High blood sugar (hyperglycaemia)
Overview
High blood sugar (hyperglycaemia) is where the level of sugar in your blood is too high. It mainly affects people with diabetes and can be serious if not treated.
Symptoms
Symptoms of high blood sugar usually come on gradually and may only start when your blood sugar level gets very high. Common symptoms include: feeling very thirstypeeing a lotfeeling weak or tiredblurred visionlosing weight
Causes
Common causes of high blood sugar in people with diabetes include: being unwellfeeling stressedeating too much sugary or starchy foodbeing less active than usualmissing doses of diabetes medicine You can also get high blood sugar if your diabetes medicine is not working well, you're taking certain medicines (such as steroids) or you recently had an operation. It's not usually a serious problem if your blood sugar is sometimes slightly high for a short time. But high blood sugar can cause serious problems if it stays high for a long time or gets to a very high level. It can lead to: permanent damage to the nerves in your hands and feet (peripheral neuropathy)permanent damage to your eyes and problems with your sight (diabetic retinopathy)life-threatening conditions such asdiabetic ketoacidosis If you have high blood sugar, your doctor or care team may ask you to test your blood or pee to check for ketones. A high level of ketones is a sign of diabetic ketoacidosis.