Guidelines for Testing

[Allison]

Once again, I'm new at all of this..just wanted recommendations on testing times and methods. I haven't done it at all yet, can someone explain what it involves and how and when I should do it?

[alexg]

Hi Allison , basically according to the American Diabetes Association, before meals, glucose levels should be between 90 and 130 mg of glucose per deciliter of blood. Less than 180 mg/dl two hours after meals. At bedtime, your blood glucose levels should be between 100 and 140 mg/dL.

With that, you should probably start testing before meals, 2 hours after meals, and before bedtime. You could rotate the testing from breakfast to lunch to dinner and vise versa once you get familiar to your readings.

If you don't know this, you should first start off getting a glucose meter, some testing strips, and some lancets. I recommend Accu-Chek Compact Plus Meter which is pretty good in my opinion.

Hope this helped out...

Alex

[Allison]

Yes, very helpful. Thank You!

[cherokee_psh]

Allison,

There is a thread on here about obtaining meters free of charge. Several companies offer there meters. Afterall they make their money off the strips we buy. I recently received my frestyle lite from Abbott with 10 test strips free of charge. Some people contact several companies in the search for the one meter that best suits them.

Aslo the ADA recommended levels are a good starting point. Your doctor may have different bg goals for you.

[rotcoddam]

Once again, I'm new at all of this..just wanted recommendations on testing times and methods. I haven't done it at all yet, can someone explain what it involves and how and when I should do it?
One suggestion might be to test before and after every meal. If all your numbers are not where you want them, keep testing like that, changing your diet as you go until you get the numbers you want. When you have a perfect day, consider not testing at all the following day. If you can test before and after every meal every 2-3 days and not lose control, that should be plenty, especially if you are not on medication to lower your glucose.

Rotcoddam

[princesslinda]

Allison, when I was diagnosed, I was given the goals of 110 or less fasting blood sugar and 140 or less 2 hrs after the first bite of food. This is lower than the ADA recommended #s, but the doctor said the closer to the non-diabetic #s I can stay, the better off i'll be.

Prolonged high blood sugars can cause all kinds of complications, so i'd avoid being over 140 as much as possible...and if you continuously go into the 180-200 range after meals, i'd suggest trying some other foods.

Testing 2 hrs after your first bite will help you learn how different foods affect your blood sugar and help you make smarter food choices. When first diagnosed, I kept a food journal, writing down everything I ate and the corresponding blood sugars. Before too long, I had several blood-sugar friendly meals, and meals became much less stressful.

There's a great book for new T2s, "The First Year, Type 2 Diabetse," by Gretchen Becker. It's a great resource.

Also, post often, you can learn a lot from this place...I know I have.

[Allison]

Thanks so much for all of the helpful info!

[jps]

I agree with PrincessLinda and her more stringent guidelines. Personally, I think the ADA's guidelines are far too loose, especially since it's generally accepted that damage starts to occur with prolonged glucose levels of greater than 140.

It didn't take overnight to get this condition and it would be remedied overnight either. It's a long battle that requires alot of dedication. You're being here is a good sign because it shows you want to be proactive.

Aim high, very high and see what you can do. Some people just can't get there, but you won't know until you give it your 100% effort.

[Allison]

So, I should aim to be under 140 2 hours after each meal? Am I understanding correctly?

[fgummett]

That would be a good start but hopefully you will find that you can do even better. Take it one step at a time though... no need to bite off too much straight away ;)

Check out a site called Blood Sugar 101 for a discussion about the difference between what the ADA set as BG guidelines and what are the truly normal BGs which we should at least be trying to for... so long as it is safe and practicable for us to do so.

[jps]

I think 140 is a good start, but look for improvement as signs that you are doing things right. And as you see improvement, hopefully you'll realize that you can do better.

Along the way of improvement in numbers, hopefully you'll start to feel so much better, as I did. And you start to lose fat, as I did. Things like that make it so much easier to elevate your goals.

It may also take a few weeks for you to start feeling better when your numbers drop, so stay strong. But once you do feel better, oh man, you just don't realize how poorly you were feeling when the sugars were high. It's like night and day.

Life is so much easier to handle when you feel good.

[madlava]

I agree with the 140 mg/dl for 2-hour postprandial target most of the time for us T2's, especially because our meters can be off 20 or even 30 points in either direction, that way, if your meter reads 140, you know you're not going over 180.

[ograbme]

Howdie here.

I've been reading a number of posts here ... in fact, so many I get confused as to what thread I was in when I ran across the term/phrase "fasting blood sugar". What does this mean specifically in terms of how it is used when testing. My gut interpretation is ... this is the time period interval between AFTER the two hour test taken after one has eaten a meal. Do I make sense here? In other words, one eats a meal, waits 2 hours and then tests his/her blood sugar level ... then the fasting blood sugar period begins ... until one's next meal or snack?

Confused as you can see (read), but am getting closer to a better understanding of a better testing schedule for me. LOL! My testing schedule stinks, but will improve with y'all help.

[fgummett]

Great question..!

Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG) usually refers to the BG test first thing after waking in the morning, before you eat anything.

An FBG test at the lab generally requires 8 hours without eating or drinking anything except plain water.


The test 2 hours after eating is generally called the "Postprandial" and just before eating is "Preprandial" :)

Prandial: Of or relating to a meal.

Although medical terms usually have a reasonably logical derivation, this is not the case with "prandial." It comes from the Latin "prandium" which meant "a late breakfast or lunch." "Prandium" was derived in turn from the Greek "pro-", before + "endios", midday.

Now, however, "prandial" refers to any meal -- breakfast, lunch, supper or snack..

[ograbme]

Thanks for your reply, fgummett!

Appreciate it!

[mooncat]

I have a related question to all the "when to test" and "how high" discussion.

My 2 hour postprandial BGs are anywhere from 100 to 130, mostly in the teens & 20s, and I was happy with that. But a friend who was recently diagnosed said that her doctor told her to test at 1 hour, peak spike time, to see what her "worst" number is, and that she shouldn't be going over 120 at 1 hour. I've tested at 1 hour a few times since our discussion, and my 1 hour numbers can be in the 140s.

Do you think I should be trying to get my numbers down below 120 at 1 hour? I'm sure it's "ideal", but I'd like an idea of how many T2s on medication achieve that.

I have only been on meds and testing since mid December, and I'm thinking I want to ask my doctor for a medication increase, but I'm not sure, and would love some feedback. I'm thinking I could get the numbers I want with only slight tweaking, i.e. the Met 500 three times a day, or two 750 mg doses of ER, or something like that. What do you all think?

My average carbs-per-day are 45-65, and I know I can't cut them down any more or I'd feel totally deprived and wouldn't stick to it anyway.