Blood sugar problems are a systemic issue in the modern day. People are eating too much of the wrong foods too often. Not only this — most people are not exercising or dieting enough to avoid the negative side effects of this. Since it is always better to consider your health, you should be willing to make some chances in your lifestyle. It does not take much, as it only requires mild to moderate changes over time. Your blood sugar is a significant factor in your health always worth keeping an eye on, too. These are the best ways to improve your blood sugar levels.
Best Ways to Improve Blood Sugar
1. Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways to reduce your blood sugar without drugs. It is a sort of natural miracle worker because when your heart and respiration pick up, your body improves. The muscles start to use more of the glucose that is circulating in your blood. This not only reduces your blood sugar temporarily, it beefs up your organs. It also makes the insulin released by the pancreas more effective at bringing the system back into balance.
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Super strenuous exercise is not helpful because it releases stress hormones into the system that can actually increase your blood sugar temporarily. A nice fast-paced walk or jog are perfect as are vinyasa yoga, biking, tennis, aerobics, and moderate weight training. You also do not want it to be so slow that your heart rate doesn’t increase. It needs to be somewhere in the middle by keeping your exercise moderate. To keep high blood sugar at bay, exercise needs to be a regular occurrence. That means at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week. Dehydration is really bad for keeping your blood sugar levels stable so make sure you always have a bottle of water on hand no matter your chosen workout.
2. Diet
Diet is crucial to making sure that you are staying as healthy as possible. Every time you send too much glucose into your body at once, it shocks the system. This ends up shooting your blood sugar levels up high and making your body work hard to balance it out again. The key is to keep your blood sugar stable. and it helps you to maintain the diet that does you good. Generally speaking, keep intake of white breads and white sugar to a minimum and avoid overly processed foods. All of your foods should be high quality, organic, local, or free of pesticides and herbicides. Certain foods are also particularly effective at reducing blood sugar including:
- Fruits (blueberries, citrus fruits, melons, bananas, apples, and cherries are particularly good)
- Humanely-raised meats
- Garlic
- Avocados
- Eggs
- Yams and sweet potatoes
- Sauerkraut and kimchi
- Kefir
- Raw cheeses
- Coconut oil
You will notice that many of the foods listed above are loaded with fiber which isn’t an accident. Soluble fiber is an important tool for controlling blood sugar. Fiber slows carbohydrates from digesting and at the same time, slows the absorption of sugar into the blood stream which is really important for staving off any unnecessary blood sugar spikes. High fiber foods include many fruits, avocados, whole grains, and kefir. If you consider more and better food groups, you should be well. This is crucial to having a balanced diet that can end up saving your life. A balanced diet is good, but be sure to consider other diets as well to see what works for you. Portion control and micronutrients are key, and a truly balanced diet is one that will keep you the healthiest.
Best Ways to Improve Blood Sugar
3. Stress
Anxiety is a symptom and also a cause of diabetes because stressing the body increases the amount of blood sugar flowing through the system. Find regular activities to manage the stress in your life. Taking five minutes in the morning, noon, and before dinner to practice deep breathing, meditating, practicing slower forms of yoga, reading, qigong, or listening to relaxing music are all effective at calming anxiety. If you need a little extra boost, consider UMZU’s Cortigon to help improve mood, reduce stress, balance hormones, and improve mental clarity, while increasing energy and memory retention.
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One key thing to consider is to be aware of what else stress can do to your body. Not only can stress cause things like diabetes, but diabetes can exacerbate the stress you have. If you are stressed, you are also more likely to react by stress eating or by gaining more negative habits. The best things to do for stress are sleep, diet, exercise, and consider supplements and even therapy. If you do not do these things, you will be more stressed, and if you cannot do them, consider one and start from there. Just be aware that stress, like other factors, has much to do with the whole picture of your health.
