What Is Blood Sugar?
Your blood sugar level, or blood glucose level, refers to the concentration of sugar (in the form of glucose) in your blood. The unit of measurement is millimoles per liter (mmol/L).

Why is there sugar in the blood?
Every time you eat food, your body has the task of breaking that food down into a useable form of energy it can use to keep you functioning properly. All foods are (generally) made up of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber and water. Carbohydrate rich foods give your body its main form of energy. They get broken down into glucose and move into the bloodstream where they are absorbed by cells for use or storage. Glucose, or “blood sugar”, is likened to “the gasoline that is essential to make your car run”.

Why would i need to manage my sugar blood levels?
Your body needs a constant supply of carbohydrates during the day and you should be aware of your blood carbohydrates levels.
During the day there are two types of problems that can occur that are carbohydrate related.
a) your blood does not have enough carbohydrate during the day : your body will start break down the fat that you have stored to produce carbohydrate. This is done at the expense of releasing toxins which are not good for you. This is also tapping in your body mass and the fat stored in your muscles.
b) you blood has too much carbohydrate : Probably after a big meal or you’ve eaten too much sweets. Your blood now has too much sugar which risks to harm your body, so Insulin is released in your blood to bring down sugars to an acceptable level. Producing insulin is a tiring experience and during this time you will feel sluggish.

Why Blood Sugar Levels Change During The Day
Your blood sugar levels vary during the day/night. The direction it varies (up or down) is due to a number of factors such as those listed below:
1. Eating food :  As the carbs in food break down, glucose is released into the bloodstream ready to be absorbed by cells. Increased glucose in the bloodstream = higher blood sugar level.
2. Exercise : Exercise provides many benefits to your body, including burning excess sugar and reducing insulin resistance (by making cells more receptive to insulin, so rather than requiring more insulin to facilitate glucose uptake, the insulin you already have becomes a bit more effective). However the effect on blood sugar depends on the type of exercise, the duration of exercise, glucose and insulin levels before you start exercising.
During long, intense workouts the body may release adrenaline which counteracts the efforts of insulin. The normal process for blood sugar would be to be absorbed by cells (via insulin) for utilization or storage. Adrenaline causes the glucose to be redirected to where it is required for use immediately rather than for storage. Read more here.
3. Your physiology : The fitter you are the better. More specifically, if you have a greater muscle to fat ratio, you will burn energy at a faster rate and therefore be more effective at reducing your blood glucose level. Also, muscles do not rely on insulin to absorb/use blood glucose – same goes for the brain.
(My sister gave me this great analogy – imagine a small muscle and a large muscle contracting at the same time. Which one would use/burn more energy to contract? The big one, simply because it is a bigger muscle!)
4. Emotions : Stress increases your blood glucose level. It also causes some people to forget to take their medication, turn to comfort foods, overeat and therefore introduce a higher than normal amount of glucose in the blood.
5. Sleeping : People often talk about “dawn phenomenon” with regard to diabetes, where your blood sugar level spikes in the mornings as a result of the body releasing hormones which increase insulin resistance (perhaps). The cause of this is unknown. However, another explanation could be a slow metabolism of dinner from the night before. Some research also suggests that not getting enough sleep causes the liver to produce/release more glucose, hence increasing your blood sugar levels.
6. Medications : Obviously, the medication you take regulates your blood sugar level and therefore your readings during the day, depending on when you took the medication.

Juggling jobs, relationships, social obligations, bills, and staying on top of a healthy gym routine is a lot to handle. As a woman, trying to find the time to eat better seems to be the last thing on my list and it can’t be much easier for men. Here are a few tips for making men’s lives a little bit better from morning to night:

Do not miss your Breakfast
Eating breakfast everyday keeps your metabolism in check, your weight down, and your cravings at bay. Filling up on fiber early on keeps you satisfied throughout the day. Dr. Oz recommends oatmeal with dried fruits, nuts, and his own personal touch…flaxseed oil.

Work through Pain
Sometimes taking the load off of a sore back, neck, or legs is worse for you than if you work through the pain. Experts suggest that nursing your pain isn’t always the best course of action because resting can weaken your muscles and you may lose strength over time. If you haven’t pulled any muscles or slipped any discs, take an anti-inflammatory pain reliever and stay on your feet.

Snack on Nuts
You don’t have to hoard nuts for the winter, but grabbing a handful during the middle of the day can actually keep you healthier than eating a bag of chips or waiting until dinner to satisfy your food cravings. Full of omega-3 fatty acids, these are the type of proteins we look for in our diets from fish, also known as good fats.

