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Your Online Guide » Guide to Medical » Diabetes Treatment

[D241]Diabetes And Glucose Levels
by Alisha Dhamani, Ali

Diabetes predisposes to a number of conditions that may lead to hospitalization, including coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, nephropathy, and infection. Poorly controlled diabetes has been associated with increased infectious complications, delayed wound healing, increased medical costs, increased length of stay, and increased mortality.

Diabetes is a chronic (long term) illness that can happen when your body does not make enough insulin, or when your body has difficulty using the insulin that it does make.

Insulin and glucagon are the hormones which make this happen. Both insulin and glucagon are secreted from the pancreas, and thus are referred to as pancreatic endocrine hormones. Insulin is secreted into the blood by the pancreas - a gland found behind the stomach which also produces digestive juices.

Patients at higher risk should be screened with a fasting plasma glucose level. When the diagnosis of impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose is made, physicians should counsel patients to lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight and engage in moderate physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week. Patients 13 to 39 years of age took part in the trial between 1983 and 1989.

At the time, conventional treatment consisted of one or two insulin injections a day with daily urine or blood glucose testing. Patients will be given a breakfast meal consisting of 550 calories (one egg, piece of toast with margarine, corn flakes 2% milk and a banana). They will be given 2 Extra-Strength Tylenol to determine time frame that food is emptied from stomach by measuring Tylenol levels in the blood.

Blood glucose monitoring has now replaced urine monitoring in most resource-rich settings. However, insistence on blood glucose monitoring in economically disadvantaged settings could result in no monitoring at all, which would be a major loss compared to the very important information available from urine glucose monitoring.

Glucose is also called blood sugar as it circulates in the blood at a concentration of 65-110 mg/mL of blood. Glucose-6-phosphatase dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency is the most common disease-producing enzymopathy in humans. Inherited as an X-linked disorder, G-6-PD deficiency affects 400 million people worldwide. Glucose, with six carbon atoms, has four asymmetric carbon atoms (marked in this diagram with *). The arrangement of the OH's and H's on these atoms is very important.

Glucose meters are either heavily discounted or distributed free with the purchase of multiple packs of glucose strips. This is forcing participants to amortise the cost of meters over a given time period. Glucose is one of the primary molecules which serve as energy sources for plants and animals.

It is found in the sap of plants, and is found in the human bloodstream where it is referred to as "blood sugar". Glucose is produced commercially via the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. Many crops can be used as the source of starch.


The 2 main methods to check glucose levels are blood glucose testing and urine glucose testing. Which method is used depends largely on the individual. Your physician will be in the best position to let you know which method is suited for you.

Blood glucose monitors

Checking blood glucose levels has become a lot easier then it used to be thanks to a wide selection of blood glucose monitors on the market. Testing blood glucose with a monitor is the most accurate method. An accurate blood glucose reading will be very important for diabetic patients with Type 1 Diabetes (also called Insulin dependent diabetes) and some patients with Type 2 Diabetes who need insulin. Some of these patients may be able to adjust the dose of insulin they receive depending on the result of their blood glucose test. Also, diabetic patients can experience hyperglycaemia (very high blood glucose levels) or hypoglycaemia (very low blood glucose levels). There are often key signs of both. Using a blood glucose monitor can help provide an accurate reading to help confirm or reassure that action must be taken.

Using a blood glucose meter

Nearly all the monitors on the market work in a similar way. They require a finger to be pricked using a lancing device, the resulting blood is placed on a test strip which is then inserted into a monitor. After 30-60 seconds the monitor will display the blood glucose reading. At the present time all the monitors on market require a finger to be pricked to test blood glucose levels. For some, this can be a painful task. The latest monitors from the 2 main players in the blood glucose monitors market Lifescan's One Touch Ultra and Roche's Accu-chek Aviva are designed to work using the very small amounts of blood. What this translates to is less painful testing.

Urine glucose testing

The advantage of urine glucose testing is that it is pain free but the drawback is that it is not as accurate as a blood glucose testing.

For some diabetics, who do not need exact blood glucose readings, testing urine glucose is more than an adequate method to monitor their diabetes with. Often these patients are stable with little or no fluctuations in their blood glucose readings over time and have been told by their doctor that urine testing is suitable. However, glucose only enters into the urine (for most people) when glucose levels in the blood reach above 180 mg/dL (10 mmol/L). This means if blood glucose levels are below 180 mg/dL (10 mmol/L) then the urine test will not provide a result. So for diabetics that need a reading whatever their levels are they need to use a blood glucose monitor and for those wanting to confirm that they have very low blood glucose levels, hypoglycaemia it is essential a blood glucose monitor is used.

How to use urine glucose strips

The main urine strips for testing urine glucose are Multistix, Clinistix and Diastix. Visit http://www.glucosemeters4u.com/Clinistix.htm to learn how to use the urine strips.

What do my blood glucose readings tell me?

What your readings tell you really depends on the goals your doctor has set out for you and what you are testing for. An important point to bear in mind is that blood glucose levels will be affected by food and diabetic medication.

Article Source : Pg. 26

About Author
Both Alisha Dhamani & John Ngijseh are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Alisha Dhamani has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Careers and Job Hunting and Health. Jigfo.com is a global platform for sharing and learning knowledge. For more information on this article topics visit:
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