Anyone who has gone to the doctor and been told news they weren’t expecting has found themselves trying to process it and figure out what the next steps are. In some cases there is a simple answer that can be solved with a course of antibiotics or a follow up procedure.
However, the news that you have an abnormally high fasting blood sugar or elevated A1C is a more complicated subject to tackle. The word diabetes is mentioned in the consult, but most people are overwhelmed by the shock of the unexpected news that they haven’t even begun to fully process it until they are out in the car trying to evaluate what was the last sugary treat they ate, and if that’s what tipped them over into this new finding.
You may have had the american diabetes website given in your discharge paperwork or handful of information on what diabetes is with a referral to a nutritionist, but more often than not where and how to start is still very difficult. Should you start on medication? Stop eating anything with sugar in it? Run every day?
As a Nurse Practitioner I have been on the other side of this interaction, telling someone they need to make lifestyle changes, advising they lose weight, but also seeing the overwhelm of the diagnosis and knowing that we don’t have the time in a 15-30 minute visit to really process the diagnosis and dive into what specific actions they should take next.
In this next 5 article series I’m going to try and give you some specific action steps you can take in the face of finding out that your blood sugars are abnormal. An abnormal fasting blood sugar is the lab test that is telling us that your body’s metabolism is not working properly, so all of the actions steps that we are going to be discussing will be focusing on improving the function of your metabolic system. (Hence diabetes and pre-diabetes being called metabolic derangement or disease.)
The big truth of this finding is that there are many factors that can cause you to have an abnormal blood sugar, many things influence your body’s metabolism. The major influencing factors are what you are eating, physical activity, sleep, stress and genetics. We can’t change your genetics at this time, so we will focus on the first four subjects.
Coach Sarah, FNP-BC, MSN