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Betachek Visual test strips

M

michaeldavid

Well-Known Member
Messages
387
Location
Norwich
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
not thinking
The first posting I made on this forum (some months ago) concerned Betachek Visual test strips, and the constant difficulty that I experienced obtaining them in the UK.

Happily, I should now experience no further such difficulties. For the Australian manufacturer, National Diagnostic Products, have finally sorted out the UK version of their internet store. And Betachek Visual can now be purchased on-line, in pounds sterling, here: http://www.betachek.com/uk/store

The price is £15.50 for 100 strips, plus £7.50 postage. But if extra packs are ordered, the postage remains the same. (Strange to tell, Betachek Visual are on the UK Drug Tariff; but there is currently no UK supplier.)

I would certainly recommend purchasing at least two packs. For with a good pair of scissors, each of the strips can be cut into up to five striplets. (This brings the cost down to just a few pence per test.) And if the few in-use striplets are kept in one tube, and the bulk of the uncut strips in the other tube, then the life of the uncut strips will not be reduced.

The control I manage to achieve over my blood-sugar is exceptionally good. (My last two HbA1c readings were 4.6% or 27 mmol/mol.) And I certainly couldn't achieve this control economically without Betachek Visual.

However, they won't be much use to anyone who doesn't have good control over their blood-sugar. For although they're very accurate for reading under 8mmol/l, they're not so accurate for anything higher. But my blood-sugar is almost always under 8mmol/l due to the insulin regimen I exercise and due also to my dietary regimen.

DAFNE is daft: if you're diabetic, you shouldn't even attempt to eat normally. So instead, what I do is 'feed the insulin' I take: I don't adjust my insulin much at all - I don't need to. And crucially, when I go to bed at night the insulin has run its course. (I take just a little long-acting insulin last thing to prevent my blood-sugar rising overnight.) So I always know that I can sleep safely.

I test my blood-sugar around 15-20 times per day, mostly using Betachek Visual. (I tend to use meter-read sticks only first thing in the morning and last thing at night; at any other time, the decimal-point accuracy of meter-read sticks is superfluous.)* And I very often get readings below 4mmol/l, throughout the day. But this is not a problem: I hardly ever get hypos.

I hardly ever get hypos on account of what I eat: dark rye bread (mostly) throughout the morning and into the late afternoon. Eating rye bread has a dramatically moderating effect on my blood-sugar. I still have to be careful: I am not immune to hypos. But I always get time to react. My blood-sugar never CRASHES.



*Meter-read sticks are not always so accurate, anyway. (Who hasn't had a false reading from a meter?!) And when you do get a false reading, there is nothing in the meter's visual display to indicate the reading's falsity. (It's now 11.00pm; and using OneTouch Ultra, I've just tested last thing - but I do it twice: the first reading was 4.7, the second was 4.2mmol/l; and that's a very significant difference.) But with visually read strips, there is such a warning: if I fail to clean my finger properly (after eating something sweet), then when I wipe the blood from the testing strip the reading given will be visibly smudgy. Visually read strips give FEELING. Meter readings are inert.
 
I'm glad you find the visual strips good for you but I find your views of DAFNE and meters very strange.
You are very fortunate to have such excellent control, some diabetics are blessed in that way, some struggle(past experience sister perfect I struggle). But having used visual strips and meters, I would never trust a visual test.
Well done for getting the strips to the uk but I for one won't change back from meter testing.

Kat




Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I haven't always had such good control.

I had to come to realise that the orthodox method of control, especially as represented by DAFNE, is seriously awry.

And in particular, I had to discover for myself that merely by eating rye bread I could safely keep my blood-sugar near normal all the time.

I also had to come to discover that diabetic experts are comletely uninterested in the control I manage to safely achieve. (But perhaps their marked lack of interest is not so surprising; for if they did show interest, then they'd inevitably have to start to rethink their own orthodoxy.)

Other diabetics' HbA1c readings (when they admit to them), and their complaints about hypos and 'carb counting' (and whathaveyou), make my point for me just as much as does my own professed control.
 
When I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 30 years ago, I soon returned to work as a motorcycle messenger in London.

And it's true, I did tend to eat steadily throughout the day when I had that employment.

So, no, you don't have to sit at home all day.

But if you want to achieve good control of your blood-sugar, then you cannot eat normally.

In particular, if you want to avoid the possibility night-time hypos, you certainly should not make dose-adjustments in a misguided and unrealistic attempt to eat normally.

But even though I don't eat normally, I do eat very well.

