 and your cells may not be able to metabolize as much sugar if you have too much. When you have a high protein breakfast, actually you lower the... How does they know that this bacteria population change cause the whole problem? In the early stages of diabetes, right after you found out that you have diabetes, you probably check your blood sugar levels frequently to see how things are like food, exercise or stress or illness affected them. For most part, you know what you're doing. Well, occasionally you'll be like, What the hell? Why is my blood sugar so high out of a blue? What's going on? Well, you told you knew everything, but now we kind of feel lost. Hi, I'm Dr. Ahmad Ergin, also known as SugarMD, trying to help everyone in the universe with diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance. Today, I will help you understand all the non-classical, or less known high blood sugar triggers that you need to watch out for. Make sure you watch the entire video, because you will be surprised to learn something new in every minute of this video. Well, knowledge is power, my friend. Look out for the surprising triggers that can send your blood sugars soaring. Number one, sunburn. When skin is not protected from the sun, it can cause sunburn and skin damage for anyone who spends too much time in the sun. Well, stress hormones, however, can be released in excess by a severe burn in those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, increasing the risk of developing high blood sugar. A waterproof sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30, I would recommend, for basic protection. And children and teens are actually more sensitive to the sun, so they may require a different amount of protection, a higher amount of protection. But when it comes to protecting your skin from the sun's rays, you can wear definitely a sun hat and restrict your exposure to the sun during the peak hours, especially late morning or early afternoon. Number two, coffee. Even without sweetener. Yes, some people's blood sugar is extra sensitive to caffeine. Stress hormones such as epinephrine is actually elevated by the caffeine, also we call this hormone adrenaline, and your cells may not be able to metabolize as much sugar if you have too much adrenaline in your system. Also another thing called adenosine. Adenosine receptors, which is a protein receptor, is blocked by coffee. It works by binding to the same receptors, so the coffee binds to the same receptors of adenosine, and as a result, it avoids the drowsiness that happens when the body's adenosine levels rise. Well, this molecule also has a significant impact on the amount of insulin produced by your body, or how your body cells respond to glucose is also influenced by this level of adenosine. When you drink caffeine, your body retains the adenosine because the receptors are blocked, and that has a significant impact on insulin production. So your sleep is disturbed as a result too, but the caffeine can keep you awake if consumed too much. And insulin resistance will be induced by the lack of sleep as well as too much adenosine. So normal people can easily compensate for the effect of coffee rising the adrenaline levels and the adenosine levels, but with diabetes it becomes a bit of a problem. By the way, if you're enjoying this channel so far in the video, please smash that like button and subscribe and hit the bell so you won't miss any of these videos. Got something to say? Well, write down in the comment section. The only rule in our community is to be nice and gentle when you write comments. Number three. Well, the sleep. We just talked about this. Even just one night of too little sleep can make your body use insulin less efficiently. Sleep loss causes an increase in the cortisol, which in turn raises your glucose levels. Sleep loss affects insulin sensitivity greatly, which in turn affects your blood glucose levels. And that happens very quickly, even with one night of lack of sleep. Cortisol levels are influenced by that person that's not sleeping well, or even time off the sleep is very important. The sleep deprivation increases the oxidative stress and inflammation, which in turns affects your blood glucose levels. Inflammatory markers are on the rise, like interleakings, like the TNF alpha, etc. They all cause insulin resistance and blood glucose spikes. Number four is skipping breakfast. Well, going without that morning meal can actually increase your blood sugar by the time it's lunch. I have a lot of patients who will tell me that I didn't even eat breakfast, Doc. You know, why do my blood sugar is so high? I don't understand what's going on. When you have a high protein breakfast, actually you lower the glucagon and cortisol levels, which are the hormones that cause insulin resistance to begin with. So if you eat breakfast, those insulin resistance hormones will go down. They're the same hormones that causes your blood sugar starting from 5 a.m., which is called dawn phenomenon. Having a breakfast literally calms them down. I don't mean you go have cereal and pancakes for breakfast because that will defeat the purpose, but a high protein breakfast can definitely help your blood sugars. I just said dawn phenomenon and some of you probably said, what is that? Well, dawn phenomenon is number five here and some people, most people actually, have a surge in those hormones we discuss about, like the cortisol, the adrenaline, the glucagon. And people with diabetes, unfortunately, blood sugar can spike quite a bit because of these hormones, especially in the morning. Again, the adrenaline, the cortisol, even the growth hormone and the glucagon, they're all released into the bloodstream in a very high rate, right around 5 o'clock in the morning. Blood sugar levels rise as a result of these hormones, causing the liver to release a lot of glycogen, which is converted to gulicose. So basically, these hormones really do not get along well with your insulin. Although it is not quite clear why that occurs, but the release of these hormones is commonly used to provide that extra burst of energy that you may need in the mornings. A lot of scientists propose that you wake up with an increased supply of gulicose in order to get your body going for your morning routine in case you skip breakfast or you don't have food available, et cetera. Number six, guys, dehydration. Yes, less water in your body means a higher blood sugar concentration. Well, drinking water doesn't necessarily work like a medicine. So if your blood sugar is high and you're hydrated, you're