When Is The Best Time To Take Your Blood Sugar

Establish A Routine For How Often And When You Should Test Your Blood Sugar

Work with your doctor to plan your routine. They may suggest checking it while youre fasting, before and after meals, or before bedtime. Each persons situation is different, so its important to decide on an arrangement that will work for you.

When youve set that schedule, make checking your blood part of your daily routine. Build it into your day. Many meters have alarms you can set to help you to remember to test. When testing becomes a part of your day, youll be less likely to forget.

/8the Right Time To Test Your Blood Sugar And The Correct Way To Do It

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 42.5 crore people are dealing with diabetes globally. The number is expected to increase to 62.9 crores by 2045.

The data is shocking and alarming because not just the elderly, even kids as young as 6 months old are getting diagnosed with the disease.

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Why Should I Check My Blood Sugar Levels

Keeping an eye on blood sugar levels has many benefits. For example, testing before and after meals helps you see how eating certain foods affects those levels. Knowing this can help you adjust your food choices and medicine doses.

Exercise also can change your blood sugar levels, so test them regularly when you’re active. This way you can tell whether your dose of diabetes medicine should be adjusted as you step up your physical activity.

And because being sick can mess up how much diabetes medicine your body needs, know your blood sugar levels when you’re feeling ill. This can help you and your doctor to decide if you should use less or more medicine, depending on your diabetes management plan.

If you manage your diabetes on your own most of the time, checking blood sugar levels also helps reassure your parents that you’re taking care of yourself.

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Dont Forget These Important Times To Test

You should also test your blood sugar if you:

Are sick or have an infection. Illness can send blood sugar levels up. Do a check every two to four hours. If its:

Over 250 mg/dl, check your urine for ketones if ketones are present in more than trace amounts, call your doctor.

* Over 250 mg/dl for more than six hours, call your doctor.

* Over 350 mg/dl even once, call your doctor.

Start a new blood glucose-lowering medication or change the dose of one. A prescription or over-the-counter medicine for a condition other than diabetes may affect blood sugar levels. Steroids are one example.

Are under a lot of stress. Emotional stress may lead to higher blood sugar numbers. Exercise even just a walk around the block can help reduce stress and glucose levels.

Feel as though your blood sugar level is too low. If your meter confirms it with a number of 70 mg/dl or less, eat 15-20 grams of pure glucose or drink 1/2 cup fruit juice or regular soda. Wait 15 minutes and check again to make sure it has come back into the normal range.

How To Reduce Blood Sugar

You can take steps to reach your blood sugar goals as soon as you find out that it is high. This is how to reduce blood sugar if you have a single high reading that may be dangerous:

• Ask your doctor what to do if you missed a dose of insulin or another diabetes medication
• Ask your doctor if your medication types and doses are still appropriate for you
• Drink water to dilute the sugar
• Exercise for 15 minutes
• Eat a small protein snack, such as a hard-boiled egg, ½ ounce of peanuts or pistachios or other nuts, ½ cup of beans, or ½ cup of plain yogurt or cottage cheese

If you have chronically high blood sugar in prediabetes or diabetes, you can follow this treatment plan:

• Exercise regularly, assuming your doctor approves it
• Lose weight if you are overweight or obese
• Eat a higher proportion of vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruit
• Limit sugary foods and beverages, fried foods, refined starches, and processed and fatty red meats
• Beware of starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, which can spike your blood sugar. Check out our guide of which veggies to avoid!

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High Blood Sugar In The Morning: Is It The Dawn Phenomenon

If you have high blood sugar levels in the morning, you may be experiencing the dawn phenomenon, the name given to an increase in blood sugar that usually occurs between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., according to the Mayo Clinic. One reason this occurs: During the early hours of the morning, our bodies secrete higher levels of a hormone called cortisol, says Dr. Spratt. When cortisol levels are high, it can make you more resistant to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate your blood sugar levels.

“Some people have a striking dawn phenomenon,” says Dr. Spratt. “You can look at their continuous glucose tracing and see that their blood sugar level suddenly goes up at 3 a.m.” If this is the case for you, your doctor may adjust your insulin medication or suggest you use an insulin pump .

Structured Blood Glucose Testing

Structured testing supports your routine or daily testing by giving you deeper, more targeted data to work from. It can help you determine if you’re in a safe range and problem-solve around how the things you do are connected to your blood sugar. You simply perform additional tests over a short period at specific times of day.

