Learning how to lower blood sugar is an important step for improving the quality of life of people with diabetes. Staying healthy doesn't mean buying expensive gadgets or supplements. Sometimes, discipline and determination alone can work wonders for one's health.
How to lower blood sugar in 5 ways
Here are five simple ways on how to lower your blood sugar. Changes will not happen overnight, so remember to keep committed and be consistent.
1. Exercise regularly
Well, we all know that regular exercise can help us lose weight. There are benefits that you can get from regular exercise, including improved mental health and mood. It also strengthens the bones and improves the quality of sleep.
Exercise also works great in helping the body manage insulin levels. When you exercise regularly, you increase your insulin sensitivity. Increased insulin sensitivity encourages the body to use the sugar for energy and be better at removing the bloodstream's glucose.
2. Keep yourself well-hydrated
Another way to help you manage your blood sugar levels is by hydrating yourself well. That means drinking mostly plain water and avoiding sugary drinks. If you want beverages, drink the unsweetened kind. And most of all, keep your consumption of alcoholic beverages as low as possible.
Drinking more water will not only help you well hydrated, but it will also help flush out excess sugar from the body. Ideally, people with diabetes should consume 2 liters (67.6 oz) of water per day for men and 1.6 liters (54.1 oz) for women.
3. Minimize stress
Mental stress is known to affect blood sugar levels. Stress forces the body to release stress hormones like cortisol and glucagon. Once the body releases these hormones, blood sugar rises. Therefore, you need to manage stress in your life to keep sugar levels within your target.
To reduce stress, experts advise exercising regularly. When under stress, you should do some breathing exercises to help calm you down.
4. Get enough sleep
We may not realize it, but the quality of sleep can also affect blood sugar. People who are deprived of sleep are shown to have decreased insulin sensitivity, thus, higher blood sugar levels. Conversely, getting enough sleep can help reduce high blood sugar.
Determining how much sleep is needed varies from person to person. While the average will be about 7.5 hours long, others need as long as 11 hours, while others only need 4 hours. So, how do you know that you had enough sleep? An expert told WebMD that if you are using an alarm clock and you awaken before the alarm went off, then that means you more or less had a night of adequate sleep.
5. Monitor your blood sugar levels
It goes without saying that you need to regularly monitor your blood sugar. Being aware of what is happening to your blood sugar levels will allow you to react quickly. To help your monitor your sugar levels, you can take note of instances when you experience a sudden rise. Then indicate the possible reason so you can avoid it the next time or make adjustments to your food intake and medications.
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