When reviewing a client's metabolic health and glucose, it's important to first understand how glucose is typically reviewed and what benchmarks are used to diagnose diabetes.
What is a “normal” glucose level?
First, let’s outline all the ways you can test your glucose levels (also referred to as blood sugar levels):
Blood work through your doctor (diabetes screening test)
At home finger-prick test
These methods measure fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting blood glucose (FBG), which is the most common practice. These tests are conducted by checking blood glucose levels after at least 8 hours of not consuming any calories prior to the test (called a “fasting/fasted” state)
Blood Glucose Measuring Metrics
Blood glucose levels are measured in either milligrams (mg) of glucose per deciliter (dl) of blood or mmol/L depending on the country you are in. (to get a mmol/L reading all you have to do is divide mg/dl by 18)
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) uses this test to classify people into three categories:
Normal
Prediabetes
Diabetes
According to ADA a normal fasting glucose must be under 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/L).
However, it’s important to note that post-meal glucose levels are equally important to measure because if they are too high, they can signify worsening glucose control inside the body which leads to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and impaired cognitive performance.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) a normal post meal glucose level should be no higher than 140mg/dl (7.78mmol/L).
Alternative Blood Glucose Tests
All of the previous glucose tests mentioned above are point-in-time glucose tests. At Theia one of our core principles we believe in is “always on data is more accurate than point in time data”.
Which brings us to a third way of testing blood glucose levels - through a technology called continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), which monitors your blood glucose levels 24 hours a day. This allows for deeper insights into your health like: analyzing moving averages of your glucose and daily up-and-down swings in blood glucose level.
CGM devices use interstitial glucose level testing (glucose from the fluid in between cells instead of from the blood). Interstitial glucose measuring correlates highly with blood/plasma glucose measures, however they are not the same and interstitial glucose measurements are not used for diagnosis.
There is currently no standard criteria for a 24 hour glucose moving average, however scientists are actively collecting more data on people using CGMs in the healthy population.
Standard Glucose Ranges
For the purpose of analyzing and benchmarking “normal” nondiabetic glucose levels, we have analyzed CGM studies to create benchmarks, which are the following:
Normal Glucose Ranges
Avg Fasting Glucose: 85-92mg/dl (4.72-5.11 mmol/L)
Avg Daily Glucose ranges 90%+ between 70-140mg/dl 3.88-5.78 mmol/L)
4% or less of the time glucose to go above 140mg/dl (5.78 mmol/L) or below 70mg/dl (3.88 mmol/L)
Optimal Glucose Ranges
Avg Fasting Glucose: 72-85mg/dl (4-4.72 ddol/L)
Avg Daily Glucose ranges 90%+ between 79-100mg/dl (4.39-5.56 mmol/L)
Optimal post-meal glucose goal - 115mg/dL (6.38mmol/L) with less than 30mg/dl spikes from pre-meal levels
Prediabetes Glucose Ranges
Avg Fasting Glucose: 100-125mg/dl (5.6-6.9 mmol/L)
Diabetes Glucose Ranges
Avg Fasting Glucose: 125+mg/dl (5.6-6.9 mmol/L)
Other Key Terms
Hyperglycemia: A condition in which the level of glucose in the blood is higher than normal. This is interchangeably called "high blood sugar".
Hypoglycemia: A condition in which the level of glucose in the blood is lower than the normal range (generally below 72mg/dl).
Postprandial: Occurring after a meal.
Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM): A CGM reads glucose data via a person's fat cells in short time intervals.
What's Next?
Learn how Theia helps clarify the real-time biodata through a helpful scoring system and comprehensive dashboards here.
Need Help?
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