Newbie Help with interpreting Glucose Parameters.

[Jan1956]

Hi I’m a newbie and I've just purchased my first Glucose Monitor - Contour Plus. Thank you for helping me to choose this one. I've done my first finger prick test but now troubled about my result !
Just to add that my GP surgery didn't agree that I needed a monitor but I felt differently as I felt I needed to understand the effects of food on my blood sugars if I was to help myself
My HBa1c was 55 on the last result and had risen for the first time from a prediabetes status.
I've been following a really careful low sugar, low carb diet and I've been fasting until lunchtime for about the last month. Michael Moseley style!
Today I took my first reading at 11.30 am following an overnight fast period. I’m concerned that my result is 7.3. This seems so much higher than I expected even though I've been so careful and on a fast!
Can any of the members please help me understand this reading?

My surgery have given me no guidelines or any advice whatsoever - the practice nurse just advised smaller portions and no sugar - she neverveven mentioned avoiding carbs (which of course I have done). ‍♀️ .
According to Dr Google I was expecting a fasting reading to be between 3.9 to 5.6
I would add that I’m currently unwell with a throat virus so wondering if this will impact my readings?.
Thank you all for your invaluable help.

 

[Martin.A]

.
According to Dr Google I was expecting a fasting reading to be between 3.9 to 5.6
I would add that I’m currently unwell with a throat virus so wondering if this will impact my readings?.
Thank you all for your invaluable help.

The 3.9 to 5.6 range is what I've often read as being what someone without diabetes would expect.

For T2s the target range is between 4 and 7 fasting and pre-meal, and to be less than 8.5 two hours after eating and no more than 3 above the pre-meal reading.

Yes, being unwell will usually raise your BG.

This is worth a read:-

In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) does not permit people with type 2 diabetes who are not treated with insulin access to diabetes test strips on prescription unless doctors state a legitimate reason or benefit for a particular patient.

In the UK, the NHS does not permit people with type 2 diabetes who are not treated with insulin access to diabetes test strips on prescription.

www.diabetes.co.uk

In the meantime I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi I’m a newbie and I've just purchased my first Glucose Monitor - Contour Plus. Thank you for helping me to choose this one. I've done my first finger prick test but now troubled about my result !
Just to add that my GP surgery didn't agree that I needed a monitor but I felt differently as I felt I needed to understand the effects of food on my blood sugars if I was to help myself
My HBa1c was 55 on the last result and had risen for the first time from a prediabetes status.
I've been following a really careful low sugar, low carb diet and I've been fasting until lunchtime for about the last month. Michael Moseley style!
Today I took my first reading at 11.30 am following an overnight fast period. I’m concerned that my result is 7.3. This seems so much higher than I expected even though I've been so careful and on a fast!
Can any of the members please help me understand this reading?

My surgery have given me no guidelines or any advice whatsoever - the practice nurse just advised smaller portions and no sugar - she neverveven mentioned avoiding carbs (which of course I have done). ‍♀️ .
According to Dr Google I was expecting a fasting reading to be between 3.9 to 5.6
I would add that I’m currently unwell with a throat virus so wondering if this will impact my readings?.
Thank you all for your invaluable help.

Certainly being unwell can affect your blood glucose. You are still really early days since diagnosis and morning readings are usually the last to come down when other pre meal ones have.
Some people find that fasting actually makes their level higher as in the absence of food the liver releases glucose to give people the energy for their organs to function and do things. For those people testing in bed before getting up gives a more consistent result as it is not influenced by activity and that release of glucose by the liver.
A realistic aim is 4-7mmol/l before meals and morning/ fasting and either no more than 2-3mmol/l increase 2 hours post meal or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal.

 

[Docb]

Hi @Jan1956 - don't panic, you can tell next to nothing from a single reading. You will get lots of suggestions why you might get a particular reading, and each of them might have some merit but it is unwise to try and assign any of them to explain what you might have got on a particular day at a particular time.

If you want to get some sort of picture of how your blood glucose behaves then you have a couple of options.

