How Often Should I Test My Blood Sugar

Blood Sugar Monitoring Daily Routines And Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot produce sufficient amounts of insulin. Insulin is necessary to balance blood sugar levels. Elevated blood sugar levels can lead to serious medical complications. Low blood sugar levels can lead to hypoglycemia. Blood sugar levels need to be checked multiple times a day.

What Happens If My Blood Glucose Level Becomes Too Low

Sometimes blood glucose levels drop below where they should be, which is called hypoglycemia. For most people with diabetes, the blood glucose level is too low when it is below 70 mg/dL.

Hypoglycemia can be life threatening and needs to be treated right away. Learn more about how to recognize and treat hypoglycemia.

If You Dont Have Diabetes Should You Monitor Your Blood Sugar

Several companies are working hard to make this sort of ad a reality, as they begin marketing implantable blood sugar measuring devices to people without diabetes. Called continuous glucose monitoring systems, or CGMs, they are often used by people who do have diabetes. These companies could reap enormous profits by convincing healthy people to start monitoring blood sugar. Already, many of us monitor our weight, heart rate, or steps per day.

CGMs use tiny sensor wires, or filaments, that pierce the skin to frequently and easily assess blood sugar levels. The filaments remain in place, usually on the upper arm or abdomen, protected by an adhesive patch. Results are displayed on a receiver or transmitted to the users phone.

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How Do Carbs Affect Blood Sugar

Carbs in food make your blood sugar levels go higher after you eat them than when you eat proteins or fats. You can still eat carbs if you have diabetes. The amount you can have and stay in your target blood sugar range depends on your age, weight, activity level, and other factors. Counting carbs in foods and drinks is an important tool for managing blood sugar levels. Make sure to talk to your health care team about the best carb goals for you.

Checking Your Blood Glucose Levels Will Help You To:

• Develop confidence in looking after your diabetes.
• Better understand the relationship between your blood glucose levels and the exercise you do, the food you eat and other lifestyle influences such as travel, stress and illness.
• Know how your lifestyle choices and medication, if used, are making a difference.
• Find out immediately if your blood glucose levels are too high or too low , helping you to make important decisions such as eating before exercise, treating a hypo or seeking medical advice if sick.
• Know when to seek the advice of your diabetes health team about adjusting your insulin, tablets, meal or snack planning when blood glucose goals are not being met.

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What Do I Use To Check The Blood Sugar

Two kinds of devices can test blood sugar or glucose levels:

• a blood glucose meter measures the amount of glucose in the blood
• a continuous glucose monitor measures the amount of glucose just beneath the skin in the fluid around the cells

Your childs care team can tell you which device is best for your child.

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How Often To Test Your Blood Glucose

Checking your blood sugar, keeping a record of your results, and using your results to improve your management is an important part of having diabetes. But before you grab your meter and check your blood glucose level, ask: Why am I checking now? How will I use the information to make decisions in how I manage my diabetes? If you dont know, find out before you do a check. Our blood sugar guide answers your questions about when and how often to check.

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How Often Should You Check Blood Sugar And Hba1c Levels

We often forget that we are an indispensable aspect of treating our diabetes. Self-testing your blood sugar and HBA1C is extremely important in managing your diabetes and preventing long-term complications. A portable electronic device called the glucose meter is used to measure blood glucose levels. Testing should be done as advised by your doctor, but one should generally test twice a month at least. The frequency of testing your blood sugars also depends on the type of diabetes.

Get The Best Use Out Of Your Strips

There are many times you could check. How often should you? “Everyone wants black-and-white answers,” says Mary M. Austin, R.D., CDE. “It’s not how often you do it it’s what you do with the information.”

Endocrinologist Tom Elasy says people and health care providers need to distinguish between the intensification stages of diabetes — when diabetes is newly diagnosed or when you and your provider make changes in your treatment plan — and the maintenance phase — when you are reaching your glucose goals and things are in a pretty steady state.

How to Make the Best Use of Your Strips: Medicare, for people who have Part B, covers 100 test strips every three months for a PWD who doesn’t take insulin.

For someone newly diagnosed with type 2, how can you make the best use of your strips? According to Elasy, use more strips when you’re diagnosed and learning about the impact of what you eat, your physical activity, and medications on your glucose levels. Once you get a sense of your fluctuating glucose levels, testing doesn’t need to happen as often. As type 2 diabetes progresses over time, renewed, more frequent testing often is necessary.

