While some vascular issues are genetic, lifestyle has a big impact, too. Here are a few key factors:
Our vascular system is central to every bodily function, feeding the heart, brain, muscles, and organs. Problems with blood vessels can lead to a range of health issues, from mild discomfort to serious conditions like heart disease or stroke. In short, keeping our vascular system healthy means keeping ourselves healthy.
Every organ and tissue in the body receives oxygen and nutrition via blood vessels, which are a complex network of arteries, veins, and capillaries. This vessel system also helps in removing waste from the body. A cellular exchange of gases and nutrition is made possible by capillaries, veins return deoxygenated blood to the heart, and arteries transport oxygen-rich blood from the heart. Blood vessels are often overlooked with respect to health despite their crucial significance—until issues occur.
There might be serious repercussions if vascular health is neglected. High blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and a sedentary lifestyle can all harm the blood vessel lining over time, resulting in atherosclerosis (plaque accumulation in the vessels), blood clots, and decreased blood flow. These issues can silently develop and may give rise to life-threatening conditions including heart attacks, strokes, aneurysms, or chronic limb ischemia.
Maintaining the health of your blood vessels is therefore not only crucial, but also life-saving. Vascular health may be preserved greatly by routine health examinations, eating a heart-healthy diet, exercising regularly, managing stress, and keeping blood sugar and cholesterol under control. In order to maintain the strength and resilience of your circulatory system throughout your life, we at the Asian Heart Institute greatly emphasise on prevention and early diagnosis.
When people eat a meal, especially when it contains carbohydrates, it is normal for them to have a temporary spike in their sugar level (often known as a post-prandial spike) before the insulin their body produces immediately starts working to lower the spike. For someone with type 1 diabetes, who can’t produce their own insulin, these spikes can be higher and last longer.
Reducing these spikes may help you to increase the amount of time you spend in your target blood sugar range (also known as the time in range), which will have a positive impact on your future health. You should consult your healthcare team to understand the best target range for you, as this will differ from person to person. However, the International Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) recommends a target of 5.0-10.0 mmol/L (after meals, when there is no longer any active bolus insulin on board).
Symptoms of a high blood sugar level also vary in individuals, but they may cause you to feel thirsty, tired, stressed and need to go to the toilet a lot. In the short term, by avoiding prolonged high blood sugar readings after eating, you should also reduce the occurrence of these symptoms and improve your energy, cognitive (thinking) and athletic ability and overall mood.
There is no universal answer or specific guidelines on when a sugar level is too high after meals. However, if post-meal readings are consistently above your target range (or the recommendations from ISPAD 5mmol/L to 10mmol/L), then you should discuss whether it would be beneficial for you to address these spikes and how to do this, with your healthcare team (see below for some suggestions for your discussion).
If you are reviewing your post-breakfast sugar levels, you should also be aware of changes in your hormones in the morning, which cause increases in sugar levels (this is known as the dawn phenomenon). This Digibete video may help.
Another way to slow down carbohydrate digestion? Make sure you’re eating enough fat and protein! Eating meals that have a mix of all three macronutrients can help to keep blood sugar balanced. Pair a handful of nuts with your fresh fruit, or add half an avocado to your morning smoothie. This will also help to keep you fuller longer–without the jitters or brain fog that comes with a sugar crash. At Impact Kitchen: Try our Macro Meal that comes with a healthy mix of all three (think chicken, sweet potato, spinach, lemon-olive oil and avocado). Yes, please!
Blood sugar is quite literally, the sugar, or glucose, found in your blood, and it comes from the foods we eat. This glucose is what fuels us and gives us energy. And while you might think it’s just the sugar we eat that ends up in our blood, it’s actually any carbohydrate, as carbs are broken down into glucose.After glucose ends up in the bloodstream, the pancreas excretes a hormone called insulin to keep blood sugar levels in check. Insulin essentially sweeps up the glucose and stores it in our cells (especially muscles) for energy. Or it gets converted to glycogen and stored in the liver, or it can be stored as fat in the body’s fat cells.If we need energy, the pancreas releases another hormone, glucagon, which does the exact opposite: it releases stored glucose.Still with me? It’s a pretty intuitive system, and it’s essential that it works optimally for us to thrive.
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