Structured blood glucose testing can help you:

• Discover how to best use your numbers
• See how certain activities can affect on your blood sugar levels
• Problem-solve around highs and lows
• Identify blood sugar patterns
• Work with your healthcare team decide if any adjustments are needed in your insulin therapy or other areas of your diabetes management

Pattern management: If you find that your A1C result is rising in spite of your best efforts, or if you don’t feel as well as you’d like, talk with your healthcare professional about the Accu-Chek 360° View tool. This simple paper tool helps you track your blood sugar over 3 days, so you and your doctor can quickly identify patterns that can guide adjustments to your treatment plan. As a result, you may be able to feel better and lower your A1C.2

Before-and-after testing: You may also decide to try the Accu-Chek Testing in Pairs tool. This easy-to-use, printable tool helps you see changes in your blood glucose with before-and-after testing. In just 7 days, you can see the effect a specific meal, exercise or other event has on your blood sugar.

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What Are Blood Sugar Levels

Your blood sugar levels, also known as blood glucose levels, are a measurement that show how much glucose you have in your blood. Glucose is a sugar that you get from food and drink. Your blood sugar levels go up and down throughout the day and for people living with diabetes these changes are larger and happen more often than in people who dont have diabetes.

You can check your sugar levels yourself by doing a finger-prick test, by using a flash glucose monitor or with a continuous glucose monitor . You can do this a number of times a day helping you keep an eye on your levels as you go about your life and help you work out what to eat and how much medication to take. Find out your ideal target range.

But not everyone with diabetes needs to check their levels like this. Youll need to if you take certain diabetes medication. Always talk to your healthcare team if youre not sure whether thats you theyll give you advice on whether to check them yourself and how often.

And theres also something called an HbA1c, which measures your average blood sugar level from the previous few months. Everyone with diabetes is entitled to this check.

High blood sugar levels increase your risk of developing serious complications. However you manage your diabetes, stay in the know about your blood sugar levels.

How Often Should I Be Tested For Prediabetes

Your healthcare provider will test for prediabetes using a hemoglobin A1c test, a blood test that measures your average blood glucose level over the last three months. If you fall into the prediabetes range of 5.8% to 6.4%, you will be tested every year. If your blood glucose levels are in the normal range, it is reasonable to be checked every 3 years. If you have prediabetes, you should be checked for type 2 diabetes every 1-2 years after your diagnosis. Continue Learning about Prediabetes Videos Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view. It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.Continue reading > >

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What You Can Drink With Meals

Add a low-calorie, low-sugar drink or choose water. Proper hydration is essential to helping your body remove excess sugar.

Some drinks that are good for keeping your blood sugar level low include:

• Unsweetened tea
• Unsweetened coffee
• Sparkling water or club soda
• Flavored water or sparkling water without added sugar
• Diet soda or other diet drinks

Levels In The Morning

The best time to check blood sugar levels in the morning is right when you wake up and before you eat anything. This gives you a glimpse of what may be happening overnight, and it gives you a baseline for the day.

These are goal levels, according to The Joslin Diabetes Center:

• Under 70 mg/dl if you do not have diabetes.
• 70 to 130 mg/dl if you have diabetes.

The dawn effect can often lead to a high morning measurement in diabetes. This is your bodys tendency to get ready for the day by raising blood sugar by increasing levels of counter-regulatory hormones the ones that counteract insulin as in normal blood sugar. For people with diabetes, you do not have the capacity to counterbalance this rise in blood sugar, so levels can be dangerously high.

Ways to lower your morning blood sugar value include:

• Eating dinner earlier
• Checking your medications making sure you are taking them properly and asking your doctor if they are correct
• Going for a walk after dinner
• Including protein with your dinner

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Foods That Fight Diabetes

Pritikin eating means focusing on whole foods that are naturally rich in fiber and naturally low in fats, sugars, and industrial refinement. Pritikin foods are vegetables, whole fruits , whole grains, legumes such as beans and peas, nonfat dairy foods, and moderate servings of lean meat such as fish, skinless chicken breast, and game meat like bison and venison.

What Causes Low Blood Sugar

Low blood sugar has many causes, including missing a meal, taking too much insulin, taking other diabetes medicines, exercising more than normal, and drinking alcohol. Blood sugar below 70 mg/dL is considered low.

Signs of low blood sugar are different for everyone. Common symptoms include:

• Shaking.
• Dizziness.
• Hunger.

Know what your individual symptoms are so you can catch low blood sugar early and treat it. If you think you may have low blood sugar, check it even if you dont have symptoms. Low blood sugar can be dangerous and should be treated as soon as possible.

