Q: ˙How does drinking water after waking up from sleep affect blood sugar levels?˙
A: It doesn˙t. Unless the patient is severely dehydrated. As we wake, our bodies release
numerous hormones - a few of which will trigger the release of glucose into the
bloodstream, to ˙prime the pump˙ by fueling your system so you can hunt down, capture and prepare your breakfast; or nowadays, stumble to the ˙fridge and coffee
machine. This is called the Dawn Phenomenon, and it happens to ALL vertebrate life
forms on earth.
BUT˙ in DM (Diabetes Mellitus) patients, there is either a lack of the normal insulin
response, or the body˙s cells ˙resist˙ insulin˙s action - they simply respond too slowly
and incompletely, and as a result (of both circumstances), BG (Blood Glucose - the
correct term for ˙blood sugar˙) levels rise. IF BG rises to or above the renal threshold for
glucose (180 mg/dl, or 10.0 mmol/L), the kidneys begin ˙spilling˙ the glucose into the
urinary tract to get rid of it - because at that level, they can no longer recover it as they
normally do.
THAT dehydrates the patient - making them thirsty. For this reason, DM patients will be
thirsty upon waking when BG is higher than the renal threshold. But drinking water does
little to lower BG levels; this process stops when BG drops below the renal threshold,
and that is still way above the top end of normal BG for adult humans (140 mg/dl or
7.77 mmol/L). And that top end is rare; most of the time, for about an hour after each
meal, BG rises to no more than 120 mg/dl (6.67 mmol/L), then drops back to the basal
level (90 to 100 mg/dl, or 5.00 to 5.55 mmol/L).
SO˙ IF BG is extremely high, the patient will be thirsty - but drinking water does not
lower BG by much if at all, UNLESS they are severely dehydrated - and then, the
dehydration would be the life-threatening issue. Under normal circumstances, drinking
water has NO effect on BG levels; your circulatory system is not a balloon, to which you
can add water by simply drinking it. Your fluid levels are tightly controlled by a complex
hormonal system - beginning with the fluid regulatory hormone AVP, or Arginine Vasopressin Peptide, aka ADH (Anti-Diuretic Hormone).
Full story:
https://www.quora.com/How-does-drinking-water-after-waking-up-from-sleep-affect-
blood-sugar-levels
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* Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS (999:1/1)