How Your Blood Test Meter Can Help You Beat Type II Diabetes
About
the first of February my health care provider informed me that they
had changed their program. That they had made a deal with a company
called Maxor to provide all their pharmacy needs in the future. Based
on a letter I received from Maxor they are not going to support my
Freestyle test strips anymore after April 1st. They
recommended I try the One Touch brand. My diabetes doctor’s office
provided me a One Touch meter when I informed them.
Maxor
said my brand of tester was to expensive. I wonder if they
considered that I was no longer using insulin which according to my
pharmacy was about an $1150 a month expense. That was quite a big
savings. I know one thing if I used the meter they recommended I
would be back on insulin. I don’t know if that is their goal or
not, but it is certainly not mine. If they really wanted to cut cost
they would send every diabetic they service a copy of Blood Sugar
101. Then offer a small percentage of any cost savings in the form of
a premium reduction. If their goal was really to save money. Being
off of insulin is saving me almost a $110 a month just in co-pay.
That fills my car up twice. The price of my physical improvement from
weight loss and health improvement are hard to measure.
The
Practitioner who gave me the meter showed me how to use it. The test
result was 137. I told her that seemed awful high and we tested on my
Freestyle meter and it was 107. That is a 22% difference. As I told
her my goal was to get down to an 80 point average. That one test
result was not good. If my meter is right, that means an 80 on the
One Touch meter would actually be a 60 on my meter. That could put a
person at risk of going into a diabetic coma. Right then I decided to
research the matter and have invested my own money to find out if the
wide reading is systemic. My results may not be scientific, but they
tell me there is a problem.
I
have found some interesting facts. One is that when fasting they are
all in a pretty close grouping, but still higher than my meter.
However when eating a regular meal the spread in points can be very
significant. About the same time I discovered a book called Blood
Sugar 101 by Jenny Buhl. I got my copy thru Amazon. Her program to
lower your test scores recommends testing before meals and about 2
hours after eating. She states anything over 120 should be considered
not acceptable, others recommend 140. I prefer her guide and since I
started following her guidelines my numbers have dropped
dramatically.
If
mine are over 100 when I test, I fast till I get results below 100. I
am on what is called an intermittent fasting diet and only eat at
11AM and 5PM. That means no eating at all between 5PM and 11AM. Oh
Yes and no snacks between 11 and 5. You actually get used to it
after a short while. It helped me break the wall I had been stuck at
for some time.
Why
am I so concerned about the matter. It is really pretty simple, at
least if you have lived as long as me. I am seventy three and have
seen dozens of friends suffer the ravages of diabetes over time. Lost
limbs, lost vision, are just a couple of the many consequences of a
disease that basically rots your body from within. The sad thing is
that it can be stopped by proper dieting. Another sad part of that is
that most people would rather not change habits that they have had
for a lifetime. Even if it means extending their life instead of
cutting it short. I read where the results of diabetes can knock a
decade off of your life expectancy.
To
me it has become a matter of the quality my life. Three years ago I
was always short of breath and unable to do even the most simple
physical activities. Going for a one hour walk was out of the
question. I may have to take my walker and break it up into smaller
pieces but I can do it now. I can once again bend down to tie my
shoes or pick things up. Simple thing, but if your health is so far
gone you can’t do them it is wake up call that the lifestyle change
was and is worth the cost.
For
the last three years I have hardly written compared to when I started
my blog back in 2011. For a time it was like I was going into a
state of dimentia. I would sit down at the keyboard and I could not
focus my thoughts. It has been slow but I have seen a gradual but
steady change back to what I would call normal. I credit it all to
my changes in diet and the weight loss I have experienced.
It
is not my goal to claim some miracle healing, but I do want to share
that changing your lifestyle can have some wonderful and enjoyable
benefits. I never thought I would see seventy three. Especially
after I technically died twice back in 04 and they bought me back.
My goal now is to enjoy any and all the time I have left. This
spring I was lucky enough to go to the graduation of my youngest
grand child of seven, and only grand daughter. Since then I have
managed to live longer than my Dad did. So if I am going to stick
around I intend to continue to have goals. I would like to be around
for my twin great grand daughters graduation. They turned eight on
Sunday. If I live as long as my Mom I will be able to do it. As I
take more after her it may be possible. Her side of the family has
many people who lived till their 80’s and 90’s.
