Simple Ways To Lower Blood Sugar

High blood sugar or glucose levels is a condition medically known as hyperglycemia where an excessive amount of glucose circulates in the blood plasma.

Having high blood sugar levels can be very discomforting for many and strictly monitoring it is the Holy Grail for people with diabetes and prediabetes.

Many of them have improved their health through dietary modification without taking any medications. You can too!

Keep reading to see if this could work for you…

What are the signs of having high blood sugar levels?

The classic symptoms are:

• Polydipsia – excessive feeling of  thirst or excess drinking.
• Polyuria – excessive or an abnormally large production or passage of urine
• Dry mouth
• Feeling tired/lethargic
• Feeling uncomfortable and irritable

And, what are the causes?

Your blood sugar may rise if you:

• Eat too many carbs
• Have an infection
• Are ill or under stress
• Are inactive or having lesser physical activity than usual
• Take part in strenuous physical activity, especially when your blood sugar levels are high and insulin levels are low
• Skipped or forgot your insulin or oral glucose-lowering medicine

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First, know your blood sugar levels

The first step, Life Mag‘s mantra as always, is test don’t guess!

Mastering your own blood sugar should begin with testing. And if you truly want to master it, you should fearlessly check it out during its worst highest levels. That means… checking it after meals. 

Knowing your blood sugar levels is simple and can be done anywhere in just a few seconds, either in a clinic or at home using an inexpensive blood glucose monitor.

If you are testing at home, read and follow the instructions that come with the device. For most meters, the general procedure goes like this:

1. With clean hands, place a test strip in your blood sugar meter.
2. Prick the side of a finger with the lancet to draw a drop of blood.
3. Place the tip of the test strip on the drop of blood.
4. After a few seconds, the blood sugar meter will give you a reading.

 Compare the result with below ranges:

• Normal: Less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L ) after fasting overnight, and up to 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L ) after a meal
  
• Prediabetes: Between 100-125 mg/dL (5.6-7.0 mmol/L) after fasting overnight
  
• Diabetes: 126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L) or higher after fasting overnight, or higher than 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) after a meal

Remember! A single blood sugar reading isn’t enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. Your doctor can perform further testing to confirm whether you have diabetes or prediabetes.

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When to seek for immediate medical advice?

Hyperglycemia can be very dangerous and it is important to know the symptoms and risk factors of the following conditions:

• Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) – a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes. Signs and symptoms may include vomiting, abdominal pain, deep gasping breathing, increased urination, weakness, confusion and occasionally loss of consciousness.
  
• Hyperosmolar Hyperglycaemic State (HHS) – a complication of diabetes in which high blood sugar results in high osmolarity without significant ketoacidosis. Symptoms include signs of dehydration, weakness, leg cramps, vision problems, and an altered level of consciousness.

If you are having difficulties in controlling your blood sugar levels, consult a physician who can advise or refer you to a diabetes control program.

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How to lower blood sugar levels naturally?

Here are 10 tips to keep your readings on target:

1. Control meals into small portions.

According to a study, portion control helps regulate calorie intake and can lead to weight loss.

Consequently, controlling weight promotes healthy blood sugar levels and has been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Monitoring your serving sizes also helps reduce calorie intake and subsequent blood sugar spikes.

“I always tell my patients to spread their food out over the day, keeping carbohydrates consistent.”

Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E., Lifescript’s nutrition expert

Here are some helpful tips for controlling meal portions:

• Eat using smaller plates
• Eat slowly
• Avoid eat-all-you-can or restaurants offering “buffet” meals
• Read food labels and check the serving sizes
• Keep a food journal
• Measure and weigh portions

2. Reduce carbohydrate intake.

Your body breaks carbs down into sugars (mostly glucose), and then insulin moves the sugars into cells. When you eat too many carbs or have problems with insulin function, this process fails and blood glucose levels rise.

Luckily, there are numerous ways you can do about this.

In 2019, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) stated that reducing carbohydrate intake was the most effective strategy for improving blood sugar control in those with diabetes.

A typical starting point is 45 grams per meal for women and 60 grams for men. However some experts now recommend a greater reduction in carbs.

Some studies find that these methods can also help you plan your meals appropriately and further control blood sugar levels in the long run.

To help more in regulating your blood sugar levels:

• Avoid fasting
• Don’t skip meals
• Know your carb counts

3. Eat more potato salad and beans.

Potatoes, which has been baked and then cooled, and beans are known to contain resistant starch. This content bypasses the small intestine and metabolized by good bacteria which then acts as a dietary fiber in the large intestine.

