What is Hyperglycemia?

• Too high a level of glucose (a simple sugar found in the blood.  The fuel that all body cells need to function)  in the blood. Yet the irony is that with all the glucose floating around in the blood the body cells are actually starving because glucose cannot get in.
• Insufficient insulin in the body
• The body must use fat and protein stores for fuel
• Liver produces ketone bodies (chemicals that the body makes when there is not enough insulin in the blood and the body must break down fat for its energy) which leads to diabetic ketoacidosis (an acute metabolic complication of diabetes characterized by excess acid in the blood which can be life threatening)

You can get ketone testing, a procedure for measuring the level of ketones in the urine or blood.

Causes of Hyperglycemia

• Insufficient insulin
• Too much food for amount of insulin taken
• Decrease in physical activity
• Expired or improperly stored insulin
• Illness
• Stress
• Hormone fluctuations (menstrual cycle)

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