I like to cook, for example. And I probably eat far better than most diabetics.
 
I think that was just a figure of speech. Anyway, I am quite sad to think your diabetes controls you so much. The idea of DAFNE is to help us lead as normal a life as possible and, if understood and followed well, can be extremely good for type ones. (Even those who might not be honest about their hba1c!!!!!)

Kat





Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Michael is only posting to try to help. Agreed, his regime will not suit everyone. However, some of his points make perfect sense. The rye bread is a great alternative to "normal" bread. Also, the visual test strips are a great alternative for those who are not fortunate enough to get unlimited supplies free on prescription. You don't need to follow his lifestyle to accept his ideas.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I don't have to 'count carbs', nor do I tend to make any significant dose-adjustments to my insulin. And my life - if not my diet - is relatively normal as a result.

My long-term health prospects are excellent. (They would be better if I didn't smoke.)

What's controls me, and what controls my diabetes, is my somewhat obsessive thinking.

The objections to what I've written, so far, are more clichés of thought than figures of speech.

The obsession with meters (clearly evident on this forum), and the associated disdain for the far-cheaper and simpler visually read strips (nb. I use both forms of testing), manifests a cliché of thought: in a word, it's reverse-Luddism.

Thanks, Mo.
 
I 'm glad you find the strips work for you but I don't think that everyone found the visual strips as effective as you do. Certainly some of the older studies I looked at suggested that many people were not very efficient at reading the strips accurately, a lot depended upon the lighting and obviously the individual's visual acuity.

I also find the concept of feeding the insulin to be backwards way on . It may be necessary with mixed insulin or some of the older insulins that have peaks but It's the opposite of what your body would do. Fortunately with more modern insulins and even more so with pumps, it is possible to make a nearer approximation to what your body would do .

My activity level varies from day to day as does my insulin. I can't imagine how your technique would work on a long run or a backpacking holiday or even (perhaps especially) on a long motorway drive.

I also have a good HbA1c, higher than yours (5.8%) but I'm happy with that . A few years ago, I made a decision , with the advice of my diabetologist but also other people on forums, to deliberately raise my levels to eliminate too many low levels.

I found that being frequently at levels sub 4mmol/l lead to a loss of hypo symptoms. I felt fine and that I was functioning well but those hypo signs are there for a purpose ie.to alert you to eat ( and it happens with non diabetics too). Even when your levels aren't much below 4mmol/l the reduction of glucose to the brain may result in some cognitive impairment* ; this is not sensible when driving ,on walks in the middle of nowhere nor for someone trying to do their job or look after their child.

* for example this study found people's driving ability was impaired at levels between 3.4-4.0.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/23/2/163.long
 
As I wrote previously, the strips are not very accurate for anything over 8mmol/l. But they're very accurate if - and only if - you're blood-sugar is well controlled. (Judging by the HbA1c results shown on this forum, most diabetics' blood-sugar is not very well controlled.)

If using Betachek Visual, you'd have to have a serious visual deficit to be unable to accurately read a result under 8mmol/l.

To 'feed the insulin' is indeed, precisely, backwards-way-on: it's the opposite of what my body would do IF I were not diabetic. But of course, I am diabetic. So accordingly, backwards-way-on - ie. feeding the insulin - is the next best thing, insofar as the control of blood-sugar is concerned, to not being diabetic at all. (DAFNE is daft: it's completely unrealistic; if you're diabetic, you cannot hope to eat normally AND maintain healthy blood-sugar levels AND ALSO be hypo-free.) My HbA1c results speak for me.

I have done long runs (if my blood-sugar is high then I go for a long, hard walk); I have done backpacking holidays; and I have done long motorway drives. (One has to make adjustments to the conditions under which one is operating, of course.) And as I wrote previously, I use to work as a motorcycle messenger in London. (Though my blood-sugar wasn't quite so well controlled then as it is now.)

As I wrote previously, I am not immune to hypos. But since I began to eat rye bread steadily throughout the morning and into the late afternoon, I hardly ever have hypos. I always get time to react.

I am a carer for my 92-year-old mother. (She is as aware as I am how much better my control is nowadays than it used to be: quite regularly, I would be collapsing to the floor.) And in some ways, that's like looking after a small child.

None of the studies that you might refer to will have involved me and the insulin/dietary regimen that I exercise. If such a study were to involve me, then the experts would find that they would have to start to rethink their orthodoxy. But the orthodox thinker, as a function of their very orthodoxy itself, never wants to rethink anything. It would take a truly radical kind of expert to invite me to be involved in such a study.
 
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