Lancet reuse & homeopathy

[happydog]

Advice needed on two fronts please. I am trying to do my own blood testing at home before I see the nurse and doctor this week since diagnosis 3 1/2 weeks ago. Results are a bit erratic but I was pleased to get the lowest ever yesterday 6.5 before dinner 8.2 after two hours, but 9.2 before breakfast this morning, so but I am not discouraged. My question is can I safely reuse lancets? If so how many times? I am needle phobic, so find the finger pricking horrible. I am using Bayer microlet.
Second question is has anyone tried homeopathic remedies? I have a friend who is a doctor but who also practices homeopathy and has many qualifications she is keen for me to try this line. Thank you as always

 

[Clarkey]

I always change my lancet after single use. Not because of any "safety" aspect but more because I personally think there's a risk that re-use could produce inaccurate readings. If the needle absorbed blood on the end then if it is re-used it might get absorbed by the fresh blood on the meter. Very unlikely to have much of an effect, but still that's what I think. I'd happily be proven wrong.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Advice needed on two fronts please. I am trying to do my own blood testing at home before I see the nurse and doctor this week since diagnosis 3 1/2 weeks ago. Results are a bit erratic but I was pleased to get the lowest ever yesterday 6.5 before dinner 8.2 after two hours, but 9.2 before breakfast this morning, so but I am not discouraged. My question is can I safely reuse lancets? If so how many times? I am needle phobic, so find the finger pricking horrible. I am using Bayer microlet.
Second question is has anyone tried homeopathic remedies? I have a friend who is a doctor but who also practices homeopathy and has many qualifications she is keen for me to try this line. Thank you as always

Hi, homeopathy, will not help your diabetes. The only thing that will are carb reduction and exercise.
If homeopathy helped or cured diabetes then everyone would be on it. Homeopathy though is great for loads of other things though.

Lancets. it's everyones choice as to how often they use them. I change once a week, others everyday others once a year 😱

 

[trophywench]

LOL

It's a well known Diabetic joke that we change our lancets regularly - so that means every year on St Swithin's day.

If there's only you using it, you haven't got blood poisoning for starters and you are 'normally clean', you should be OK.

The only place any infections have been recorded was when someone in a care-home in America was using the same one for all and sundry. Yukkkk.

They do get blunt as you go on. And after 40 years, your fingers get a bit tough too. So I currently use approx 2 a week. My pricker goes in 0.5s up to 5, it's set on 1.5 and I test approx 6 x daily. As soon as I bodge and nowt happens, new lancet.

Does that help?

 

[DeusXM]

By all means, ask the homeopathic 'doctor' what she recommends. But before accepting anything, ask her HOW each medication works. All qualified doctors should be able to explain the method of action behind any conventional diabetes medication. Therefore you should hold them to the same standard for homeopathic medication. If they tell you something vague like "it's good for blood pressure" or "it lowers insulin resistance", ask them how it does that. If they can't tell you, it means they don't know and they're just guessing wildly.

You should also ask them why any particular homeopathic medicine ight be superior toa conventional one. After all, conventional medication is tested, peer reviewed and then further evaluated by NICE so you can know exactly what to expect. Unless a homeopathic medication has been through this level of rigorous scrutiny, no-one can claim it is safer or has fewer side effects.

Finally, any doctor who tries to replace insulin injections with homeopathic medicine should be immediately reported to the medical authorities so they can be struck off and then to the police for attempted murder.

 

[robert@fm]

Sorry to have to say this, but homoeopathy is a crackpot pseudo-science based on the grain of truth that many drugs (e.g. caffeine, ethanol and digitalis) have an effect at low doses which is the reverse of the effect at high doses, e.g. both caffeine and ethanol are stimulants in small amounts but sedatives if a much larger dose is taken (though most people don't take enough caffeine for the sedative effect to kiick in).

The founder of homoeopathy noted this effect, and jumped straight to the false conclusion that the relationship is a linear one -- that the smaller the dose, the more powerful the effect, as shown by the red line on the graph below. (What actually happens in reality is shown by the blue line.) This has led to the absurdity that homoeopathic "remedies" are so ridiculously diluted that no measurable trace of the active ingredient is left -- you're paying steep prices for what is actually just distilled water. 🙄 You might as well try Perrier instead; it's just as effective, and far cheaper. 😛 😉

Graph illustrating homoeopathy; the myth (red) vs. the reality (blue). This graph is intended to show the action of a typical (unspecified) drug, which is why there are no units; the horizontal axis is dose level, the vertical axis is effect.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Not biased are you Robert? 😛

 

[cherrypie]

Advice needed on two fronts please. I am trying to do my own blood testing at home before I see the nurse and doctor this week since diagnosis 3 1/2 weeks ago. Results are a bit erratic but I was pleased to get the lowest ever yesterday 6.5 before dinner 8.2 after two hours, but 9.2 before breakfast this morning, so but I am not discouraged. My question is can I safely reuse lancets? If so how many times? I am needle phobic, so find the finger pricking horrible. I am using Bayer microlet.
Second question is has anyone tried homeopathic remedies? I have a friend who is a doctor but who also practices homeopathy and has many qualifications she is keen for me to try this line. Thank you as always

You have to make your own mind up about homeopathy I'm afraid.

An article here is worth reading.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/nov/16/sciencenews.g2

As others have said, there is no cure for diabetes and you need to know what she proposes giving you and why.
There are some herbs, tablets and potions that some people swear by to lower BG's but most of the evidence is anecdotal and not proven.

