Your Doctor Is Wrong About Blood Sugar & Fasting

Hello Health Champions. We all know that when you eat food your blood sugar goes up,   and when you don't eat your blood  sugar is supposed to come down.   But for a lot of people the exact opposite seems  to be happening and if you've noticed this you're   not alone. That when you're fasting your blood  sugar stays high even in a diabetic range,   and it won't come down until you eat something.  This all seems very confusing and paradoxical,   and it happens mostly to people who are insulin  resistant and who go on a diet of low carb   and intermittent fasting. So today I want to talk  about what's really happening in the body, and if   you have something to worry about or if you're  actually on the right track. Coming right up   hey I'm Dr Ekberg I'm a holistic doctor and a  former Olympic decathlete, and if you want to   truly master health by understanding how the  body really works make sure you subscribe hit   that bell and turn on all the notifications  so you never miss a life saving video so blood   glucose is how much sugar is in your bloodstream  at any given time and it's measured in milligrams   per deciliter and a healthy level is to be between  80 to 120 so when you're fasting like overnight   and between meals then a good level is going  to be in the 80 range then you eat something   and now your blood sugar goes up because  the food gets from your digestive tract   into the bloodstream blood sugar goes up and then  your body processes through and over a period of   few to several hours your blood sugar comes down  again this is how it's supposed to happen but if   you are insulin resistant and an extreme form of  insulin resistance is type 2 diabetic then your   fasting levels are too high typically about 130 or  above but this could be two or three or 400 also   and then when you eat something your blood sugar  goes way way up because your cells are resisting   receiving that blood sugar out of the bloodstream  so it's difficult for the body to transition the   food from the digestive tract through the  blood into the cells and therefore you get   very high levels and they stay high they  come down very slowly but then we have this   in-between pattern this paradoxical pattern where  people who start doing the right thing they want   to reverse their insulin resistance and they  eat low carb and do intermittent fasting but   their glucose doesn't change much it might come  down a few points or it's pretty much the same   but then when they eat now their blood sugar comes  into a normal range dawn phenomenon is not the   same thing as what we're talking about but it's  related and it can help us understand a little bit   so when you are sleeping and you're getting ready  to wake up your body produces some hormones to   get you ready for the day so it releases  a little bit extra cortisol and adrenaline   and glucagon and growth hormone and this is to  raise blood sugar to help you make more energy   and the adrenaline and growth hormone is there to  arouse you to get you ready for the day to get you   from sleeping to awake and as a result if you're  insulin sensitive there's supposed to be a slight   increase but if you're insulin sensitive it's so  small it's barely noticeable however if you're   insulin resistant now these same small hormone  boosts is going to look like a dramatic increase   in blood glucose levels because even a  small change is going to show up bigger   when you're insulin resistant we also have  to understand a little bit about insulin and   the levels so insulin is the hormone that takes  glucose from the bloodstream and into the cells   so if you're fasting you're going to have a low  insulin level because it just needs to be enough   to support that basic level of glucose and a  healthy level would be between two and five   then when you eat something now you put food in  the body the food has to get into the bloodstream   and insulin has to help it through the bloodstream  and into the cell in a matter of hours and now   it produces extra insulin and you're going to see  levels of about 50. that's still a healthy level   but if you're very insulin resistant like a type  2 diabetic now first of all you have a higher   glucose level but on top of that your cells are  resistant to the action of insulin so your body   makes a whole lot more insulin it might be sitting  at 25 units even at a baseline that's typically   the cut off for type 2 diabetes but then when you  eat something it might shoot all the way up to 150   but even with these huge amounts of insulin it's  still not enough to bring the glucose into a   normal level and that's what insulin resistance is  and a lot of times we hear that in type 2 diabetes   they give you insulin because you're not making  enough well that's the wrong way to look at it   because you're already making five to eight times  more fasting and a whole lot more after a meal so   you're making a lot of insulin the problem  is you've pushed your body into an imbalance   by stuffing it full of carbohydrate and sugar all  the time and then in our paradoxical example here   again people are frustrated because they want  their glucose they want their fasting glucose to   get into a healthy level and the thing to focus on  though is the fact that when you eat the insulin   is actually working the insulin helps you get  into the normal range now the question is then why   does it stay so high before we eat i often  talk about how intelligent the body is that   there is a reason for everything it does so we  want to think of really high blood sugar as an   emergency that a healthy level is just going about  business as usual but when we go from a hundred   units or so 100 milligrams up to two and three and  four and five hundred this is an emergency this is   very very dangerous this is what causes micro  vessel disease and blindness neuropathy kidney   failure swelling so this is something that's  very very different from everyday business   everyday operations now let's talk about a concept  that usually is a huge surprise to people the   difference between a blood sugar level and a blood  sugar amount difference between levels in the   blood and amounts of carbohydrate so if you have  a level of 80 milligrams per deciliter how much   blood sugar do you actually have circulating and  most people are shocked you have about 2.4 grams   of glucose because we multiply out this 80  milligrams times 50 deciliters which is 5 liters   that's the average amount of blood in a person  but then we take into account the fact that only   60 percent of the blood is liquid the rest of  it is solid cells the red blood cells we come   up with about 2.4 grams that is less than half a  teaspoon of sugar a tiny tiny amount that's all   that you have circulating in your body at any  given time that's what all this talk is about   it's that tiny tiny amount and if you are insulin  resistant if you're pre-diabetic now that number   jumps to a whopping 3.6 so it doesn't seem like  a whole lot but it makes a big difference that   if you go from a half a teaspoon