short term very high vs long term moderately high

[bonedog]

Hey all,

I've been t1 for 22 years and generally take very good care of myself. Last night I had a MAJOR slip, going from 154 mg/dl at 1:44 am, to 482 mg/dl, to "HI", to 350 mg/dl, and then finally back to 102 mg/dl at 9:50am. I drank heavily and continually ate junk food to avoid all the lows I was getting and it caught up with me in the middle of the night.

Can one night do significant damage to your system? Is one 500 mg/dl night worse than a month of 180 mg/dl (moderately high) blood sugars?

Thanks,
Aaron

[lgvincent]

I can't say for sure but I doubt it. I imagine the damage comes over time.

[JediSkipdogg]

When running high the damage is long term highs. However, if you run extremely high (say 500+) and have keytones, you may develope DKA which is the breaking down of cells. Basically your insides boiling so to speak. However, most can run 300 without a problem (I hit 300 probably twice a week and run 100-150 the rest of the time.)

Long term highs lead to major complications. Short term highs, not hitting DKA, just lead to headaches and maybe some anger and just general discomfort.

Now, I know you didn't ask this, but it's related. For lows it is just the opposite. Long term lows really don't cause any harm, as long as you can maintain that low without dropping lower. The problem in lows is related to short term lows where it could cause one to black out. That could cause danger to yourself or others, depending on what you are doing.