How To Test For Diabetes At Home
Diabetes is a dangerous disease if ignored. You need an easy solution if you are too busy to visit the doctor for routine checkups. No worries; this blog post is the best guide to understanding how to test for type 1 diabetes at home without visiting the doctor.
If you’ve been searching for ‘how to test for diabetes at home,’ you are at the right place. Home diabetes tests are convenient, economical, and time-saving for people who have diabetes and cannot visit the hospital continuously every day only to get a blood sugar test.
You will need a blood sugar checking kit, and it will take a few minutes to quickly get the exact count of the sugar level in your body.
So are you ready to make your life easier by checking your blood sugar whenever needed?
Let’s move on!
Why Take A Home Diabetes Test?
Keeping your blood sugar level at a moderate count is important, especially for people with diabetes. Higher sugar levels badly affect a person’s health, affecting different body parts and immunity.
That’s why checking your blood sugar level can be helpful because of multiple reasons, including
● Helpful to check if the diabetes medicines are working properly or not.
● You can keep track of your higher or lower blood sugar levels for better health outcomes.
● In case you are not yet identified if you have diabetes or not, you can use the home diabetes test on a routine basis to check out what might be the issue causing your health problems.
● People on a diet must know if their diet affects their blood sugar levels. So a home sugar test is the easiest way to do it.
● During a stressful period or a health issue, you can check your blood sugar levels to know the effect of different moods and health conditions on the increase or decrease of your blood sugar.
What’s The Best Time To Test For Diabetes At Home?
The best time and frequency to check your blood sugar level depends on your issue. Usually, your physician will suggest how many times you should check your blood sugar levels.
Depending on the two types of diabetes, here are the best times to test for diabetes at home.
Type 1 Diabetes
For type 1 diabetes, experts recommend checking blood sugar levels 3 to 10 times daily. The most appropriate times when you can test include:
- Before eating anything
- Before going to bed
- After every few hours, when you are ill, start a new medicine or change anything from your routine.
- Before and after diabetes exercise
Type 2 Diabetes
These patients often need insulin to manage their condition and blood sugar levels. Experts recommend testing these patients’ blood sugar levels several times a day because anytime your sugar level might elevate from normal levels, which can cause severe health issues.
The most common times when you should check your blood sugar levels include:
- Before meals
- At bedtime, especially if you must take more than three insulin injections daily.
- Before breakfast particularly
Patients with type 2 diabetes who do not need to take insulin continuously and manage their blood sugar levels over their lifetime do not need to check their blood sugar frequently.
Learning how to use diabetes test strips is crucial to avoid any problems when taking a home blood sugar test. Following the step-by-step guide below, you can get the successful results of the test.
Read More About: Who Buys Diabetic Test Strips From Us?
Step # 1: Buy A Glucose Testing Kit
A glucose testing kit is the first thing you need when learning how to test for diabetes at home. Visit your nearest pharmacy to buy this kit.
Some kits provide testing strips within the pack, while some companies only provide the testing monitor, and you have to buy the strips separately.
Also, purchase the needle tips if your kit has no pricking or lancing device. In some areas, you can purchase a glucose testing kit only on your physician’s prescription, which may cost more than $50.
Step # 2: Clean Your Hands
Never take a home glucose sugar test without cleaning your hands because there is a higher chance of transferring the infection to your body when pricking to get the blood drop. Wash your hands thoroughly for at least 10 seconds, then rinse with water.
Dry with tissue paper or a clean cloth to check blood sugar.
Step # 3: Add Testing Strip In Glucose Monitor
Take one strip from there and insert it inside the glucose monitor; the strip will indicate which way should go inside the monitor, so you need to follow the direction.
Check on the testing kit before adding the strip because some testing meters require you to place the blood drop on the strip before attaching it to the monitor. If you have already put the batteries inside the monitor, inserting the strip will automatically turn on the monitor.
Step # 4: Prick Your Finger
Take the lancet device and pull its top out by loading the spring. Put the device against the side of your fingertip, press the button to let the spring go, and prick your finger with the needle.
If the lancing device is not preloaded, add the needle yourself before pricking your finger.
Step # 5: Add Blood Drop On the Strip
Pricking will cause a blood drop to come out of your finger. Now touch this blood drop with the end of the testing strip and hold your finger. You can squeeze your finger to get a bigger drop of blood if it’s not enough.
Hold your finger in place for a few seconds until the monitor gives the reading of your blood sugar. The monitor will not take more than 5 seconds to get you the reading, yet if it takes longer, you might have done something wrong.
Tips For Taking Home Diabetes Test
After you learn how to test for diabetes at home, taking a blood sugar test becomes easy for you, but using some tips, you will get accurate testing with the first prick on your finger instead of pricking multiple times.
Have a look at some of these tips before you start the process of checking your blood sugar.
- Use your fingers instead of any other body part to take the test. Although you can also prick your arm, thai fingers are the easiest and less painful place to take your test.
- Testing before and after meals helps you know which foods to eat and which to avoid. Especially when consuming carbohydrates, test before and after eating to know how harmful they are to your body.
- Whenever you add or subtract from your routine life, you must take frequent tests throughout the day to confirm if the new change is positively or negatively affecting your body.
- Make a chart or use an online application to note down your blood sugar level readings throughout the day so you can learn about your condition in detail. It also helps your physician to suggest a better medicine for you.
Ready To Take Your First Diabetes Home Test?
You can use different methods to get your diabetic evaluation, whether checking blood sugar through Dexcom or test strips. But most people prefer to know how to test for type 1 diabetes at home.
So if you use test strips, you may have a massive stock that usually expires, right? How about making money out of these extra test strips? Diabetics Trust buys test strips, Dexcom, and all other diabetes-related products from you. Sell your supplies to us and get rid of all that burden.
