|
Monitoring your blood glucose
levels For every
diabetic monitoring your own blood glucose (sugar) levels can be vitally important
in controlling your diabetes.
The current treatments in diabetes whether medicines or diet
focus on trying to keep blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible. There
are two main ways to monitor the body's glucose levels, testing for blood glucose
and testing for urine glucose. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.
Which method you choose depends on what your doctor advises you. Blood
glucose meters Testing
blood glucose levels has become very simple and very accessible thanks to a whole
range of blood glucose
meters on the market. Checking glucose in this way is the most accurate method.
This is especially important for patients with Type
1 Diabetes (Insulin dependent) and some patients with Type
2 Diabetes requiring insulin. This is because some these patients can make
adjustments to their insulin dose depending on the blood glucose test results.
Also patients with diabetes may experience very low blood glucose levels called
hypoglycaemia
or very high blood glucose levels called hyperglycaemia.
Often there are signs and symptoms of both. Using a blood glucose meter to get
an exact reading can help reassure or confirm that action must be taken. How
does a blood glucose meter work? The
2 main meters on the market at present are Accu-chek
Aviva and One
Touch Ultra. Both meters use the same basic principle. A blood sample is taken
usually from the finger using a finger pricking device. The sample is placed on
a specially coated test strip which is then inserted into the blood glucose meter.
Within a minute the meter will give you a result. The main drawback of this method
is that it does require pricking your finger each time to take a blood sample.
This for some can be nuisance. However, with recent advances in meter technology
the amount of blood required for Accu-chek
Aviva and One
touch ultra is minimal. This in turn means less pain when pricking the finger.
Urine testing
Urine
strips have the advantage of being pain free but the disadvantage of not bring
as accurate as a blood glucose meter. For
some, urine testing is a more then adequate method to test glucose especially
for diabetics who do not need exact blood glucose levels. Glucose only appears
in the urine (for most people) when glucose levels in the blood reaches above
10 mmol/L (180 mg/dl). At this point the kidney can no longer reabsorb all the
glucose being filtered and glucose appears in the urine. If you blood glucose
levels are below 10 mmol/L (180 mg/dL) then urine test strips will not provide
a result. Thus always use a blood glucose meter when testing for low blood glucose
levels, hypoglycaemia
as it will give you an accurate reading regardless of what your blood glucose
is. How to
use urine testing strips The
main two makes of glucose testing strips are Clinistix
and Diastix.
Click on either to learn more about how to use the urine strips.
Interpreting your results
How
you interpret your results depends very much on the goals your doctor has set
out for you and what you are testing for. A key point to remember is that blood
glucose levels will be affected by food and diabetic medication.
Next
>> Hyperglycaemia << Back
Would you like
to learn more about diabetes and read articles on topics such as monitoring your
blood glucose? Then sign up to our newsletter and be kept up to date with the
latest articles and offers on diabetic products.
|Learn
about Diabetes|What is Diabetes|Symptoms
of Diabetes|Diabetic myths|Screening
for Diabetes|Types of Diabetes|Managing
Type 1 Diabetes|Managing Type 2 Diabetes|Monitoring|
|Hyperglycaemia|Hypoglycaemia|Diabetic
Diet|Diabetic Recipes|Complications
with Diabetes|Further
Information|Shop| | 
