Battling Diabetes

Choosing The Proper Glucose Monitor

Every day and in most cases, several times a day, you should be checking your blood glucose levels. The best monitor for you will fit your lifestyle. Today there are many different monitors to choose from. Some allow you to use blood from a small prick on your arm, while others need a larger amount from your fingertip.

But, which type is the most accurate? I have used both types and have found that the difference between blood taken from the forearm and from the fingertip can be staggering. This comes from several experiments with my mother’s glucose monitor over the course of the past 5 months. In some cases there was a difference of 70 points. More →

Diabetes - An Introduction to Diabetes

Diabetes, a disease characterized by chronic high levels of glucose in the blood, is not the major problem it once was. Prior to the end of the 19th century, it might well have been a death sentence for many. Excess glucose can have a number of ill effects, including poor cut healing or kidney damage, even coma. With the advancement of monitoring and insulin delivery methods, it’s often now little more than another daily task to perform.

Though the underlying causes are not fully understood, diabetes results from either too little insulin being produced or ineffective use of it by the body. In Type 1 diabetes, for example, the islet cells of the pancreas fail to produce an amount of insulin adequate to allow blood glucose to enter cells where it’s used for energy. In Type 2, the cells may resist insulin’s action, once again leaving too much glucose in the blood.

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