If you have come here looking for a solution regarding fluctuating blood sugar levels, if you have come here looking for a diabetes home test kit, let us first congratulate you on taking a great positive move towards controlling your diabetes.
While most people with diabetes do get their diabetes tests periodically, many of them neglect maintaining a self-monitoring routine that can indicate both diabetes doctors and patients on how blood sugar levels fluctuate in a day.
Some of you might have started measuring your blood sugar levels with diabetes home test kits, but it is very common for the initial enthusiasm to wane. This often results in losing focus on controlling diabetes and may also take you in a journey down south.
In this article, let us see how you can check your blood sugar levels at home and how to stay focused and motivated to control your diabetes.
Self-monitoring and diabetes home test kit
Medical science has made immense progress in diabetology. Endocrinologists now have the wherewithal to provide you preventive care, prevention from many complications of diabetes. However, it is only with your active participation in the treatment plan that you can achieve good health.
Medical nutrition therapy and lifestyle intervention are key elements of diabetes care. Only when you adhere to the treatment plan and modify your lifestyle you can see great results. Never missing on a single dosage of your diabetes medication, following a diabetes diet plan, getting adequate physical activity, and cessation of substance abuse (if any) can in fact reduce the risk of many health complications and increase your lifespan.
For a person with diabetes to focus on these things, there is need for active behavioral changes. See below how Apollo Sugar succeeds in creating this behavioral change to control diabetes.
Along with these, monitoring your blood sugar levels at home with diabetes home test kits or glucometers plays a vital role.
Why you need self-monitoring of blood glucose levels – How to choose a glucometer
Don’t fall prey to diabetes complications by missing out on self-monitoring!
Did you know? You can reduce the risk of dangerous complications of diabetes significantly using a simple device called a glucometer!
Severe and dangerous complications of diabetes include:
| Diabetic Retinopathy : A leading cause of blindness. Diabetic Nephropathy : Damage to the kidneys leading to end-stage kidney disease. Diabetic Neuropathy , which causes diabetic foot and ultimately foot amputations. Ketoacidosis : A life-threatening condition caused due to buildup of acids in the blood. Hypoglycemia: Low blood sugar levels. Hyperglycemia: High blood sugar levels. |
Uncontrolled diabetes is also linked to cardiovascular diseases, heart attack, and many other health conditions. Since diabetes has no cure, it is only proper management that allows a person to lead a healthy life.
People who have diabetes need to maintain their target blood glucose levels. This is of utmost importance to avoid complications, hospitalization, and to have a good quality of life.
Why self-monitoring and home diabetes tests are important?
Diabetes is a progressive condition in which damage to the blood vessels, nervous system and the organs starts even before the diagnosis. And once diagnosed, one has to have a tight control over blood glucose levels along with control over blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
Only when such a control is achieved, one can avoid both short term and long term complications. Self-monitoring is vital for both type 2 and type 1 diabetes patients. They get maximum benefit by observing blood sugar patterns and getting the required interventions.
Patients should understand the technique of monitoring, hygiene practices like washing hands before collecting blood samples, storing glucometer strips, and the instrument.
Advantages of diabetes home test kits and self-monitoring
- Patients would be able to monitor and record their blood sugar levels. Once the data is collected, it would help doctors assess the impact of certain foods, physical activity, and medications on blood sugar levels. With this idea, they can alter or improve upon the treatment and achieve target blood glucose levels.
- Self-monitoring of blood sugar levels also empowers patients and gives them a good understanding on the influence of foods, physical activity, and medication on their diabetes.
- In the case of type 1 diabetes patients who rely on insulin injections or pumps, they would get an idea of the time it takes for different kinds of insulin to work. This would give them knowledge to coordinate their meals and insulin injections.
- With self-monitoring, type 1 patients over time would also understand the onset of action (of insulin), the duration of action, and peak action. And, according to the carbohydrate intake, they would be able to take correction doses of insulin.
- Dietary and lifestyle modifications work better with self-monitoring and with changes in the diet and lifestyle, one can achieve target blood sugar levels without additional medications.
- Since postprandial hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels after diet) increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases in type 2 diabetes patients, self-monitoring is essential for dietary management in them.
- Finally, doctors would be able to assess the data and find hidden patterns in them. This would allow them to alter the treatment.
Self-monitoring by diabetes home test kits constitutes an instrument called a glucometer.
What is a glucometer?
Glucometer is a diabetes home test kit. It is a vital instrument that helps a person with diabetes and the doctors to manage diabetes effectively. It is an instrument that can be used to measure blood glucose levels periodically.