to three  quarter teaspoon now you have years and years of   adaptation to insulin resistance to create that  difference and if you're a full-blown diabetic   now you might have a full teaspoon of sugar  circulating so we're talking small amounts now   let's expand this and understand the difference  with amount if you're eating low carb let's say   that you're at a healthy level you're maintaining  you're eating 25 grams of carbs in a day   divided by 24 hours is rounded off to about  one gram per hour so you have half a teaspoon   circulating and every hour you use up a gram and  you put in one more gram so that's a continuous   replenishment just a tiny tiny bit one gram per  hour from the food that you eat that's not a whole   lot it's not an emergency it doesn't take a whole  lot for the body to do that and if you're insulin   resistant and you've gone low carb then we use the  same number one gram per hour if you are diabetic   and you're still following the general guidelines  of eating plenty of whole grains and pasta   and you're eating 300 grams now that's 12 grams  per hour so if we represent this graphically then   you have this much in your bloodstream at any  given time and every hour you have to pass this   much through your bloodstream and into the cells  but now let's expand this idea this is a fasting   situation this is continuous what's what's going  on but what about when you eat something now we   have to mobilize some resources so you have a  meal if you're low carb let's say you're eating   twice a day then those 25 grams would be about 12  grams per meal so if we represent that graphically   we're talking that amount relative to that amount  so this is how much you have at any given time   and then in one big lump you're introducing  this much which is five times more 500 percent   so even though it's a lot more it's not a big  deal it's still a small amount the body is not   going to panic it does just fine with that and  if you're low carb with some insulin resistance   then that represents three and a half times 350  percent so again not a big deal to process through   that but if you're diabetic and you're following  the general guidelines and you're still eating   tons of carbohydrates three to four hundred grams  of carbohydrate you're eating three meals a day   then each meal of a hundred grams would represent  twenty times two thousand percent even though you   already have more blood sugar to deal with you're  adding an enormous amount it's a mountain of   carbohydrates and this is not easy for the body to  work through now let's put all this together and   think of it as a receiving department at a company  and we'll look at these three cases again we're   having the insulin sensitive so 2.4 plus 1 gram  plus 12 grams twice a day so this is like you're   getting a couple of letters and then twice a  day they drop off a box and a single person can   can handle that no problem same thing in the  second example just a little bit of traffic   no big deal but what if we have this third  scenario where we're already a little bit stressed   this is sort of a normal workload but then several  times a day they drop off a couple of containers   now they got to get on the phones they got to call  in the extra help they got to call in the temps   it's an emergency and if we think about it this  way that in the type 2 diabetic case this is how   much we're working on every hour that's the  baseline amount of insulin but then we get   the containers we get the emergency and we call  in all the help we can but we still can't get it   handled we still can't process through everything  that we need to process through so therefore   basically the whole operation is failing however  in this paradoxical example that so many people   are frustrated about what we have to understand  is this high fasting level is not an emergency   there is not enough incentive for the body to do  something about this because things are working   it's like sure there's a couple of letters over  there but we'll deal with them later because   we're not getting overwhelmed so this one gram an  hour represents a lower level of insulin and even   though you're still insulin resistant this low  amount of carbohydrate is allowing the body to   reduce insulin production and to become less  insulin resistant and therefore once you eat   something now this work force gets to work and  it has no problem at all processing through   and getting the job done so now they  find out that well there were a couple   of letters sitting here on the shelf but now  once we got to work let's take care of those   letters also and get the job done and now you're  getting back into the normal range so that's the   key to understand that it looks like this is a  high level but it's not a large amount of glucose   and the intelligent body doesn't treat this as an  emergency it knows that things are under control   and you're very much moving in the right  direction does that mean we shouldn't even bother   measuring glucose well i don't think it should be  your primary concern don't measure it too closely   and expect it to change and base your success and  your expectations based on that because it could   be very frustrating but use it as a tool to learn  it's a great tool to see how your body responds to   different foods if you eat certain thing and your  blood sugar goes up well now you learn something   you can also use it to watch general trends  see how your blood sugar changes over weeks   and months but don't worry too much about what  it does on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis   instead you watch you get some blood work from  time to time and you watch your a1c which is   your three to four month average glucose you  measure your fasting insulin which hardly   anyone does but it's your best indicator  of a long-term trend for insulin resistance   you measure things like triglycerides and VLDL  very low density lipoprotein and you measure total   to HDL cholesterol ratios and you don't get too  hung up on any one of these but you get a baseline   and you learn what the bigger picture means so  that you can understand the trend so you can see   that you're going in the right direction because  all of these put together are indicators of what's   happening if you enjoyed this video and you'd like  to learn more about how the body really works that   one's going to be great one for you next thank  you so much for watching I'll see you next time

Channel: Dr. Sten Ekberg

Views: 248,903

Rating: 4.9388986 out of 5

Keywords: high blood sugar, fasting blood sugar, morning blood sugar, insulin resistance, fasting blood sugar high, fasting blood sugar levels, fasting, benefits of fasting, intermittent fasting, blood sugar, blood glucose, blood sugar levels, blood sugar level, diabetes, fasting blood glucose, dawn phenomenon, fasting blood test, keto, fasting blood glucose test, lose fat, dr sten ekberg, lose weight, weight loss, sten ekberg, dr ekberg, wellness for life, glucose, insulin, diet

Id: PhDeXOVEqvg

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021