Sweat is good for you
While walking to the office or public transit is eco-friendly and cost efficient, chances are you don’t get the full cardio effect until you do your time on the treadmill. Sweat away your toxins and reduce your blood pressure and risk of heart attack by switching up your routine; the wetter the better. Tacking on weight training makes your body work harder to bulk up and lose any extra pounds that may be damaging to your frame. Aside from looking better to your partner, you may feel better and be able to get more sleep, more on that later. For more stamina, find a workout buddy!

Be Friendly – open yourself – you need it
When men get stressed, they often clam up and don’t tend to talk about their problems. Women, on the other hand, can usually tell a story until their lips bleed. With more stress in the world than ever, it’s no wonder your body may not be feeling up to par. Grab a beer—or your partner—and tell them what’s on your mind, sharing may just save your life or keep the stress away.

Save money for a Rainy Day
Like the harmful stressors everyone puts upon themselves at any moment, a lot of these have to deal with financial woes. If you are able, sock away some of your paycheck every month to save for a rainy day or an emergency by investing some of that worth in a separate savings account you can run to if you need to, but put your own limits on how you are allowed to spend it. Down the road, merely thinking about how to spend that extra cushion you set aside can make even the gloomiest day perk up a bit.

Go Between
We have all been conditioned to learn that brushing your teeth two times a day is the normal but in order to keep your oral health at its best, go deeper with floss. Your best bet is to floss before bedtime to clean the bacteria from the hard to reach spots in your mouth so it doesn’t grow into a problem overnight.

Sleep like a Baby
If you are a parent, you understand the importance of getting a child to go to bed at a certain time every night in order to keep their mind and body stable and free from grouchiness. You should treat your sleeping patterns the same way. Set a bed time and keep it—at least during the work week—and get at least seven hours of sleep. Professionals advise that sleeping regularly can stave off calories and stress because being groggy can incur bad decisions like eating greasy food or sucking down your usual morning coffee in half the time.

Diet and exercise can keep diabetes at bay for a decade, cutting the risk for the disease by more than a third in the most susceptible people, a new US study finds.
In the UK one person is diagnosed with diabetes every three minutes and three people die from its complications every hour.
Most people have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. In addition, a lot of adults have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, which raise the risk of a heart attack or stroke and the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.
But new research, published in the Oct. 29 online edition of The Lancet, shows that losing weight and exercising can delay or prevent the onset of diabetes more effectively than the prescription drug metformin or a placebo.

“Interventions that result in weight loss lower the risk of diabetes, and that lower risk appears to persist for a long period of time,” said study author Dr. William C. Knowler of the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

For people who are at high risk of getting diabetes, losing weight “is clearly to be recommended,” he said. In addition, using a drug like metformin may also benefit people unable to lose weight through exercise and diet alone, he said.

About the study
For the diabetes prevention study, 3,234 overweight or obese adults with elevated blood sugar levels were randomly assigned to either lifestyle changes or metformin to control their blood sugar, or a placebo.
After 10 years, 2,766 remained in the trial, and those taking metformin saw an 18 percent reduction in their rate of developing diabetes, compared with those on placebo.

But those who had made lifestyle changes — reducing caloric and fat intake and exercising at least 150 minutes a week — reduced their risk of getting diabetes by 34 percent compared with those on placebo, the researchers found.

In the first year of the trial, people in the lifestyle group lost an average of 15 pounds, regaining all but about five pounds over 10 years. People on metformin maintained a five-pound weight loss, and those on placebo lost less than two pounds over 10 years, the researchers note.

Over 10 years, after all the participants made lifestyle changes, the yearly diabetes incidence rates for the drug and placebo groups had dropped to about 5 to 6 percent, the same rate as the lifestyle group.

“Lifestyle intervention, even when provided later, also seemed to lower diabetes incidence rate,” Knowler said.

Loosing weight is difficult
But losing weight is difficult, and simply telling someone to slim down won’t work, he acknowledges.
“To make things like this happen on a large scale, we have to do more than simply tell people to lose weight,” he said. People need access to weight loss clinics that can teach them about diet and exercise, he added.
Dr. Anoop Misra, director of the department of diabetes and metabolic diseases at Fortis Hospitals in India, and author of an accompanying journal editorial, said that “prevention of diabetes is important to curb epidemic of diabetes globally. Diet and exercise remain the most important modalities to prevent diabetes, and any drugs are less important.”

Targeting groups at risk
At-risk groups of diabetes need to be identified, especially certain ethnic groups, and taught proper lifestyle management strategies, Misra said. “Young adults with family history of diabetes should be carefully managed along the same lines,” he said.
Diabetes prevention makes economic sense as well, by decreasing costly, lifelong expenditures on management of the disease and its complications, Misra said.
All nations, particularly developing countries, seeing a rapid rise in diabetes should devise or strengthen a national diabetes-control program to help curb the epidemic, he said.
“In particular, regulations should apply for advertisement and sale of energy-dense junk food to children, and regular physical activity should be encouraged starting at a young age. Spreading awareness about proper lifestyle and adverse consequences of obesity and diabetes should be at the top of health agenda of all nations,” Misra said.

