Medical Questions » Diabetes Questions » Question No. 255
| Question: | What is the best blood sugar reading for someone with diabetes? |
| Answer: | Blood glucose tests are used to diagnose hyperglycaemia and hypogiycaemia (too much or too little sugar in the bloodstream), which may be associated with diabetes.
Diabetics must regularly measure their blood glucose levels, and should aim to keep them at a fasting level below 8 mmol/L and above 3.5 mmol/L. A level over 10 is considered to be dangerous, and below 3.5 there is a risk of having a ' hypo' due to excessive medication lowering the level too much.
A very sneaky test that measures the amount of a type of glucose present in red blood cells (glycated haemoglobin) can be used to give an average blood glucose level over a period of three months. This should give an average reading of between 5 and 7 to be perfect. A level over 9 is quite dangerous.
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