HSSS
Expert
- Messages
- 7,673
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
GP's telling diabetics not to test seems to be a UK thing. In Canada and I'm sure it's the same in the States, you are advised to test twice a day.
To be fair a random once or twice a day and without education is just as almost pointless as not monitoring at all. In both cases it’s because many drs don’t have a clue how to use testing for anything other than hypo avoidance or insulin dosing.my GP told me not to bother monitoring as it wasn’t really useful but didn’t explain why that was.
To be useful you need to be able to take the data, understand why you have the reading you do and be able to do something about it. Just a list of numbers is just that. This is why we advise people to take before and after readings. (Usually 2 hrs apart for meal testing) That way you know what that meal (or event or activity etc) did to you. You can choose to repeat, alter or avoid next time. You can see how it compares to a non diabetic reading (ultimately we aim to mimic this as best possible). Take enough readings across the highs and lows a day enough times and you’ll get a decent estimate of your hba1c.
The best a (twice) daily reading will do is tell you very very broadly how you’re doing over all. But considering how much readings can fluctuate during the day it could give a totally different picture taken at a different point of the day.