What happens if my blood sugar gets really high?

High blood sugars cause the body to slow down. 

When sugar levels are high, blood thickening occurs which causes a reduction of oxygen in the brain and this lessens responses to stimuli. In turn, chemical synapses don’t function properly, reducing the brains ability to process information. This makes it harder to think and process data clearly. It impacts memory recall, attention, concentration, focus, and retention of external information, making learning difficult and in some cases impossible for the child or adult diabetic. 

Now imagine trying to swim in Jell-O®. For those synapses, the high blood sugar is the same as if you were the Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Michael Phelps (synapse) and your lane had filled with Jell-O®, causing you not to be able to reach your full potential. If your sugars are normal and your pool (brain) is filled with the proper chemicals and water, you will get to finish (information stored in your brain) faster and sometimes you will win the race (get almost perfect scores on the SAT’s.) This feeling of Jell-O® also causes poor memory recall and prevents new information from assimilating into the memory properly, causing memory loss and poor retention. It hinders the growth of new cells in the brain and body. During high blood sugar levels, the body has a harder time fighting off infection by reducing the strength of the white blood cells to attack foreign antibodies in the blood stream. 

It may feel safer to have high blood sugars compared to lows, but over time it will still cause issues around work and life in general.