4. Sleep
Sleep is important for overall health, but it is particularly crucial for lowering blood sugar. It falls under the label of stress management. Research has shown that if you don’t get at least seven hours of sleep each night your cells won’t have enough time to repair themselves, which is particularly helpful in boosting insulin sensitivity. Research has shown that those who got less than six hours of sleep nightly were twice as likely to have less sensitive insulin. If any help is needed with sleep, there are always supplements like melatonin you can take to make it easier.
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This means that when insulin is released from the pancreas, the body is less likely to respond to it and more excess sugar will become stored in the liver. While researchers are not completely sure why sleep is so important for lowering blood sugar, they think that it could be because it impacts the endocrine system. It seems those who do not get enough sleep produce more cortisol, which poorly interacts with insulin resistance. Those that sleep less are also more likely to exercise less and eat a poor diet filled with foods that release too much sugar into the bloodstream.
Best Ways to Improve Blood Sugar
5. Avoid Alcohol
A word about alcohol consumption: it is fine to drink, but it is preferable if you do not. While it’s perfectly okay to enjoy a moderate amount of alcohol, the quantity and kind of alcohol is crucial. Excess alcohol overworks the liver and pancreas. At the same time, it can disrupt sleep and cause anxiety, which indirectly can raise your blood sugar. If you love your booze, try and keep them as pure as possible. High quality tequila is among the cleanest alcohols you can find. And avoid low quality, high sugar mixers. If you drink too much it can also over stimulate your appetite, causing you to eat too much and make poor diet choices. Other choices you should avoid are simple acts of negligence and other drug use. This can be said for smoking, intranasal, and injecting drugs, including nicotine.
6. Supplements
Cinnamon
Ceylon cinnamon, or pure cinnamon, has long been praised for its medicinal benefits. It is worth noting that not all cinnamon is created equal. Ceylon cinnamon is a spice that comes from the bark of the Cinnamomum tree, an evergreen tree native to Sri Lanka. In fact, Sri Lanka’s former name was Ceyton. Sri Lanka, along with the Seychelles and Madagascar, produce most of the world’s pure cinnamon crop. Cassia cinnamon, which is most commonly found in grocery stores, comes from the Cinnamomum cassia tree. It is lower quality and does not contain many of the effective essential oils.
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A number of studies have shown that cinnamon is beneficial for reducing the amount of glucose in the blood. One small study published in the journal Diabetes Care found that after 40 days cinnamon reduced mean fasting serum glucose by 18-29 percent. A review of ten studies published in the Annals of Family Medicine found that “consumption of cinnamon is associated with a statistically significant decrease in levels of fasting plasma glucose.” Finally, a study published in the International Journal of Food Science found that 3-6 grams of cinnamon and the regular consumption of cinnamon was associated with a reduction in blood sugar in healthy adults.
Berberine
Berberine is a bioactive substance found in the Berberis family of plants, including the Oregan grape, tree turmeric, and the barberry tree. It has been found in a number of studies to positively impact blood sugar. Researchers publishing in the journal Metabolism found that berberine was a “potent oral hypoglycemic agent” that was as effective as Metformin, a well known diabetes drug. It is not completely clear how it works, but researchers think that berberine impacts various human cells in the pancreas, liver, colon, and immune system and increases insulin sensitivity.
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Other research, published in the journal Endocrine Metabolism found that berberine reduced resting blood sugar by as much as 20 percent. And finally, a review of 12 studies published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that it worked as well as a number of prescribed diabetes drugs.
Banaba
GlucoHelp, also known as Banaba leaf, has been used in natural medicine to treat diabetes for centuries. It is sourced from the leaf of a tree that is in the Crape Myrtle family and found in Southeast Asia. While it has a number of health benefits, its impact on blood sugar is most notable. A number of bioactive compounds in the leaf including corosolic acid have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity. One study published in the European Journal of Pharmacology found that the compound had anti-diabetic effects in animal experiments. Another study published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that corosolic acid decreased blood sugar levels within one hour of taking it.
