaches or stomach aches. What we’ve found in our son is that if he starts to complain of an upset stomach, it is likely a case where we’ve mis-calculated our recent insulin injection. He’ll come to us and say that he feels like he wants to throw-up, but in all other aspects is feeling fine – no headache, no aches or pains, no fever.

If you recognize these kind of symptoms it is best to test their blood glucose levels and get a reading on where they are at that moment.

How to manage Hyperglycemia

Because there are no immediate negative impacts, you need to first determine how high your child really is. With all the different insulins you’ll find that there are different potency curves and at times after a meal your child will just naturally have a high blood glucose reading. This is due to the fact that their glucose has risen quicker than the potency of the insulin. If you think the insulin has not yet kicked in and they are not extremely high, it is probably best to wait things out and look at how you need to adjust your insulin dosage calculation for the next meal.

On the other hand, if you feel your insulin should have already balanced out their carb intake, and they are significantly higher than what you would expect (e.g. over 200 on a blood glucose level), you may want to provide them with another small dose of insulin to bring them back down. If you do this make sure you keep this in mind when they next consume food. Should you adjust your insulin dosage down?

Overall, hyperglycemia is not as immediately dangerous as hypoglycemia, however, over the long run it is the primary reason why those with diabetes contract more serious health issues. As such, it is critically important that you manage blood glucose levels so that your hyperglycemia episodes are subtle and infrequent.

Hypoglycemia occurs when the body does not have enough glucose to produce energy.  In people with diabetes, it is typically a result of having too much insulin relative to the amount of carbohydrates you have eaten.  As insulin helps glucose be absorbed by your body’s cells, having too much causes your body to seek out sugars when nothing is there.  People with diabetes typically experience this excess insulin either by not eating enough or calculating the wrong dosage for their injections or pump. The opposite of this, having too much glucose in the body is termed hyperglycemia.

You can also experience hypoglycemia after strenuous exercise.  With exercise, your body is seeking out more energy than normal and so it requires greater levels of glucose.  Often times, with exercise, it is not during the exercise that people first experience hypoglycemia.  Instead it can be minutes or even hours after the exercise has stopped and your body is recovering.

It is not uncommon for people with diabetes to experience mild hypoglycemia.  It is very difficult to accurately measure carbohydrate intake.  Also, sometimes the duration of your last insulin injection is shorter than anticipated or you don’t have a chance to eat right in time, or you’re taking part in a busy lifestyle.  However, the consequences can be severe and so always having some form of quick acting glucose (sugar) around is important.

Before you were around someone with diabetes had you ever thought about your pancreas?  Probably not.  But once forced to understand glucose levels and insulin dosage you’re bound to really want to know what this organ was meant to do.

Essentially one of the core functions of the pancreas is to produce a protein hormone called insulin.  The production of insulin occurs continuously but fluctuates based on how many carbohydrates you are consuming.

As you eat carbohydrates they change into glucose and travel around your body.  The pancreas then kicks into action and produces just the right amount of insulin to counterbalance the glucose (amazing!).  As insulin is produced, it too travels around attaching to cell receptors throughout your body.  When glucose passes by, these insulin-laden receptors enable the cells in your body to absorb the energy or calories associated with the glucose.  The more glucose you have traveling around, the more insulin you need to absorb those calories.

Within the pancreas there are cells called beta cells that are responsible for creating your insulin.  This is where things have gone terribly wrong with Type 1 diabetes.  The beta cells have been destroyed and so the pancreas is no longer able to produce the insulin needed to help the body absorb glucose.

Without insulin in the body, a person can eat and eat but will eventually starve.  The inability to absorb the energy associated glucose (because insulin is not there on your cells) means that your body will start to look elsewhere for energy.  This is why extreme weight loss in a child is one of the warning signs of diabetes.

For those with Type 1 diabetes, because the pancreas is no longer able to produce insulin, they must provide their bodies with insulin by giving themselves injections or through a pump utilizing man-made insulin.

Though the onset of diabetes is devastating, it does help to remind us of the amazing complexity of the human body.

How do you explain to your child why and how they got Type 1 diabetes?  It is one of the most difficult conversations you’ll have.  And it will be one that comes up again and again.

Why people contract Type 1 diabetes is still a mystery. Scientists agree that it is partly due to some genetic pre-disposition, but also likely the result of some infection or illness that kicked the body’s immune system into action.

How Type 1 diabetes is caused, is much more well known. At a simple level (and this is how we explained it to our son), the story goes like this:

Explaining Type 1 Diabetes to a Child

Sometimes germs and infections can enter your body. In order for you to get healthy again, inside your body is a force of cells called antibodies. These antibodies find the germs and infections and kick them out of the body. Think of them as your own little army that is always traveling around your body beating up the bad guys.

In a person with Type 1 diabetes, this army has unfortunately made a terrible mistake. At some point, they found and attacked a group of cells in the body called the ‘beta cells’ that live in your pancreas. This army of antibodies, for some reason, thought that these cells were the bad guys and destroyed them. Why? No one really knows.

The terrible part is that these ‘beta cells’ are what our bodies use to create insulin. And now that the antibodies have destroyed these cells, people with Type 1 diabetes are no longer able to create their own insulin and so have to bring insulin into their bodies (through shots) on their own.

There is a lot of on-going research that is helping the scientific community really start to understand the details behind the “how” and even the “why” of diabetes. It is this knowledge that will hopefully bring us closer to a cure.

Find out more about the most recent research at the Diabetes Watch Blog

The most common form of diabetes globally is termed Type 2 diabetes.  Almost 90% of all diabetes cases in the US are Type 2, and in Thailand, where our son was diagnosed, Type 1 is essentially non-existent whereas Type 2 is rampant.

The core difference between the two types is the body’s ability to generate insulin.  In Type 2 diabetes, the body is still able to produce insulin, but it has become resistent to the produced insulin and so glucose levels rise.  In Type 1 however, the body loses its ability to even create insulin.

Both types create extreme situations and can impact the body in devastating ways if left untreated.  However, people with Type 1 diabetes are left with a single option today to control their disease – inject insulin into the body.

Type 2 sufferers on the other hand may also have to inject insulin, but they are often able to also control their situation through improved diet, reduced weight and other medications that help their bodies absorb the insulin they create.

There is also a third type of diabetes termed Gestational Diabetes.  This form can affect pregnant mothers during the course of their pregnancy.  It is thought that the hormonal changes taking place due to the pregnancy have an impact on the body’s ability to use insulin.  This affects approximately 4% of all pregnant women, and thought it usually goes away after the pregnancy, if left untreated can cause the woman to develop Type 2 diabetes.

You can find additional information by visiting the American Diabetes Association’s website