How to monitor blood sugar well

Everyone is like a child when they first start learning something new. This sentence is really appropriate to describe the adjustment of insulin dosage. It is not absolutely impossible to take good care of diabetes without measuring blood sugar at home, but it must be very difficult and very dangerous. Trying to manage diabetes without monitoring your blood sugar at home is like driving a car without a dashboard. You don't know the speed of the car, how much fuel is left in the tank, or whether the engine is overheating. Although the car can still be driven without these features, sooner or later an accident will occur, or the car will break down on the road.

Blood glucose monitoring can be roughly divided into four categories:

1. Real-time monitoring: This type of monitoring can be done by yourself at any time. The results can let you know whether your blood sugar level and ketone body concentration have increased.

2. Routine monitoring: These are regular monitoring that you do regularly, and they can help you adjust your insulin dosage, eating habits, and other activities in stages.

3. Continuous monitoring: Subcutaneous sensors can monitor blood sugar changes over multiple days, and these blood sugar data can be downloaded to a computer and graphed.

4. Long-term monitoring: This type of monitoring can reflect longer-term diabetes control, such as fructosamine or glycated hemoglobin.

So how should we monitor blood sugar?

We recommend that every diabetic patient, including very young children, do a 24-hour blood glucose profile every 2 weeks. To create this chart, you must measure your blood sugar before each meal and again 1.5 to 2 hours after each meal (if you eat a snack before bed, 1.5 to 2 hours after the meal), and Check your nighttime blood sugar again between 2:00 and 3:00 in the middle of the night. In addition, all diabetic patients should also perform routine blood glucose monitoring at a fixed period of time every day, so that the insulin dose for the day can be adjusted. As for monitoring at non-routine times, it is to answer certain questions: "Is this a sign of the onset of hypoglycemia?" "If I go to bed without a snack, will my blood sugar not be low at night?" or "What should I do in the morning?" How much insulin should I give?" If you measure your blood sugar but don't intend to respond to the monitoring results, there is no need to waste time measuring your blood sugar.

If you are taking insulin treatment and need to adjust your insulin dose for the day, you need to measure your blood sugar more than 4 times a day (before meals and before going to bed) to get enough information to control your blood sugar within an acceptable range. When there are changes in your diet or daily routine, you need to check your blood sugar more frequently. Once you are more familiar with how much insulin is needed for certain situations, you can test it less frequently. As your insulin needs change, you should also check your blood sugar more frequently. Possible situations include being under stress, being sick, engaging in strenuous exercise, eating out, or attending a party. At this time, it is best to measure blood sugar before the meal and 1.5 to 2 hours after the meal, and then change the dose of insulin according to the situation. If you want to know what effect "fast carbohydrates" (such as candy) have on your blood sugar, test your blood sugar 30 minutes after eating the candy. If the food is slow carbohydrates, such as chocolate or ice cream, it is best to wait 1 to 1.5 hours before testing your blood sugar.

I hope the above content can be helpful to the majority of sugar lovers. Finally, I would like to remind all diabetics to have regular follow-up visits and let the doctor protect your health.