First you can test all ten fingers and thumbs one after the other and take an average. I have done this to save you having to, and am confident that what you find is that the readings are all different with as much as two whole units between the highest and the lowest. It also tells you that the number after the decimal point has no meaning, you cannot measure blood glucose that accurately with a hand held meter. Round everything to the nearest whole number. If you read that your results should be between 4 and 6 (not 3.9 and 5.6) and you got a 7 (not 7.3) would you as equally concerned?

Your second option is to start some routine testing and carry on for a week or two. Three or four tests done through the day, aiming to get your waking reading and readings a couple of hours after eating and then look at the wider picture. If you can use a spreadsheet, then plot a graph and see how the level goes up and down and whether you get big rises after eating. When you have done that you can try and make sense of what you are seeing. For me this is the better approach.

Used well and wisely a blood glucose meter is a very useful bit of kit to give you feedback about whether any changes you have made in your lifestyle are being effective. You can read little into single readings, unless like me, you succumb to the temptation of a big scone with jam and cream, and find after an hour a reading of 15 when it should have been 7 or 8. Thats a single result you can take note of.

Keep testing and see what sort of picture emerges for you.

 

[Martin.A]

It also tells you that the number after the decimal point has no meaning, you cannot measure blood glucose that accurately with a hand held meter. Round everything to the nearest whole number.

Just out of interest I just went to my spreadsheet and changed my recorded waking readings for September to date so that they were rounded to the nearest whole number. Before I made the changes my average over the 11 days was 5.7, and afterwards it was 5.6 (or 6.0 if I rounded it up), so it doesn't seem to make any difference whether I round my results - I get the same average either way.

5-point-something looks better than 6.0, though........

 

[Docb]

That is what you would expect @Martin.A and the more numbers you have, the closer would be the two averages. At least that is what my instincts say, I have no proof of it.

My point about rounding numbers refers to looking at a single number on a hand held monitor and trying to give meaning to it. Its when you look at trends and single readings, very different to what would be expected with a probable identifiable cause, that the meter comes into its own.

 

[Martin.A]

That is what you would expect @Martin.A and the more numbers you have, the closer would be the two averages. At least that is what my instincts say, I have no proof of it.

My point about rounding numbers refers to looking at a single number on a hand held monitor and trying to give meaning to it. Its when you look at trends and single readings, very different to what would be expected with a probable identifiable cause, that the meter comes into its own.

As I've often said I'm more interested in the trend than the actual numbers, on the lookout for any sign of the bad news that they might be trending upwards.

 

[Jan1956]

Hi @Jan1956 - don't panic, you can tell next to nothing from a single reading. You will get lots of suggestions why you might get a particular reading, and each of them might have some merit but it is unwise to try and assign any of them to explain what you might have got on a particular day at a particular time.

If you want to get some sort of picture of how your blood glucose behaves then you have a couple of options.

First you can test all ten fingers and thumbs one after the other and take an average. I have done this to save you having to, and am confident that what you find is that the readings are all different with as much as two whole units between the highest and the lowest. It also tells you that the number after the decimal point has no meaning, you cannot measure blood glucose that accurately with a hand held meter. Round everything to the nearest whole number. If you read that your results should be between 4 and 6 (not 3.9 and 5.6) and you got a 7 (not 7.3) would you as equally concerned?

Your second option is to start some routine testing and carry on for a week or two. Three or four tests done through the day, aiming to get your waking reading and readings a couple of hours after eating and then look at the wider picture. If you can use a spreadsheet, then plot a graph and see how the level goes up and down and whether you get big rises after eating. When you have done that you can try and make sense of what you are seeing. For me this is the better approach.

Used well and wisely a blood glucose meter is a very useful bit of kit to give you feedback about whether any changes you have made in your lifestyle are being effective. You can read little into single readings, unless like me, you succumb to the temptation of a big scone with jam and cream, and find after an hour a reading of 15 when it should have been 7 or 8. Thats a single result you can take note of.

Keep testing and see what sort of picture emerges for you.

Thank you for taking the time to reply and putting my mind at rest. I did panic you're right! It all feels so overwhelming but the points you make about taking a breadth of readings and looking for patterns is very valid. Thank you.