For diabetes, which one is more feared, high blood sugar or low blood sugar?

As people's living standards improve, the number of diabetes patients is increasing. It is undeniable that diabetes is closely related to the improvement of living standards. Just imagine, how many people had diabetes decades ago?

As the number of people with diabetes increases, more problems arise. I am an anesthesiologist, and I am more exposed to diabetic complications and the problem of regulating blood sugar during surgery. Among diabetic complications, high blood sugar can cause irreversible damage to the heart, brain, kidneys, blood vessels, and nervous system. Once the damage is severe, it is bound to increase the risk of perioperative anesthesia. Even if there are no obvious complications, perioperative safety will be affected by blood sugar fluctuations. In severe cases, it may bring life-threatening risks.

For most ordinary people, they are more concerned about whether their blood sugar is stable. As for why it should be stable, it seems that no one can give an accurate answer. Let's talk about this question briefly:

Let's talk about high blood sugar first: In my impression, more people are worried about high blood sugar. Once blood sugar is a little high, they will be very worried. Once they are worried, they can't rest well. If they don't rest well, blood sugar will be higher. Therefore, high blood sugar seems to bother every diabetic patient.

As an anesthesiologist, I want to say that hyperglycemia is not as terrible as imagined. The first time I came across hyperglycemia was in a textbook during college. At that time, words such as hyperosmolar coma and ketoacidosis shocked us, the newbies in medicine. Even after I started working, I would always be alert to such patients. However, many years have passed, and it seems that I have never encountered a case.

A careful investigation revealed that these complications of high blood sugar are not so easy to occur. Generally speaking, diabetic patients have a certain tolerance to high blood sugar. In the past, we have seen patients with blood sugar as high as dozens in clinical practice.

But what needs to be emphasized here is that not everyone can tolerate such high blood sugar. If it is transient hyperglycemia, most people will not have a big problem; but if it is long-term hyperglycemia, you should pay attention to the various complications of hyperglycemia. And, we remind you again that these complications are difficult to reverse! In other words, once complications occur, it is good to maintain the status quo. Therefore, the best policy is to resolutely prevent it from occurring, or at least not to allow complications to develop!

In recent years, with the popularity of new long-acting insulin, more and more diabetic patients have enjoyed stable blood sugar. However, due to poor rest or insufficient energy supply, hypoglycemia often occurs, and hypoglycemia is really terrible.

As mentioned earlier, many people can tolerate high blood sugar. That’s because high blood sugar generally only affects the osmotic pressure of the blood. As the body uses glucose, the blood sugar level will gradually decrease. Only long-term high blood sugar will cause serious conditions.

Hypoglycemia is different. Once hypoglycemia occurs, it is equivalent to the body's organs being deprived of food. The most seriously damaged part, the central nervous system, is the first to bear the brunt.

The central nervous system is a very amazing system: it does not store food, but it eats a lot. Scientific research shows that the glucose utilization rate of our central nervous system is the highest among all organs. Therefore, once hypoglycemia occurs, people will soon become confused or even lose consciousness. Once the time is prolonged, the life center that relies on glucose for feeding will also stop working. At that time, all organs of the human body will stop working and eventually die.

At this point, everyone knows what diabetic patients fear the most!

After reading this article, share this professional knowledge with your friends and family who suffer from diabetes!