not dehydrated. Drinking more water is not going to help you. But if you are dehydrated, that actually can make your blood sugars go worse. So don't become dehydrated because your kidneys rely on water to wash things up and to get rid of these high blood sugars. Well, number seven, that's a little surprising, is your nose sprays for your cold. Well, some have chemicals that trigger your liver to make more blood sugar. Nasal sprays, for example, commonly contain epinephrine, the same hormone that your body makes in the morning that causes high blood sugar. So you're doing it to yourself this time. Phenylaphrine, the pseudoephedrine, et cetera. These are cold medications that are typically taken orally, but the sprays contain the same things as well. And sometimes those same sprays have steroids like flonies, for example, for allergies, can definitely spark your blood sugars. And most of you know that the steroid is one of the biggest enemy of insulin, and it will definitely raise your blood sugars. Number eight, gum disease. Well, we have a video about this, but I'll go quickly here. It is a complication. Your blood sugar will go up because of gum disease. So when you have gum disease, the germs enter to your bloodstream, especially when you chew or brush your teeth, like the typical things you do every day, in response to your body's defense to these germs and stuff, there's going to be a lot of inflammatory markers that's going to create inflammation in your entire system, actually. And as a result, your blood sugar will go up because of that inflammation in your body. People with type T diabetes, treatment of severe diseases, such as extensive gum cleaning or extensive cleaning of the gums, can actually lower your blood sugar levels quite a bit. So please go to your dentist, get it checked, because that's going to be extremely important to control your blood sugars if you have gum disease. You'll almost get the same benefit as if you added another medication to your regimen. So if you don't want to keep adding medications, keep your teeth healthy, right? I would say that's a pretty good investment. Number nine, excessive heat. Well, that happens a lot in Florida. It can be problematic for people with diabetes. Blood glucose levels actually are affected by the exposure to high temperatures. So people with diabetes are more likely to become dehydrated, that's number one, especially if they're exposed to high temperature and high humidity. And if they engage in moderate to high amounts of physical activity in that heat. So no wonder, while your blood sugar may be high on those days that you may be working in your garden or backyard under the sun, and then you have no idea what's going on. Tatuana and top three diabetics are more sensitive to heat than those without the disease because a number of diabetes issues. So number one, there is damage to the blood vessels and the nerves in diabetes. That can impact your ability to sweat. So making it difficult for your body to cool itself. And heat exhaustion is real, and heat stroke can't even happen, both of which are like life threatening conditions. And that can happen fairly quick if you have diabetes. So high temperatures accelerate the rate at which people with diabetes get dehydrated as well and lose too much water in their bodies as well. And the dehydration can occur if you don't drink enough water in the heat, which raises your blood sugar even more. So insulin sensitivity can also be affected by the heat and the high temperatures because of the stress that it is putting on your body and your body is making a lot of cortisol and adrenaline as a stress response. Tasting your blood sugar levels and adjusting your insulin dosage, as well as what you eat and drink is quite necessary if you have diabetes and you're outside working under the heat. Number 10, artificial sweeteners. Well, that's not surprising. Some of you already know that the saccharin, for example, which is your sweet on low or even sucralose, which is your Splenda and the Aspartame, which is the nutritious sweet and equal and so forth, they can actually all raise your blood sugar levels by dramatically changing the makeup of gut bacteria. So what does these bacteria really do? Well, these lovely bacteria in your intestines, they help with actually nutrition and the immune system. There are trillions of them, way more than the total cells in your body. Actually, four pounds of your body weight is bacteria. Well, literally, we are all full of shit. Okay, I didn't say that. Let me explain some of the research studies here. For example, they added artificial sweeteners, I just mentioned, to the drinking water of mice. What did they find? Well, blood sugar levels of these mice were higher than those who drank regular sugar water. So, like, consuming artificial sweeteners were actually worse for these mice, the poor mice, for their blood sugar levels. Also, it did not matter if they were on a low-fat or high-fat diet, no matter what the sugar went up after these artificial sweeteners and the blood sugars went up. Now, these are mice, right? So, we are not, we are humans. How does this relate to us in terms of how much sweetener we can consume? Well, they calculated that the mice was fat, artificial sweeteners, they took in a daily amount equivalent to what humans get in about four cans of diet soda. So, now you can have an understanding. Artificial sweeteners, I'm not talking about stevia or sugar alcohols, but they can also change the microorganisms in the gut that yet to be found out. We still don't know, so they're still a little bit safer than the other ones. How do they know that this bacteria population change caused the whole problem? Well, because after sweetener-fed mice were given antibiotics to basically kill their gut bacteria, the blood sugar levels returned to normal. So, obviously, we generated a lot of bad bacteria by giving the splenda to these poor animals. They took it to the next level and they transferred the feces from the mice that actually drank the artificial sweetener water and they gave it to the mice who never had. Well, after that stool transplant, the poor mice who never even enjoyed that splenda ended up with a high blood sugar because they got the poop in their gut. And that was also another reassuring finding for the scientists to believe that the gut bacteria changes was the cause for high blood sugar in this poor mice gut. Now you got it! 10 less known causes of high blood sugars. Now you're a pro. 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