The scary reality is that millions of people are living with imbalanced blood sugar, unknowingly. While type 2 diabetes is at epidemic levels, an estimated 84 million Americans are pre-diabetic, and the National Diabetes Statistics report states that up to 88% of those people don’t know it.
However, the statistics that these reports are missing are the countless people living with imbalanced blood sugar that don’t fall into the category of prediabetic or diabetic. That is because while these sufferers struggle with frustrating symptoms, their blood tests show a healthy “average” blood sugar. This occurs when people experience wide swings between high and low blood sugar, which wreaks havoc on the body but reveals normal average levels.
This yo-yo between high and low blood sugar can make life difficult and lead to hard-to-diagnose symptoms. If you are experiencing any of the top six symptoms below, it’s time to dig deeper into your blood sugar balance.
#6 Chronic fungal infections
Fungus thrives on sugar so when a fungal infection is trying to thrive in your body, these organisms will actually prompt you to eat sugar. It’s a vicious cycle – a high sugar diet can feed fungus and allow it to grow while an overgrowth will perpetuate sugar cravings to insure survival. Fungus appears in many forms, growing on the skin resulting in itchy, dry and cracking skin, or as athlete’s’ foot, yeast infections, thrush in the mouth, and even systemic infections resulting in extreme symptoms like joint pain.
#5 Infertility or PCOS
PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) is a complicated condition involving not only reproductive hormones like estrogen and testosterone, but other hormones like insulin, cortisol and thyroid. If you have PCOS or infertility, your risk of imbalanced blood sugar is elevated, and close monitoring of insulin and glucose levels is warranted.
#4 Low Blood Sugar
If you find yourself feeling fatigued, shaky, hungry, anxious, or irritable between meals, you may be experiencing wide swings between high and low blood sugar. Reactive hypoglycemia can mean that after an initial increase in blood sugar, your body responds too aggressively and causes blood sugar to drop too low.
#3 Fatigue
Overall fatigue or bouts of afternoon lethargy are other signals that your body is not effectively using carbs for fuel and blood sugar balance is in trouble. In these situations, people often notice that after a meal including bread, pasta, sweets, rice, they feel like they are ready for a nap. If you are properly metabolizing carbs, you should feel consistent energy all day!
#2 A Growing Mid-section
If you feel like your midsection is putting on extra padding, your body may be trying to manage blood sugar imbalance. When blood sugar spikes, the body does damage control by packaging sugars as triglycerides and shuttling them into fat cells around the middle. This specific type of fat puts you at higher risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hormone imbalance and inflammatory conditions.
#1 Sweet Tooth
If you frequently find yourself scavenging for sugar, especially after a meal, your body is trying to tell you something. Sugar cravings can be a sign of imbalanced blood sugar and the more you feed it, the worse it gets.
If you are experiencing these symptoms, don’t ignore it! With some strategic support and simple nutritional strategies, we see people reverse this condition and get back to optimal health without drugs other harmful treatments. Blood sugar imbalance is preventable and reversible, even in more advanced stages. However, the earlier you identify the imbalance and address it, the faster you can feel and look your best!