Importance of Blood Sugar Balance

Blood sugar balance is perhaps one of the most important 'pieces' of general health and well being. It is often not thought of as a culprit in some of the major non life threatening issues many Americans deal with daily. When we have insomnia we reach for a sleep aid, when we have anxiety we reach for anti-anxiety herbs or drugs, same thing with yeast infections, and cholesterol issues.

What if there was one major area we could address that would resolve these troubling conditions? What if we look deeper than just the symptoms to find out what in our body needs balancing? One excellent place to start looking is at your blood sugar balance.

Symptoms of Blood Sugar Imbalances

The symptoms of blood sugar imbalance can range from minor to major here are a few:

• pain and inflammation
• insomnia
• fatigue and malaise
• weight gain and inability to lose weight
• irritability and agitation
• foggy brain and inability to focus
• thyroid, adrenal, gonadal and other hormonal imbalances
• digestive disturbances
• weakened immunity and infections
• high cholesterol and high triglycerides
• diabetes and Syndrome X

Diabetes the major issue of blood sugar imbalance is most concerning but it is some of the minor issues which can cause daily dissatisfaction. What I am talking about are the 'classic' symptoms common around mid-day when blood sugar dips. These are subtle when compared to diabetes but they have a big impact on our daily life. I am referring to brain fog, irritability, emotional agitation, fatigue, general inflammation, and inability to focus. They are all symptoms and over time will lead to more serious health issues. So consider what you can do now to bring your blood sugar and body into balance.

The Blood Sugar Hormone Connection

The body has built-in mechanisms designed to keep blood sugar levels in a normal range. Your blood sugar needs to be in a certain stable range because it can be quite damaging. If you have an underlying problem with regulating sugar then you decide to eat sugars (pies, cakes, cookies, candies, ice cream, soda, doughnuts, brownies, etc.) and starches (bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes). Here is what happens your blood sugar “spikes” to a level deemed too high for what the body considers safe. Then, insulin, a hormone from the pancreas, gets released in order to pull the excess sugar out of the blood and into the cells. The problem is that your blood sugar was so high (from eating those foods), that your pancreas releases an excess amount of insulin. This results in the blood sugar going too low.
Next, as the body senses low blood sugar levels, it decides it needs to raise them. This is done through the release of stress hormones; namely cortisol and adrenaline. Now the blood sugar usually spikes again because the sugar levels went so low – and the body produced too many stress hormones to raise the blood sugar.

As you can see this is a like riding a roller coaster, this constant yo-yo 'ing of the body is detrimental. The body going to extremes to 'correct' its course is highly unstable and eventually leads to a major breakdown namely diabetes which is rampant in our society. In the next post we will look at some ways to keep blood sugar levels stable and some supplements that can support blood sugar balance.