How to correct high blood sugar

Hyperglycemia - the signs, the symptoms, and the solutions

I spent a lot of my life not checking my blood sugar. This, unsurprisingly, meant it was high most of the time. High blood sugar stops you maintaining weight, and can make you feel annoyed, tired, and really quite sick. Let me show you how to manage your levels in a safe, sustainable way.

When should you fix high blood sugar?

Your blood sugar should sit somewhere between 5.2 and 7.9. That’s where it’s happiest. However, it will naturally drift a little higher sometimes. Don’t worry about correcting it if it’s at 8 or 9. It could come down all by itself. Check again later, and if it’s still a little high, have a little insulin. Don’t be tempted to overcorrect - fast acting insulin can work for up to two hours, so give it time to do its job.

How do you fix high blood sugar?

Insulin to the rescue. Sadly, life is not simple, and while one amount of insulin might fix one person’s highs, it might send someone else way too low. Please take the following advice as a hint, rather than as a concrete answer. You’ll only really know the right amount of insulin for you after trying it out.

But as a loose guide, let’s say your blood sugar is sitting at 10. That’s a bit too high.

Try two units of insulin to bring it down again.

If it’s sitting higher, maybe at 14, try four units.

As we said, you’ll only really know how much you need through trial and error. And this amount might change! Predictability is overrated.

How do you fix hyperglycemia during exercise?

When your blood sugar is in a good range, exercise could well lower it. So logic says that if your levels are a bit higher, exercise will lower them there too.

Alas, that would make too much sense.

If your levels are high, exercise will only make them higher. It will also make it feel really hard to get anything done.

So, if your levels are way too high before exercise, say at the 10 plus mark, fix them. However, if they’re around 9 or less, leave them be. Check them again a bit later and see what’s happening.

See our guide to diabetic exercise for more.

What to do if blood sugar is going up and down?

A big hazard of high blood sugar is over-correcting - having too much insulin which causes your blood sugar to go too low - then fixing the low, causing your blood sugar to spike high again. The cycle goes on.

My solution is simple: patience.

When you fix low blood sugar, your levels will often spike higher. That’s because of the fast release of sugar into your system. So when you next check them, they may look a little high. Leave your levels to balance out before doing anything else.

How do you fix hyperglycemia at night?

Night highs are a common problem, and one that could come down to a few causes. The most frequent one is late evening eating, when the effects of the carbs you've eaten are still going after your insulin has been used up. If you think that's the reason, the simple fix is to eat less carbs before bed.

The other causes are a bit more complicated.

One could be the exotically named 'dawn phenomenon'. Human bodies release more glucose when it's time to get up, giving us enough energy to drag our sorry selves out of bed and get on with the day.

The other one could be something called 'rebound hyperglycemia', which isn't quite as catchy. This is when your blood sugar drops low in the night, and your body suddenly forgets it's diabetic and kicks out a load of sugar to make you better. For people without diabetes, this is a really useful tool. For people like us, it doesn't work.

Fixing either of those two is something you'll need to chat to your doctor or nurse about. They'll know what to do.

You might want to read about: Spotting diabetes | Carb counting | Fixing lows | Illnesses | Repeat prescriptions