I’m sure many of you have been told to check your blood sugar levels by your doctor or another health professional. In this post I’ll give you some insight on who should test, why it’s important to do so, and what blood sugar readings tell us.
Checking your blood sugars is a very informative tool to make quick behavior changes based on the number you see on the meter. Some people with diabetes will be prescribed insulin to adjust based on those readings. If you are not adjusting medication based on your blood sugar levels, then taking a reading is purely informational, but still a great practice to do – especially if you change your behavior depending on the number that you see. If you do nothing with this information, please ask yourself, “why am I checking?”
These readings can tell you different things. If your blood sugar is high in the morning it can help us dose certain medications or work towards weight loss to lower those readings. If it is high after meals, we can look at your food choices to see if there is room for change there. If you have a low blood sugar (less than 70 g/dl) we can discuss whether medications need to be adjusted or other ways we can prevent further low readings through food.
Although checking your blood sugar levels can be a powerful tool, it is only useful if it redirects behavior. As part of this, I have attached a FREE pdf download of a blood sugar log. This log has highlighted boxes of times to test if you are new to Type 2 diabetes. This pattern of checking blood sugar levels is called a staggered schedule. It requires you to only check one time a day, but over weeks we get a good snapshot of what your entire day would typically look like. That way we can see where there’s room for improvement and make those changes.
I hope you find this tool helpful. If you need more individualized help or guidance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
