If you are diabetic, you are probably already familiar with the pinprick test. It is how most diabetics check their own blood sugar. This, however, is not beneficial for every diabetic. So, why is it that self-monitoring blood sugar levels doesn’t help some people.
Many people use a small electric device to check their blood sugar levels at home. For many people, it is an important part of life for managing their diabetes. For others, however, it may not help as much as you think.
A new study, however, challenges the need for self-monitoring at home. Especially in the cases of those type 2 diabetics who do not receive insulin treatments. The participants of the study were divided into three groups. One group did not do any self-monitoring at home. The second group did the self-monitoring once a day. And the last group engaged in the daily self-monitoring and received pre-recorded positive messages. None of the participants in the study were receiving insulin therapy at the time.
After a year of study, researchers concluded that there really was no beneficial difference between doing self-monitoring or not. Participants didn’t get any sicker. Their conditions didn’t improve or worsen depending on whether they performed the daily test.
Since self-monitoring equipment can be costly, researchers urge health care professionals to reserve recommending self-monitoring to only those patients who are receiving insulin therapy. The ones who are not receiving the therapy do not need it.
Final Thoughts
The final recommendation from the study is that self-monitoring blood sugar levels doesn’t help some people. If you would still prefer to do this at home, you should consider speaking to your doctor about it.
The study may have yielded results that showed no significant change in health when using it without insulin therapy. But, sometimes the peace of mind you may get from checking your blood levels yourself is worth the cost of equipment.
