You can lower blood sugar by taking diabetes medicine as prescribed and by changing daily habits. Those habits include what you eat, how much you move, and how you sleep and handle stress.

If your reading is high right now, follow your care plan and recheck as directed. A reading that stays at 300 mg/dL or above needs emergency care. So does fruity breath, or vomiting that keeps you from holding down food or drinks.

High blood sugar also slows wound healing. Keeping it in range helps your body fight infection.

Why Does Blood Sugar Get Too High?

Blood sugar, or glucose, gets too high when it stays in your blood instead of moving into your cells for energy. Insulin is the hormone that moves glucose into cells. Without enough insulin, glucose stays in the blood.

Type 1 diabetes happens when your immune system destroys the cells that make insulin. Your body makes little or no insulin. You must take insulin.

Type 2 diabetes happens when your body does not use insulin well. Your pancreas also cannot make enough insulin to keep up. Not using insulin well is called insulin resistance.

Prediabetes means your blood sugar is higher than normal but not high enough for diabetes. Insulin resistance can raise blood sugar and lead to weight gain.

Other things can push blood sugar higher:

• An illness, infection, injury, or surgery
• Stress
• Eating more than usual
• Missing a dose of insulin or taking too little
• Certain medicines, including steroids, antipsychotics, and beta blockers

What Are the Signs of High Blood Sugar?

Signs of high blood sugar:

• Feeling very thirsty or having a dry mouth
• Urinating often, including at night
• Blurry vision
• Dry skin
• Feeling weak or tired

Over time, high blood sugar weakens your immune system. This makes infections more likely. Sores that do not heal can also be a sign of diabetes.

What Blood Sugar Levels Should You Aim For?

For many adults with diabetes, the aim is 80 to 130 mg/dL before a meal. The target is under 180 mg/dL one to two hours after the start of a meal. Your care team may set a different target for you.

A continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, uses a small sensor under your skin to track your blood sugar all day and night. For people who use one, a common goal is to stay between 70 and 180 mg/dL more than 70% of the time.

What Is an A1C?

An A1C is a blood test that shows your average blood sugar over about the past three months.

For many nonpregnant adults, the goal is below 7%. A lower goal below 6.5% may fit people who are healthy and have a low risk of lows. Some people need a less strict goal. Your care team sets your goal.

A1C and fasting blood sugar ranges also define prediabetes and diabetes:

• An A1C below 5.7% is normal.
• An A1C of 5.7 to 6.4%, or fasting sugar of 100 to 125 mg/dL, means prediabetes.
• An A1C of 6.5% or above, or fasting sugar of 126 mg/dL or above, means diabetes.

How Often Should You Check Your Blood Sugar?

How often you check your blood sugar depends on your type of diabetes and your medicines. You check with a finger-stick meter or a CGM.

Typical times to check:

• When you wake up, before eating or drinking
• Before a meal
• Two hours after the start of a meal
• At bedtime

You may need to check more often if you have type 1 diabetes, use insulin, or have frequent lows. Ask your care team how often to check.

How Can You Lower High Blood Sugar Quickly?

The safe way to lower high blood sugar quickly is to follow your care plan. No home trick lowers blood sugar immediately.

If your sugar is high, take these steps:

1. Take your diabetes medicine as prescribed. If you use insulin, use the correction dose your care team set.
2. Skip sugary drinks. Choose water instead of juice or soda.
3. Do light activity only if you feel well and do not have ketones.
4. Recheck your sugar as directed.

If you are sick or your sugar is 250 mg/dL or above, check your sugar every four to six hours. Check your urine for ketones with an over-the-counter urine strip or a blood ketone meter. Ketones are acids made when your body breaks down fat for energy.

Bringing a high down can push sugar too low. Insulin and some diabetes pills can cause a low if you add activity, skip a meal, or drink alcohol. Carry fast-asking sugary foods or drinks, such as glucose tablets or a juice box, with you.

How Can You Lower Blood Sugar Over Time?

Food, activity, sleep, stress, weight, alcohol, and smoking all affect your blood sugar over time.

Eat Fewer Refined Carbs and More Fiber

Eating fewer refined carbs and more high-fiber foods can help lower blood sugar. Carbs raise blood sugar more than protein or fat after you eat. You can still eat carbs.

A healthy eating pattern includes these foods:

• Nonstarchy vegetables
• Whole fruits
• Legumes such as beans and lentils
• Lean protein
• Whole grains
• Nuts and seeds

Limit sugar-sweetened drinks, sweets, refined grains, and highly processed foods.

