Blood glucose monitoring is a way of testing how much glucose is in the blood (glycemia).
This is important in the care of diabetes mellitus. Most people with Type 2 diabetes need to test at least once per day (usually before breakfast) to assess the effectiveness of their diet and exercise for controlling their blood glucose levels. Many people with Type 2 are using an oral medication to combat their insulin resistance, and must test their blood glucose before and after breakfast to assess the effectiveness of their dosage. All people who need to inject insulin, both for Type 1 diabetes and Type 2, need also to test their blood sugar more often (3 to 10 times per day) to assess the effectiveness of their prior insulin dose and to calculate their next insulin dose.
Improved technology for measuring blood glucose is rapidly changing the standards of care for all diabetic people. There are several methods of blood glucose testing currently available.