People who do not take any glucose-lowering medications might want to check at least once or twice a week just to keep track. It is recommended that you do monitor and use your allotted strips wisely. Monitoring can have a powerful, positive effect on how you subsequently eat or the likelihood that you’ll take a walk, Elasy notes.

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Managing Blood Sugar When Youre Ill

When you get sick, your blood sugar levels may fluctuate and become unpredictable.

If youre sick, its very important that you:

• drink plenty of water or sugar-free fluids
• check your blood sugar levels more often than usual
• take 15 grams of carbohydrate every hour if you are not able to follow your usual meal plan
• replace food with fluids that contain sugar if you cant eat solid food
• continue to take your insulin or other diabetes medication

If you have a cold or flu and want to use a cold remedy or cough syrup, ask your pharmacist to help you make a good choice. Many cold remedies and cough syrups contain sugar, so try to pick sugar-free products.

As an extra precaution, you should always check with your health-care team about guidelines for insulin adjustment or medication changes during an illness.

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How Often Should The Test Be Performed

The frequency of testing depends on the type of diabetes you have and the type of medication therapy you are on:

• People with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who use insulin more than once a day are recommended to test their blood glucose at least 3 times per day.
• People with type 2 diabetes who are using insulin once a day should test their blood glucose once a day.
• People with type 2 diabetes who are not using insulin should speak to their physician or primary health care provider about how often they should test. Usually, but not always, these people need to test less often.

Regardless of how often you test, it is important that you try to test at different times each day and do tests both before and after meals in order to get a complete picture of your blood glucose levels.

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Blood Glucose Testing Made Simple

Checking blood sugar levels before and after meals can help you determine how different foods affect them and whether your diabetes management plan needs to be adjusted. Whether youre out to eat at a restaurant or eating a meal at home, having the right tools to stay on top of blood sugar monitoring is key.

The POGO Automatic® Monitor is an innovative all-in-one blood glucose monitor that allows you to check your blood sugar in one simple step, and you can get accurate results in seconds. Theres no need for separate test strips or lancets because all your supplies are integrated inside a compact cartridge with enough test strips and lancets for 10 tests. With POGO Automatic, monitoring is simple, even when youre away from home and when life gets busy.

The free Patterns® for POGO Automatic app automatically syncs to your POGO Automatic Monitor so you can view your results on your smartphone, identify trends, and share your data with your healthcare provider. You can also set reminders for when to check levels. If your levels are too high or too low, Patterns can automatically send you alerts with tips on what to do next to support your health.

Knowing how long to wait to check blood sugar after eating can be very important for preventing potential health risks. POGO Automatic makes checking fast, easy, and discreet so you can stay on track, no matter what your schedule is and no matter where you are.

What Causes Low Blood Sugar

Low blood sugar has many causes, including missing a meal, taking too much insulin, taking other diabetes medicines, exercising more than normal, and drinking alcohol. Blood sugar below 70 mg/dL is considered low.

Signs of low blood sugar are different for everyone. Common symptoms include:

Know what your individual symptoms are so you can catch low blood sugar early and treat it. If you think you may have low blood sugar, check it even if you dont have symptoms. Low blood sugar can be dangerous and should be treated as soon as possible.

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Are Dexcom G6 Readings Accurate

The accuracy of the Dexcom G6 has been extensively studied. Based on the findings, we may say the device is one of the most accurate systems currently available.

For example, a 2021 study concludes that the Dexcom G6 CGM is a dependable tool for hospital use in people with diabetes.

Likewise, another 2021 study on children after surgery to remove the pancreas notes that the device produces clinically acceptable values to make reliable clinical decisions. The Dexcom G6 system has also been shown to increase users time in range by 15% compared to non-users.

CGMs use a data metric called mean absolute relative difference . Lower MARD values indicate higher accuracy. Generally, CGMs with MARDs below 10% are considered accurate.

According to Dexcom, the G6 has an overall . For reference, Abbott FreeStyle Libre has a .

Interested in finding out how else the Dexcom G6 fares against the Abbott FreeStyle Libre? Then check out this in-depth comparison article.

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How Can I Check My Blood Sugar

Use a blood sugar meter or a continuous glucose monitor to check your blood sugar. A blood sugar meter measures the amount of sugar in a small sample of blood, usually from your fingertip. A CGM uses a sensor inserted under the skin to measure your blood sugar every few minutes. If you use a CGM, youll still need to test daily with a blood sugar meter to make sure your CGM readings are accurate.

