Hyperglycemia - Causes And Symptoms Of Hyperglycemia

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Causes and symptoms of hyperglycemia

What is hyperglycemia?

Hyperglycemia is a clinical symptom that indicates elevated serum sugar (glucose) levels. Hyperglycemia appears mainly in diabetes mellitus or other diseases of the endocrine system.

There are several conditional degrees of severity of the symptom:

- mild hyperglycemia (sugar level is 6-10 mmol / l); - moderate hyperglycemia (10-16 mmol / l); - severe hyperglycemia (more than 16 mmol / l).

If the sugar level exceeds 16.5 mmol / L, a precomatose state or coma may occur.

In people with diabetes mellitus, there are two types of hyperglycemia:

- fasting hyperglycemia (if a person has not eaten for about 8 hours, the blood sugar level rises more than 7.2 mmol / l);

- postprandial hyperglycemia (after a meal, the blood sugar level exceeds 10 mmol / l).

If people who do not have diabetes mellitus rise to 10 mmol / L after a heavy meal, this indicates an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Patients with diabetes mellitus should closely monitor blood glucose levels, since with prolonged periods of hyperglycemia there is a risk of damage to nerves, blood vessels, and other dangerous conditions (ketoacidosis, coma).

To avoid serious complications of diabetes mellitus, it is necessary to detect the symptoms of hyperglycemia in time and start treating them.

Content:

• Hyperglycemia Causes
• Hyperglycemia symptoms
• Hyperglycemia treatment
• Hyperglycemia in children

Hyperglycemia Causes

The main reason for the occurrence of hyperglycemia is a low amount of insulin (a hormone that lowers the concentration of glucose in the blood). Sometimes also insulin cannot properly interact with the cells of the body to utilize glucose.

There are many reasons for the development of hyperglycemia, including overeating, eating high-calorie foods containing an increased amount of simple and complex carbohydrates.

Stress can also be a non-diabetic cause of hyperglycemia. You need to control your physical activity: severe overwork or, on the contrary, a passive lifestyle can lead to an increase in blood sugar levels.

Infectious and chronic diseases can also cause symptoms of hyperglycemia. In people with diabetes mellitus, hyperglycemia can occur due to the missed intake of sugar-reducing drugs or an injection of insulin.

Hyperglycemia symptoms

Timely detection of symptoms of hyperglycemia will help to avoid serious complications. First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to strong thirst: if the glucose concentration is more than 10 mmol / l, sugar is excreted along with urine. Together with it, beneficial salts are washed out, which causes weakness, headache, dry mouth, itchy skin, weight loss, blurred vision, loss of consciousness. Cold and numb limbs, constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal problems can also be symptoms of hyperglycemia.

Hyperglycemia can provoke ketonuria (the presence of acetone bodies in the urine) and ketoacidosis (a violation of carbohydrate metabolism leading to diabetic coma). This mechanism works like this: due to the high amount of sugar in the blood and lack of insulin, glucose does not enter the cells. Therefore, the liver, which contains glycogen, begins to break it down into glucose, which further increases the amount of sugar. The cells do not receive energy, and the breakdown of fats begins, in which ketone bodies (acetone) are produced. They enter the bloodstream, as a result of which the natural acid balance is disturbed.

In people with diabetes, the transition from mild to severe hyperglycemia can take many years. But this is only if the body is able to produce insulin on its own. Therefore, it is necessary to make a lot of effort to treat the disease.

You should be aware that hyperglycemia is not an indicator of diabetes mellitus exclusively, but it may indicate other endocrine diseases.

Hyperglycemia treatment

First of all, a person suffering from hyperglycemia must regularly measure the amount of sugar in the blood. They should be carried out both on an empty stomach and after meals, several times a day. If the increased rates are registered several times in a row, you need to consult a doctor, as this can cause damage to blood vessels and organs, and lead to various complications.

The concentration of glucose in the blood will help to reduce moderate exercise, drinking a lot of fluids (with high glucose levels, you need to drink every 30 minutes). But physical activity must be stopped if the sugar level is increased to 13.3 mmol / l, and ketone bodies are present in the urine.

With hyperglycemia, it is extremely important to follow a diet, but this should be done only after consulting your doctor. You need to keep the amount of carbohydrates and calories contained in the food consumed under control.

Insulin is often prescribed to treat hyperglycemia.

Find out more: How to lower your blood sugar?

Hyperglycemia in children

In children, an indicator of hyperglycemia is a blood sugar concentration of more than 6.5 mmol / L before meals and more than 8.9 mmol / L after meals.

In newborns, hyperglycemia is quite common, but doctors do not give an unambiguous answer to the question of what exactly is the reason for the increase in blood sugar levels in babies. Basically, hyperglycemia occurs in children who weigh less than 1.5 kg, or who have recovered from such serious diseases as meningitis, sepsis, encephalitis, etc. Sometimes the concentration of sugar in the blood rises due to intravenous administration of glucose solutions (in low-weight children, glucose is not processed intensively enough in the body).

If hyperglycemia is not detected and treated in time, the child's brain cells may malfunction, which often leads to hemorrhage or cerebral edema. With hyperglycemia, the body is dehydrated, so there is a danger of loss of body weight, the development of diseases of the endocrine system.

To avoid hyperglycemia, it is necessary to constantly monitor the indicators of urine and blood tests. If glucose levels are exceeded, insulin is given to the child.

Often, blood sugar levels can indicate the severity of the child's condition, which can later be fatal.

The author of the article: Kuzmina Vera Valerievna | Endocrinologist, nutritionist

Education: Diploma of the Russian State Medical University named after NI Pirogov with a degree in General Medicine (2004). Residency at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, diploma in Endocrinology (2006).