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what is a non-diabetics blood glucose range?

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pumppimp

Well-Known Member
Messages
246
Location
Aberdeen Scotland
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I've been on this forum for over a year now and I'm getting slightly confused, I would like to hear everyones opinions on what BG range a non-diabetic healthy person has? I regularly test my husband as sometimes he will excercise a lot in the cold and get hypothermia, sometimes he's really tired and peeing a lot so am always curious. Everytime I've tested it's been 5 something apart from once I made him drink a 500ml of lucozde it went up to 6.3 I think, just out of curiosity. Also I test people when we are out kayaking (usually with hypothermia) the lowest I've seen is a 3.5. So I get a bit confused when I see different quotes on here of normal should be 3-5 etc. What does everyone think it should be? According to wikipedia (I'm not saying that this is in any way a reliable source) it's between 4.4 to 6.1 fasting and up to 7.8 when eating. What do you think of this?
Interested in hearing your thoughts........
 
pumppimp said:
I've been on this forum for over a year now and I'm getting slightly confused, I would like to hear everyones opinions on what BG range a non-diabetic healthy person has? I regularly test my husband as sometimes he will excercise a lot in the cold and get hypothermia, sometimes he's really tired and peeing a lot so am always curious. Everytime I've tested it's been 5 something apart from once I made him drink a 500ml of lucozde it went up to 6.3 I think, just out of curiosity. Also I test people when we are out kayaking (usually with hypothermia) the lowest I've seen is a 3.5. So I get a bit confused when I see different quotes on here of normal should be 3-5 etc. What does everyone think it should be? According to wikipedia (I'm not saying that this is in any way a reliable source) it's between 4.4 to 6.1 fasting and up to 7.8 when eating. What do you think of this?
Interested in hearing your thoughts........
Click to expand...
I've tested my two sons (neither are diabetic) occasionally over the years and they have always been within the 4.5 - 7 range, so I suspect that is a fair reflection of 'normal'.
But I suppose we need to remember that everyone is an individual and some will be constantly slightly higher or lower than others, dependant upon their metabolism etc.
 
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This will throw a spanner into the works - There isn't actually any standard 'normal' reading for a healthy non-diabetic that I ever found on the internet or asking a number of professional medical diabetic experts. If you tested 100 non diabetic individuals you would get 100 different readings.
Their readings would all relate to how well they cleared glucose in the bloodstream, their individual Insulin composition, their age, their lifestyle, their sex and countles other things to boot.
For that reason the figures quoted as 'Normal' will be the mean average of the whole lot of them and to simplyfy the whole issue there is usually a upper and lower limit that defines what is considered an acceptable band, hence the 4 to 7.5 mmol/L (Plasma)
Levels below 3.5 mmol/L are considered as being Hypo in most parts of the world (this level varies) and some people are known to go lower than 3.5 mmol/L (Plasma) without experiencing any of the common side effects. I know of someone who went down to 2.2 mmol/L (Plasma) and wasn't even aware of it.
On the other hand B/G reading that exceed 7.5 mmol/L (Plasma) are known to increase the risk of serious long term medical complications and the higher the readings above this level the greater the likelyhood of problems developing. Such porblems are many and varied ranging from abrasions, ulcers that simply won't heal easily to visual problems, bluriness, blindness, cattaracks, heart problems and circulation problems in the smaller blood vessels, kidney damage etc:etc:etc:
For these reasons, we diabetics are rightly advised to try and maintain our B/G level in the 5 -8 mmol/L band (Plasma) where these potential problems are then greatly minimised and we can lead a 'normal' healthy long life.
 
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mrburden said:
I've tested my two sons (neither are diabetic) occasionally over the years and they have always been within the 4.5 - 7 range, so I suspect that is a fair reflection of 'normal'.
But I suppose we need to remember that everyone is an individual and some will be constantly slightly higher or lower than others, dependant upon their metabolism etc.
Click to expand...

I get the same sort of figures from my non diabetic wife.
 
Lazybones said:
This will throw a spanner into the works - There isn't actually any standard 'normal' reading for a healthy non-diabetic that I ever found on the internet or asking a number of professional medical diabetic experts. If you tested 100 non diabetic individuals you would get 100 different readings.
Their readings would all relate to how well they cleared glucose in the bloodstream, their individual Insulin composition, their age, their lifestyle, their sex and countles other things to boot.
For that reason the figures quoted as 'Normal' will be the mean average of the whole lot of them and to simplyfy the whole issue there is usually a upper and lower limit that defines what is considered an acceptable band, hence the 4 to 7.5 mmol/L (Plasma)
Levels below 3.5 mmol/L are considered as being Hypo in most parts of the world (this level varies) and some people are known to go lower than 3.5 mmol/L (Plasma) without experiencing any of the common side effects. I know of someone who went down to 2.2 mmol/L (Plasma) and wasn't even aware of it.
On the other hand B/G reading that exceed 7.5 mmol/L (Plasma) are known to increase the risk of serious long term medical complications and the higher the readings above this level the greater the likelyhood of problems developing. Such porblems are many and varied ranging from abrasions, ulcers that simply won't heal easily to visual problems, bluriness, blindness, cattaracks, heart problems and circulation problems in the smaller blood vessels, kidney damage etc:etc:etc:
For these reasons, we diabetics are rightly advised to try and maintain our B/G level in the 5 -8 mmol/L band (Plasma) where these potential problems are then greatly minimised and we can lead a 'normal' healthy long life.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply, I know what should be at been at this 14 years and got a good grip on it I think, just wondering what do people consider to be normal for a healthy person, eg no health problems, normal weight, active lifestyle, over 21 under 55 etc. It would be really interesting to find out, it's also really interesting of what people think it should be, I've been reading lots of posts and it quite often comes up. For example that reading is quite high a non diabetic would be xyz, you should do xyz, or vice versa, that's a really good reading a non diabetic would have something similar.
But actually I've never managed to find a study that has actually tested a population. I would eventually like to try and get my reading like that of a non diabetic but what would I be aiming for? nobody really definitely knows so was just interested to get different oppinions.
Keep them comming I'm sure there will be a wide range!
 
What many overlook is that the definitions of diabetes vis a vis the mmol values (and here I refer only to the pre diabetic/Glucose Intolerantolerant group and Type 2s) are based on statistics, probability and decided and interpreted by committee - nothing more, nothing less.

The 'Committee' can discard millions currently (supposedly) diabetic by raising the bar or bring millions into the fold by lowering the bar.

I am of the opinion that 'Diabetic' is a term that should be expunged for all except for Type 1s who are unable to produce insulin. The life effects of this label for those who are marginal carries far too many unrequired connotations and a different set of labels eg Glucose Intolerant should be adopted.
 
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