Blood Sugar Spikes Explained: What Matters and What Doesn’t

Blood glucose is supposed to change after eating. When a meal contains carbohydrates, digestion breaks them into sugars that enter the bloodstream, the pancreas releases insulin, tissues take up glucose and the liver adjusts its own glucose output. In someone with normal glucose regulation, blood glucose rises and then moves back toward its usual range. That post-meal movement is ordinary physiology, not automatically evidence of metabolic damage. The more useful question is whether glucose rises excessively, remains elevated for too long, repeatedly spends substantial time above an appropriate target or occurs in someone whose glucose regulation is already impaired.

The popularity of continuous glucose monitors has made these rises visible in extraordinary detail. A person can now watch a meal appear as a curve on a phone screen and immediately compare breakfast with lunch or one type of carbohydrate with another. That information can be extremely valuable in diabetes management, but it can also create a misleading idea that the healthiest glucose trace is always the flattest possible one. A visible post-meal rise is not, by itself, a diagnosis or proof that a food is unhealthy. Glucose needs to be interpreted in context: the person’s diagnosis, overall glucose pattern, A1C, medications, symptoms, diet and risk of both high and low blood sugar all matter.

What Is a Blood Sugar Spike?

The phrase “blood sugar spike” is widely used but poorly defined in everyday conversation. People often use it to describe any visible rise after eating, yet glucose is naturally dynamic. A meal containing carbohydrate normally raises glucose because absorbed glucose is entering circulation. Insulin then helps muscle, fat and other tissues take up that glucose while influencing the liver’s own glucose production.

A clinically important post-meal rise is therefore not simply a line moving upward. Concern becomes greater when glucose is substantially above an individual’s target, remains elevated for prolonged periods, occurs repeatedly or forms part of a larger pattern of abnormal glucose regulation. For people with diabetes, post-meal glucose can be an important component of glycaemic management. For people without diabetes, the meaning of short-lived excursions detected through consumer monitoring is much less clearly established.

This distinction matters because describing every rise as a spike can turn ordinary physiology into a problem that people feel compelled to “fix.” A healthy metabolic system is not one in which glucose never changes. It is one in which glucose is appropriately regulated.

The Same Meal Can Produce Different Glucose Curves

Post-meal glucose depends on far more than whether a meal contains sugar. The total amount and type of carbohydrate matter, but so do fibre, protein, fat, food structure, gastric emptying, recent exercise, insulin sensitivity, sleep, stress, illness and medications. The starting glucose level before the meal also influences the absolute peak afterward.

A bowl containing intact whole grains and pulses can produce a different curve from a meal containing the same total amount of carbohydrate in a more refined or rapidly digested form. Liquids and finely processed carbohydrates may move through digestion more rapidly, while intact food structure and fibre can alter absorption. Protein and fat can also change gastric emptying and the shape and timing of the glucose response.

Even the same person can respond differently to the same meal on different days. A poor night’s sleep, recent exercise, emotional stress or illness can change glucose regulation. That variability is one reason a single glucose curve should not be treated as a diagnosis or a definitive verdict on a food.

Why Post-Meal Glucose Matters in Diabetes

In diabetes, persistent hyperglycaemia is clearly clinically important. Long-term research has established that better glucose management reduces the risk of microvascular complications involving the eyes, kidneys and nerves. NIDDK’s DCCT/EDIC research programme also documented long-term cardiovascular benefits associated with earlier intensive glucose control in type 1 diabetes.

Post-meal glucose is one component of that wider management. CDC guidance cited in the supplied material lists a typical target of below 180 mg/dL around two hours after the start of a meal for many non-pregnant adults with diabetes, while emphasising that individual targets can differ. Age, pregnancy, treatment, risk of hypoglycaemia and other medical circumstances can change what is appropriate for a particular person.

The practical objective is therefore not to make every post-meal line perfectly flat. It is to keep overall glucose exposure within an appropriate range while avoiding dangerous lows and maintaining a treatment plan that can be sustained safely.

One Glucose Peak Is Less Useful Than the Overall Pattern

Continuous glucose monitoring has changed diabetes care because it reveals patterns that occasional finger-stick measurements could easily miss. Instead of seeing glucose at only one or two moments, a CGM can estimate it repeatedly throughout the day and night, showing the direction and duration of changes.

