Aviva Accu-Chek Performa Machine

Your blood sugar levels show how much glucose you have in your blood. In diabetic people, these changes are more significant and happen more often than in people who don't have diabetes which is why they frequently monitor this. This keeps their range in check to ensure they don't have a hypoglycaemic or hyperglycaemic attack.

Pre-diabetic patients are told to monitor their blood glucose levels to ensure they are within the normal ranges; else, they may require pharmacological treatments.

If you're a child with Type 1 diabetes

• when you wake up and before meals: 4 to 7mmol/l
• after meals: 5 to 9mmol/l

If you're an adult with Type 1 diabetes

• when you wake up and before meals: 5 to 7mmol/l
• before meals at other times of the day: 4 to 7mmol/l

If you have Type 2 diabetes

• before meals: 4 to 7mmol/l
• two hours after meals: less than 8.5mmol/l

If you have gestational diabetes

• Fasting: below 5.3mmol/l
• One hour after meals: below 7.8mmol/l

If you cannot check until two hours – rather than one hour – after a meal, you should aim for below 6.4mmol/l.

Any result below the range could suggest hypoglycaemia, meaning there is not enough sugar in your blood, which could include sweating, tiredness, dizziness, feeling hungry, tingling lips, shaky or trembling and palpitations. You need to take 15-20g of fast-acting carbohydrates to treat this.

Such as:

• 160ml (half a 330ml can) of sugary cola or lemonade
• 200ml (a small carton) of fruit juice
• Five jelly baby-sized sweets
• 4-5 sugar lumps.

Any result higher than the range could suggest pool glycaemic control and hyperglycaemia. This means that there is too much sugar in the blood. This should get treated early. Else it can lead to a state called diabetic ketoacidosis, which is a build-up of toxic ketones in your blood and urine which requires urgent treatment. This occurring long term can cause detrimental micro and macro-vascular problems, such as cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, kidney damage or kidney failure, and diabetic retinopathy, potentially leading to blindness and clouding of the usually transparent lens of your eye (cataract).