Take Glucose Readings 2 Hours After Starting Meal or 2 Hours After Finishing
Understand Diabetes Testing
If you have diabetes, it's imperative that you learn to effectively self-test your blood sugar to keep your glucose levels in check. For example, results from a study of more than five,000 people living with diabetes showed that even those people who don't take medication for diabetes have better blood sugar control if they test regularly. The report participants' risk of early kidney impairment, strokes, and decease from diabetes-related causes was also reduced by one-3rd.
Of course, the accurateness of your results is tied to the accuracy of your checking — and to your understanding of what all the numbers mean. "The most important bespeak to me is that people are learning something from checking their blood sugar," says Sacha Uelmen, RDN, CDE, director of diet for the American Diabetes Clan. "Don't just look at those numbers, write them downward, and move on. If yous have diabetes, take an active role in your wellness." To go the most useful readings, learn these common blood carbohydrate testing mistakes and how to avoid them.
Testing Your Fingertip
"The unmarried biggest mistake people make is testing the fingertip where the nerves are located," says Renee Amori, Physician, assistant professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. The pad of your finger is the nearly sensitive spot, so testing at that place volition injure.
The solution for ameliorate diabetes command: Put your hands together with flat palms and fingertips pressed together. Test along the edges that are now visible. "Testing on the edges is going to be less painful because you're not going to be touching things with them," Uelmen says.
Cleaning Fingers Incorrectly
"Don't use alcohol on your fingertips because the drying action of the alcohol tin hurt," says Dr. Amori. Other mistakes people make are licking their fingers to go out a examination strip and non cleaning their fingers at all. Whatever was in your mouth or any you just touched is now on your finger and probable to be picked up by the exam. "If I just was eating an orange, I'll test loftier — I'm testing the orange, non my blood," explains Uelmen.
A study published in March 2011 in the journal Diabetes Care found that blood from unwashed hands had a greater than 10 per centum difference in blood sugar levels between the commencement drib and the second drop, and that error was amplified if participants' hands had recently touched fruit. The solution for amend diabetes control: For the most accurate blood sugar testing, wash hands with soap and warm water and dry thoroughly right earlier testing.
Using the Aforementioned Finger All the Time
People cull to utilise the same finger and the same spot in part because everyone has a favorite, says Uelmen, and also because calluses build upwards and cut down on the discomfort. Only varying your fingers is ameliorate.
The solution for improve diabetes control: "The goal is to employ a unlike finger each twenty-four hour period or each fourth dimension," she says. Switching fingers allows the pricked finger to heal and also helps to avert hurting caused past repeat jabs.
If your blood sugar readings are generally consistent, you lot tin can even endeavor alternate site testing, such every bit using the palm of your paw, if you want to get away from your fingers periodically. Merely merely using dissimilar spots on the aforementioned finger can besides prevent soreness.
Misusing Lancets and Test Strips
For the to the lowest degree pain and the almost accurate results, you demand the right blood sugar testing supplies: lancets, an accurate glucose meter, and manufacturer-recommended test strips. Skimping may not offer you the payoff you're hoping for; lancets start out very precipitous but quickly get dull and will hurt if you lot try to reuse them, says Amori. Also, using expired or poorly stored test strips can result in inaccurate readings.
Solutions for better diabetes command: Utilize a fresh lancet, make sure test strips are stored in a airtight container, and check the test strip expiration date before using.
Non Understanding Your Meter
Today's glucose meters are more than sophisticated in their accuracy yet easier to use than ever before. Still, you need to check your meter's accurateness periodically — and you should follow the manufacturer's instructions for doing this correctly. You lot also demand to know the fine points on how to use it and treat it, and what the error letters hateful.
The solution for better diabetes command: If you're dislocated near the ins and outs of your meter, ask for help from your doctor, diabetes educator, or pharmacist.
Testing Too Soon Afterwards Eating
Knowing when to exam and why that information is useful can help you lot better command your diabetes. "Frequently, people volition test claret sugar half an 60 minutes or an hr after they eat," says Uelmen, but this is sooner than experts recommend.
Testing too soon afterward you've had a meal or a snack will give you results that are probably too loftier. The solution for better diabetes control: Exam fasting blood sugar, and test every time before you eat. Await two hours subsequently eating to get the best reading.
Mindlessly Testing
If you test on a schedule without really knowing what those results are telling you, you could but be wasting test strips. Y'all might have been given the recommendation to test once in the morning, earlier and after eating, and then before bed. These actually are good times to test, says Uelmen, every bit long as you're learning from the results and you understand why you're doing it. For case, results taken before bed and in the morning time are related, just you need to know why and how, and then that you can make changes if necessary.
Solutions for better diabetes control: Check in with your diabetes educator or doctor to talk about your results and what they mean. Retrieve of testing as a mode to discover how your body responds to changes in medication, diet, action, and sleep, rather than just a routine you lot're required to follow.
Source: https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/living-with/blood-sugar-testing-mistakes-avoid/#:~:text=Testing%20too%20soon%20after%20you,to%20get%20the%20best%20reading.
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