After
three years of being on insulin and getting off it by changing my
lifestyle and diet, it is possible to get Type II diabetes under
control, but not without making some changes. The biggest one is
getting the mindset that you are no longer going to be a victim. You
can beat it but you have to get focused to do it.
Lord
Willing I am going to go to the Chicago Area for a seminar on pond
building in March. Over the last couple of years I have gotten hooked
on watching Koi fish, My goal is to build my own pond. In September I
went to the Atlanta Koi Show. Now I am planning to go to the
Louisville Koi Show at Memorial Day, and then back to Atlanta this
fall. Hopefully I will be able to work in a couple short trips to the
Smoky Mountains also. Life is fun, live it, don’t just endure it.
Sorry
about all the personal trivia, but I hadn’t written much in some
time and was just trying to let my regular readers know why.
Hopefully I can get back into a productive cycle. After all there are
a lot of things going on that I used to write about on a regular
basis and hopefully I can start sharing my two bits on a regular
basis again.
Learning
what to eat is the key.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdKxot74tQg&t=923s
Blood
Meter Test Results
Date Freestyle One Touch ReliOn ReliOn AccuChek Freestyle
Freedom
Lite Ultra 2 Premier Prime Guide Me Neo
2/18AM 107 109 123 105 127 117
2/18PM 74 95 91 95 89 96
2/19AM 113 134 125 118 142 116
2/19PM 114 111 118 115 143 103
2/20AM 124 135 131 129 139 121
2/20PM 100 113 100 105 103 93
2/21AM 130 134 128 113 145 110
2/21PM 83 106 94 92 95 84
2/22AM 118 132 120 107 120 95
2/22PM 100 125 109 104 107 102
2/23AM 128 144 138 142 131 138
2/23PM 114 142 123 127 130 129
2/24AM 118 126 112 102 131 113 (104)
2/24PM 89 107 95 86 95 82
2/25AM 113 119 132 141 162 114
2/25PM 100 104 104 105 116 100
Totals 1538 1936 1843 1786 1975 1713
Average
96 121 115 111 123 107
Numbers
inside of brackets are results of tests taken 2 hours after eating.
If the number is more than 120 it may not be a good meal for a
diabetic. Some guides say 140 is okay. I prefer the lower number. I
usually only do the two hour test when I am eating something I am not
sure of the results.
One
important point to keep in mind, the readings on your meter are used
to determine what dose of medicine you are prescribed. If the meter
is reading 30% high, you are getting 30% of medicine you may not
need. The same could be said for a low meter reading, but would you
rather be under dosed or over dosed? Think about that for a minute
and let it sink in.
After
doing this study and looking at the numbers I have to wonder. If the
two highest meters are prescribed by doctors and give numbers that
will make people have to take insulin, wouldn’t it save the company
money to not prescribe insulin? The only thing that would make sense
to use the high point meters is if the insurance companies were
getting a kick back for prescribing high cost insulin. As insulin is
much cheaper in other countries that is the only reason I can see for
not wanting patients on meters giving lower numbers. I find it hard
to believe four out of six meters could be that far off.
One
factor makes me wonder what is going on. Freestyle Lite test strips
are $1.67 per strip. The One Touch Ultra test strips are $1.37 which
is much cheaper and understandable till you realize the higher
numbers for the One Touch is going to put more people on insulin. If
it was truly about saving money it would make more sense to prescribe
the ReliOn Prime or the Freestyle Neo which are about 36 to 39 cents
per test strip. The problem with those is that to many people would
be getting off of the diabetes medicines. Which creates a problem for
the pharmaceutical companies. How can you make a profit if no one is
buying your product.
I
may not be able to figure out the how and why of it all but I know
Type II diabetes can be reversed. The problem is that to do that most
patients will have to figure how to do it by themselves as many of
the doctors have already written the diabetic off as a lost cause.
That sounds like I am biased. I am not, and I am not the one who said
it originally. I heard a doctor who was on a YouTube video say it. He
said that not till he got diabetes himself did he realize the
indifference of many in the medical fields.
Hope
this helps someone. Your comments are welcome. In the words of my
grand daughter “Sharing is Caring” If you know someone who is a
diabetic I urge you to share this post and to read my other posts in
this series. My blog only grows by word of mouth. I would like to
have a lot of subscribers but that is not my goal. I write simply
because I like writing and know that sharing knowledge can save
someone else from enduring unnecessary hardships. Thanks for taking
the time to read my post.
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