Monitoring Your Blood Sugar Levels: Diabetes

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Monitoring your blood sugar levels

Keeping diabetes under control may require measuring blood sugar levels regularly. This process traditionally involves pricking your finger to get a small blood sample, which you dab onto a strip. You then insert the strip into a monitor that reads your glucose level. While most people still use this method, some are choosing newer self-monitoring equipment that eliminates the need to prick a finger.

If you're taking insulin, monitoring your blood sugar level is crucial because it varies throughout the day and you may not always realize when it dips too low or spikes too high. Regular monitoring lets you know if your blood sugar levels are in the healthy range. Close monitoring can also help you adjust the timing and amount of insulin doses, which must be balanced with food intake and exercise.

Drawing a blood sample with a lancing device is simple, quick, and virtually painless.

Besides helping you reach your glucose goals, self-monitoring can help prevent and treat hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Even if you're not taking insulin, self-monitoring may occasionally be useful to show how you're doing. This is especially true for people taking medications that can cause hypoglycemia, such as the class of diabetes drugs known as sulfonylureas.

Frequency of testing varies. Some people may need to check their blood sugar levels only once a day or when suffering from a brief illness, such as a stomach flu; others may have to do so four or five times a day. Your doctor can help you determine how often, and when, to check your blood sugar levels.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007