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Yes, we’re all rushed through our everyday life, but in order to gain more control of blood sugar levels:

1. Slow down
2. Test your blood sugar levels more frequently
3. Document your blood sugar levels, food, medication, and exercise
4. Evaluate the results to see where changes are needed
5. Make small adjustments to your food, medication, and/or exercise to improve your results

You are worth the time and effort it takes to achieve improvements in your blood sugar levels!

“Self Monitoring of Blood Glucose,” or SMBG is important for several reasons because it:

• Helps you achieve and maintain target blood sugar levels
• Can help to detect or prevent low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia)
• Can help to detect or prevent high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia), diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) ,and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state (HHS)
• Helps you evaluate your body’s response to foods, medications, and physical activity

Why Test Blood Sugar Regularly

Do you test your blood sugar as often as you should?

The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) recommends that people with type 1 diabetes check their blood sugar levels 6-8 times per day, including:

• Before and after meals (to determine insulin: carb ratios)
• When low blood sugar level is suspected (check, then re-check after 15 minutes)
• When adjusting medication
• Before driving
• More often during illness and pregnancy

Testing of blood sugar levels gives us a perfect at-a-glance view of how our body is reacting to three inputs: food, insulin, and exercise. But that’s not all that needs to be done.

Although measuring these inputs starts with testing your blood sugar level, the key component to making a lasting improvement in overall blood sugar levels is more than just testing blood sugar levels more frequently.

The process of improving blood sugar levels is cyclical. Equally important to testing is documenting the results in some way, then evaluating the data to see what has been working and when you might need to make a change to your food (amount and/or type), medication (dosage and/or timing), or exercise routines (intensity and/or timing).

Whether you like it or not, you need a routine built around checking your blood sugar levels and documenting the data. This and only this will give you the information needed to gain control of your health. With this data, you can begin glucose pattern management (GPM) or analyzing the results of your testing and food intake. This recognizing, analyzing, and acting on the out-of-target blood sugar readings will help you move into the target range more frequently.

Read the full article here.

Author: Lisa La Nasa was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2002 at age 25 and has a strong family history of T1D; both her mother and brother were diagnosed in the early 1980s. In 2015, Lisa launched diaVerge Diabetes & diaVerge on Facebook where you can find her writing and coaching others through the daily challenges of diabetes management

Categorised in: Healthy Living

This post was written by NE Rancho Paseo Medical Group