 

[randomange]

Do you mean herbal medicine, or homeopathy? I've seen a lot of people use the two terms interchangeably, but they're not the same thing - herbal medicines at least have measurable amounts of an actual ingredient in them, whereas, as Robert says, homeopathic remedies are just diluted water... Personally I think that any effect from homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect (interesting enough in its own right), but certainly nothing that should be used to treat diabetes.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Personally I think that any effect from homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect

I always thought the same, until homeopathy was used on my Welsh cob stallion in a last ditch attempt to save his life.
It worked and it def was no placebo effect that was for sure. 🙂

 

[Northerner]

I always thought the same, until homeopathy was used on my Welsh cob stallion in a last ditch attempt to save his life.
It worked and it def was no placebo effect that was for sure. 🙂

Serendipity?

 

[robert@fm]

You have to make your own mind up about homeopathy I'm afraid.

An article here is worth reading.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/nov/16/sciencenews.g2

Interesting article, and it mentions one of the reason why homoeopathy remains popular; the "Nowhere Man" effect, the tendency of people to see and hear only what they want to.

It reminds me of the time an artist enthused to me about another crackpot idea, that "most people prefer a rectangle whose sides are in the golden ratio" (the "golden ratio" is an ironic misnomer; it's an algebraic irrational number, ((sqrt(5)+1)/2, approximately 1.618; 5"x3" file cards are a good approximation of golden rectangles) and even "backed up" this claim by saying that a psychologist had "proved" it by running a clinical trial! When I tried to point out to him that a scientific experiment of any kind is meaningless unless it is repeatable, and that when other psychologists repeated the trial the only conclusion they were able to reach was the vague one that most people prefer a rectangle with sides somewhere between 1:1 and 2:1, he developed sudden deafness.🙄

That of course is the difference between a scientist and a crackpot; a scientist discards his ideas when they don't fit the facts, a crackpot discards the facts when they don't fit his ideas.

Do you mean herbal medicine, or homeopathy? I've seen a lot of people use the two terms interchangeably, but they're not the same thing - herbal medicines at least have measurable amounts of an actual ingredient in them, whereas, as Robert says, homeopathic remedies are just diluted water... Personally I think that any effect from homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect (interesting enough in its own right), but certainly nothing that should be used to treat diabetes.

Diluted water? Did you mean dehydrated water? 😉

That's one of the more interesting points made by the article, that "homoeopathy" and "herbalism" are often misused as interchangeable. Herbalism can be legitimate (some sufferers of depression have been said to benefit from St. John's Wort, for instance) and indeed is the basis of a lot of modern (real) medicine. When I used to stay with my mum over Christmas, because she had two dogs and four cats I took a herbal remedy for the animal-fur allergy I would otherwise have suffered.

I always thought the same, until homeopathy was used on my Welsh cob stallion in a last ditch attempt to save his life.
It worked and it def was no placebo effect that was for sure. 🙂

Sorry, but you're probably wrong there; read the article. Animals (and babies who are too young to have developed language skills) pick up all sorts of non-verbal cues from the people around them, so the placebo effect works as strongly on them as it does on adult humans.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Sorry, but you're probably wrong there; read the article. Animals (and babies who are too young to have developed language skills) pick up all sorts of non-verbal cues from the people around them, so the placebo effect works as strongly on them as it does on adult humans.

Placebos do not work on COPD I can assure you.

I bought this stallion from an elderly couple who through non intentional neglect had caused his problems. It was the worst case that had been seen for years and as far as the experts were concerned (and a lot were used plus a lot of money spent) there was no hope for him as all the modern drugs had been used to try and help him.

As a last resort I asked a homeopathic vets opinion who came and saw my boy made her recommendation which I follwed to the T and I had my lovely boy for many years after. I always had to top him up so to speak a couple of times a year. Cost was about ?50 yet the conventional vets bills had been in the ?1000's, with the end result of a recommendation of I had him shot.

 

[Vicsetter]

You might as well try Perrier instead; it's just as effective, and far cheaper. 😛 😉

I should avoid Perrier - do you not remember the scare in 1990 when Perrier was withdrawn because they found Benzene in bottles in Denmark and Holland. It also contains Sodium so may not be too good for you if you have high blood pressure. I believe it is subject to less testing than ordinary tap water.

Of course some bottles may still contain the memory of Benzene (homoeopathy reference here😛, I think)

 

[Copepod]

Homeopathy can work - as a child, I saw that calendula ointment was great for our guinea pigs when they scratched their noses on wire, but I'm pretty sure that's because the ointment base was good, rather than because of the presence / absence of any active ingredients.

For humans, people feel better after a homeopathic appointment because the practicioner has time to spend listening carefully, rather than because of anything that is prescribed. There's also some evidence that people value treatment they pay for more than what is given free of charge.

Plus, a lot of conditions, eg colds, will get better in a few days, regardless of what the sufferer or anyone else does.

Lancets - change them about once a month, as I don't want to waste resources, both initial manufacture and later disposal. I always keep a couple of unused lancets with each meter, in case I ever need to test someone else in an emergency only, as it's not recommended to share pricking devices. I've only tested someone else once - my partner who returned to a camping barn absolutely exhausted (and as it turned out) and hypoglycaemic, after many hours running round the fells in cold, wet & windy conditions.

 

[Urbansoulpie]

Just a thought that if you hate finger pricking, have you thought about pricking other places?

I always use my forearm, it's not as accurate as your finger but usually not far out, I've spoke to my consultant about it and he said it's fine to use your forearm apart from if you suspect your very low, in which case it's safer to use your fingers.

There are other options also, such as ear lobes or parts of your leg.

As far as lancets go, it's person choice, I try to use my about 4/5 times and then change it but it practice it could work out that I use them more than that!