For many people with diabetes, clinicians now consider time in range alongside A1C and episodes of hypoglycaemia. NIDDK guidance cited in the source describes 70–180 mg/dL as a typical CGM target range for many people with diabetes, although individual goals vary.

This shifts attention from one dramatic peak toward the overall glucose profile. A single excursion may be less important than repeatedly spending long periods above target. Similarly, a seemingly excellent average can conceal frequent dangerous lows. The graph becomes useful when it is interpreted as a pattern rather than as a competition to achieve the flattest line.

A1C and CGM Measure Different Things

A1C estimates average glucose exposure over several months. It is extremely useful, but averages can hide variation. Two people can have the same A1C while experiencing very different day-to-day glucose patterns.

One person may spend most of the day near the average. Another may alternate between high and low readings that mathematically produce a similar mean. A1C alone cannot show overnight hypoglycaemia, repeated post-meal highs or the amount of time glucose spends within or outside a target range.

CGM can provide that additional context. It does not make A1C obsolete; the two measurements answer different questions. The important point is that metabolic health cannot always be summarised by one number.

What Does a Glucose Spike Mean in Someone Without Diabetes?

This is where public discussion often moves faster than the evidence. Consumer interest in CGMs has expanded beyond people with diabetes, and healthy users can now watch how meals, exercise and sleep influence their glucose curves. The information can be personally interesting, but the clinical significance of brief post-meal excursions in people without diabetes remains less clearly defined.

The supplied article cites a 2023 review of CGM use in people without diabetes that noted that postprandial hyperglycaemia is well understood in diabetes but that the significance of glucose excursions in healthy populations is less established.

That uncertainty should change the way consumer data are discussed. It is premature to tell otherwise healthy people that every short peak requires intervention or that flattening every glucose curve will necessarily prevent future disease. A monitor can display data with extraordinary precision while the medical meaning of some of those data remains uncertain.

A Flat Glucose Curve Is Not Automatically a Healthy Meal

One of the biggest risks of glucose-focused nutrition is metric fixation. Foods containing relatively little carbohydrate may produce only a small immediate glucose rise, but that does not automatically make them nutritionally superior.

A meal high in saturated fat or sodium could produce a relatively flat glucose trace while still being a poor everyday cardiovascular choice. Fruit may cause a visible increase in glucose while also supplying fibre, potassium, vitamins and other nutrients. Whole grains, vegetables and legumes contribute to dietary quality for reasons that cannot be reduced to the shape of a two-hour glucose curve.

Nutrition involves multiple outcomes: cardiovascular health, fibre intake, micronutrient adequacy, energy balance, dietary sustainability and long-term disease risk. Optimising one biomarker while ignoring the rest can produce a diet that looks impressive on a glucose graph but performs poorly by broader health standards.

Carbohydrate Quality Still Matters

Rejecting glucose-spike alarmism does not mean that all carbohydrate-containing foods have identical effects. Food quality and structure influence digestion and overall nutritional value. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit generally provide fibre and micronutrients in a different metabolic context from sugary drinks or heavily refined snacks.

The useful distinction is that the reason to favour minimally processed foods is broader than simply producing a flatter curve. Dietary patterns matter over months and years, not only during the two hours following one meal.

This protects against another common mistake: choosing a nutritionally poor food because it produces a smaller immediate glucose response than a nutritionally valuable carbohydrate-containing food. The glucose trace is one piece of information, not a complete nutrition score.

Food Structure Changes the Response

Two foods can contain similar amounts of carbohydrate yet behave differently during digestion. Physical structure influences how quickly digestive enzymes gain access to starches and sugars. Intact grains and legumes can therefore produce different responses from finely milled or heavily processed versions of similar ingredients.

Liquids are another important example because nutrients consumed in liquid form may be absorbed differently from those contained within intact food structures. Fibre can slow aspects of digestion, while combinations of carbohydrate with protein or fat may alter gastric emptying and change the timing of the glucose response.

This is why comparing foods only by total carbohydrate grams can miss important differences. At the same time, comparing them only by peak glucose can be equally misleading because overall nutrition involves more than one physiological response.

Starting Glucose Changes the Absolute Peak

The glucose level before eating influences what the curve looks like afterward. Someone who begins a meal with already elevated glucose may reach a higher absolute number even if the meal is similar to one eaten on another day.

