Is it worth doing blood finger prick tests?

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Sulfate

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At risk of diabetes
2hrs 30 after lunch out today my blood was 5.8 which seemed low considering what I had eaten! I thought I'd check 2 hours later not eating anything else it was 7.3. I'm a little confused with doing blood readings, is there a better way of keeping tabs on my blood sugar. I'm feeling like I'm getting a bit OCD about it all.
 
Sulfate said:
2hrs 30 after lunch out today my blood was 5.8 which seemed low considering what I had eaten! I thought I'd check 2 hours later not eating anything else it was 7.3. I'm a little confused with doing blood readings, is there a better way of keeping tabs on my blood sugar. I'm feeling like I'm getting a bit OCD about it all.
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It could be your body was just acting normally in that if your blood glucose had dropped low your liver kicked in and released a bit of glucose to allow you to function. It is likely just normal fluctuation that people get.
My principal is not to do unnecessary testing and only do it when I suspect an issue or I am going to act on the information.
 
Sulfate said:
2hrs 30 after lunch out today my blood was 5.8 which seemed low considering what I had eaten! I thought I'd check 2 hours later not eating anything else it was 7.3. I'm a little confused with doing blood readings, is there a better way of keeping tabs on my blood sugar. I'm feeling like I'm getting a bit OCD about it all.
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From my experience wouldn't the variables of what you've eaten - slow or fast release carbs - and when you took insulin be factors? I have come back to testing with finger pricks 6-10 times daily in order to calibrate my cgm. I have two different finger prick machines that seem to agree with each other. I would say yes it's worth doing finger prick tests.
 
bujanin said:
From my experience wouldn't the variables of what you've eaten - slow or fast release carbs - and when you took insulin be factors? I have come back to testing with finger pricks 6-10 times daily in order to calibrate my cgm. I have two different finger prick machines that seem to agree with each other. I would say yes it's worth doing finger prick tests.
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The OP is only at risk of diabetes so not on insulin.
 
Sulfate said:
2hrs 30 after lunch out today my blood was 5.8 which seemed low considering what I had eaten! I thought I'd check 2 hours later not eating anything else it was 7.3. I'm a little confused with doing blood readings, is there a better way of keeping tabs on my blood sugar. I'm feeling like I'm getting a bit OCD about it all.
Click to expand...
It's worth doing as long as it's not random. Most test on waking, immediately before eating and then 2 hours later. Stick with that regime and over time you should be able to get an idea of whether your numbers are trending downwards, trending upwards or flatlining.
 
I agree that it might depend what the meal was, as it may be slow release and if it was a big meal, it can continue to release glucose long after 2-3 hours and maybe your body managed to deal with the early release but then ran out of ready insulin to tackle the rest of it.
It may also be that your later reading was an inaccurate reading either due to contamination on your finger or a duff test strip. Or maybe you were particularly inactive after the meal, or maybe you just watched a close game of football with your favourite team and the suspense pushed it up or you had an argument with a family member or friend or got some bad news, or you were stressed for some other reason. There are something like 42 factors which affect BG levels. Food and exercise and medication are the 3 big ones but lots of others that could have pushed your levels up later.
It is important to have a reason for testing and not just test for the sake of it. If you are getting stressed or obsessed with testing, take a break from it for a week or two or longer and then come back to it when you have worked out what you want to gain from it. Believe me, the numbers don't always make sense day to day as some days things go haywire for no obvious reason, but what you are looking for are trends on a weekly or monthly basis. Individual results can be spurious, but over time you see and develop an instinct for what works for you and what doesn't.
 
Martin.A said:
It's worth doing as long as it's not random. Most test on waking, immediately before eating and then 2 hours later. Stick with that regime and over time you should be able to get an idea of whether your numbers are trending downwards, trending upwards or flatlining.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply, I will start to do that from tomorrow. Do the results compare with hba1c? I realise that hba1c is an average over 3 months but would regular finger prick testing give an Indication of hba1c?
 
rebrascora said:
I agree that it might depend what the meal was, as it may be slow release and if it was a big meal, it can continue to release glucose long after 2-3 hours and maybe your body managed to deal with the early release but then ran out of ready insulin to tackle the rest of it.
It may also be that your later reading was an inaccurate reading either due to contamination on your finger or a duff test strip. Or maybe you were particularly inactive after the meal, or maybe you just watched a close game of football with your favourite team and the suspense pushed it up or you had an argument with a family member or friend or got some bad news, or you were stressed for some other reason. There are something like 42 factors which affect BG levels. Food and exercise and medication are the 3 big ones but lots of others that could have pushed your levels up later.
It is important to have a reason for testing and not just test for the sake of it. If you are getting stressed or obsessed with testing, take a break from it for a week or two or longer and then come back to it when you have worked out what you want to gain from it. Believe me, the numbers don't always make sense day to day as some days things go haywire for no obvious reason, but what you are looking for are trends on a weekly or monthly basis. Individual results can be spurious, but over time you see and develop an instinct for what works for you and what doesn't.
Click to expand...
Thankyou for your helpful reply to my question. I just want to get my hba1c down to 41 :(
 