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Check Your Blood Sugar If:

• You have symptoms of low blood sugar . This includes dizziness, shaking, sweating, chills, and confusion.
• You have symptoms of high blood sugar , which include sleepiness, blurry vision, frequent urination, and excessive thirst.
• You have a job in which poor blood sugar control could cause safety problems.
• You need help deciding if its safe to drive or perform other tasks that require concentration if you are taking insulin or have had hypoglycemia in the past.

You need to learn how meals, physical activity, and medicine affect your blood sugar level.

Testing Blood Sugar Levels In Dogs At Home

If your dogs diabetes is pretty well managed: the blood sugar monitoring system is an excellent choice to check the blood sugar level on an occasional basis. You can perform a blood sugar test quickly, conveniently, and at the time of your choice.

Whereas, if your dogs diabetes is a little hard to regulate, the blood sugar monitoring system can be useful to get the information, which might be necessary for your vet to identify more suitable adjustments to your dogs insulin therapy.

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What You Should Know About Diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic issue that happens when there are large amounts of glucose in the circulatory system. These abnormal amounts of glucose are an after-effect of the body being unfit to create any or on the other hand, enough insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that is delivered by cells in the pancreas its motivation is to help transport glucose to different cells, which will, at that point, be consumed and utilized for vitality.

On the off chance that there is insufficient insulin being delivered, then the glucose stays in the circulation system, bringing about high blood sugars levels. As per the National Diabetes Statistics Report of 2014, 29.1 million individuals in the United States are living with diabetes . This number is staggering to say the least!

Individuals who have diabetes either have an absolute absence of insulin, which is known as type one diabetes or they produce too little insulin or then again are unfit to utilize insulin viably, which is known as type two diabetes. An examination of type 1 and type two diabetes uncovers many likenesses and contrasts in causes, side effects, confusions, and treatment.

Hereditary qualities may assume a job in this infection, bringing about an individual acquiring an inclination to diabetes, which would then be able to be activated by natural factors such as infections.

Testing Too Soon After Eating

Knowing when to test and why that information is useful can help you better control your diabetes. “Often, people will test blood sugar half an hour or an hour after they eat,” says Uelmen, but this is sooner than experts recommend.

Testing too soon after you’ve had a meal or a snack will give you results that are probably too high. The solution for better diabetes control: Test fasting blood sugar, and test every time before you eat. Wait two hours after eating to get the best reading.

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How To Do A Finger

Your healthcare team will show you how to do it the first time, but these are the key steps:

• Wash your hands with soap and warm water. Dont use wet wipes as the glycerine in them can affect the test result. Make sure your hands are warm so its easier to get blood and wont hurt as much.
• Take a test strip and slot it into the meter to turn it on. Some meters will have tests strips built in.
• Remove the cap from your finger prick device and put in a new lancet. Then put the cap back on and set the device by pulling or clicking the plunger.
• Choose which finger to prick but avoid your thumb or index finger . And dont prick the middle, or too close to a nail. Place the device against the side of your finger and press the plunger. Use a different finger each time and a different area.
• Take your meter with the test strip and hold it against the drop of blood. Itll tell you if the test strip is filled, usually by beeping.
• Before you look at your reading, check your finger. Use a tissue to stop bleeding, then use it to take out the lancet and throw it away in your sharps bin.
• You can use the same tissue to take out the test strip and throw that away too. Taking out the strip will usually turn the meter off.

When You Suspect Hypoglycemia Or Hyperglycemia

If you are concerned about your blood glucose level, test them before making a correction. Some people try to make corrections based on how they feel rather than doing so based on actual readings. If you feel a hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic episode coming on, test first and then make the appropriate correction.

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How Are Blood Glucose Levels Determined In Dogs

Ideally, this involves serial blood or serum glucose determinations in the form of a glucose curve. Because of the nature of most dogs, hospitalization and serial blood sampling, no matter how gentle, may result in stress-related increases in blood glucose that will confound the results of a glucose curve.

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How To Stabilize Your Blood Sugar Overnight

The most important thing you can do to stabilize your blood sugar is monitor your glucose levels at bedtime, during the night, and when you wake up to look for patterns. This will help you determine whats going on in your body and how you can fix it. While there are many strategies people use to stabilize blood sugar at night, every person is different youll have to look for trends in your body, experiment with ways to lower glucose levels over a period of time, and learn what works best for your body.

• Check your blood sugar before bed. If its already high, your blood sugar levels may remain high throughout the night. To address this, youll want to start by adjusting when you eat your evening meal and what it consists of, and how much mealtime insulin you take to cover it.

• Avoid eating lots of food close to bedtime. For diaTribe writer Adam Brown, the key to staying in range overnight is low-carb, early dinners, with no snacking after dinner.

• Consider eating less food at night and taking more basal insulin to cover your evening meal.

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