Getting results
Regarding the study findings, other experts are optimistic. Dr. Ronald Goldberg, a professor of medicine at the Diabetes Research Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, whose institution participated in the study, said that “seeing quite significant effects lasting this long really bodes well for the utility of these interventions for diabetes prevention.”
Cutting calories and increasing physical activity clearly slow the progression to diabetes, Goldberg said. “Lifestyle works, and every effort needs to be made to begin and maintain a lifestyle program in the long-term.”

Our own behaviours will influence the quality of our sleep, review this if you can’t find sleep !

Work stress
Work stress comes in many forms – an unfinished report or wanted promotion – and it can leave your mind racing well into the night. ‘Works stress taps into a primitive survival pressure. It tends to boost levels of adrenaline that puts the body in a hyper-alert state,’ says life coach Jason Henry.
Turn things around
Take long deep breaths into your belly to switch on the part of your nervous system that lowers adrenalin and aids relaxation. Do a body scan: pass over your body, starting with your toes. Ask each part to ‘melt to let go of any tension.

Unsolved problem in the day
Negative thoughts before bed are a recipe for tossing and turning all night. It’s near-impossible to sleep if you’re thinking negatively or haven’t reached any kind of resolution. Holding onto strong emotions could prevent your body relaxing for hours.
Turn things around
Don’t dwell on it – solve your issues before you get into bed, even if it is to make plans of actions for tomorrow.

Not enough time
You have too much to do, too little time to do it. The feeling of tiredness can comes from rushing around or feeling you’ve lost control. If you feel life is rushing you it is very likely that your body will feel exhausted.
Turn things around
Make a to-do list before bed because this will give you a feeling of some control. Prioritise half the list for tomorrow, or whatever seems manageable, and make a note to plan for the rest tomorrow. You’ll then feel you’ve done enough so you can switch off. Make sure you keep an hour for relaxation before your usual bedtime.

Doing too much and still feeling disappointed
You’re up past midnight again – having said yes to too many people, you have no idea how you’ll complete all those commitments.
Turn things around
Put a stop to late nights. Even if you’re overstretched, resolve to have your head on the pillow by 11pm. Sleep is essential for emotional health and resilience. It’s better to take on less and do it well than running yourself ragged and doing things badly.

Body temperature
You may want to be warm and cosy, but a room that’s too hot will leave you restless. Snuggle up but make sure the air is cool because heat actually causes the body to wake up.
Turn things around
Open the window for a while before you sleep. If you can, leave it open a little during the night. Choose cotton bedding that allows skin to breathe. Make sure you wash your bed sheet every week.

Sugar and caffeine
Coffee or a sweet treat up to three hours before bed will disrupt your sleep. The caffeine from a single coffee will be swishing around your system for a good four hours, while sugar may keep you energised and awake for up to two hours afterwards.
Turn things around
Skip coffee and sweet treats late in the evening. If you fancy a warming hot drink, opt for herbal tea instead. Avoid eating sugary foods on an empty stomach when they will have a more pronounced effect.

Alcohol
Alcohol has a depressing effect on the nervous system, but when it comes to sleep it acts as a stimulant, boosting blood sugar levels. Once you nod off, you’ll probably be woken in the early hours by the opposite problem: low blood sugar.
Turn things around
Reduce the amount of alcohol you drink if you lie awake after a drinking session. After drinking more than a glass of wine or beer, eat some food to stabilise your blood sugar levels. Alternate soft drinks or water with the glasses of booze. Just before bed, drink plenty of water and eat again, this time choosing a fatty protein food such as cheese.

Irregular sleep hours
Perhaps you’re working shifts or something wakes you up at night. Whatever the case, regular sleep patterns are something that’s out of reach for you.
Turn things around
Grab as much sleep as you can before 11pm. Research indicates that falling asleep before midnight really does lead to deeper, more restorative sleep. If you’re woken during deep REM sleep, you’re likely to feel exhausted the next day. Grab a power nap for at least 30 minutes when you can – it’ll make all the difference.

Energy drinks
These energy bombs do more than work against sleep; they can cause you to feel anxious, jittery, and wired and tired at the same time. If you’re addicted to them, now may be the time to cut back.
Turn things around
Instead of having an energy drink, try a glass of unsweetened iced tea or other tea of your choice – Green thea is fantastic.