This is another reason screenshots require context. A person comparing two meals may attribute the difference entirely to food when the starting conditions were not the same. Exercise, medication timing, stress, sleep and the previous meal may also affect the starting level and subsequent response.

A meaningful interpretation therefore requires more than identifying the tallest point on the graph.

Exercise After Meals Can Lower Glucose

Physical activity increases glucose uptake by muscle and can affect post-meal glucose. For people with insulin resistance or diabetes, light or moderate activity after eating may help reduce the postprandial rise. The size of the effect depends on factors such as fitness, treatment and the intensity and timing of exercise.

This does not mean every healthy person needs to perform a ritualised walk after every meal to neutralise a normal glucose increase. Physical activity is beneficial for many reasons independent of a specific CGM trace.

For people using insulin or glucose-lowering medicines capable of causing hypoglycaemia, exercise adds an important safety consideration because it may lower glucose too far. Treatment decisions need to account for that risk rather than focusing only on preventing highs.

Sleep Can Influence Glucose Regulation

A surprising glucose reading may have little to do with the meal itself. Poor sleep can worsen insulin sensitivity and alter metabolic regulation. Someone eating the same breakfast after a restful night and after severe sleep deprivation may therefore see different responses.

This is another reason isolated glucose comparisons can become misleading. Nutrition-focused interpretation often assumes the food is the only changing variable when human metabolism is influenced by many factors simultaneously.

Improving sleep may benefit metabolic health, but this should not be translated into the claim that every unusual CGM rise after a poor night’s sleep is inherently dangerous. The important point is simply that food is not the only variable affecting the graph.

Stress Can Push Glucose Up

Stress hormones can influence blood glucose by helping make energy available during situations the body interprets as demanding. In someone with diabetes, significant stress can therefore contribute to higher readings.

Emotional stress is difficult to quantify and should not become an explanation automatically assigned to every unexplained glucose value. Still, it belongs in the broader interpretation of a pattern.

A person seeing an unusual reading after a normal meal should therefore consider the surrounding circumstances rather than assuming that one ingredient suddenly became metabolically harmful.

Illness and Medications Can Also Change Glucose

Infection and illness can raise glucose, especially in people with diabetes. Some medications can also affect glucose regulation. The supplied material specifically notes glucocorticoids as an example of medicines capable of increasing blood glucose.

These factors can substantially change glucose patterns even when diet remains unchanged. Clinical interpretation therefore needs medication history and health context rather than relying on food logs alone.

This becomes especially important when someone with previously stable diabetes develops repeated unexpected highs. The appropriate response may involve medical assessment rather than increasingly restrictive food rules.

High Glucose Is Not the Only Danger

Public discussions of glucose spikes tend to focus exclusively on high readings, but diabetes treatment can also produce dangerously low blood glucose. Insulin and some glucose-lowering medications can cause hypoglycaemia, and severe hypoglycaemia can impair thinking, cause seizures, result in loss of consciousness and require urgent treatment.

This is why aggressively attempting to drive every post-meal value downward can be unsafe. If someone increases insulin or medication simply because they dislike the appearance of a short-lived glucose peak, the result may be a dangerous low later.

Good diabetes management therefore balances competing risks. Reducing hyperglycaemia matters, but so does avoiding hypoglycaemia. The objective is appropriate regulation, not the lowest possible number at every moment.

Why “Lower Is Always Better” Is the Wrong Rule

Glucose control has an appropriate range rather than an ideal value of zero variation. A person using glucose-lowering treatment needs enough control to reduce harmful hyperglycaemia without pushing glucose into dangerous lows.

This makes glucose different from a simplistic score in which lower always means healthier. The same treatment that improves one part of the curve can worsen another if it is excessive.

The correct target is therefore individualised. Medical context matters more than the visual appeal of the graph.

Continuous Glucose Monitors Measure Interstitial Glucose

CGMs do not measure blood glucose directly at every moment. They estimate glucose in interstitial fluid beneath the skin. Because glucose moves between the bloodstream and interstitial fluid, CGM readings can lag behind blood glucose during periods of rapid change.

Modern devices are extremely useful, particularly in diabetes care, but they are not perfect laboratory instruments. Individual readings may also be influenced by device accuracy and biological variation.

