Get More Out of Your Glucose Monitoring

Self-glucose monitoring is recommended for anyone who has diabetes.  It’s not always convenient or easy to test so how often you do depends on individual self-control and motivation to manage your diabetes alongside your physicians recommendations. The more you learn from each test, and are able to use that information to manage your day-to-day choices, the more successful you will be at managing your blood sugar. When you are successful, you’re more likely to stick with the plan.

Best Times to Self-Test

·       Before meal – Serves as a reference for tweaking prescription, such as does of insulin. Checking this reading regularly can help determine how well medicines, diet and exercise control is working. Pre meal levels that are within the normal range (80-120 mg/dl) suggest that the treatments are going well.

·       After meal – This test is performed two hours after a meal. It can be higher than standard due to impaired insulin response or food choices; insufficient dosing of medicine before or during meal also leads to higher than normal blood glucose levels.

·       Before exercise –Helps determine if you’re at risk for hypoglycemia and may need to eat additional carbs to sustain your blood sugar levels

·       Before bed – Low blood glucose levels could lead to hypoglycemia in the night. High blood glucose levels could mean that you are eating excess carbs/food in the evening or have insufficient dosing of insulin.

Checking your sugar is not enough. You need to be able to understand and interpret that information to make smart choices.  We love the FORA TN’G Blood Glucose Monitoring System because it comes with a free iFORA BG Mobile App that makes it simple to track, monitor, and view your progress over time from your smart phone. The app is convenient to use because it wirelessly synchronizes to the TN’G Blood Glucose Meter via Bluetoooth. Your test results auto-send to the mobile app. You have the flexibility to sync whether your test was taken pre/post meal. In addition, you can record your exercise, medication times and input your blood sugar goals and daily notes. To learn more visit https://www.fora-shop.com/.

It's Groundhog Day - Time to Change Your Glucose Monitoring Routine

Now that Groundhog Day is here, we know Spring is going to arrive early.

But until then, Winter poses some special challenges in managing blood glucose – it’s tougher to stay active, heavy “comfort foods” may be especially alluring, and the “winter blues” can reduce your motivation to stay on track with your glucose testing and healthy diet. 

Keeping a diary or journal can help you keep things under control.  Seeing the ups and downs of your blood glucose levels can motivate you to “keep up the good work,” or remind you of the importance of watching your diet and exercise.  But on the other hand, writing down numbers in a log book (or even typing them into your Smartphone) can become another barrier keeping you from your goals. 

You can remove the extra step of manually recording your readings with a Bluetooth-enabled glucose meter paired to a smartphone app eliminates that extra step – the data uploads automatically, so it’s one less thing to do. The ForaCare Test‘N Go Blood Glucose Monitor can pair with an iPhone or Android phone and automatically upload your glucose measurements to an iFORA Smartphone app. 

And since your Smartphone is almost always with you, it’s easy to check your progress anywhere, any time.  Like when you’re waiting for your table at the restaurant – and seeing that your glucose has been really good this week can inspire you to keep the streak going.  And that can give you the will power to order the side salad instead of fries to go with your sandwich. 

So let’s be happy that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, so we are in for an early Spring.  And with the Test ‘N Go Blood Glucose Monitor and iFORA Smartphone App helping you stick to your testing schedule and your healthy diet, you can also be happy when swimsuit weather arrives early.      

Managing Diabetes Is A Family Affair

When you’re a diabetic eating healthy is challenging.  Gaining the support of family and friends is crucial on your everyday path toward better health. But did you ever think that when those around you support your healthier choices they may also be helping themselves?

If you’re a recently diagnosed diabetic, your spouse or domestic partners is more likely to develop diabetes themselves, concludes a study presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 2015 Scientific Sessions. The study analyzed health data from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California (KPNC), an integrated health care system with over 3 million members. 

In general, the incidence of diabetes (rate of new cases diagnosed) for KPNC members was similar to the U.S. population.  But diabetes was diagnosed at a much higher rate among members whose spouse / domestic partner had been diagnosed with diabetes in the previous year.  This was true for both men and women, and for all age groups:   

	Overall KPNC Incidence	With Recently Diagnosed Spouses / Domestic Partners	Increase
All	0.83%	1.71%	206%
Men	0.96%	2.22%	231%
Women	0.71%	1.35%	190%
18-44 y.o.	0.34%	1.08%	318%
45-64 y.o.	1.17%	1.74%	149%
65-79 y.o.	1.50%	2.19%	146%

 

While first-degree genetic relatives (mother, father, sister, brother) with diabetes is one of the ADA’s risk factors, this may be evidence that a non-genetic family member with diabetes can a risk factor. 

As for the rest of the family, we all know that kids can make it tougher to stick to your diet, even if you have a partner joining you.  After all, sometimes it seems like they can (and do) eat pretty much anything they want, which increases our temptations.   But it turns out that they can also benefit from a little food discipline. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans.   The Guidelines are updated every five years, and the 2015 edition includes a recommendation for daily intake of added sugars – less than 10% of daily calories should be from added sugars.  According to the Department of Agriculture, all Americans are currently above the 10% limit, and it’s especially true for children and teenagers:

	Male	Female
1 – 3 y.o.	11%	11%
4 – 8 y.o.	15%	15%
9 – 13 y.o.	17%	17%
14 – 18 y.o.	17%	17%
19 – 30 y.o.	15%	16%
31 – 50 y.o.	13%	14%
51 – 70 y.o.	12%	12%
71 + y.o.	12%	12%

Undoubtedly, these dietary habits have been one cause growing epidemic of obesity, pre-diabetes and diabetes.  But reducing consumption of added sugar for even a short time can have significant clinical benefits for children.  A study recently conducted at the University of California, San Francisco showed that reduced sugar consumption by children at risk for Type II diabetes produced significant benefits very quickly.  Study participants reduced added sugar to 10% of daily calories by substituting complex carbohydrates without reducing their total calorie consumption.  Statistically significant improvements in weight, blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol, glucose tolerance and hyperinsulinemia were measured after just 9 days. 

So if you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, it may be beneficial for the rest of the family to join you in watching their diets more carefully.  You’ll have a great support group and you could be helping your entire family to avoid developing diabetes.