Benefits of Testing

Testing your blood glucose levels can help you to understand how different factors are impacting your blood glucose levels. Knowing how to interpret each result and how to take action is a very important part of testing.

Once you and your healthcare professional establish a target range for your blood glucose, you can use the information to adjust your food, exercise or medication.

When to test:
Some issues to consider:

• The type of diabetes you have
• Frequency in diabetes medication or insulin
• How often your blood glucose varies throughout the day

Recommended Guidelines for when it’s most helpful to test:

• Before meals-(pre-prandial)
  • Ranges should be between 90-130 mg/dL.
• After meals-(post-prandial)
  • Peak level should be less than 180 mg/dL.
• Before or after exercise
  • Ranges should be between 70 mg/dL to 300 mg/dL.
    (Avoid exercise if levels are lower or higher than above)
• Before bed/middle of the night
• Feeling symptoms of high or low blood glucose levels
• Sick days
• Starting a new medication

The key to feeling good for most people with diabetes is to stay between 80 mg/dl and 140 mg/dl. In addition to daily blood glucose testing, the A1C test (which is performed at the doctor’s office) provides a three month average of blood glucose results. Keeping your blood glucose level as close to normal as possible is the key to staying healthy and living well with diabetes!

*The information above should be used as a guideline. You should consult your healthcare professional to establish target ranges for your blood glucose levels.