This technical reality is particularly important for healthy consumers who may react strongly to one short-lived peak. A tiny difference between two meal curves may not deserve the medical significance that a visually precise graph seems to imply.

More Data Does Not Automatically Mean More Understanding

Continuous monitoring can create thousands of readings, but additional measurements are useful only when there is a clear framework for interpreting them. A graph can reveal that one breakfast produced a higher peak than another, but it cannot automatically explain whether that difference matters clinically.

This is a broader lesson in health technology. Measurement has become easier faster than interpretation has become certain. Devices can reveal fluctuations people never knew existed, creating the possibility of treating normal variation as pathology simply because it is newly visible.

Useful monitoring therefore requires restraint. Data should answer a meaningful question rather than create a new problem merely because every fluctuation can now be observed.

Time in Range Provides More Context

For many people with diabetes, time in range provides a broader view than focusing only on individual peaks. It considers how much of the day glucose remains within an agreed range while also highlighting periods of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia.

This does not mean time in range is the only useful measurement. A1C, symptoms, individual glucose episodes and treatment safety still matter. Its value is that it shifts attention toward cumulative patterns.

A person who briefly rises after meals but spends most of the day within target may present a very different management problem from someone whose glucose remains elevated for many hours.

Why Duration Matters

Two glucose curves can reach the same peak but behave differently afterward. One may return toward baseline relatively quickly, while another remains elevated for a prolonged period.

This is another reason peak height alone gives an incomplete picture. Duration, frequency and the person’s baseline metabolic health influence interpretation.

For someone with diabetes, repeated prolonged elevations can signal that food, medication or other parts of treatment need review. For someone without diabetes, the clinical significance of brief consumer-CGM excursions remains less certain and should not be interpreted using diabetes treatment rules automatically.

Glucose Variability Is Not the Same as Proven Harm From Every Fluctuation

The fact that A1C can hide highs and lows does not mean every fluctuation independently causes disease. It means an average cannot describe the full glucose profile.

This distinction prevents overstatement. Diabetes research clearly supports controlling chronic hyperglycaemia, and CGM can improve understanding of glucose patterns in people who need monitoring. It does not follow that every visible fluctuation in a person without diabetes has a well-established independent pathological effect.

Scientific uncertainty should remain visible rather than being filled with confident consumer-health claims.

A Consumer CGM Cannot Diagnose Diabetes

People without diagnosed diabetes should not use one CGM trace or a home glucose reading to diagnose themselves. Formal diabetes diagnosis relies on validated clinical tests such as A1C, fasting plasma glucose or an oral glucose tolerance test.

Consumer devices may show patterns that deserve further assessment, but they do not replace laboratory diagnosis. If someone repeatedly sees abnormal readings, particularly alongside symptoms, the appropriate next step is medical evaluation rather than increasingly elaborate self-experimentation.

This is especially important because device readings can be affected by lag, measurement error and normal biological variation.

Symptoms Still Matter

Persistent excessive thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss and other symptoms associated with abnormal glucose regulation should not be dismissed simply because a person is focused on interpreting a wearable graph.

Symptoms combined with repeated abnormal readings deserve formal assessment. The same applies when someone with diagnosed diabetes experiences repeated values outside their agreed target range.

Monitoring technology can provide additional information, but it should not replace ordinary clinical reasoning.

Do Not Change Diabetes Medication Based on Internet Advice

Someone already diagnosed with diabetes who notices repeated post-meal elevations should discuss the pattern with their treating healthcare team rather than making improvised medication changes. Insulin timing, dosage, meal composition and physical activity can interact in ways that make self-adjustment risky without appropriate knowledge.

This is particularly important because lowering glucose too aggressively can produce hypoglycaemia. A graph that looks “better” after an intervention is not necessarily evidence that the treatment is safer overall.

The objective is appropriate management across the entire day, not simply cosmetic improvement of one post-meal curve.

One Meal Is Not a Metabolic Test

Social media often turns meal comparisons into informal experiments: eat one breakfast, photograph the glucose curve, eat another breakfast the next day and compare the peaks. This can be interesting, but it is not a controlled metabolic study.

Sleep, previous exercise, starting glucose, stress, medication timing and numerous other factors can change between the two days. The meals themselves may differ in portion size or preparation.

