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Blood sugars reduction

T

Thoughts

New Member
Hi I was diagnosed with diabetes -type 2- about five weeks ago and am trying to manage through diet and exercise. I have also been taking my blood sugars twice a day. My results generally have not been to bad. However, this morning before eating my result was 6.7mmols when usually it is about 5.5mmols. I have just bought a new machine so tried the old one and my result came back 5.5mls. So then tried the new one again and the result came back 5.5mls. My question is it possible for such to have such a large reduction in fasting blood sugars in twenty minutes or am I not using the machine properly? I suspect the latter
 
I suspected as much and one of the test strips might have been out of date which obviously does not help. But will see if it happens again. Thank you for getting back to me.
 
The decimal place that meters read to gives you a totally false sense of their accuracy. If they are within 15% of your actual BG level (difficult to prove without a lab test taken at the same time) 95% of the time, then they are within the regulations. Add to that, that blood is not homogenous and you are probably looking at +/- 1 mmol at that level being a reasonable difference and still being reliable. And yes, BG levels can change in 20 mins even fasting. Lots of factors affect BG levels and they can be more prone to change in the morning when our circadian rhythm is causing hormonal changes.

Out of curiosity which meter was your original meter and have you now bought a different make or just a spare meter the same make/model as your original?
 
MarkStAlbans said:
Measurement is a bit of an art form 🙂
Click to expand...
I am afraid I am going to disagree with that!

Measurement is a mechanical process. Interpretation of the measurements taken needs to be done with some appreciation of statistical methods and the errors involved in taking measurements. When you work that out things fall easier into place. A good start is to round the reading on your meter to the nearest whole number and then accept it could easily be a unit or two higher or lower. For single readings, It is only worth thinking about a reading of 3 units different to what you might have expected.

Art does not come into the equation.
 
rebrascora said:
The decimal place that meters read to gives you a totally false sense of their accuracy. If they are within 15% of your actual BG level (difficult to prove without a lab test taken at the same time) 95% of the time, then they are within the regulations. Add to that, that blood is not homogenous and you are probably looking at +/- 1 mmol at that level being a reasonable difference and still being reliable. And yes, BG levels can change in 20 mins even fasting. Lots of factors affect BG levels and they can be more prone to change in the morning when our circadian rhythm is causing hormonal changes.

Out of curiosity which meter was your original meter and have you now bought a different make or just a spare meter the same make/model as your original?
Click to expand...
Glucorx Q. Old and just bought a spare one. Back to 5mmols before breakfast now or thereabouts. Some of the old strips were out of date so might have used one of them.
 
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