As a result, the blood sugar levels are maintained in low levels even after the next subsequent meal. It is called the “second meal effect“.

Resistant starches can also be also found in:

• Unripe bananas
• Corn
• Cold pasta
• Beans and lentils
• Whole grains, including wheat, oats, rice and buckwheat

Furthermore, beans help with controlling blood sugar according to the ADA. It’s because beans are slowly digested, resulting in only a small rise in blood glucose levels.

In addition, they are also an excellent source of folate, which is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a common diabetes complication. Eating 1-3 cups of cooked beans a day will lower total cholesterol 5%-19%.

According to a 2012 Canadian study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people with type 2 diabetes who ate at least a cup of legumes (beans, chickpeas and lentils) daily for three months had lower blood glucose (blood sugar) levels, as measured by the A1C test.

(An A1C test is a blood test that reflects your average blood glucose levels over the past 3 months. The A1C test is sometimes called the hemoglobin A1C, HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin, or glycohemoglobin test. Hemoglobin is the part of a red blood cell that carries oxygen to the cells.)

Not a fan of beans? Sneak it into your favorite foods, including:

• Soups
• Side dishes
• Casseroles
• Salads

As the ADA says, introduce them gradually into your diet. Chew thoroughly, drink plenty of liquids to aid digestion and take enzyme products such as “Beano” to avoid gastrointestinal distress.

For convenience, go for canned beans, which require less preparation time and are as healthy as dried ones.

4. Increase fiber intake.

Fiber slows carb digestion and sugar absorption. There are two kinds of fiber: insoluble and soluble. While both are important, soluble fiber specifically has been shown to lower blood sugar levels.

Additionally, study shows that high-fiber diet can help manage type 1 diabetes by improving blood sugar control and reducing blood sugar levels.

Foods rich in fiber:

• Fruit such as berries, pears, melon and oranges
• Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and sweetcorn
• Wholegrain breakfast cereals, wholewheat pasta, wholegrain bread and oats, barley and rye
• Peas, beans and pulses
• Nuts and seeds
• Potatoes with skin

Also, the recommended daily intake of fiber is about 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. That’s about 14 grams for every 1,000 calories.

5. Lose weight.

Don’t freak out on me… I’m not saying you should go out and purchase a treadmill or a gym membership. Rather, look for every excuse to exercise.

Do it whenever you can! Simply by taking the stairs instead of the lift or parking your car farther your home, flying a kite on a calm day or navigating your couch’s position at night during TV commercials.

Losing a pound or more doesn’t mean to be supermodel skinny. Losing 7% of your weight will significantly improve your insulin resistance, which will then lower your blood sugar levels and dramatically reduce after-meal spikes.

You could easily shed that in six months, simply by eating fewer bites per meal. I know we were taught as children to clean our plates, but it’s far better to throw some food away than to eat more than we need to. It’s only wasteful to eat what our bodies don’t need.

Moreover, you should also be conscious of your waistline, as it is the most important weight-related factor for estimating your diabetes risk.

According to a study, measurement of 35 inches (88.9 cm) or more for women and 40 inches (101.6 cm) or more for men is associated with an increased risk of developing insulin resistance, high blood sugar levels and type 2 diabetes.

Having a healthy waist measurement may be even more important than your overall weight.

6. Improve quality of sleep.

Aim for at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. This will help regulating your hormones, fatty acids, and stress.

A 2015 study found that patients who got four hours of sleep or less for three nights in a row had higher fatty acid levels in their blood.

Usually, fatty acid levels decrease at night. But when people didn’t get enough sleep, these acids remain in the blood causing insulin less effective, which in turn, rises up the blood sugar.

Similarly, lack of sleep tends to increase stress and cravings for sugary foods which are both bad when controlling blood sugar. It is also linked with other health conditions, including heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Furthermore, good sleep is about both the quantity and quality. It is best to get a sufficient amount of high-quality sleep every night.

Having trouble of getting a sound quality sleep? Try these:

• Sleep in a cool, dark room.
• Put blackout curtains to keep the heat and light out of your room.
• Turn on the AC (or bust out the fan) to keep the temp comfortably low.
• Exercise early, and not within 3 hours of bedtime.
• Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
• Don’t look at screens for at least an hour before bedtime, including TV, tablets, cell phones and computers.

7. Add prickly pear to foods.

Opuntia, commonly called prickly pear, is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as tuna, sabra, nopal from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus. 