Helpful habits to adopt:

• Eating at regular times and not skipping meals
• Controlling portions, for example with the plate method
• Choosing fruit for a sweet treat
• Choosing high-fiber carbs, with at least 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories

Move More Each Day

Regular activity can lower blood sugar during the activity and for up to 24 hours after.

For many adults, the goal is at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, such as brisk walking. Add muscle-strengthening activity two or three times a week. Break up long sitting at least every 30 minutes.

If you take insulin or medicines that can cause lows, check your sugar before, during, and after activity. Your care team may advise eating carbs if your sugar is below 90 mg/dL before exercise.

Nerve damage in your feet can raise the risk of skin damage during some exercise. If you have nerve damage, wear proper shoes and check your feet every day. With proper shoes, moderate walking may not raise the risk of foot sores.

Get Enough Sleep

Enough sleep may improve your blood sugar, mood, and energy. Most adults should aim for about seven to eight hours a night.

Sleep problems can make it harder to keep blood sugar in range. Untreated sleep apnea can raise blood sugar and insulin resistance.

Manage Stress

Managing stress helps because stress can raise blood sugar.

Learn healthy ways to lower your stress. Ask your care team or a mental health professional for help.

Lose Extra Weight

If you are overweight, losing some weight can lower blood sugar. Diabetes care guidelines advise a goal of at least 5%–7% of your starting weight.

In people with prediabetes, losing 5%–7% of starting weight lowered the chance of getting type 2 diabetes.

Limit Alcohol and Stop Smoking

Limiting alcohol helps because alcohol can cause low blood sugar soon after you drink and for hours afterward. This risk is higher with insulin or with sulfonylureas, which are diabetes pills that raise insulin.

If you drink alcohol:

• Eat when you drink.
• Check your blood sugar often before and after drinking.
• Keep to two drinks or less a day for men and one or less a day for women.

Smoking narrows blood vessels, and so does diabetes. Smoking also makes diabetes harder to manage. Ask your care team for help to quit smoking or vaping.

Which Medicines Lower Blood Sugar?

Medicines that lower blood sugar include insulin, metformin, and several other groups of pills and shots.

Type 1 diabetes always needs insulin.

For type 2 diabetes, metformin is often the first medicine. It helps the liver make less sugar and helps the body use insulin better. Side effects can include bloating, stomach discomfort, and diarrhea. Long-term use may lower vitamin B12. Your doctor may choose a different medicine, or add one to metformin, if you have heart disease, heart failure, or kidney disease, or need to lose weight.

Other medicines your doctor may prescribe:

• SGLT2 inhibitors: They lower blood sugar, can lower weight, and rarely cause lows on their own. They may raise the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of ketones, which can happen even when blood sugar is not very high.
• Sulfonylureas: They raise insulin and can cause low blood sugar. They may lead to weight gain.
• DPP-4 inhibitors: They lower blood sugar a moderate amount and usually do not change weight.
• Insulin: Your doctor may advise insulin for type 2 diabetes if your A1C or blood sugar is very high.

Starting, stopping, or changing a medicine is your prescriber's decision.

How Do Tirzepatide and Other GLP-1 Medicines Lower Blood Sugar?

Tirzepatide and other GLP-1 medicines lower blood sugar by changing how much insulin and glucagon your body releases. Tirzepatide is a dual GIP and GLP-1 medicine. It acts on the receptors for two natural hormones, GIP and GLP-1. Other medicines in this group act on the GLP-1 receptor alone.

The FDA approved Mounjaro, a tirzepatide shot, to lower blood sugar in adults and children 10 years and older with type 2 diabetes. Zepbound is tirzepatide approved for weight loss in some adults and for sleep apnea in adults with obesity. It is not approved to lower blood sugar. It can still lower sugar and cause lows in people with type 2 diabetes.

They work in four ways:

• They help the pancreas release more insulin when blood sugar is high, and less as it falls back toward normal.
• They lower glucagon, a hormone that tells the liver to release sugar.
• They slow how fast food leaves the stomach. This helps keep sugar from rising too high after meals.
• They can lead to weight loss due to effects on appetite. Some are approved for weight loss itself.

Added to metformin, these medicines usually lower A1C by 1%–2% or more.