Repeated observations under similar conditions can provide more information than one comparison, but a consumer experiment still does not automatically establish long-term health consequences.

The Glycaemic Response Is Only One Property of Food

A food can be evaluated through many dimensions: nutrient density, fibre, protein, fat quality, sodium, energy density, degree of processing, affordability, cultural acceptability and sustainability. Glucose response is one additional dimension.

Reducing all of nutrition to one glucose metric can therefore distort food choice. A nutritionally rich food should not be rejected merely because a monitor shows a temporary physiological rise.

The better approach is to consider the glucose response within the broader dietary pattern, especially for people whose diabetes management requires attention to carbohydrate amount and timing.

Whole Diets Matter More Than Perfect Individual Curves

Health outcomes develop from patterns repeated across long periods. This is why overall diet quality matters more than whether every single meal produces an aesthetically pleasing glucose graph.

A person who consistently eats a balanced diet rich in minimally processed foods should not necessarily reorganise their entire eating pattern because one healthy meal creates a visible but normal rise. Conversely, a food that produces little immediate glucose change is not automatically protective against cardiovascular disease or other long-term problems.

Short-term biomarkers are useful when they are connected appropriately to long-term health evidence. They become misleading when treated as complete measures of food quality.

When Post-Meal Activity Can Be Useful

Light movement after eating can be a practical strategy for some people, particularly those with insulin resistance or diabetes, because contracting muscles use glucose. It can also support broader physical activity goals.

The intervention should remain proportionate. A short walk can be an ordinary healthy habit without becoming an obligation to “burn off” every carbohydrate consumed.

For people at risk of medication-related hypoglycaemia, exercise timing should fit the treatment plan. Context again determines whether a generally healthy strategy requires additional caution.

Do Not Turn Eating Into Constant Glucose Surveillance

Wearable health technology can provide useful feedback, but continuous monitoring can also encourage constant evaluation of ordinary bodily variation. Every meal becomes an experiment, every rise becomes a perceived failure and food choices become organised around the graph.

For someone with diabetes, frequent monitoring may be medically valuable and sometimes essential. For a healthy consumer without a defined clinical question, the benefit of constant surveillance is less certain.

The existence of measurable variation does not automatically mean that variation needs to be optimised.

What Actually Deserves Attention?

The most useful glucose questions concern patterns rather than isolated peaks. Is fasting glucose repeatedly abnormal? Does glucose remain high for extended periods? Is a person with diabetes spending substantial time outside an agreed target? Are episodes of hypoglycaemia occurring? Are symptoms present? Has A1C changed? Are medication, illness, sleep or lifestyle factors affecting control?

Those questions provide more information than simply asking whether a particular meal caused a visible rise.

This also helps shift glucose management away from moral judgments about individual foods. A graph is physiological data, not a score assigning virtue to the person who produced it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it normal for blood sugar to rise after eating?

Yes. Blood glucose normally rises after carbohydrate-containing food is digested and absorbed. The important question is whether the rise is appropriate for the individual and whether glucose returns toward its expected range.

Is every blood sugar spike harmful?

No. Calling every normal post-meal increase a harmful spike exaggerates what the evidence supports. In diabetes, excessive or prolonged hyperglycaemia matters, but brief rises in healthy people should not automatically be treated as disease.

What should blood sugar be two hours after eating?

The source cites CDC guidance stating that a typical target for many non-pregnant adults with diabetes is below 180 mg/dL around two hours after the start of a meal, although individual goals differ.

What is time in range?

Time in range describes the percentage of time glucose remains within an agreed target interval. NIDDK guidance cited in the source describes 70–180 mg/dL as a typical CGM range for many people with diabetes, although individual targets vary.

Does A1C show blood sugar spikes?

A1C estimates average glucose over several months and cannot show every individual high or low. Two people with similar A1C values can have different day-to-day patterns.

Can healthy people use continuous glucose monitors?

They can use them, but the clinical significance of many short glucose excursions in people without diabetes is less well established than it is in diabetes management.

Does a higher CGM peak mean a food is unhealthy?

Not necessarily. A glucose response is only one dimension of nutrition. Overall diet quality, fibre, fat quality, micronutrients and long-term dietary patterns also matter.

Can fruit cause glucose to rise?

Yes, carbohydrate-containing fruit can produce a glucose increase. That does not automatically make fruit unhealthy.

