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For a diabetic, who is receiving insulin, self-monitoring of blood glucose is as important as adhering to treatment.
Self-monitoring of blood glucose helps in establishing the right dosage, minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia, and customizing the dosage as per the patient's response as well as to the changes in one's diet and physical activity. This also helps in meeting the desired quarterly HbA1C goal and the reduction in risk of long term complications such as heart disease, foot problems, and stroke.
Self-monitoring of blood glucose is usually recommended for diabetics before consuming their meals in the fasting state and the resulting values falling above 130 mg/dL are generally considered unacceptable.
For some patients measurements after meals and/or night measurements before bedtime may also be required. Unacceptable values for the after meals results generally range above 180 mg/dL and the same for bedtime results are those above 150 mg/dL.
Self-monitoring of blood glucose may mean measuring the blood glucose up to 4-6 times a day for some diabetics who receive multiple daily insulin injections or those who have a history of hypoglycemic spells.
For others, who receive lower doses of insulin and having no history of hypoglycemic spells the recommended number of daily measurements may be as low as twice/once a day.
Thus, the diabetic individual's monitoring plan and the goals of the glucose values may vary from person to person and from time to time. This is best customized by the treating physician according to the individual patient's needs/requirements.
All diabetics who are on insulin must know the danger signs of hypoglycemia such as sweating, headache, hunger, dizziness, etc. and they should monitor their blood glucose every time when they feel those signs. Another important time to monitor blood glucose in diabetics is before the beginning of heavy exercises.
In the case of severely uncontrolled diabetes, self-monitoring may be replaced by the physician by more advanced forms of glucose monitoring, i.e. continuous glucose monitoring, use of sensors, etc.
References:
Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2019 Abridged for Primary Care Providers
Self-monitoring of blood glucose: Advice for providers and patients
10th Annual Symposium on Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose, April 27–29, 2017, Warsaw, Poland
Self-monitoring of blood glucose helps in establishing the right dosage, minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia, and customizing the dosage as per the patient's response as well as to the changes in one's diet and physical activity. This also helps in meeting the desired quarterly HbA1C goal and the reduction in risk of long term complications such as heart disease, foot problems, and stroke.
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Self-monitoring of blood glucose is usually recommended for diabetics before consuming their meals in the fasting state and the resulting values falling above 130 mg/dL are generally considered unacceptable.
For some patients measurements after meals and/or night measurements before bedtime may also be required. Unacceptable values for the after meals results generally range above 180 mg/dL and the same for bedtime results are those above 150 mg/dL.
Self-monitoring of blood glucose may mean measuring the blood glucose up to 4-6 times a day for some diabetics who receive multiple daily insulin injections or those who have a history of hypoglycemic spells.
For others, who receive lower doses of insulin and having no history of hypoglycemic spells the recommended number of daily measurements may be as low as twice/once a day.
Thus, the diabetic individual's monitoring plan and the goals of the glucose values may vary from person to person and from time to time. This is best customized by the treating physician according to the individual patient's needs/requirements.
All diabetics who are on insulin must know the danger signs of hypoglycemia such as sweating, headache, hunger, dizziness, etc. and they should monitor their blood glucose every time when they feel those signs. Another important time to monitor blood glucose in diabetics is before the beginning of heavy exercises.
In the case of severely uncontrolled diabetes, self-monitoring may be replaced by the physician by more advanced forms of glucose monitoring, i.e. continuous glucose monitoring, use of sensors, etc.
References:
Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2019 Abridged for Primary Care Providers
Self-monitoring of blood glucose: Advice for providers and patients
10th Annual Symposium on Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose, April 27–29, 2017, Warsaw, Poland
About the author: Dr. Naval Asija is a licensed MBBS Physician from India. MBBS is the equivalent of the MD degree offered by international medical schools. He is based in Delhi, India, and works as a medical writer, editor, and consultant. He supports medical researches as an author's editor, medical communication companies involved in medico-marketing activities, and medical technology companies in improving their products. He can be contacted via his LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navalasija/
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