What do the numbers on a glucose meter mean?!
Question: A friend of mine is diabetic. she asked if I wanted to check my blood. She pricked my finger with this little punch-like device and then touched my blood to a piece of what looked like litmus paper attached to a glucose meter. The number came up 93. I don't have a clue what that means. Oh yeah, if it matters, I ate about 3 hours before she took the sample.
Answers: A friend of mine is diabetic. she asked if I wanted to check my blood. She pricked my finger with this little punch-like device and then touched my blood to a piece of what looked like litmus paper attached to a glucose meter. The number came up 93. I don't have a clue what that means. Oh yeah, if it matters, I ate about 3 hours before she took the sample.
The number is in the units mg/dL of blood, it's the amount of circulating glucose (that your body tissues can use). Normal values are between 80-120. 3 hours after a meal your blood sugar should be back to within normal values. Diabetics typically have elevated blood sugars because of a lack of insulin which helps transport the glucose into the cells of your body. They take the insulin in order to bring it to normal levels and to ensure their body uses this sugar from their diet rather than making its own.
Even in a normal person you can have an elevated blood sugar following a meal (usually within an hour or two) which is one of the many reasons you have blood taken after fasting overnight at a physical.
Anything 120 and over means you have diabetes. Anything under that means you don't
Visit my blog site. I have a table in my latest blog which relates your number with the more important HbA1C test. It might help explain how you are doing and it couldn't hurt your friend.
Best Wishes