I’ve had a 12 hour fasting blood sugar level that was negative for diabetes, but I have the symptoms (migraines, fatigue, incontinence, inability to concentrate when I’ve had too much sugar or haven’t eaten right. I get the lightheadedness and a massive craving for sweets when I haven’t eaten and in the middle of the night.) Middle age onset diabetes runs in my family, and I don’t feel well, so I’m checking this out now.I bought a blood glucose test system and need to know how to best use it. How often and when (relative to the time I eat) should I check my blood sugar level, to test for hypoglycemia and/or diabetes?

If you check blood glucose level just before the three major meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and then about one to two hours after each of these meals, we would call this a glucose profile. This would provide you excellent information about how well you are doing, how your pancreas is functioning, etc. If you have any of these symptoms you mentioned, it would also be interesting to check blood glucose levels at those times. Most of these symptoms could also represent lots of other problems besides those related to glucose levels.

SB

[Editor’s comment: Testing for diabetes should include blood sugar levels performed by a medical laboratory. The timing of the sample (fasting, random, or postprandial) would influence how high a level is considered abnormal. See Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes for further information.

Home glucose testing, if done, might be positive, which would make the situation more urgent to get lab testing done to confirm the abnormal results. However, home glucose testing, if negative, would not exclude diabetes.

WWQ]