When to test

Your doctor or diabetes educator can suggest you when to test. Testing at specific times can be useful. There are eight test times for you to choose from:

1. Before breakfast

2. 1 to 2 hours after breakfast

3. Before lunch

4. 1 to 2 hours after lunch

5. Before supper

6. 1 to 2 hours after supper

7. Before bedtime

8. At 2 or 3 AM

The more you test, the more you will know about your blood glucose levels. The more you know about your blood glucose levels, the better able you will be to get those levels in your ideal range. Following are some sample lest times you may want to talk about with your health care team:

a) If you have type 1 diabetes - Test before each meal and at bedtime every day OR 3 days a week.

b) If you have type 2 diabetes and you are on insulin Test two to four times a day. Vary the times you test.

c) If you have type 2 diabetes and you are on diabetes pills -
Test one or two times a day. If you test once a day, do it before you eat breakfast. If you test twice a day, test first when you get up in the morning. Vary the time of the second test.

Practical Guideline to testing: It is often not possible and one may not be inclined to test as often as ideally recommended. Although not entirely scientific, testing one or two times a day, by rotation can give you a good idea of how your blood sugar behaves during the different times of the day during the week, and by noting the results and associating them with specific events helps one understand how these events influence the blood sugar level. Thus one day you may monitor early morning and pre-dinner blood sugar, another day post breakfast and post-dinner, a third day before lunch and 3 a.m. and so forth.

Who must test: [dearly all patients must test blood sugar regularly, although this may not be practical for ail. However there are specific conditions in which regular monitoring is mandatory.

1. Young children with Type 1 diabetes

2. Pregnant women with diabetes

3. Patients striving for good and tight metabolic control

4. During any illness, minor or major

5. During periods of physical or psychological stress

6. Patients with renal, hepatic or cardiac complications or associated dysfunction

7. Patients with autonomic neuropathy or those with a tendency to go into hypoglycaemia without symtoms

8. When changing therapy