June 29, 2009
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from London, United Kingdom:
Out of curiosity, I tested my 16-year-old daughter’s blood sugar with my home meter (I have type 2 diabetes). She hadn’t eaten for three hours and the result was 8.9 mmol/L [160 mg/dl]. Is this normal since she hadn’t eaten in so long? My doctor told me once that a post food reading should be between 7 and 10 mmol/L [126 and 180 mg/dl]. Is this correct? I thought a healthy person’s blood sugar should always be between 4 and 7 mmol/L [72 and 126 mg/dl]. Could this be pre-diabetes?
Answer:
You are correct. Your physician is incorrect. Rarely are blood glucose levels above 140 mg/dl [about 7.8 mmol]. I would suggest doing some before and one to two hour post-meal blood glucose readings for three or four days and, if the pre-meal values are above 6 mmol/L [108 mg/dl] and/or the post-meal values are above 7.8 mmol/L [140 mg/dl], then discuss this with your diabetes team for further evaluation, antibody testing, etc.
SB
