Diabetes care has come a long way over the past twenty-five years, not only with treatment, but also with monitoring blood glucose levels, which is essential for diabetes care. Regular blood glucose monitoring helps us to understand how factors like food, physical activity, and hormonal changes influence blood sugar. We can treat accordingly to reduce the risk of complications.
Tracking blood glucose can help reduce short and long-term health risks. Very high or low blood glucose levels can lead to complications like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), especially for people with type 1 diabetes. Long-term, consistently high blood glucose levels can damage vital organs, contributing to heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, and vision problems, as seen in poorly controlled type 2 diabetes. Monitoring blood glucose is essential for diabetes management because it reduces these potential risks.
Currently, there are two ways to monitor blood sugar; with a glucometer and with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The glucometer requires a finger prick/stick to obtain a blood sample in order to measure your blood sugar. Required supplies include the glucometer, blood test strips, lancets (very small needles) and a lancing device (pen like object that spring loads the lancet to help prick the finger). The glucometer requires multiple finger-sticks throughout the day to monitor daily trends. This can be painful and a little messy, but it is generally considered to be more accurate for blood glucose readings than the CGM and is much more affordable.
The CGM is implanted most often in the back of the upper arm where it continuously checks the glucose in the interstitial fluid (the fluid that fills the spaces between your cells) for 10-14 days. Interstitial glucose levels lag blood glucose levels with a median lag time of 9 minutes. In other words, it may not be as accurate as the glucometer reading. Differences between a CGM reading and fingerstick readings will be most noticeable when glucose levels are changing (as opposed to stable). The CGM is simple to insert by yourself, is painless and provides readings every 5-15 minutes, even during sleep. Supplies include the sensors that are placed on the skin and either an app on your smartphone to receive the data or a separate reader that is about the same size of the glucometer. It can be costly.
There are several pros and cons to both monitoring systems. Each one is susceptible to faulty or malfunctioning technology and human error. However, both provide valuable information to help improve diabetes management. If you have diabetes and are interested to learn more about blood glucose monitoring, talk to your healthcare provider to find out what may be your best option. It’s great to have options!
https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/blood-sugar-meters-cgms
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
https://www.signos.com/blog/cgm-vs-fingerstick-glucometers#
All Blogs are written by Professionals in the fields of Nutrition, Human Development and Diabetes.