Blood Sugar Monitor Device

[Plastic Brontosaurus]

Just a few more items to add to the discussion:

I've been using the Accuchek Performa which is one of the most common meters. However if you buy it in Thailand it will measure mg/dl (the American system). If you buy it in say Aus/NZ it will measure in mmol/l. I have both now, for the hell of it. The strips work in either meter.

You can sometimes find parallel imported strips, I bought a whole lot of them in NZ online on TradeMe a few months back (but shipped to NZ; I don't expect them to ship overseas but you could try). They work OK for me (same as the more expensive shop bought ones) and were a lot cheaper - here's a direct link: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchResults.aspx?searchString=accu+chek&isFromSuggest=true&originalSearch=accuchek

I've been a diabetic for years and studied it all in-depth. The common measure of long-term glucose (HbA1c) is deceptive as it does not seem to record lots of short-term highs (effectively, if you have bursty highs your HbA1c may be artificially low).

Even though I'm type 2 and don't need this, I've recently gotten myself a Dexcom device which measures every 5 minutes for a week at a time http://www.dexcom.com/ - there are a few other brands too of these continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) but the Dexcom is most reliable from what I could find in terms of studies online.

If you use this, you will be really surprised at what causes highs and how high they are. Morning fasting glucose can easily be just as deceptive as HbA1c. I changed my diet (step by step; and you will have relapses if you try, but eventually will get there), essentially I eat some eggs and a thin cracker with cheese or mayo for breakfast, then a salad for lunch (usually Greek-style or salmon) and then for dinner a protein item (chicken or fish or meat) and veges. Cut out virtually all potatoes, bread, pasta, sugar, rice and other carbs. Results are amazing... Rice by the way is one of the worst, after a plate of white rice your sugars can go through the roof after an hour. Two hours after the meal they can be near-normal again. Doctors often suggest to measure two hours after a meal. Yeah right. You will have missed the important peak. The CGM will catch all that, though. Not cheap, but worth the expense if you can afford it. I use it every few months for a week to see how I'm tracking.

And now that I'm on my high chair, two sites/books that are useful to read about real blood sugar control (these are authorities on low-carb solutions to combat diabetes):

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

http://www.diabetes-book.com/

The bottom line is: doctors have thousands of patients and thousands of diseases to treat and know about. In the end, to get the best knowledge about your condition and the solutions available to you, nothing surpasses your own research, rather than accepting to be "patientified" (the act of turning you from a person into a patient, which is a person who has given up some control over his/her life to a medical practitioner and hopes for the best).

Chok dee

[chiang mai]

Thnaks PB, that's really helpful.

[chiang mai]

For PB:

I'm keen to look further into continuous monitoring, did you buy your device in Thailand and if so, from where?

[endure]

I have an accu check compact plus which was a replacement last year free as I registered with accu check when I got my first free meter, the downside is the strips are not available here, when Iwas home in the summer they wanted £20 a box ( three drums I think which is 51 strips) however, if you are still registered with a gp then they can be got on prescription (free) get a family member to collect and forward to you. I had to buy mine online from a Canadian pharmacy! 100$ for three boxes.

If you're talking about the NHS in the UK they only usually prescribe strips if you're insulin dependent.

Just to clear up any confusion it's very unusual to be prescribed a BG meter and test strips on the NHS in the UK unless you are also being prescribed insulin whether you're type 1 or type 2. If you are getting by on diet and exercise or non-insulin medication you won't get test strips from most Doctors.

[goatfarmer]

You might try a large chain pharmacy such as Fascino's but do bear in mind what Lopburi wrote. I bought a monitor called CodeFree, about THB 2,500 but strips are 800 for 50, the device has had some excellent reviews.

Where did you buy your meter?

I have been looking at the SD codefree meter. Is it the same unit?

I have seen the strips on eBay from £4.99 for 50

Or the whole package meter 300 strips and lancets for £49.99

Poor reviews in the UK

http://www.diabetes....cose-meter.html

Yes there were some poor reviews. But it seems that they had a batch of faulty strips. I'm pre diabetic so I imagine after the 1st few months of intensive testing on what foods work my usage will drop to twice a day. Not sure if that's realistic

Good luck. I'm in the "pre" category and did what you are doing. It changed my eating habits significantly after seeing a few high numbers after one hour. Keep good records and you'll soon get an idea of what you can tolerate.

[goatfarmer]

Postprandial blood glucose checking is one of the few basic things one can do at home to monitor and improve one's health. Moderately high blood sugar gives no immediate signs. Yet more and more research is linking moderately high blood sugar to the most prevalent diseases of modern man.

Whatever meter you use I would suggest checking it against a lab reading. Take the meter to a local lab and get a fasting blood sugar reading (50 baht), take a reading from your meter at the same time (using the lancet, not a drop from the syringe).

