You can keep your blood glucose levels at an optimum range in a number of ways. A good first step is becoming aware of where your levels stand. Glucose monitoring can provide you with great insights such as glucose variability. Keeping your blood glucose variability under 12 percent is considered ideal.

Sleep: Sleep and glucose metabolism go hand in hand. Lack of sleep can increase circulating cortisol (stress hormone) leading to production of glucose from non carbohydrate sources. Also, sleep duration affects hormones associated with appetite, including leptin (which soothes hunger) and ghrelin (which stimulates it). Sleep deprivation offsets the difference between the two hormones, potentially causing metabolic irregularities that can lead to changes in food intake and cause problems like diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Target to sleep 7-9 hours every day. We had a special issue on sleep and you can check it out here

Stress: The sympathetic nervous system controls the body’s response to danger – real and perceived. Stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which releases cortisol. Besides regulating blood pressure and blood sugar levels, cortisol is the body’s natural alarm system. As a result of increased glucose levels as an immediate energy source, cortisol inhibits insulin sensitivity in stressful situations. Chronic stress and chronically elevated glucose levels cause the pancreas (which produces insulin to lower glucose levels in the blood) to become less effective at responding to a high glucose stimulus. We had carried a tool kit to manage stress in the second issue of newsletter and you can access here

Exercise: Exercise can help us to maintain our glucose levels and also our metabolic flexibility, the ability to use both fat and glucose as energy sources, depending on what type of workout is being performed. High-intensity anaerobic workouts like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training or low/moderate-intensity exercises use different fuel sources and thus can have varying effects on our glucose levels. In most people, the switch in energy use from glucose to fats happens when endurance exercise is moderate or about 60% of maximum oxygen capacity (VO2 max). However, in high-intensity anaerobic activities, which usually tend to be above 80% VO2 max, glucose usually becomes the predominant fuel source. While HIIT enhances cardiometabolic metrics and bone formation, aerobic exercise is associated with fat metabolism.  We have extensively covered about exercises in our newsletters.

Food. What, how and when we eat effects blood glucose. Eating minimally processed whole foods helps to keep glucose in range. It is also important to avoid high levels of sugary foods and drinks, trans fats and simple carbohydrates or foods with a high GI and glycemic load. Eating mindfully and chewing properly will help managing glucose variability. We have had extensive issues about food and four issues ( 13 to 16) were dedicated completely on food.

Ultrahuman has a long waitlist and for the subscribers of this newsletter, if you want to jump the queue and want to deep dive into your glucose variability and health you can use this link