Diabetes Control Devices to Monitor Glucose
Diabetes control is essential for every person afflicted with this condition daily. Primarily, they must follow their doctor’s advice and complement it with good lifestyle habits. These may range from diet to proper hydration to a healthy exercise routine.
Then, you must support it all with a regular registration of the activities that you carry out. The goal is to maintain proper habits. Depending on the information you collect, your doctor will help you evaluate what’s good for you and what isn’t.
The good news is that you no longer have to do it all by hand. These days, advances in technology offer all kinds of comforts, with diabetes control devices among them.
Diabetes Control Devices
Glucometers for diabetes control
Glucometers are widely used by people with diabetes. They’ve been essential for years in the treatment and control of diabetes at home. This is a device that helps obtain immediate information about the concentration of glucose in your blood.
The way this device works is it takes a small sample of capillary blood. Then, it analyzes the values and within a few seconds (between 5 and 6) gives a result in mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter).
Unlike the tests carried out in hospital settings, it isn’t necessary to try to cause an increase in hyperglycemia to measure it. Instead, it performs the reading based on the values found in the blood at the time when you obtain your sample.
However, to carry out a hyperglycemia test, the person must eat a certain amount of glucose on an empty stomach. You’ll usually get a result a couple of hours later.
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Implanted Monitors
Apart from the glucometer, people are beginning to use other types of instruments such as implanted monitors. These devices go under the skin and provide continuous monitoring. They’re also called “real-time continuous glucose monitors.”
Unlike other devices, these kinds of sensors measure the interstitial fluid. That’s the fluid that surrounds the cells of your tissue below your skin. So, it’s not exactly a substitute for a glucometer, but a complementary tool.
Continuous glucose sensors are very valuable aids. This is mainly because, in addition to collecting more information for more complete tests, they also give alarms to the patient. These alarms happen between 10 and 30 minutes before a peak of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. Also, such alarms allow the patient to take necessary measures to control their peaks and maintain their quality of life.
The Accu-check has a sensor to implant in the arm. The sensor must be replaced twice a year. Furthermore, the rest of the glucose meters available on the market require a weekly or biweekly replacement. So, this meter has a great advantage and offers the patient greater peace of mind for a longer period of time.
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Cellphone Apps
Most monitors come with a control app that connects with the sensor to collect the data from a mobile phone. This is specifically achieved through:
- Any distances traveled throughout the day.
- The energy expenditure during any physical activity.
However, note that mobile applications are a novelty that has proved to be very useful in the control of diabetes. This is because they facilitate the collection of data. Therefore, it allows you to make a deeper analysis of the state of your health.
Take advantage of these devices!
How to keep blood sugar spikes to a minimum
You must maintain a routine to maintain control over your diabetes and minimize blood sugar spikes. For example:
- To begin with, monitor your blood glucose before, during and after any physical activity.
- Schedule your physical activity in advance so you can eat the right amount of carbohydrates and adjust your insulin doses.
- Finally, consume carbohydrates during your exercise session (mainly when it lasts a long time).
If you have a continuous glucose meter implanted, then you’ll only have to look at the mobile screen to know how you’re doing in real-time and what you can do about it. These types of devices are, without a doubt, a great way to improve a person’s quality of life.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Grajower MM, Horne BD. Clinical Management of Intermittent Fasting in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus. Nutrients. 2019 Apr 18;11(4):873. doi: 10.3390/nu11040873. PMID: 31003482; PMCID: PMC6521152.
- Westman EC, Tondt J, Maguire E, Yancy WS Jr. Implementing a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet to manage type 2 diabetes mellitus. Expert Rev Endocrinol Metab. 2018 Sep;13(5):263-272. doi: 10.1080/17446651.2018.1523713. PMID: 30289048.