By measuring random, fasting, and postprandial blood glucose levels periodically (as instructed by the doctor), people with diabetes can benefit immensely.
If any undesired fluctuations are noted, the doctor along with the dietician and diabetes educator would change the treatment plan to reach the target blood glucose levels.
How does a glucometer work?
A glucometer is a small instrument that can be held in the palm of the hand. It consists of a small needle (lancet) to prick the finger to draw a drop of blood. It also comes with strips of porous fabric. The strip is inserted in the instrument and the drop of blood is placed on the strip. With the help of a digital monitor, blood glucose levels can be read and noted. The instrument is itself an electronic device that has glucose detectors.
How to choose a diabetes home test kit (glucometer)?
A glucometer is certainly an important instrument for self-monitoring blood glucose levels, but one has to choose the right device for this purpose.
An unreliable glucometer might not work or worse, it can show a wrong reading of the blood glucose levels. This can be disastrous as wrong values of blood glucose levels can lead to wrong treatment. It can even make the person neglect certain key symptoms of low or high blood sugar levels, assured that the readings are okay. This is also dangerous.
It is for this reason that one has to take certain precautions before choosing a glucometer.
Most people purchase glucometers considering the cost of the instrument, need for constant monitoring, and what’s suggested by their doctors. However, recent events where people purchased duplicate instruments and had disastrous effects makes it that much more important to choose the right glucometer.
Here are a few tips that help you choose the right glucometer:
- The glucometer and the strips need a quality certification from a competent authority to ensure accurate measurement. The inaccuracy range of each glucometer would be specified in the owner’s manual. This has to be taken into consideration.
- Choose a glucometer that reduces pain while lancing. Lancing is the process of making a small incision in order to draw the drop of blood to measure the sugar levels.
- Go for a glucometer that is easy to use and maintain.
- Check if the meter gives accurate readings even if lancing is done on the finger, arm, hand, or thigh.
- Knowing how long it takes for the meter to come up with the readings matters. Sometimes, even seconds count!
- Look for other features like memory, connectivity, audio capability, and software options for your doctor to review your numbers.
- Choosing the strips: Always purchase strips from the original equipment manufacturer. Some people use cheaper strips made by one manufacturer to test blood sugar levels on another instrument. This results in erroneous readings and serious clinical consequences. Check for compatibility before use.
One should make a wise decision while purchasing glucometers as duplicate instruments can have dire consequences. Also, it is better to consult a diabetologist before going for a particular brand.
How Apollo Sugar creates positive behavioral changes to manage diabetes successfully
Apollo Sugar Glucome glucometer is an innovation in glucose monitoring that does much more than measuring blood sugar levels. It is not only a diabetes home test kit, it is also a connected glucometer that directly passes blood sugar readings to the care team for immediate and actionable advice. With the participation and motivation of our expert care team you would be able to control diabetes better.
Apollo Glucome glucometer is a complete diabetes management tool. It is a state of the
art smart digital glucometer that sends your sugar values directly to your doctors and
family members as soon as you measure them.
- Digital blood glucose monitoring system
- Accurate blood glucose monitoring and streaming to caregivers and family
- members
- Reports on sugar levels and HbA1c estimate
- No need for wifi, connectors, Bluetooth, or cellular connectivity
- Flawless measurement accuracy
- Meets the ISO accuracy standard
- Can be used in various environments like home, office, hotels, and outdoors.
Why you need Apollo Sugar Glucome Glucometer?
To control diabetes you need:
- To measure sugar levels regularly.
- Tell your doctor about changes in sugar levels.
- Know what foods are good and what to avoid.
- Know how much exercise is optimum.
Our diabetes home test kit offers all these and more!
Staying in touch with Diabetes care team:
Take guesswork out of your daily diabetes care! Sugar levels fluctuate due to numerous factors. By staying in touch with our care team constantly, you can avoid low or high sugar levels.
Our diabetes care team observes trends of your sugar levels and prescribes the right solution at the right time.
You need a diabetes home test kit in order to measure blood sugar level fluctuations. This will help your doctor optimize treatment, diet, and exercise.
Apollo Sugar Glucome glucometer features
Effortless blood sugar measurement and recording
- Instant transfer to caregivers and family members
- Gives HbA1c estimate
- Can add diet and exercise for tracking
- Flawless measurement accuracy
- Meets the ISO accuracy standard
- Video doctor consultation
- Assistance from diabetes educators and dieticians
If you want to know more about our diabetes home test kit, please feel free to post your queries in the comments section or visit: https://apollosugar.com/blood-glucose-monitors/
