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The Question
08/05/09 01:14 PM

"When is the best time to check your blood sugar? Is it when you first awake or after meals."
Asked By: captkelly  
Category: Prediabetes

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My fqather had diabetes and I always saw him checking his blood sugar first thing in the morning.

Expert Answers (1)

08/14/09 08:11 PM

In the past, we encouraged people to test first thing in the morning and then before meals. However, with more knowledge and research, we have learned that the post meal blood sugar value is also a very important number. When you only test fasting, you miss a lot of information about how y our body and/or your medication responds to the food you eat. If time, energy and money were not issues, then testing fasting and before and two hours after all meals and again at bed time would be ideal. With this plan you would be able to see snapshots of blood sugars throughout all of the peaks and valleys of the day. For most people, especially people not taking insulin, this schedule is too complex. I usually suggest that people rotate their testing so that over a period of time they can see all of these snapshots. For some people that might mean testing before and two hours after one meal per day, alternating days. For example on Monday test fasting and then 2 hours after breakfast, then on Tuesday test before lunch and 2 hours after lunch etc. For other people, they would prefer to test multiple times a day for a week and then take a week off. Most experts will agree that the more you test the better your blood sugars will be, so testing at any time is better than not testing. A diabetes educator can help you to review your lifestyle and your medications and then help to work with you to determine a testing plan that is best for you.
Answered By: Deborah Greenwood
Accreditations: MEd, CNS, BC-ADM, CDE
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