Blood glucose numbers - what do they mean?

[Leadinglights]

Yes millimoles per mole, thanks. Now I recall my O level chemistry. So that's 42 explained and another dear helper has disentangled HbA1c so my interpretation of H=hydrogen was totally up the creek, though I did realise that A was not arsenic but not that I was in the completely wrong field - it is BIOCHEMISTRY NOT CHEMISTRY!! Forgive me. Hope everyone had a good laugh!

Nobody was laughing as it was actually a sensible question and I expect clarified it for others.

 

[amapola]

Hi there

Do I have to test sugar levels before and after each meal? New user so not quite sure

 

[mashedupmatt]

Hi @amapola and welcome to the forum - if you are testing it is recommended to do so before eating, and then 2hrs afterwards to see the effect that the food (and especially carbohydrates in the food) has had - this page from Diabetes UK explains about testing:

Checking your blood sugar levels

Knowing your blood sugar levels helps you manage your diabetes and reduces your risk of having serious complications – now and in the future. On this page:

www.diabetes.org.uk

Hope that helps

 

[Martin.A]

Hi there

Do I have to test sugar levels before and after each meal? New user so not quite sure

Only if you want to know how the meal affected your BG levels. Many of us have worked out our diets that way, eg cutting portion sizes or, in a worst case scenario, not having that meal again. Test just before you eat and then 2 hours later. Ideally you should be between 4 and 7 pre-meal and less than 8.5 post-meal, with a difference of less than 3 between the two readings.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi there

Do I have to test sugar levels before and after each meal? New user so not quite sure

Nobody HAS to do anything, but when you test your levels depends upon what you want to gain from testing. If you want to know how your body reacts to different meals then testing just before and 2 hours after eating is the tried and tested way to understand that and adjust your diet in line with the results you get. The thing is that Blood Glucose (BG) goes up and down throughout the day and night in response to approx 42 known factors, food, exercise and medication are the main 3, but lots of other things affect it including stress and alcohol and temperature and hormones. Testing just before eating and 2 hours afterwards kind of isolates the response you have to the food from most of those other factors, so it gives you the clearest view of how your body is responding. You are looking for a rise of less than 3 whole mmols/l between the before and after reading. If you don't take the before reading, then you have no baseline to know how much it rose.
Once you are managing to keep your levels mostly in range, then just testing after meals and keeping the rise to less than 8.5 mmols is often enough but if you are newly diagnosed and your levels are already higher than 8.5 or perhaps even just 7, then you really need to have that baseline reading to be able to see how the meal impacted your levels.

Basically, in between meals your liver is trickling out glucose from it's stores to keep your body ticking over much like a back up battery. If you are stressed, your liver will usually pump out extra glucose, this can be mental/emotional stress or excitement or physical stress like high intensity exercise. If you do low intensity exercise for a decent length of time your muscles will start to suck glucose out of your blood stream to fuel the cells that are using it up. So if I do a fast walk for more than 40 mins my levels will start to drop a bit. That exercise will continue to have a lowering impact on my BG levels for up to 48 hours afterwards as the muscles replace their stores from the glucose in your blood stream. So levels are constantly being pushed up or reduced by different factors and this is why the pre meal test is as important as the post meal test. If you don't test you might be 4.5 before the meal and 8.5 after which is a rise of 4mmols which suggests the meal was too carby for your body to cope. Alternatively you might be 6.5 before the meal and 8.5 2 hours after which means that meal was probably fine for you. Hope that makes sense.