Meter testing before diabetes

My husband tests his blood with my meter occasionally as there is diabetes in his family. The difference is that I get him to test at times when his BG shouldn't be high - usually just before dinner. *Touch wood* he's never had a high result yet. He also regularly checks his blood pressure and weighs himself regularly.

He calls these checks 'mini services' and views it as keeping in touch with how his body is working.

Yes, though, I do appreciate what you mean about hypochondriacs - I've read some of the posts. Its almost like people would like to have something wrong with them.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Munchausens-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx

My DSN said that a lot of the staff at the clinic wore a Libre when Abbott was dishing them out. A non diabetic colleague of her's spiked to 13.1mmol/l after a bag of haribo. Spikes happen with non-diabetics too, it's entirely normal.

Naturally the severity and longevity of the spikes ascertain whether the person is diabetic or not.

It never hurts to test, my Mrs does occasionally too. I wouldn't say she's a hypochondriac though - more curious than anything.

I bought a meter long before I was diagnosed because I had researched and knew that my inability to lose weight was at least partly down to insulin resistance (T2). I started lower carbing a few years before any diagnosis and felt much healthier and had more energy, but sadly didn't do enough soon enough to stop it in its tracks. It was hard not being supported by anyone at all. I hadn't found this forum (I didn't even think to search for it; I wasn't diabetic) and my HCPs weren't interested. At that time I thought I was the only one in the world who couldn't lose weight using conventional diets. My meter showed me I wasn't going mad and that giving up bread, pasta, potatoes and rice was the right thing to do.

On diagnosis I received the DUK booklet from my GP. I read it and threw it in the bin. I knew the advice to eat carbs with every meal (especially the advice to ask airlines for an extra bread roll ) was wrong. I was disgusted that the NHS should distribute such rubbish. I had also researched and found that diet drinks help to cause insulin resistance (T2) and was shocked to see the leaflet said that diet drinks were OK. So I was on my own again. Until I stumbled upon this forum.

I am not surprised that non-diabetics are buying meters. There is so much blaming of T2s in the press, (even on this site too). No-one wants that sort of feeling against them and so they try to help themselves by monitoring their own health. Good on them I say.

My partner has used by meter a couple of times out of curiosity - it would be vey unlikely for him to have diabetes but we have discussed what sort of ranges a non-diabetic would have or how amazing the human body is at working out how much insulin to produce when it is not diabetic.
I would not buy a meter if I didn't need one but I see nothing wrong with satisfying some curiosity about how the human body works once you know a little bit already.

I agree that self diagnosing diabetes with a home meter is not helpful at all.

I have been using a meter for 5 years and I don't have diabetes but am trying to control my prediabetes by eating to my meter which has been hugely helpful apart from when I listened to the nurse and stopped testing for 18 months and then got told off for for a rise in HBA1C to 42.

@Pinkorchid, I would encourage people especially with prediabetes/borderline diabetes to test if they want to. I don't think they need a diabetes diagnosis or anyone's permission.

A member in the last few months tested their partner after icecream and was worried and posted. Forum members said normal people spike all the time, nothing to worry about. Thankfully that member ignored us and took their partner to the doctor who was diagnosed with prediabetes/diabetes so you never know.

My hubs has been testing since having his heart attack because diabetes crept up on me after mine, good thing too as he was aware that things weren't quite right and was able to alert the GP to his pre-diabetes before it developed into the full blown beast, which meant the GP could tinker with his meds and take him off or reduce the ones that were taking him down the diabetic road, he now follows the same food trail as me albeit he has more carbs than me, but he has his pre-diabetes under control..........all thanks to his meter.........worth its weight in gold.

I had a meter before diagnosis and im glad i did as i was having far too many bg spikes to be healthy or normal, but when dr done fasting bm it was fine, so after 3rd fasting bm came back ok i asked gp to do a hba1c and low and behold DIABETIC, so if i hadnt thought it was wrong i was having so many spikes n pushed for hba1c i wouldnt have been diagnosed

Pinkorchid said:

It seems there is a real trend at the moment for people who have not got diabetes to buy a meter and start testing their blood or if they have a partner with diabetes they use their meter to check their own blood. Is this making people into hypochondriacs because invariably if they get a few high GB levels they think they have diabetes. Had we all tested our blood before we developed diabetes we would have found that at times we all had high GB levels depending on what we ate everyone does that is normal for non diabetics

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Not sure I agree here.. I think its great that people are starting to take control of their own health rather than relying on Doctors. I think it was Dr Kraft who thought that there were hundreds of thousands of undiagnosed diabetics who only turn up at the docs when they have done themselves enormous damage with consistent high blood sugars. I wish I had known about what can happen before I was diagnosed as I may well have done something sooner.

I wish I had known about bg meters when I was pre-diabetic. It wasn't even explained to me what that meant. Had I known I almost certainly could have avoided becoming diabetic.
My sister in law who was overweight asked to test herself on my meter. The result was 7.0, but it was just after she had eaten chips. I told her she really needed to test in the morning before eating, and after eating to get an idea of her bs levels. I gave her a spare meter so she could test herself. She has since lost a fair amount of weight.

It seems that whenever I mention diabetes I am either talking to at least one person with it or has someone in their immediate family either living or dead who is/was diabetic.
The advice given by doctors and nurses that we don't need to test could be quite damaging in some cases - I went to the second diabetes education sessions with a man who was really ill but had no idea if he had high blood glucose or if the diet he'd been put on was having a positive or negative effect upon him. If there is a ground level move towards testing it can only be a good thing as long as the information about what are good readings is also freely available.

I think it is okay that people become aware of their blood glucose levels... actually I think if it was much more widespread a lot of people could totally avoid becomming fullblown diabetics... and that would be a great leap for mankind..

From a personal point of view I can equate this to self testing blood pressure. Since my diabetes diagnosis and finding this forum I became aware for the first time that diabetes and high blood pressure go hand in hand. I have never had any blood pressure issues or concerns, but do use a home monitor and test myself. I don't regard this as being hypochondria. I regard it as sensible. I regard it as necessary to keep an eye on matters. If it goes up I will know, and will be able to do something about it.

I watched a programme about some (non diabetic) people who wanted to live longer and we're keeping their blood sugar levels between 4 and 4.5 all the time - so they had a meter. They ate like sparrows and really low carb. My husband has asked to use my meter but I said no as I struggle to get these testing strips from the doctor so I aint wasting them on you

Bon83 said:

I watched a programme about some (non diabetic) people who wanted to live longer and we're keeping their blood sugar levels between 4 and 4.5 all the time - so they had a meter. They ate like sparrows and really low carb. My husband has asked to use my meter but I said no as I struggle to get these testing strips from the doctor so I aint wasting them on you

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I have tested many of my relatives, of cause because they themselves ar curious, I pay for my test stribes myself... use 1-3 a day , 3 is 1£

I don't see any real reason why non-diabetics shouldn't self test - as long as they understand what they're testing for and why, and use the results to manage their diets and health.

I just wish that I'd known prior to diagnosis what all the high carb food my husband was buying and cooking was actually doing to me and I could have been more proactive in my concerns about eating it before all the harm was done.

Robbity

As we have t2 diabetes in the family, so all of my adult children have tested themesleves occasionally, just make sure they are not becoming pre-diabetics. The eldest has just tipped into the pre-diabetic about a year ago, and made the changes in diet needed to drop her blood sugar level back to normal and maintain them. So I think that self testing, if done properly at the correct times, is a valuable tool and not a sign of hypochondria.