Blood Sugar Testing Tips For Diabetics

For diabetics to properly check their blood sugar levels, they will need the following tools and supplies:

1. A glucose meter

2. Alcohol pads

3. Sterile finger lancets

4. Sterile test strips

Glucose meters in the market nowadays provide the complete set of tools for the diabetic to use. Various glucose meters have different prices and features. It is recommended for the diabetic to check with his or her doctor in advising a specific type and brand for the diabetic's use. Different glucose meters cater to different diabetics' needs. Some are more portable, have more memory, etc. But every added convenience comes with a price. The doctor can help you choose the perfect glucose meter for you. Before actually conducting a self-test, the diabetic must follow these SOPs-

1. Wash your hands carefully and completely with soap and water.

2. Use an alcohol pad to wipe the area to be pricked.

3. Prick the finger using the sterile lancet.

4. Place a drop of blood on the sterile test strips.

5. Follow the glucose meter for proper testing and checking.

It may be a good idea for the diabetic to keep a notebook to monitor his or her glucose levels at different intervals of the day or week. The frequency of testing should be given by your doctor. Blood sugar testing can be a painful experience for the diabetic due to the pricking involved. Here are some tips on how to make the pricking less painful-

1. Do not prick the tip of the finger. This is really painful. Always prick the side of the finger. Another thing to remember, only prick fingers. Never prick your toes. Not only is this inconvenient, this will also increase the possibility of infection.

2. Do not ever squeeze your fingers if the blood refused to come out. Let the blood come out naturally. If it does not, let gravity do its work. Never force the issue. Ask your doctor what you can do to encourage sufficient blood flow.

3. Do not prick the same finger every time. This will stress the area out making that specific finger sore.

4. Do not use the same finger lancet over and over again. This is unhygienic and incredibly stupid. Bacteria have already accumulated in the used lancet. Reusing the same lancet encourages infection.

Do not fool yourself by not eating and exercising more when you know you will check your blood glucose level that day. This will lead to inaccurate results and is not really helpful in helping you control diabetes.

Blood Glucose Testing - 6 Tips to Make Testing Pain Free

Did you know there are 6 simple steps that you can take to make testing your blood glucose a lot less painful?

At the moment, to accurately check our blood glucose the only way to do this, is to prick our fingers and check the resulting blood for glucose.

Pain is caused by the penetration of the lancet into the skin. The deeper the lancet penetrates the skin the more painful the testing but the more blood is provided for testing. If you need more blood for testing then the lancet will need to penetrate deeper.

The tips below focus on ways to get more blood out when you prick your finger with a lancet so that it does not need to penetrate the skin deeply and thus makes it a lot less painful!

1) Wash your hands with soap and warm water - this will help keep the testing site clean and help dilate the blood vessels in the fingers to increase blood flow.

2) Massage your finger downwards to the tip of your finger - this will help push blood towards the tip of your finger so that when it is pricked there is plenty of blood there ready to come out.

3) Have your testing hand pointing downwards below your waist - blood will flow more easily when following gravity downwards.

4) Set your lancing device - lancing devices have different settings to pierce the skin at different depths. If you use the tips in this article you should find that you will be able to use a lower setting but still have enough blood for testing. Try changing the settings to find the right level.

5) Select the right meter - different blood glucose meters require different amounts of blood to carry out a blood glucose testing. The less blood needed the less painful testing will be. Choose a meter that requires only a small testing sample such as the Accu-chek Aviva which needs only 0.6 microliter

6) Alternate your fingers - don't use the same finger over and over again. You have 8 fingers distribute the testing evenly. You'll find your fingers will recover much faster and blood flow will be better.