[goatfarmer]

Just a few more items to add to the discussion:

I've been using the Accuchek Performa which is one of the most common meters. However if you buy it in Thailand it will measure mg/dl (the American system). If you buy it in say Aus/NZ it will measure in mmol/l. I have both now, for the hell of it. The strips work in either meter.

You can sometimes find parallel imported strips, I bought a whole lot of them in NZ online on TradeMe a few months back (but shipped to NZ; I don't expect them to ship overseas but you could try). They work OK for me (same as the more expensive shop bought ones) and were a lot cheaper - here's a direct link: http://www.trademe.c...Search=accuchek

I've been a diabetic for years and studied it all in-depth. The common measure of long-term glucose (HbA1c) is deceptive as it does not seem to record lots of short-term highs (effectively, if you have bursty highs your HbA1c may be artificially low).

Even though I'm type 2 and don't need this, I've recently gotten myself a Dexcom device which measures every 5 minutes for a week at a time http://www.dexcom.com/ - there are a few other brands too of these continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) but the Dexcom is most reliable from what I could find in terms of studies online.

If you use this, you will be really surprised at what causes highs and how high they are. Morning fasting glucose can easily be just as deceptive as HbA1c. I changed my diet (step by step; and you will have relapses if you try, but eventually will get there), essentially I eat some eggs and a thin cracker with cheese or mayo for breakfast, then a salad for lunch (usually Greek-style or salmon) and then for dinner a protein item (chicken or fish or meat) and veges. Cut out virtually all potatoes, bread, pasta, sugar, rice and other carbs. Results are amazing... Rice by the way is one of the worst, after a plate of white rice your sugars can go through the roof after an hour. Two hours after the meal they can be near-normal again. Doctors often suggest to measure two hours after a meal. Yeah right. You will have missed the important peak. The CGM will catch all that, though. Not cheap, but worth the expense if you can afford it. I use it every few months for a week to see how I'm tracking.

And now that I'm on my high chair, two sites/books that are useful to read about real blood sugar control (these are authorities on low-carb solutions to combat diabetes):

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

http://www.diabetes-book.com/

The bottom line is: doctors have thousands of patients and thousands of diseases to treat and know about. In the end, to get the best knowledge about your condition and the solutions available to you, nothing surpasses your own research, rather than accepting to be "patientified" (the act of turning you from a person into a patient, which is a person who has given up some control over his/her life to a medical practitioner and hopes for the best).

Chok dee

I agree with all that PB says and endorse the books and website by Jenny Ruhl which he quotes.

[Plastic Brontosaurus]

For PB:

I'm keen to look further into continuous monitoring, did you buy your device in Thailand and if so, from where?

No, sorry, did not buy in Thailand. They are slowly expanding their distributors and are looking for a Thai distributor far as I know (but needs to be a medical company or at least a diabetes-specialized doctors office I assume). You can't buy it in the US unless you are American (you need a script from a US doctor); conceivably you could have it sent internationally from there if you can get the script, this outfit has it http://search.americandiabeteswholesale.com/search?keywords=dexcom and there's probably others (note: you need the receiver, the transmitter, and the sensors - as I said, it's not cheap). If they don't ship internationally you could ship it to a forwarder and have it sent to anywhere in the world - such as https://www.earthclassmail.com/ and once again there are others.

If you need to buy it without the script you can get it in the Netherlands but that device will likely be in Dutch (albeit easy to use because the menus are simple; download the US manual and you can follow the Dutch menus). Also it being Europe it is more expensive. This is where I bought it as neither the Australian nor NZ distributors existed in the first half of last year. Perhaps best would be to email a few distributors and check their price differences and whether or not they can supply without a script. Once you receive it, you will need to learn how to "inject" the sensors which is not hard but the first time a bit finicky. There's a video and instructions somewhere on the Dexcom site with all the details.

I ordered it via email and went over there to get it (as I was traveling in that direction anyway). One issue is the sensors are heat and cold-sensitive to a degree. So if you would order them via FedEx or similar and they sit in a cargo trolley on some tropical airport's tarmac in the sun for a few hours, they are toast. But you won't be able to tell right away. Anyway I wrapped them in layers of clothes and stashed them in the middle of the suitcase I was traveling with to try and guard against temperature extremes and it seems to have worked fine that way.

This page has the Dutch distributor's contact details at the bottom of it:http://www.dexcom.com/nl/dexcom-g4

This page has the British distributor's contact details at the bottom of it:http://www.dexcom.com/en-gb/Dexcom-g4

This page has the Australian distributor's contact details at the bottom of it: http://www.dexcom.com/au/Dexcom-g4

This page has the NZ distributors contact details at the bottom of it: http://www.dexcom.com/nz/dexcom-g4

And here's the list of distributors to find more: http://www.dexcom.com/global

Hope this useful

[chiang mai]

Many thanks for all that, again.

[Plastic Brontosaurus]

Many thanks for all that, again.

No worries. Forgot to mention one thing: the sensors have a validity of around 5 - 6 months when you buy them (check/ask). So don't buy too many as they would expire...