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Glucose testing

appleman

appleman

Member
Messages
12
Location
Northamptonshire
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I have an Accu-Chek Aviva Glucose Testing kit. My levels are up and down, now here's the thing, yesterday my level was 6.7 which is high for a pre. I tested again staight away and my level was 5.6. How can that be?.
 
The test strips are inherently inaccurate but large errors are often due to contaminated or damp fingers.
 
Apart from the variance in the strips every single blood cell carries a different amount of glucose so its not unusual to get different readings from the same drop of blood on different strips......
 
appleman said:
No point in using it then.
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There is every point if you want to control your diabetes and learn which are your personal danger foods.

All you are looking for are trends, upwards or downwards. Actual true numbers aren't important if you are not injecting insulin. We all have odd readings sometimes, ones we don't expect, ones that seem too high or too low and are outside our normal expected range. In those cases a re-test is advisable, sometime a second re-test. Then you can judge whether an average is necessary or whether one of the tests appears right. If any reading is within your normal expected range, then record it and move on.
 
You must know what spikes you otherwise you're only getting a small picture @appleman ... no point in that either
 
satindoll said:
Apart from the variance in the strips every single blood cell carries a different amount of glucose so its not unusual to get different readings from the same drop of blood on different strips......
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Glucose is carried around the body in blood plasma which is the liquid (95% water) that is left when the cells are removed so glucose meters are not measuring the glucose in the cells. Apart from the much greater effect of contamination of the sample, the strips are inaccurate due to temperature, humidity, sample size, age of the chemicals on the strip etc. The strips vary and used to have a code associated with each batch which had to be entered into the meter to compensate, this code is now held within the strip. Despite all this, the meters are accurate enough, when used correctly, for most diabetic purposes and I wouldn't be without mine.
 
Meters are invaluable but only if you take the readings correctly, otherwise you are taking a blurry picture.
There would be no point in taking a reading before a meal of sunday roast followed by a big slab of chocolate cake then wondering why your next pre is higher. You have not learned that the food in your last meal has caused that spike. Test pre and post prandial and note down the readings to learn about the different reactions to foods and the patterns that the readings show.
And lastly, we all get these rogue readings occasionally, I look on them as being like the times I drop a fork, spill my tea or forget something. There are just times when things like that happen.
 
I am learning to ignore the numbers on my metre, and only pay attention to the DIFFERENCE between my last and current reading, and base my future choice of meal or snack based on that difference.

T2.
 
Jo_the_boat said:
May I ask why Appleman? Just curious.
I, and many others, test before and after to see which foods spike our glucose levels so we can try and keep them down.
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I try to remain in ketosis. I therefore eat hardly any carbs, and if I do take something "just to see", it will probably take me 4 days to get back into ketosis.
For that reason, after a year of learning what suits me, I stick to foods I know and only new food that I can check beforehand is low carb. I test my fbg every day, but never do the before and after meal tests because there is no point - the food won't spike me because it has very little carbs.
My personal view is that telling everyone that comes on the forum to keep trying food to see what spikes them is a little irresponsible, who knows, continual spikes from testing may be dangerous in itself. Best imo to stick to things you know are low carb and forsake things that may not spike you (or may).
 
Hi @appleman you have a good meter there so hope I hope you will think about using it more effectively with the advice given above.

Impaired fasting glucose is just one half of the story of prediabetes, the other half being impaired glucose tolerance which is equally important and easier to work on.
 
Alison Campbell said:
Hi @appleman you have a good meter there so hope I hope you will think about using it more effectively with the advice given above.

Impaired fasting glucose is just one half of the story of prediabetes, the other half being impaired glucose tolerance which is equally important and easier to work on.
Click to expand...

Yes Alison, I have definitely learned something. Thanks again.
 
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