Decoding the Mysteries: Unveiling the Ultimate Goal of T1D Management
Jul 18, 2023In this post, we are going to answer the question: why is the aim of Type 1 diabetes management to have normal blood glucose?
Stable blood sugars remain a central aim in diabetes care, but it can be confusing for a family to know whether the diabetes treatment plan they follow is resulting in a successful outcome for their child.
To reach a successful outcome for anything in life, you need to know what you’re aiming for.
Let’s talk about optimal glycemic control and why we need to strive for normal blood glucose levels for our children with T1D.
Let’s start by considering 2 questions:
- What is optimal glycemic control? and
- Why is optimal glycemic control important?
Here, the Mayo Clinic and the Diabetes Teaching Center at the University of California, San Francisco can guide us.
For the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, the Mayo Clinic explains:
“The goal is to keep the blood sugar level as close to normal as possible to delay or prevent complications.”
When we manage diabetes on a daily basis, THIS is what we’re aiming for!
And the Diabetes Teaching Center at UCSF echoes this. They state:
The goals of diabetes treatment are:
- to keep the blood sugar as normal as possible without serious high or low blood sugars, and
- to prevent tissue damage caused by too much sugar in the blood stream
Optimal glycemic control is normal blood sugars, and normal blood sugars are important because we want to reduce risk both of hypoglycemia and diabetic complications.
So WHO dictates what optimal glycemic control is? In my view, the human body does, that’s who!
In a person without diabetes, the body will naturally maintain blood glucose levels in a very tight and narrow range in order to maintain health. Blood glucose levels outside this tight range can cause damaging health effects.
As blood is being delivered round the body at all times, from the top of your child’s head to the tip of their toes, it is vital for that blood to be healthy and not contain excess amounts of glucose. Healthy blood is essential for our children’s cells and organs to work properly.
When people with T1D have high blood glucose levels outside the normal range, this is how diabetic complications develop.
And it’s hard for us as parents to hear this. This is a sensitive topic and one which can instill fear, but we can’t ignore that this is our family’s reality, so what do we do? We learn how diabetic complications develop, and then we get busy preventing them. And we DO this so our children can thrive now and can grow into adults that live a normal life.
Not a life where they have a hard time seeing or have gone blind.
Not a life where they worry they won’t be able to heal from a wound.
Not a life where they might need kidney dialysis, or their balance is off, or they’re unable to conceive a baby.
Not a life which is filled with countless medical appointments because they have diabetic complications.
Our children are relying on us to help them safely get normal blood sugars NOW.
“Children and adolescents with diabetes pose a unique challenge to their families and care givers at large. It was previously thought that complications rarely occurred before puberty. Evidence today suggests [the] need to optimize blood glucose right from the start, i.e., as soon as diabetes is first diagnosed.”
And THIS is why the outcome of Type 1 diabetes management that we all want, is normal blood glucose.
In order to safely strive for normal blood glucose, your child’s treatment plan has to be designed for safety, so you can keep blood glucose as normal as possible without serious high or low blood sugars.
In our next video, we’ll answer the question: what is a normal blood glucose level in humans?
Because when you are aware of the health consequences of chronically high glucose AND you know what a normal blood glucose level is, you can set a target for your child's blood glucose that aims to give you peace of mind for your child's future.
REFERENCES
Diabetes Teaching Center at the University of California, San Francisco: https://dtc.ucsf.edu/types-of-diabetes/type1/treatment-of-type-1-diabetes/monitoring-diabetes/goals-of-treatment/)
Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353017 ]
Alzaid, A., & Khamseh, M. E. (2008). Proceedings and short reports of an International Symposium on SMBG, Italy, May 2008. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 10(6), 499+. DOI: 10.1089/dia.2008.0106, p. 503.
