Low blood sugar in itself is not necessarily a good thing. When blood sugar is low, our body tells us that we need to eat and this encourages us to start feeling anxious and tired. The body releases more cortisol, while serotonin levels go down. As such, we become anxious and irritable, we might start to become shaky and we could get headaches. This higher cortisol then triggers the body to also raise other hormones such as ghrelin (which makes us hungry and triggers snacking behaviour) as well as myostatin (which causes us to cannibalize our own muscle).
So why then would you want to lower blood sugar? There are actually plenty of good reasons. Firstly, lowering blood sugar is important for those with diabetes. Diabetes is a condition where the body can’t properly utilize blood sugar (due to low insulin) and as such, it begins to build up in the system. This can eventually cause rapid weight loss, excessive urination, thirst, hunger, tiredness and eventually nerve damage and coma.
Lowering blood sugar is important for those managing diabetes but it can also be a useful way to reduce your likelihood of developing the condition if you are at higher than average risk. For everyone else, lowering blood sugar will still improve insulin sensitivity and this will still result in better energy levels, improved weight loss and more.
1. Work out
The best thing that most people can do to lower their blood sugar levels is to exercise. When you exercise, you engage your muscles in an explosive manner that exerts force. Like any kind of force, this requires energy and as such, your body will start looking for places to find that energy.
Where’s it going to look? Of course, that would be blood sugar! Exercising will cause the sugar to be absorbed into the muscle cells and used to power movements. Even those with diabetes will find some effect from this, which is why they are recommended to exercise regularly.