According to NYU Langone Medical Center, the fruit and stem of the nopal plant may slow carbohydrate absorption and lower post-meal blood glucose readings, according to some preliminary studies. But no large studies have proven if nopal is effective to prevent or treat diabetes.

Popular in central Mexico, nopal is boiled, grilled, fried or mashed, added to soups and stews, and even eaten raw. It’s a good source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein.

8. Banish stress burnout and anxiety.

Stress causes all kinds of problems. How many times has a bad day caused you to say something you regretted?!?

Aside from affecting your food choices and leaving you feeling generally run-down or unwell, stress can cause a gradual increase to your blood sugar levels.

Hormones such as glucagon and cortisol are secreted during stress. These hormones cause blood sugar levels to go up.

One study showed that exercise, relaxation and meditation significantly reduced stress and lowered blood sugar levels for students.

Exercises and relaxation methods like yoga and mindfulness-based stress reduction can also correct insulin secretion problems. You may also try:

• Tai chi
• An attitude of gratefulness
• Deep breathing
• Positive thinking
• Giving yourself pep talks

Not your thing? Then create your own stress-relieving routines, such as:

• Learning a craft
• Starting a hobby
• Exercising or stretching to music
• Taking a warm bath or shower
• Watching a movie

Since stress is problematic for your blood sugar in a number of ways, it’s best to do anything you can to lower your anxiety levels.

Regardless of whether you choose a guided audio meditation or an hour in a yoga studio, taking time to clear your mind and reduce stress will help your blood sugar.

9. Be more physically active.

Exercise normalizes blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes (but not type 1).

“In type 2, exercise helps improve insulin resistance. The end result is lower blood sugar.”

James G. Beckerman, MD, a cardiologist in Portland, Ore

Regular exercising can help lose weight and increase insulin sensitivity.

Increased insulin sensitivity means your cells are better able to use the available sugar in your bloodstream.

Likewise, exercise also helps your muscles use blood sugar for energy and muscle contraction.

Good forms of exercise include:

• weight lifting
• brisk walking
• running
• biking
• dancing
• hiking
• swimming, and

A 2013 study found that dancing helped decrease blood glucose levels more effectively than walking or using conditioning machines. While, cycling and running to be slightly more effective than dancing. Though walking was the least effective, it did still reduce blood glucose.

Consequently, be careful not to do strenuous exercises which can be dangerous because it can produce a stress response which causes the body to raise blood glucose levels. This response vary on every person.

10. Don’t skip breakfast.

Indeed it’s true, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After 8-12 hours of not eating, the body needs food to balance blood sugar levels.

Additionally, according to 2014 University of Missouri research, a high-protein breakfast may help women maintain better glucose control.

Besides, eating breakfast can help overweight people with type 2 diabetes shed extra pounds. Of the 4,000 participants In the National Weight Control Registry who maintained at least a 30-pound weight loss for about 5.5 years, almost all said they ate breakfast daily.

11. Drink water and stay hydrated.

It’s good for you. Water can help keep hunger at bay, and drinking enough may help keep blood sugar levels within healthy limits.

In addition to preventing dehydration, it helps kidneys flush out the excess blood sugar through urine.

When blood sugar levels are running high, the body will try to flush excess sugar out of the bloodstream through the urine. That means you might end up peeing a lot more than usual. As a result, the body will need more fluids to rehydrate itself. Drinking water can help the body with flushing out the glucose in blood.

One observational study showed that those who drank more water had a lower risk of developing high blood sugar levels. Drinking water regularly re-hydrates the blood, lowers blood sugar levels and reduces diabetes risk.

Keep in mind that water and other non-caloric beverages are best. Sugar-sweetened and carbonated drinks raise blood sugar levels, drive weight gain and increase diabetes risk.

Most importantly, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service recommends aiming for about 1.2 liters, or 6 to 8 glasses of water, per day.

Try setting an alarm on your phone to remind yourself to get that H₂O. If you’re in the middle of a blood sugar spike, drink water immediately and try to stay hydrated for the rest of the day.

Just be cautious!
Be sensible with your water intake. Water intoxication, which can result to death, is possible if few liters of water are drunk in a short period of time. This is rare and quite difficult to manage but it pays to be aware of this.

12. Eat foods with low glycemic index.

The glycemic index  is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. It was developed to assess the body’s blood sugar response to foods that contain carbs.

Eating low-glycemic-index foods has been shown to reduce long-term blood sugar levels in type 1 and type 2 diabetics. Although the glycemic index of foods is important, the amount of carbs consumed also matters.

