Have you suddenly realized that you have high blood sugar levels and not sure how to bring them down?
It is important to do something because having high levels for any prolonged length of time is what leads to complications occurring.
So let's cover a simple strategy that can help in the short term and talk about lowering levels over the long term.
Effective Strategy For Lowering High Blood Sugar Levels
1. Drink water
When your blood sugar is high it becomes very thick, like syrup and gets very sluggish. Drinking water helps to dilute your blood and increases your rate of urination, which helps reduce your sugars.
Drinking water might sound like a weird thing to do and many doctors would raise their eyebrows at this one but this works very well for the majority of people and is the singular best strategy to help bring your high blood sugar levels down. Simple, yet effective.
2. Exercise
Usually water won't be enough to bring down your high levels on it's own. You need to do some gentle exercise to help pump the glucose out of the blood stream and into the muscles. The only way to do that is to MOVE!!
Try going for a gentle walk, take the water with you. And if your levels are exceptionally high, it's always a good idea to take someone on the walk with you (just in case). Alternatively just walk around your yard or even just up and down your hallway.
It doesn't have to be a fast walk because when blood sugar levels are high you do not want to exert yourself, just get your body moving a bit. Let's emphasize this again: Do not exert yourself when you have high blood sugar levels.
If you are unable to walk due to pain or for some other reason, just keep drinking water.
3. Have a high protein snack
Eat half an egg, or a tablespoon of natural peanut butter, or a slice of cheese.
Use this strategy if you can: Drink water, go for a gentle walk (5-10 min), have a small snack, and repeat until your sugars come down.
Please note: It is important to consult your doctor if your levels are consistently very high and if they are abnormally above 300 mg/dl or 16.6 mmol/l you should go to the ER. Very high blood glucose can be life threatening.
Getting Those High Levels Lower
If you have a consistently high blood sugar level and high a1c you really need to take some action to lower it.
Anything over 140 mg/dl or 7.8 mmol/l for prolonged periods of time is damaging to the body and can lead to complications.
So what can you do?
1. Cut The Carbs
The best way to lower your blood sugar is to cut back on your carbohydrate intake, it's an absolute must. Carbohydrates are the one food group that has the most significant effect on blood sugar levels.
Less Carbs = Lower Blood Sugar = Less Meds!
To get good control, the carbohydrate amount is often much lower than most people are eating.
Read this: How many carbs for a diabetic per day
2. Exercise
You must do regular exercise. Try some smart exercise techniques like this:
1. Walk for 5-10 minutes after meals – this is when your blood glucose will increase the most so walking helps move glucose directly out of the blood stream, lowering overall levels.
2. Stand sedentary and do 20-30 squat exercises after each meal. Squats pump one of our biggest muscles, the quadraceps in the legs, and this helps move glucose out of the blood stream and into the muscle cells.
3. Try interval training – interval training burns more fat and is a more efficient way to exercise.
How it works is you do 15-20 minutes. Start with 2 minutes are a moderate warm up level, next increase your level for 1 minute, increase it even more for 1 minute, increase it even more for 1 minute, then reduce back down to moderate level. Continue for 3-4 sets like this. Your level increase might be a faster speed or a steeper incline.
4. Lift weights – this helps build lean muscle mass, improve insulin sensitivity, and improve blood glucose control. Don't worry, you won't look like a body builder, it takes hours every day to look like that!
3. Eat Real Food
Focus on eating fresh veggies, small amounts of berries, cheese, meats, eggs, avocado and healthy fats. Eat low carb. Don't eat any junk, don't eat sugar, and definitely don't drink sodas.
Read this: Diabetes Diet Food List
Suggestions That Have Helped Others
Here are a couple of suggestions that have helped other people.
- Drink cinnamon tea
- Warm lemon water
- Watch your diet and make sure you don't have hidden sugars/carbs lurking around
Have you got a suggestion that has worked for you? Let us know by leaving your comments below.
You might also like to read:
Why is morning blood sugar high?
10 tips to lower morning blood sugar
FREE DOWNLOAD
Printable Blood Sugar Levels Chart
PLUS: Tips to bring down high levels
JoAnn Patterson
07/20/2018 at 9:16 pmI was diagnosed with pre diabetic last year.i was doing great until i went to my orthopedic doctor yesterday and they gave me shots in both knees and my sugar is higher than normal . today it was 284 and it went from 284 to 184 and i ate and i waited for a while and it was 244 what can i do to get it back to my normal level of 103-116
Emily - Dietitian (MS, RD)
07/22/2018 at 6:52 pmI am going to assume the shots were some form of corticosteroids/prednison? Unfortunately, yes, a major side effect of that class of medication is increased blood sugar. Continue following your low carb diet which will prevent food from further exacerbating your high levels. If you’ve noticed a particular rise in morning blood sugar it may be worthwhile to try some apple cider vinegar and cheese before bed- this helps many of our members with high morning sugar.
Make sure to clarify with your doctor how often he or she expects you’ll need those shots. If this will be a frequent procedure then you may consider speaking with your doctor (endocrinologist) about these concerns and potentially may need to consider medication.
Duke
12/24/2017 at 8:32 amI’m urinating and my sugar level is 120. The urinating is so discomforting anyone has a suggestion for me
Please someone should please get in touch with me.
Jedha
12/26/2017 at 2:20 pmIf a person is not yet diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, frequent urination can be a symptom. However, diabetes does not cause discomforting urination, so you may have an infection or something. You should consult with a doctor.
kit baird
03/28/2017 at 7:02 pmIf I eat to many carbs and my blood sugar goes really high over 200, I drink an atkins protein drink with 15 protiens it always brings it down pretty fast.
Jedha
03/28/2017 at 8:09 pmWell glad you found something that works for you Kit. Though overall, it’s better to try to control carb intake so your levels don’t shoot so high!
ginger erfurt
09/23/2016 at 9:05 amhello, i am new to diabetes and trying to get off meds. i take my blood sugar count after waking in am and before exercising. lately it has been over 120. i then am on the treadmill for 90 minutes and take it again. sometimes it is lower and sometimes it is higher. however i don’t eat breakfast until i have done all these steps…should i eat before the 90 min. routine?
thank you, ginger
Jedha
09/24/2016 at 8:13 pmIf you’re new to it all, it will probably take a while for things to level out and your levels to become regular, so don’t stress about variations too much, as long as they are within an acceptable range. You could try a snack, though that’s usually most recommended if levels are 100 or lower. Elizabeth write some great info about exercise over here.
zahid
09/21/2016 at 11:12 pmHi
– it is really great to learn so many good suggestions and information on blood sugar.
In some note i have read that it is suggested to walk for 5 to 10 minutes after meal. is it applicable for all three major meal and also after taking any sort of food?
cheers/zahid
Jedha
09/22/2016 at 4:21 pmThe reason it is suggested to take a gentle walk or do some form of exercise after eating is that it helps utilize the glucose you may eat. Our muscles absorb a lot of the glucose out of the bloodstream, so anytime we eat and do some activity after, it can help.
Sharon
12/09/2015 at 12:36 pmI’ve learned so much about carbs,,thank you,,my diet was a lot of carbs,,until I started to read about them,,thank you again,,m sugars are 6.4 better from 12.4 ..I e also started walking more,,,
Jedha
12/09/2015 at 9:05 pmThat’s great news Sharon. See how quickly things can turn around when you change a few simple things. Good for you and keep up the good work. 🙂