Can walking after meals reduce glucose?

Physical activity can increase glucose uptake by muscle and may reduce post-meal glucose, particularly in people with insulin resistance or diabetes.

Can stress raise blood sugar?

Yes. Stress hormones can influence glucose and may contribute to higher readings.

Can poor sleep affect blood sugar?

Yes. Poor sleep can worsen insulin sensitivity and influence metabolic regulation.

Can illness raise glucose?

Yes. Illness and infection can contribute to higher glucose readings, especially in people with diabetes.

Can medications raise glucose?

Some medications can. The supplied article specifically identifies glucocorticoids as one example.

Is low blood sugar dangerous?

Yes. Severe hypoglycaemia can impair thinking, cause seizures or unconsciousness and require urgent treatment.

Do CGMs measure blood glucose directly?

No. CGMs estimate glucose in interstitial fluid beneath the skin, which can lag behind blood glucose during rapid changes.

Can a CGM diagnose diabetes?

No. Formal diagnosis relies on validated clinical tests such as A1C, fasting plasma glucose or oral glucose tolerance testing.

Should healthy people try to keep glucose perfectly flat?

Current evidence does not justify telling healthy people that every post-meal rise must be eliminated. Normal glucose regulation includes movement after food.

Does carbohydrate amount matter?

Yes, but so do food structure, fibre, protein, fat, gastric emptying, starting glucose, physical activity, sleep, stress and insulin sensitivity.

Is a low-carb food always healthier?

No. A food can produce a small immediate glucose response while still being nutritionally poor in other respects.

Should I change diabetes medication if meals cause high readings?

Medication changes should be discussed with the treating healthcare team rather than improvised from isolated CGM readings or online advice.

The Better Question Is Not “Did My Glucose Rise?”

Blood glucose is dynamic because human metabolism is dynamic. Eating carbohydrate normally changes glucose, exercise changes glucose uptake, sleep and stress influence insulin sensitivity, illness can alter regulation and medications can shift the entire pattern. A perfectly flat line is therefore not a realistic definition of normal metabolism.

For someone with diabetes, the clinically important questions concern cumulative exposure, time in range, repeated hyperglycaemia, hypoglycaemia and whether the treatment plan is appropriately matching food, activity and physiology. For someone without diabetes, the significance of optimising every brief consumer-CGM excursion remains much less certain.

The graph becomes useful when it answers a meaningful clinical or behavioural question. It becomes misleading when every small movement is interpreted as damage.

The Central Idea

Blood sugar “spikes” are often discussed as though any increase after eating represents metabolic failure. That framing is inaccurate. A rise after a carbohydrate-containing meal is part of normal physiology; glucose enters circulation, insulin responds and tissues take up fuel. The clinically important issue is whether regulation is impaired, not whether the line moved upward at all.

In diabetes, excessive or prolonged hyperglycaemia clearly matters because sustained glucose exposure contributes to complications. Continuous glucose monitoring can reveal important patterns that A1C alone cannot show, including repeated post-meal highs, overnight lows and time spent outside an agreed target range. But even in diabetes, management is not about producing the flattest possible curve. Preventing hypoglycaemia is just as important as controlling high glucose.

Outside diabetes, caution becomes even more important. Healthy people can now generate detailed glucose curves through consumer monitoring, but greater measurement precision does not automatically create greater clinical certainty. The meaning of every short post-meal excursion in otherwise healthy people remains less established, and it is premature to treat every peak as something requiring correction.

Food should also not be reduced to its glucose trace. Fruit, legumes and whole grains may produce visible glucose movement while providing fibre and important nutrients. A food high in saturated fat or sodium may produce a flatter line while still being a poor everyday dietary choice. One biomarker cannot carry the entire weight of nutrition science.

The most useful question is therefore not “Did my glucose rise?” It is “What does this glucose pattern mean in this particular person?”

Answering that requires context: diagnosis, symptoms, A1C, medications, overall diet, repeated glucose patterns and the possibility of both high and low glucose.

A glucose graph is useful data.

It is not, by itself, a verdict on the meal or the person eating it.

Medical Note

This article provides general health information and is not a substitute for individual medical advice. Diabetes screening, diagnosis, glucose targets, CGM interpretation and treatment should be determined with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.