- Blood sugar is very important to be able to monitor.
It helps you know whether or not
you're having good blood sugar control
or if you're over-medicating your blood sugar.
So typically what we like to do
is we like to use both fasting blood sugar
and something called a hemoglobin A1C.
A fasting blood sugar
is when you would take your blood sugar
approximately a half hour before eating
to be able to let you know what your blood sugar is,
and your goal is typically gonna be
somewhere between 80 and 130 on a glucometer.
Hemoglobin A1C is more like an average
over the course of three months,
and typically at a doctor's office,
you'd like to get a hemoglobin A1C
anywhere between two to four times a year
to see if you're on track with your blood sugar goal.
And typically for most people,
you wanna have the hemoglobin A1C goal of less than 7%,
but sometimes if you're an older person
or you have other illnesses,
your goal might be more around less than 8%.
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So a glucometer is a little machine,
and its job is to tell you what your blood sugar is.
Typically, they come in a kit, so you can have a glucometer.
You'd also have something called lancets,
which are kind of like these little needles
that you use to poke the side of your finger
so that you can get a droplet of blood.
You also get test strips,
which are used to connect to the glucometer
and help with the collection
of the blood sample for your blood sugar.
And so the way that you go about using a glucometer
is you have your kit, your test strips, your lancets,
you also wanna have at least two alcohol wipes
to be able to clean off your finger.
And really the first step
is washing your hands with some soap and water
to make sure that they're clean,
taking a little alcohol wipe and wiping off your finger,
you take a lancet, poke the side of your finger,
squeeze a little droplet of blood,
take another alcohol wipe, wipe that first droplet of blood.
That's not the one that you wanna use
when you're testing your sugar.
You're gonna squeeze your finger again
to get a second droplet of blood,
and then you take your little test strip
connected to your glucometer,
which you wanna make sure is on,
and then you put that droplet of blood
on the edge of your test strip.
Allow it a little bit of time to absorb,
should just take a couple of seconds,
and then you'll get a value on your glucometer
that'll let you know what your blood sugar is.
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- Hypoglycemia is defined as a blood sugar less than 70,
but some people may feel effects of low blood sugar
at different levels.
Reasons for low blood sugars include not eating enough,
being sick, drinking alcohol, exercising,
or taking too much insulin.
- So if your blood sugar is less than 70
when you're checking it,
I want you to do something called the 15-15 Rule.
You wanna give yourself
approximately 15 grams of carbohydrates.
So how do you measure that?
So 15 grams of carbohydrates
can come as half a cup of juice,
whether that's orange juice or apple juice,
it could also mean having a couple of hard candies.
Sometimes that means you have to
look at the nutritional label
and kinda do a little bit of math
to add up 15 grams of carbohydrates.
Another possibility is that there are little glucose tablets
that come in a small cylinder.
You take approximately four of those,
and those can also equal about 15 grams.
And if you're really low on options,
you can even do something as simple
as a tablespoon of sugar, corn syrup, or honey.
After you've had those 15 grams of carbohydrates,
you should wait 15 minutes
so that your body can absorb that sugar.
Then, you should check your blood glucose.
If your blood glucose is then above 70,
that means you've had enough sugar
and you're no longer having hypoglycemia
or this low blood sugar.
If it's still less than 70,
you should take another 15 grams of carbohydrates,
wait another 15 minutes, recheck your blood sugar,
and then if it's above 70,
that means that your blood sugar is in a safe value.
If you're consistently having low blood sugars,
it's probably time to go to the hospital.
If you have uncontrolled diabetes,
there can be a lot of scary complications
that can come with it.
Fortunately, if you monitor your blood sugar
and you meet a certain goal or range of blood sugars,
you can actually prevent yourself
from getting some of those scary complications
that can come with uncontrolled diabetes.
- The biggest barrier to controlling diabetes
is understanding how diabetes works and how to manage it.
It's really important
that you have a good relationship with your doctor
and you can talk to them
about how to best control your diabetes.