Tests for Diabetes
Checking your fasting blood glucose (sugar) levels makes a difference when it comes to successfully managing your diabetes. But are you also making sure to test your blood glucose levels after you eat - Madeline R. Vann, MPH
image by: QPhUS
HWN Recommends
When your “normal” blood sugar isn’t normal (Part 1)
Here’s the thing. We’ve confused normal with common. Just because something is common, doesn’t mean it’s normal. It’s now becoming common for kids to be overweight and diabetic because they eat nothing but refined flour, high-fructose corn syrup and industrial seed oils. Yet I don’t think anyone (even the ADA) would argue that being fat and metabolically deranged is even remotely close to normal for kids. Or adults, for that matter.
In the same way, the guidelines the so-called authorities like the ADA have set for normal blood sugar may be common, but they’re certainly not normal. Unless you think it’s normal for people to develop diabetic complications like neuropathy, retinopathy…
Resources
How to Prevent Diabetes and Heart Disease for $16
The strategy I’m referring to is using a glucometer to test your post-meal blood sugars. It’s simple, accessible and completely bypasses the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies by putting the power of knowledge in your hands.
For Many Diabetes Patients, Skin Patches and Phones Are Replacing Finger Pricks
Wearable blood-sugar monitors deliver round-the-clock glucose readings—and relief from the daily grind of finger-stick blood tests
Why your “normal” blood sugar isn’t normal (Part 2)
Another key takeaway from this article is that fasting blood glucose and A1 are not often reliable for predicting diabetes or CVD risk. Post-meal blood sugars are a more accurate marker for this purpose. And the good news is that this can be done cheaply, safely and conveniently at home, without a doctor’s order and without subjecting yourself to the brutality of an OGTT.
Why Checking Postprandial Glucose Is Important
Checking your fasting blood sugar levels is a key component of successful diabetes management — but are you also making sure to test after meals?
Is Blood Glucose Testing Worthwhile?
So the health care system should figure out how to teach patients how to test productively rather than just testing. Productive testing is a lot cheaper than treating complications.
A Diabetes Home Test Can Be a Waste of Time and Money
Choosing Wisely, an educational campaign aiming to reduce unnecessary medical tests and procedures, advises against routine home glucose monitoring for patients with Type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin. It says there is no benefit, and that there are potential harms (a study has shown an association with increased anxiety and depression). This argument is supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of General Internal Medicine and the Endocrine Society. Of course, there are exceptions.
Diabetes: new test could detect the disease much earlier
The glucose tolerance test is the standard method for detecting diabetes. But our new study suggests that a different test can identify the disease earlier than the glucose tolerance test.
The Complexity of Diagnosing Type 1 Diabetes
Because each case can be as unique as the individual, some doctors may employ the following tests to find markers of T1D to ensure the optimal treatment plan: C-Peptide While most tests check for antibodies, this test measures how much C-peptide is in a person’s blood. Peptide levels typically mirror insulin levels in the body. Low levels of C-peptide and insulin can point to T1D. Insulin Autoantibodies (IAA) This tests looks for the antibodies targeting insulin. Insulinoma-Associated-2 Autoantibodies (IA-2A) This test looks for antibodies mounted against a specific enzyme in beta cells. Both the IA-2A and GADA tests are common T1D antibody tests...
Chemist Helped Invent Home Tests for Diabetics
Helen Murray Free teamed up with her husband to invent color-coded strips of paper that could be dipped in urine to detect glucose levels. These Clinistix tests, introduced in 1956, allowed people with diabetes to test themselves regularly at home rather than relying on expensive laboratory tests. The strip technology also was applied to tests for proteins and many other substances.
Diabetics can now test their blood sugar levels with a mobile device
Once people have applied the sensor on their arms, they can wave a mobile device a little smaller than a smartphone in front of it to read glucose levels. It takes about 12 hours for the wire to become adjusted to the person’s body, but afterward the device takes continuous data that tracks blood sugar over time for over a week. Afterward, you peel the sensor off slowly, and apply a new one.
There Will Be Blood Pricks
Diabetes has forced me to become a self-tracker, and I can't stand it.
When your “normal” blood sugar isn’t normal (Part 1)
In this article I’m going to introduce the three markers we use to measure blood sugar, and tell you what the conventional model thinks is normal for those markers. And I’m also going to show you that so-called normal blood sugar, as dictated by the ADA, can double your risk of heart disease and lead to all kinds of complications down the road.
Diabetes Screening Test
Do you think you may already have diabetes? This simple online diabetes screening test helps assess your risk for having or developing diabetes but is not intended to replace an examination by your physician!
Diabetes Symptoms and Tests
There are several ways to diagnose diabetes, and each way usually needs to be repeated on a second day to be sure you have it.
Do I Have Prediabetes?
Risk test powered by the American Diabetes Association.
Glucose tolerance tests: What exactly do they involve?
There are two types of glucose tolerance tests: a short version called the glucose challenge test, and a full glucose tolerance test. The short version is easier to do and serves as a preliminal test to determine someone's risk of diabetes or gestational diabetes.
Oral glucose tolerance testing
The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is currently the gold standard for the diagnosis of diabetes. The recommended preparation for and administration of the OGTT are important to ensure that test results are not affected. Interpretation is based on venous plasma glucose results before and 2 hours after a 75 g oral glucose load.
Diagnosing Diabetes
The 2 main tests used to measure the presence of blood sugar problems are the direct measurement of glucose levels in the blood during an overnight fast and measurement of the body's ability to appropriately handle the excess sugar presented after drinking a high glucose drink.
Interpretation of 10 Results of Typical Glucose Tolerance Tests
The glucose tolerance test (GTT) consists of drinking 100 grams of glucose solution and measuring the blood glucose values every hour to get a curve. The values obtained tell a lot about the body's sugar metabolism. The following 10 tables of results are typical and are interpreted briefly.
CDC
You’ll need to get your blood sugar tested to find out for sure if you have prediabetes or type 1, type 2, or gestational diabetes. Testing is simple, and results are usually available quickly.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Do not try to diagnose yourself if you think you might have diabetes. Testing equipment that you can buy over the counter, such as a blood glucose meter, cannot diagnose diabetes.
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.