Fasting Blood Glucose Level Test, Fasting Blood Sugar Test (fbs)

By Author: Dr Andrew Napier
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Fasting Blood Glucose Level Test, Fasting Blood Sugar Test (FBS) - both are synonymous terms referring to one and the same compound - glucose test - in many words and in the same style. Fasting in English refers, to the a situation where one abstains or refrains from food of any kind overnight or any other period except water; and for purposes of confirming, fasting should take a minimum of 8 hours overnight for this test to have any meaning. Early in the morning the next day by 7 o'clock, the patient should be heading to the laboratory for blood glucose test. It is a reliable simple test preferred by many health workers. It is not affected by age or activities surrounding the patient and may be repeated after a while to further verify results.

Since glucose behaves like elastic; increasing and decreasing depending on circumstances one is subjected to, patient fasting speaks volumes in spelling out how much glucose is above or below normal after 8 hours. The test is taken before any morning meals are taken lest it spoils the average expected figure for the good 8 hour sleep.

Why fast? Fasting as a matter of principle ...
... triggers the pancreas to release hormones that talk to the liver to start digesting its stored product glycogen into glucose for use in energy production during the night. The sequence of events is dynamic; the same pancreas will respond on short notice, by releasing insulin to manage any excesses of glucose and level it up. The gear inserted under normal circumstances, is the leveling up and resultant stability, whereas in diabetic cases the scenario is unfortunate. Glucose will rise above normal and upon testing will obviously exhibit a positive diagnosis to the disease for the simple reason; insulin is missing or not enough to fight the struggle. Time and again we are reminded of sugar excesses termed in medical terms hyperglycemia and deficiency hypoglycemia that medication is only a temporary measure while in real terms behavior change is the answer.

The few drops of blood taken for testing will assist in determining how the body is breaking down food and converting into simpler units for use by the many muscles in various organs of the body. It is also going to give an indication of the liver - the most complex organ of the body- on how it is working; plus the main regulator now - the pancreas - that raises the red flag at all times policing the blood glucose level violation. Notwithstanding the fact that many other tests have been pointed out to assist in determining health status on matters of sugar control, fasting blood sugar test (FBS) remains a very reliable test that I give 10 points in a scale of 1 to 10.

In summary when this test is done, blood glucose level higher than 125mg/dl is confirmed as diabetic; 100mg/dl is mild diabetic while a level of 70mg/dl is normal. In a case of less than 70mg/dl the situation is hypoglycemia.

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