April 17, 2005
Diagnosis and Symptoms, Hyperglycemia and DKA
Question from Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA:
Is it normal for a non-diabetic person to have blood sugars on the higher end of normal (ranging from 120 to 163 mg/dl [6.7 to 9.1 mmol/L]) an hour after eating/drinking? Then, at two hours, the blood sugar is normal. Is this because the body just needs time to compensate?
We are checking our three year old daughter’s blood sugar and urine when she is ill or has symptoms because, in January, she had a high sugar, 215 mg/dl [11.9 mmol/L] and a spill of +250 in her urine. At the time, she did not have a virus of which we were aware. Her antibodies, thyroid, and A1c were negative. She has had no symptoms since then, just some spillage of ketones in her urine at times (+15, +80 with a normal blood sugar). They said it was from dehydration.
Answer:
A normal blood sugar range is 65 to 110 mg/dl [3.6 to 6.1 mmol/L]. One may occasionally see mildly elevated blood sugars after a meal, but certainly not to the extent you’ve described. A blood sugar, at any time, over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] is clearly abnormal and requires further monitoring.
Regarding ketones: it is normal for children and adults to occasionally have ketones in their urine from dehydration; this is not associated with diabetes.
MSB
