Anyone know about blood sugar levels?

Question

My Dad had a mild stroke last night and when he was admitted his blood sugar was 200. Now 12 hours later it's 77 - that just seems like a big drop in a short time to me - has anyone dealt with this and what it means.

Answer 1

Fasting blood sugar (in the mornings or 12 hours after your last meal) ranges between 70 to 100.  After lunch, it climbs to 120 to 160.

Answer 2

Blood sugars can go up and down quickly. It can change not just in hours but in minutes. 77 is a great blood sugar. 200 is high but nothing that can't be fixed. When you eat or have stress the blood sugar goes up, usually with in minutes. When you take insulin or don't eat it can drop.

Hope your dad is okay.

Answer 3

Glucose levels may change dramatically as you eat or when you are in a stress situation. The body uses insulin to stabilize the levels (if you are not diabetic) The lower count is certainly indicating that your father did not eat anything after his stroke and the number is pretty normal for fasting.  

Answer 4

Your dads blood sugars are still in good range.  Normally blood sugars goes down over time after we have eaten.  Is you dad a diabetic?  If not normal ranges are  

Fasting (in the morning)...70 - 99

2 hours after a meal........70 -139

Those are for people that DO NOT have diabetes.

The ranges for those of us that DO have diabetes are as follows

Fasting

110  Excellent

140  Acceptable

180  Fair

2 hours after a meal

140  Excellent

180  Acceptable

235  Fair

I got these numbers recently from an endocrinologist.  The numbers that some of the answers have given you are for non diabetics.  Many diabetics are at  hypoglycemic levels if their blood sugar readings are near 70.

Answer 5

sportsch    !

A normal fasting blood sugar result is lower than 100 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood (mg/dL).

The normal range for people without diabetes is 4 percent to 6 percent. An A1C level lower than 7 percent is a common target for people with diabetes

A normal random blood sugar level hasn't been clearly defined. However, even if you've recently eaten and your blood sugar level is at its peak, your random blood sugar level shouldn't be higher than 200 mg/dL.

A normal blood sugar level after an oral glucose tolerance test is lower than 140 mg/dL.

Answer 6

Blood sugar readings can drop drastically and quickly!  A shot of insulin can drop blood sugar in 10-15 minutes.  The same thing from the patient's pancreas can work in less than 5 minutes.

My guess would be that the stroke caused the high blood sugar.  That would be the body trying to defend itself, thus releasing stored sugar for the anticipated extra fuel necessary.

But then the insulin kicks in, the sugar gets used up, and the reading drops.

All of this is absolutely normal.  In fact, a drop from 200 to 77 in ONE HOUR would not be unusual.

Is your Dad diabetic?   After he gets out of the hospital, he needs to work to see that his blood sugar stay in the 90-120 range as much as possible.  Letting the blood sugar go too high (like eating sweets or drinking colas) can cause strokes.

If you Dad was NOT diabetic before his stroke, hsi doctor should keep checking him.  There is a thing called Traumatic Diabetes, where diabetes is caused by trauma like accidents or other medical problems (like strokes).  in this case the diabetes will usually go away as the patient heals.  STILL -- the goal is blood sugar reading in the 90-120 range.