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COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL (CMP)
Also printed as: Blood sugar · Fasting glucose · GLU
Educational only — not medical advice.
Glucose is the amount of sugar circulating in your blood at the moment the sample was drawn. Your body pulls it from food and uses it for energy, with insulin helping move it into cells. Because it is a snapshot, it moves with what you ate, when you ate, and how your day was going.
Glucose is one of the quickest reads on how your body is handling fuel. Because a single value is so sensitive to timing, clinicians usually look at it next to A1c and at how it trends across several draws rather than reacting to one number.
TYPICAL ADULT RANGE
Many labs report roughly 70–99 mg/dL for a fasting adult sample. Ranges vary by lab, and a non-fasting sample is read differently. Reported in mg/dL.
Reference ranges vary by lab, by method, and by age and sex. Always read your own result against the range printed on your report.
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A lower-than-range glucose most often traces back to something ordinary: a longer fast than expected, a light meal the night before, alcohol the evening prior, or a sample that sat before processing (which can lower the reading on its own). Exercise close to the draw and some medications can also pull it down. Persistently low readings, or low readings alongside shakiness, sweating, or lightheadedness, are worth discussing with your doctor so they can look at the pattern rather than the single value.
A higher-than-range glucose very often reflects the draw itself — eating or drinking anything but water beforehand, a stressful morning, poor sleep, illness, or a recent steroid or steroid-like medication all raise it temporarily. Coffee with cream, or a "fast" that was shorter than you thought, is a common explanation. If it stays elevated across draws, that is the kind of pattern your doctor will want to look at with an A1c and your full history before drawing any conclusion.
Your doctor is the one who can read this number against your history, symptoms, and medications.
Educational only — not medical advice. Lab results only mean something alongside your history, symptoms, medications, and the rest of your panel. Bring questions to your doctor; they are the one who can interpret your results for you.
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