{"id":23657,"date":"2025-03-10T16:35:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T17:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23657"},"modified":"2025-03-10T18:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T18:25:37","slug":"why-older-people-may-not-need-to-watch-blood-sugar-so-closely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23657","title":{"rendered":"Why Older People May Not Need to Watch Blood Sugar So Closely"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Intensive management of diabetes pays fewer dividends as patients age and raises the chances of hypoglycemia. But many people have not gotten the message.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

By now, Ora Larson recognizes what\u2019s happening. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re shaking inside,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m speeded up. I\u2019m anxious.\u201d If someone asks whether she would like a salad for lunch, she doesn\u2019t know how to respond.<\/p>\n

She has had several such episodes this year, and they seem to be coming more frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stares and gets a gray color and then she gets confused,\u201d her daughter, Susan Larson, 61, said. \u201cIt\u2019s really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hypoglycemia occurs when levels of blood sugar, or glucose, fall too low; a reading below 70 milligrams per deciliter is an accepted definition. It can afflict anyone using glucose-lowering medications to control the condition.<\/p>\n

But it occurs more frequently at advanced ages. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been a diabetic for years, it\u2019s likely you\u2019ve experienced an episode,\u201d said Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, who researches diabetes in older adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The elder Ms. Larson, 85, has had Type 2 diabetes for decades. Now her endocrinologist and her primary care doctor worry that hypoglycemia may cause falls, broken bones, heart arrhythmias and cognitive damage.<\/p>\n

Both have advised her to let her hemoglobin A1c, a measure of average blood glucose over several months, rise past 7 percent. \u201cThey say, \u2018Don\u2019t worry too much about the highs \u2014 we want to prevent the lows,\u2019\u201d the younger Ms. Larson said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intensive management of diabetes pays fewer dividends as patients age and raises the chances of hypoglycemia. But many people have not gotten the message.By now, Ora Larson recognizes what\u2019s happening. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re shaking inside,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m speeded up. I\u2019m anxious.\u201d If someone asks whether she would like a salad for lunch, she doesn\u2019t know how to respond.She has had several such episodes this year, and they seem to be coming more frequently.\u201cShe stares and gets a gray color and then she gets confused,\u201d her daughter, Susan Larson, 61, said. \u201cIt\u2019s really scary.\u201dHypoglycemia occurs when levels of blood sugar, or glucose, fall too low; a reading below 70 milligrams per deciliter is an accepted definition. It can afflict anyone using glucose-lowering medications to control the condition.But it occurs more frequently at advanced ages. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been a diabetic for years, it\u2019s likely you\u2019ve experienced an episode,\u201d said Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, who researches diabetes in older adults.The elder Ms. Larson, 85, has had Type 2 diabetes for decades. Now her endocrinologist and her primary care doctor worry that hypoglycemia may cause falls, broken bones, heart arrhythmias and cognitive damage.Both have advised her to let her hemoglobin A1c, a measure of average blood glucose over several months, rise past 7 percent. \u201cThey say, \u2018Don\u2019t worry too much about the highs \u2014 we want to prevent the lows,\u2019\u201d the younger Ms. Larson said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23659,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23660,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23657\/revisions\/23660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}