Chromium
Chromium is an essential mineral that has also been shown to play a role in insulin resistance. The mineral is tied to the action of a molecule called chromodulin. This molecule helps insulin do its job in the body. One study published in the journal Diabetics Education found that chromium is beneficial to insulin regulation because of “its effects on carbohydrate, protein, and lipid metabolism.” The study also found that chromium levels in the blood seemed to be reduced with aging and supplementing with chromium helped to keep levels intact.
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You can also get chromium from your diet in foods like apples, bananas, pure grape juice, beef, and turkey. Another study, published in the journal Metabolism, found that milk that contained powdered chromium was also beneficial; after 16 weeks, subjects experienced a drop in fasting blood sugar. Another study, published in Metabolism, found that chromium increased insulin sensitivity in those with diabetes.
Biotin
Biotin is an important B vitamin used in many of the body’s metabolic processes. It has many uses, and it is especially helpful for lowering blood sugar. It is found in a number of healthy foods, including sweet potatoes, organ meats, eggs, fish. A study in the Oman Medical Journal found that biotin was important for glycemic control. The study found that taking biotin positively impacted “glycemic management” in the body. Another study, published in Europe PMC, found that biotin helped improve blood sugar levels in diabetic rats. Other research has found that taking biotin along with chromium is also highly effective at controlling blood sugar. Biotin levels in those with diabetes also tended to be lower compared to those that did not have it.
Best Ways to Improve Blood Sugar
7. See a Doctor
Again, seeing a doctor is a great way to know about your health and general needs. It is recommended that you see a doctor at least once a year to see if anything should be changed. Be sure to consult about any complications that you may have noticed in the past or things you may need. While this seems natural for someone going in for an emergency, it is not always the focus. This is where you should be sure not to miss any details that could make a huge difference. Even if a doctor does not recommend something though, be sure to do your own research. If you are not going in an emergency, be sure to give the lowdown on everything. This can help to prevent problems later on. It never hurt to gain a little more insight into an issue you have.
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You should also be sure to see a doctor if you notice any problems with your general health worthy of concern. Since it is always better to be safe than sorry, you should practice on making the right choice for your overall health. Since a yearly checkup includes drawing blood for blood sugar levels, be sure to check more often. Any time you go to a doctor appointment, ask for them to check you out. Simply by having them checked, is a great way to have a plan made that can help you. Also, be sure to consider speaking with your personal doctor before doing anything listed here, like supplements. They are all typically safe, but you should always be positive just in case of lethal interactions with medications (if you take any).
8. Intermittent Fasting
While fasting may not fix everything, it can certainly help you with your blood sugar problems. If you are struggling with insulin resistance or diabetes, prolonged or intermittent fasting can help mitigate the symptoms. In rare cases, fasting has been known to cause diabetic remission. If you problem includes severe diabetes, it may not be safe, at least not to begin with. It should be something that you consider along the path. This is because it will certainly make a difference, as long as you do it properly. The path can be hard and brutal, but before long, you will work up to one meal per day. This can then lead you to occasional prolonged fasts that last for at least a couple of days. Nobody said that it would be easy, but it has it’s benefits. Included in this is only eating carbohydrate-free foods within your eating window.
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A good method is by mixing fasting with the ketogenic diet. This will certainly help your pancreas begin to produce insulin by healing the receptors of the cells. This is done because of the healing properties of fasting. These properties mix well with the avoidance of carbohydrates with ketogenic dieting. This may be hard to begin with, but it is worth it. If you learn to balance your habits out while mitigating stress, it should be easy. The more you fast, the less you are likely to crave carbs anyway. So, begin by fasting, then slowly introduce keto-friendly foods as replacements in your diet. This way you will not shock your system. Since fasting is more of an eating plan than a diet, it is not included in the diet portion of this article.
Best Ways to Improve Blood Sugar
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