Controlling blood glucose levels is absolutely necessary for diabetics to live a long and healthy life. Using diabetes test strips, diabetics can receive accurate feedback that helps them maintain healthy blood sugar levels. If blood sugar is not adequately controlled, serious complications could result. Diabetes can have a serious affect on most organs, not to mention the heart, kidneys, and eyes.
People who suffer from diabetes will need to monitor their blood glucose closely, and check it several times per day. You will want to check your blood sugar when you first get up and before you go to bed, if nothing else. Most diabetics will check their blood sugar before they eat, and then again two hours after. So, what is a normal blood sugar level? Your ideal blood glucose in the morning will be less than 100. When blood sugar is above 140, the body starts taking on significant damage. However, more recent research points to blood sugar levels as low as 120 being linked to damage to the body.
Knowing your blood sugar reactions by testing your blood sugar both before and after eating will help you plan your diet. It also serves as feedback as to whether your treatment is working. Your reading before a meal should be in the nineties or less. Your blood sugar can fall too low, however, such as in the sixties and seventies. Two hours after you eat, your blood sugar be under 125.
Levels higher than this indicate that you have either consumed too many simple carbs or your treatment plan needs to be adjusted. The same will be true when you go to bed. Your treatment plan likely needs to be adjusted if your bedtime blood sugar is higher than 105. Readings higher than 140 are a clear sign that you need to visit the doctor and make additional lifestyle changes, such as taking herbs to lower blood sugar.
Food is necessary when a blood sugar test strip shows a low reading. Proper brain function requires glucose. When blood sugar drops too far, the brain cannot function properly, leading to disorientation and a possible coma.
Blood sugar levels are testing though the use of diabetes testing strips. Diabetics need to test their blood sugar often in order to stay as healthy as possible. Nerve damage, circulation problems, blindness, kidney failure, and heart disease are all possible complications of uncontrolled diabetes.
Tags: Diabetes, diabetes test strips, healthy blood sugar, type 2 diabetes