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Is It Possible To Test My Blood Sugar Levels Too Few Times

Depending on the type of diabetes and the treatment you are undergoing for it, it is sometimes possible to test your blood sugar levels too seldom. For example, if you have type 1 diabetes and you are testing your levels less than the recommended four times a day, then you are likely to find your condition a difficult one to understand and manage as your blood sugar levels may seem to be more out of your control when you are not monitoring these more routinely and picking up on patterns of fluctuation that routinely occur.

If you struggle to test yourself as often as required, this may be linked to denial about your condition or other psychological issues such as depression or burnout.

If you feel as though you are having trouble coming to terms with your diabetes, then speak to your doctor or a mental health professional such as therapist to learn about coping techniques in order to get your disease under control and help wrap your head around it.

If you are on specific medication that may cause low blood sugar, then some countries will, by law, enforce that you test your blood glucose levels before driving and at least every two hours during longer journeys. Should you fail to do this, then your hypoglycaemia may lead to road accidents, putting your life and others at risk. Low blood sugar can also cause light-headedness, heart palpitations and anxiety a dangerous combination when driving.

Before And After Meals And Snacks

If you eat first thing in the morning, your first blood sugar check of the day can also count as your pre-meal check, but if you dont, youll need to check again before breakfast.

This can inform you as to how much insulin youll need for your meal . If youre running a little high, youll need to bolus extra, but if your blood sugar is on the lower end, you can take a little less insulin for any carbohydrates eaten.

Checking before every meal and snack can help curb postprandial glucose excursions, otherwise known as the stubborn high blood sugars you sometimes can experience after eating a meal and not adequately bolusing for said meal.

Ideally, you should also be checking 2 hours after all meals as well, to determine if your meal bolus was adequate, if you took too much insulin, or if you need to adjust and take more insulin.

Two hours is the recommended time frame, because by then most carbohydrates have been absorbed into the body and most fast-acting insulin has already peaked.

When checking before snacks , make sure youre calculating any active insulin on board so you dont overtreat a high and end up going low.

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What Can Affect My Results

They may not be accurate if you have anemia or gout. If itâs hot, humid, or youâre at a high altitude, that can interfere with the results, too. So can vitamin C.

If you consistently see results that arenât expected, recalibrate your meter and check the strips.

The chart below shows you the ideal blood sugar ranges for most adults except for pregnant women. Your ideal range may be different from another personâs and will change throughout the day, so check with your doctor for your targets.

Discuss Blood Sugar Levels With A Doctor

• Make sure to speak with your physician about how often you should be checking your blood sugar and at what times of day or week checks should be done.
• Dont forget to ask your physician: “What should I do with all this information?” Your overall control will likely not improve unless you know what to do with the glucose numbers you are seeing!
• If you are uncertain how to use your meter, ask to meet with a diabetes educator for additional training.

How often do you check your blood sugar?

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How Do I Check My Blood Glucose Levels

Refer to your blood glucose meters instructions on how to monitor your blood glucose levels.

Your doctor or Credentialled Diabetes Educator will help you decide how many checks are needed and the levels to aim for. When and how often you should check your blood glucose levels varies depending on each individual, the type of diabetes and the tablets and/or insulin being used. Blood glucose levels are measured in millimoles per litre of blood .

Keeping a record of your blood glucose levels can be very helpful for you and your doctor or Credentialled Diabetes Educator. You can keep a diary or use a mobile phone app or website to record your levels.

Who Should Monitor Blood Glucose

If youve been diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or youre pregnant and have developed gestational diabetes, a form of the disease that occurs during pregnancy and goes away after a baby is born, testing your blood glucose levels regularly and at specific times throughout the day will be a key aspect of managing your disease.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that, for ideal use and implementation, anyone prescribed continuous glucose monitoring should receive robust education, training, and support and should be able to perform self-monitoring of blood glucose in order to calibrate their monitor and/or verify readings if they dont represent their symptoms.

It will be helpful to keep a log of your results, as well as details about what youve eaten throughout the day and how much physical activity youve gotten. With this information, you and your doctor can get a grasp on how certain foods or activities affect your blood sugar and what adjustments you should make to meet your target goals.

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