Safety points to discuss with your prescriber:

• On their own, they rarely cause low blood sugar. The risk rises if you also use insulin or a sulfonylurea.
• The ones that lower blood sugar are approved for type 2 diabetes, not type 1 diabetes. They do not replace insulin.
• Common side effects can include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, stomach pain, indigestion, and less appetite.
• The labels carry a boxed warning about thyroid C-cell tumors in rodents. It is not known if this happens in people.
• The labels say not to use them if you or a family member had medullary thyroid cancer, a type of thyroid cancer. The same applies if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, an endocrine system condition.
• The labels warn about pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas, and about gallbladder problems. They also warn about kidney problems from dehydration caused by vomiting or diarrhea, and some warn that diabetic eye disease (retinopathy) can get worse.
• Slower stomach emptying may raise the risk of food or liquid entering the lungs during anesthesia or deep sedation. Tell your care team about any planned procedure.
• They are prescription-only medicines.

How Do You Avoid Low Blood Sugar While Lowering It?

You avoid low blood sugar by knowing what causes it and treating it as soon as you spot the signs. Low blood sugar is also called hypoglycemia. For many people, below 70 mg/dL is low. Below 54 mg/dL is severely low. The most severe level needs help from another person.

Signs of low blood sugar:

• Shakiness
• Sweating
• Fast heartbeat
• Hunger
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Irritability or confusion

Severe low blood sugar can cause seizures or passing out.

Things that can cause lows:

• Taking insulin or some diabetes pills, such as sulfonylureas or meglitinides
• Skipping or delaying a meal
• Fasting while taking those medicines
• More activity than usual
• Drinking alcohol without food
• Being sick

If your blood sugar falls below 70 mg/dL, follow these steps:

1. Eat or drink 15 to 20 grams of fast sugar. Examples are four glucose tablets, one-half cup of juice, one-half can of regular soda, or one tablespoon of sugar or honey.
2. Recheck your sugar after 15 minutes.
3. Repeat if your sugar is still below 70 mg/dL.
4. Have a small snack once your sugar is back in range if your next meal is more than one hour away.

If you use insulin or have a high risk of lows, ask your prescriber about glucagon. Glucagon is a prescription medicine that raises blood sugar. If you care for someone who uses it, learn where it is kept and how to give it. Call 911 after giving glucagon, or if the person is not alert or cannot swallow.

When Is High Blood Sugar an Emergency?

High blood sugar is an emergency when it stays very high or when ketones build up. Call 911 or go to the emergency room for any of these signs:

• Blood sugar that stays at 300 mg/dL or above
• Fruity-smelling breath
• Vomiting that keeps you from holding down food or drinks
• Trouble breathing
• High ketones in your urine
• Confusion, trouble staying awake, or passing out
• Low blood sugar in someone who is not alert or cannot swallow

Diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, happens when your body lacks insulin and breaks down fat for energy. Ketones build up and make the blood acidic. DKA is most common in type 1 diabetes. It can also happen in type 2 diabetes. DKA can be life-threatening. Early signs are strong thirst and urinating a lot. Illness, missed insulin, or a clogged insulin pump can trigger it.

Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic syndrome, or HHS, is extremely high blood sugar with severe dehydration and few or no ketones. It is a complication of type 2 diabetes. Signs include increased thirst, weakness, confusion, and seizures. They can worsen over days or weeks. Infection, illness, or running out of medicine can trigger it. Call 911 or go to the emergency room if signs of HHS develop.

When to call your care team:

• High or low readings you cannot explain
• Type 2 diabetes and readings above your goal for three days with no clear reason
• Type 1 diabetes and readings above your goal for six hours with no clear reason
• An illness that keeps you from eating

If your readings stay above goal for those times, check your urine for ketones. If you have ketones, contact your care team right away or get emergency care.

Make a sick-day plan with your care team before you get sick, including which medicines, such as metformin or an SGLT2 inhibitor, to pause if you cannot eat or drink. If you take insulin several times a day or use a pump, keep taking your background insulin when sick, even if you cannot eat.

Why Does High Blood Sugar Slow Wound Healing?

High blood sugar slows wound healing partly because it damages blood vessels and lowers blood flow.

Wounds in people with diabetes often stay in the inflammatory stage longer. Inflammation is the early healing response. When it lasts too long, healing slows and wounds can become chronic.

Higher A1C is linked with poorer wound healing. Much of the evidence for this link comes from wounds after surgery.

Foot ulcers are open sores on the feet. Good blood sugar control may help them heal. It also helps your body fight infection. Lower blood sugar does not heal a wound on its own.

