Monitoring your blood glucose is an essential part of your diabetes treatment and management. Based on diabetic readings, from a fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) or a hemoglobin A1C tests your doctor is able to diagnose diabetes and develop an individual treatment plan. At home it is also important to monitor your blood glucose. Daily meter readings paired with optional at home A1C testing should be a part of your maintenance plan. The Amercian Diabetes Association (ADA) suggests people on insulin or diabetes medications, intensive insulin therapy, have difficulty controlling blood glucose, suffer from hypoglycemia or ketoacidosis, have unusual drops in blood glucose, or women who are pregnant should monitor their blood sugar several times a day, keeping a log book. While your doctor is able to interpret lab results for you, it is important that you understand what your diabetic readings mean. Diabetic blood sugar readings will depend on your baseline level however the goal of all treatment plans is to reduce them below the point at which retinopathy becomes a significant risk. Using A1C this is <7%, using FPG pre-diabetes is diagnosed within the range of 100-125 mg/dL with <100 mg/dL considered normal levels.
Diabetic Glucose Readings
There are several forms that diabetic blood sugar readings come in. A1C is represented as a percentage, giving the percentage of hemoglobin A cells that have been converted to hemoglobin A1C over 120 days. Blood glucose meters display results in a weight dimension, milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or molarity, milimole per liter (mmol/L). The equation to convert mg/dL to mmol/L is: mg/dL x 0.0555 = mmol/l and the reverse: mmol/L x 18.0182 = mg/dL. There are also several online converters available (http://www.soc-bdr.org/rds/authors/unit_tables_conversions_and_genetic_dictionaries/e5184/index_en.html). A new measure for blood glucose was recently introduced. Estimated average glucose (eAG) is related to A1C levels. While A1C testing is usually only necessary twice a year for well-controlled diabetes, you are able to keep A1C within target range by converting your A1C results to eAG represented by mg/dL. This allows you to compare your daily readings to your target average range.
Normal Diabetic Readings
Target/normal diabetic blood sugar levels are individual. Factors such as age/life expectancy, years since diagnosis, comorbid conditions, cardiovascular or microvascualr disease, and hypoglycemia unawareness are all factors. The ADA provides the following ranges for non-pregnant adults however you and your doctor should discuss what is healthy for you. A1C should be <7%, preprandial (before a meal) blood glucose 70-130 mg/dL (3.9-7.2 mmol/L), and postprandial (after a meal) blood glucose <180 mg/dL (<10.0 mmol/L). The ADA describes the necessity of postprandial glucose testing if A1C goals are not reached despite reaching preprandial testing goals.
