How to Test for Diabetes at Home
Diabetes is a common disease that affects a large part of the population. It is an affliction where the body’s pancreas loses the ability to convert sugars from food. The sugar builds up in the system causing damage to organs, nerves and the eyes. Symptoms include tiredness, thirst, dizziness and frequent urination. Testing for diabetes is simple, and it is easy to test at home.
What You Will Need
- A diabetes testing meter.
- Test strips for your brand of testing meter.
- A lancing device.
- Lancets for the lancing device.
- Alcohol pads.
- Cotton balls.
- Bandage.
- Abstain from eating or drinking anything but water for eight hours. This will give you your fasting blood glucose level; eating will cause spikes in blood sugar levels that could skew a test used to determine if you are diabetic.
- Set up your diabetes testing meter per the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Load the lancing device with a fresh lancet.
- Insert a test strip in the testing meter.
- Engage the spring mechanism on the lancing device.
- Cleanse the area with the alcohol pad where you will test. The directions in the meter will tell you if you can use alternate test sites such as a forearm; usually blood is drawn from any fingertip to test blood sugar levels.
- Hold the tip of the lancing device against your test site.
- Press the button that deploys the lancet. You will feel a quick prick on your skin at the testing site.
- Squeeze the test site area quickly to draw a drop of blood.
- Hold the blood to the test strip, trying not to touch the test strip. The blood will be drawn up the test strip or absorbed onto a square or circle.
- Wipe the test area with an alcohol pad.
- Hold the cotton ball to the test site, keeping pressure on the area.
- Observe the reading from the diabetes testing device. Normal fasting blood glucose levels should be between 70 and 99. A reading from 100 to 125 is considered as pre-diabetes, and you are at risk for developing diabetes. Any reading other than 70 to 99, in either direction, is cause for concern and a doctor should be consulted.
- Put a bandage over the test site if the cotton ball doesn’t stop the bleeding.