Foods with a low glycemic index include:

• Low glycemic index (GI of 55 or less): Most fruits and vegetables, beans, minimally processed grains, pasta, low-fat dairy foods, and nuts.
• Moderate glycemic index (GI 56 to 69): White and sweet potatoes, corn, white rice, couscous, breakfast cereals such as Cream of Wheat and Mini Wheats.
• High glycemic index (GI of 70 or higher): White bread, rice cakes, most crackers, bagels, cakes, doughnuts, croissants, most packaged breakfast cereals.

Swaps for lowering glycemic index:

Instead of this high-glycemic index food	Eat this lower-glycemic index food
White rice	Brown rice or converted rice
Instant oatmeal	Steel-cut oats
Cornflakes	Bran flakes
Baked potato	Pasta, bulgur
White bread	Whole-grain bread
Corn	Peas or leafy greens

Ultimately, it’s best to limit your carb intake. A 2004 study found that a diet of 20 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 50 percent fat lowered fasting blood sugar and kept blood sugar from spiking after meals.

The occasional baked potato isn’t actually a problem, but frequent trips to the drive-throughs and fast food chains are not a good idea. Find a healthy veggie-and-protein meals and make them your go-tos and instantly become worry-free.

13. Closely monitor blood sugar levels.

“What gets measured gets managed.”

Measuring and monitoring blood glucose level can help control it. As an explanation, monitoring these levels help determine a need for adjustments in meals or medications. It can also help to find out how the body reacts to certain foods.

13. Start taking apple cider vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) provides numerous health benefits.

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll see that ACV is good for pretty much everything, from toning your skin, cleaning your pipes and lowering your blood sugar!

According to a study, It promotes lower fasting blood sugar levels, possibly by decreasing its production by the liver or increasing its use by cells.

Comparably, studies show that vinegar significantly influences your body’s response to sugars and improves insulin sensitivity. Unfortunately, most of the trials were very small and some had mixed results.

But since you’ve probably got a bottle of it in your house anyway, try taking a swig or two before meals, testing yourself, and seeing if a little shot works for you. Also, you may incorporate it to salad dressings or 2 to 8 ounces of water, and add a dash of cinnamon for additional flavor.

Most noteworthy!
Check first with the doctor before taking apple cider vinegar if taking any blood sugar medications.

14. Use cinnamon extract.

Cinnamon is also known to have many health benefits such as:

• Improving insulin sensitivity by decreasing insulin resistance at the cellular level
• Lowering blood sugar levels by up to 29%
• Slows the breakdown of carbs in the digestive tract, which moderates the rise in blood sugar after a meal

An effective dose is 1–6 grams of cinnamon per day, or about 0.5–2 teaspoons. However, definitely don’t take more than that since too much cinnamon can be harmful. If you would like to try it, Amazon has a good selection available.

15. Take probiotics.

Probiotics are live microorganisms promoted with claims that they provide health benefits when consumed, generally by improving or restoring the gut flora by introducing healthy bacteria in the intestines. And there’s a huge chance that those tiny bacteria can help bring the blood sugar down.

A clinical review found that daily probiotic use significantly decreased blood sugar. So if you’ve considered trying probiotics for digestion or inflammation issues, it just might help regulate your blood sugar along the way.

16. Eat more bitter melon.

This is another promising option though it might not sound appetizing.

Bitter melon or Momordica charantia, known also as bitter apple, bitter gourd, karela, bitter squash, and balsam-pear, is an edible fruit with many varieties that differ in shape and bitterness. It’s a fruit widely used as a natural remedy.

It contains a blood sugar-lowering substance called charantin as well as pancreatic polypeptide which has insulin-like effects.

In preliminary studies, bitter melon supplements helped reduce blood sugar in mice. Nonetheless, make sure to consult a doctor before taking it.

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Conclusion

So, there you have it! 16 simple ways to lower your blood sugar naturally.

It’s annoying but true. The best way to lower your blood sugar is to avoid the rise in the first place. It’s best to avoid all sugary drinks and always check the food labels. There are hidden sugars in everything, so double check your favorite foods to make sure you aren’t getting any unnecessary sweetness.

Author’s Notes

Notice anything special about these tips?

Right! There’s nothing special about them at all. They are neither too strange nor too difficult that you have to change your entire life.

These are quite basic things you can incorporate into your daily life and once they become habits, healthy ones, then you have taken blood sugar management seriously, now with your own hands.