There are two common types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a result of your body’s pancreas failing to produce a chemical called insulin. Insulin allows sugar from your food to get from your blood into your body’s cells in order for your body to have energy.

The only way to sort out type 1 diabetes is to replace the missing insulin. The only way to deliver insulin is by injecting it through the skin - either in separate injections or through a continuous pump. However, sometimes the amount of carbohydrate in your blood doesn’t match the amount of insulin that you have injected and so your blood sugar may go up and down. You should get some advice from your local diabetes service

You blood sugar will go up and down througout the day. But if it goes too high or too low, it can really cause havoc with your body. When your blood sugar is high, you may find that you need to go to the toilet - a lot, you can become quite thirsty and you can even go into a type of coma. If your blood sugar drops too low, you may find yourself become shaky and confused. What follows is a short discussion about the factors that affect your blood sugar variations:

Reasons for a High Blood Glucose level

* Missing an insulin injection means that glucose can’t get from the blood into your cells and so your blood sugar rises.
* Having more food - especially starchy or sweet food - will make your blood glucose level go up.
* Blood sugars can also increase in response to certain infections or metabolic stresses.
* There is something called the dawn phenomeon - basically it means that because you haven’t been doing much overnight, your blood sugar is higher.
* If you are a diabetic, then some drugs can cause havoc with your blood sugar levels - make sure your doctor knows about your diabetes.
* During growth, your body’s hormone levels can cause your blood sugar to rise.

Reasons for a Low Blood Sugar level

* If, by error, you took too much insulin, your body’s cells would suck out insulin from your blood and leave you with a low blood sugar level.
* When a patient skips or delays taking a meal or snack, this interferes with regular release of insulin to the blood after digestion.
* You blood sugar will tend to drop as you .
* Alcohol will tend to bring your blood glucose down. So be careful when you want to drink alcohol if you are on insulin.
* The effect of a variety of drugs can result in a drop in your blood sugar levels, so always seek medical advice before taking medication - even shop bought medication.
* Women in their menstrual period, this is because hormonal changes may affect how well insulin works in the blood.