Over time, diabetes can damage nerves in the feet. You may not feel a cut or blister until it gets worse. Poor blood flow to the feet can make sores and infections hard to heal.

Check your feet every day. If you care for someone with diabetes, check their feet each day or help them check.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Drink Lowers Blood Sugar Fast?

No drink lowers blood sugar fast. When your sugar is high, choose water instead of juice or soda. Staying hydrated also matters because dehydration can push blood sugar higher.

Which Foods Bring Blood Sugar Down?

No single food brings blood sugar down on its own. An eating pattern with vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fewer refined carbs can help lower blood sugar over time.

Do Apple Cider Vinegar or Cinnamon Lower Blood Sugar?

Apple cider vinegar and cinnamon do not reliably lower blood sugar. Studies of apple cider vinegar are small, and their results are uncertain. Diabetes care guidelines do not recommend cinnamon or other supplements for blood sugar. Large amounts of cassia cinnamon may also worsen liver disease.

What Can Make Blood Sugar Drop Quickly?

Insulin and sulfonylureas can make blood sugar drop too low. Skipping a meal, being more active than usual, or drinking alcohol without food can also cause a drop. If your reading falls below 70 mg/dL, take 15 to 20 grams of fast sugar and recheck after 15 minutes.

Can You Lower Blood Sugar Without Medicine?

You can lower blood sugar without medicine in some cases, but not all. People with type 1 diabetes always need insulin. Some people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes lower blood sugar with healthy eating, activity, and weight loss. Others also need medicine.

Sources

• Causes and signs: NIDDK Symptoms and Causes of Diabetes, 2024; NIDDK Insulin Resistance and Prediabetes, 2025; MedlinePlus High Blood Sugar Self-Care, 2026; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024; ADA Standards of Care, Section 6, 2026
• Targets, A1C, and checking: ADA Standards of Care, Section 6, 2026; ADA Standards of Care, Section 2, 2026; NIDDK The A1C Test and Diabetes, 2018; NIDDK Managing Diabetes, 2023; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024
• Quick steps and ketone checks: ADA Standards of Care, Section 9, 2026; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024; NIDDK Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia), 2021; CDC Diabetic Ketoacidosis, 2024
• Food and drinks: ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024
• Activity: NIDDK Managing Diabetes, 2023; ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026; NIDDK Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia), 2021
• Sleep and stress: NIDDK Managing Diabetes, 2023; ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026; NIDDK Insulin, Medicines, and Other Diabetes Treatments, 2022; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024
• Weight: ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026; NIDDK Insulin Resistance and Prediabetes, 2025
• Alcohol and smoking: NIDDK Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia), 2021; CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024; NIDDK Managing Diabetes, 2023; ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026
• Medicines: NIDDK Insulin, Medicines, and Other Diabetes Treatments, 2022; ADA Standards of Care, Section 9, 2026
• Tirzepatide and GLP-1 medicines: Mounjaro label, 2026; Zepbound label, 2026; Ozempic label, 2026; Rybelsus label, 2026; Wegovy label, 2026; Trulicity label, 2026; Victoza label, 2025; MedlinePlus Glucagon Blood Test, 2024; ADA Standards of Care, Section 9, 2026; NIDDK Insulin, Medicines, and Other Diabetes Treatments, 2022
• Low blood sugar: NIDDK Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia), 2021; CDC Low Blood Sugar (Hypoglycemia), 2024; ADA Standards of Care, Section 6, 2026
• Emergencies: CDC Diabetic Ketoacidosis, 2024; MedlinePlus Diabetic Ketoacidosis, 2025; MedlinePlus Diabetic Hyperglycemic Hyperosmolar Syndrome, 2026; MedlinePlus High Blood Sugar Self-Care, 2026; ADA Standards of Care, Section 6, 2026
• Wound healing: Dasari et al., Semin Plast Surg, 2021; MedlinePlus Diabetes Foot Ulcers, 2026; NIDDK Diabetes and Foot Problems, 2017
• Drinks and supplements: CDC Manage Blood Sugar, 2024; MedlinePlus High Blood Sugar Self-Care, 2026; ADA Standards of Care, Section 5, 2026; NCCIH Diabetes and Dietary Supplements, 2023; NCCIH Cinnamon, 2024; Arjmandfard et al., Front Nutr, 2025; Cherta-Murillo et al., Am J Clin Nutr, 2022

This article is general information and is not medical advice.