Type 2 diabetes sugar levels: what to know

Glucose rises after food and may change with illness, stress, activity, sleep and medicines. A home meter gives a snapshot, while a longer-term blood test helps your clinician see the pattern over recent weeks. Your personal target depends on your health, treatment and risk of low blood sugar, so a target used by someone else may not suit you.

Readings that are repeatedly above your agreed range can increase the chance of problems affecting the eyes, kidneys, nerves, feet and blood vessels. Low readings can cause sweating, shaking, hunger, confusion or unusual behaviour. Hypoglycaemia explains low blood sugar and its warning signs.

Use your meter exactly as instructed: wash and dry your hands, check the strip date, and record the time, food, activity, symptoms and medicines alongside the result. Do not change a dose or skip treatment because of one unexpected number. Share a pattern with your diabetes team so they can decide whether your plan needs adjusting.

Regular meals, suitable activity and foot care support diabetes management. Seek advice before making major changes if you use insulin or a medicine that can cause low blood sugar. Chronic kidney disease and peripheral neuropathy are conditions your clinician may check for during diabetes reviews.

Contact your clinician promptly if readings stay outside your agreed range, low readings recur, or you are vomiting, dehydrated or unable to keep medicines down. Get urgent help for severe confusion, a seizure, loss of consciousness, marked breathing difficulty or sudden weakness affecting one side of the body. Do not drive while confused or faint.

Ask what target range applies to you, when to test, how to respond to a high or low result, and which symptoms require urgent help. Ask whether your kidneys, feet, nerves and blood pressure need review, and how illness should change your usual diabetes plan.