Sulfate said:
Thankyou for your helpful reply to my question. I just want to get my hba1c down to 41 :(
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Whilst it is understandable that you want to get it down to "normal" levels 41 or below is not really a magic number and in fact as we get older there is some research which suggests that our HbA1c may naturally increase and using the same HbA1c parameters as for younger people may not be appropriate because our red blood cell turnover become slower, so the haemoglobin attracts more glucose because it is in our blood stream slightly longer, than younger people. As a Type 1 I would really find it very difficult to get my HbA1c down to 41. My latest result is 45 and I am very happy with that and will be happy with anything between 45 and 53 and I don't personally feel that at those levels I am under any significantly increased risk. In fact I am fitter and healthier than all my friends my age because I am careful about what I eat and I exercise regularly because of my diabetes, so I fully expect to continue to be healthier. My uncle was 84 when he died which is a decent innings and he lived with diabetes from his mid 20s and had several DKAs and hypo seizures and yet he was still cycling solo at 80 and he didn't have any of the modern technology like BG meters for most of that time. so his diabetes was much less well managed than mine.
I think the important thing is to improve your diet and fitness and weight if appropriate but don't fixate on getting your HbA1c below 41 at a cost to your mental health or enjoyment of life. Diabetes is a balancing act. 41 is a bit of an arbitrary number anyway and I believe that in different countries around the world they have different levels that they consider "normal" so 41 isn't universally recognized or magic. If you can maintain your levels below 48 that is a great result but even at 50, the risks are minimal. Keeping your body fitter and healthier will probably reap more health benefits and reduce health risks in general than fretting about getting below 42. Will be happy to rejoice with you if you achieve it but it isn't always possible for everyone and good management of your diabetes and general health is probably a healthier goal.
The reason I say this is that I was 114 at diagnosis and was hell bent on remission and determined to do whatever it took but unfortunately it wasn't possible for me and that took a bit of getting my head around after a lot of really harsh dieting. Now I am adjusted to the idea of managing my diabetes well and I am in better condition than I have been for 20 years, so I personally see my diabetes diagnosis as the start of a new healthier me rather than an illness that I want to be cured from. The diabetes actually keeps me on the straight and narrow to a certain extent. Not sure if any of that makes sense, but just my thoughts.
 
Sulfate said:
Thanks for your reply, I will start to do that from tomorrow. Do the results compare with hba1c? I realise that hba1c is an average over 3 months but would regular finger prick testing give an Indication of hba1c?
Click to expand...
Although there's no direct correlation between finger-prick tests and HbA1c, self-testing can give you an idea of whether your levels are going down, going up or not moving at all. My first finger-prick tests were all in double figures but by testing every day (fasting and post-prandial) over the next few weeks I saw them drop into single figures and they continued to trend downwards. My results suggested that my next HbA1c, 3 months after diagnosis, would be somewhere in the region of 60 and it came back as 56.
 
rebrascora said:
Whilst it is understandable that you want to get it down to "normal" levels 41 or below is not really a magic number and in fact as we get older there is some research which suggests that our HbA1c may naturally increase and using the same HbA1c parameters as for younger people may not be appropriate because our red blood cell turnover become slower, so the haemoglobin attracts more glucose because it is in our blood stream slightly longer, than younger people. As a Type 1 I would really find it very difficult to get my HbA1c down to 41. My latest result is 45 and I am very happy with that and will be happy with anything between 45 and 53 and I don't personally feel that at those levels I am under any significantly increased risk. In fact I am fitter and healthier than all my friends my age because I am careful about what I eat and I exercise regularly because of my diabetes, so I fully expect to continue to be healthier. My uncle was 84 when he died which is a decent innings and he lived with diabetes from his mid 20s and had several DKAs and hypo seizures and yet he was still cycling solo at 80 and he didn't have any of the modern technology like BG meters for most of that time. so his diabetes was much less well managed than mine.
I think the important thing is to improve your diet and fitness and weight if appropriate but don't fixate on getting your HbA1c below 41 at a cost to your mental health or enjoyment of life. Diabetes is a balancing act. 41 is a bit of an arbitrary number anyway and I believe that in different countries around the world they have different levels that they consider "normal" so 41 isn't universally recognized or magic. If you can maintain your levels below 48 that is a great result but even at 50, the risks are minimal. Keeping your body fitter and healthier will probably reap more health benefits and reduce health risks in general than fretting about getting below 42. Will be happy to rejoice with you if you achieve it but it isn't always possible for everyone and good management of your diabetes and general health is probably a healthier goal.
The reason I say this is that I was 114 at diagnosis and was hell bent on remission and determined to do whatever it took but unfortunately it wasn't possible for me and that took a bit of getting my head around after a lot of really harsh dieting. Now I am adjusted to the idea of managing my diabetes well and I am in better condition than I have been for 20 years, so I personally see my diabetes diagnosis as the start of a new healthier me rather than an illness that I want to be cured from. The diabetes actually keeps me on the straight and narrow to a certain extent. Not sure if any of that makes sense, but just my thoughts.
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Thanks so much Barbara I really appreciate the time you have taken to reply to my post. This forum us so helpful in so many ways🙂
 
Martin.A said:
Although there's no direct correlation between finger-prick tests and HbA1c, self-testing can give you an idea of whether your levels are going down, going up or not moving at all. My first finger-prick tests were all in double figures but by testing every day (fasting and post-prandial) over the next few weeks I saw them drop into single figures and they continued to trend downwards. My results suggested that my next HbA1c, 3 months after diagnosis, would be somewhere in the region of 60 and it came back as 56.
Click to expand...
Thanks again for your helpful reply 🙂
 
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