About Testing

Did you know... Blood glucose testing helps enable you to be in control of your blood sugar in order to reduce possible diabetes-related complications.

“Take-charge management” means taking an active role in controlling your diabetes. Testing your own blood sugar often is an important part of your daily diabetes management. In addition to your regular self-monitoring, it’s also important to have an A1C test done by your doctor, which looks at your average blood sugar level over the last two to three months.

Many people think they can tell what their blood sugar is by how they feel. However, some people can feel "high" when their blood sugar is low, and some can feel "low" when their blood sugar is normal or high. The only way to know for sure is to test your blood sugar. Testing also lets you see how your lifestyle affects blood sugar. How much did exercise lower your blood sugar level? How did over-eating change your blood sugar level?

Use testing as a tool to learn more about you and your diabetes.

How do I know that testing is going to help me?

Studies on diabetes show how much you can gain from tightly controlling your blood sugar:

Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT)

The DCCT was a study of 1,441 people with type 1 diabetes. This study showed that take-charge management can lower the risk of complications from diabetes. People in this study who used take-charge management had average blood sugar levels near normal. They had a lower risk of eye disease, kidney disease and nerve damage. This study showed that even lowering your HbA1C by 1% helped lower your risk of future problems from diabetes.

The Kumamoto Study

The Kumamoto study was for people with type 2 diabetes. This study had similar results to the DCCT. People with good control had fewer problems with their eyes, kidneys and nerve damage.

The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS)

The UKPDS is the largest study of people with type 2 diabetes. Over 5,000 people took part in this study. The UKPDS showed that very good control of blood sugar lowers your risk of getting complications. Even small changes in blood sugar control were shown to have big effects on your risk for complications. This study also showed that you might need to make changes to your treatment plan and medications over time. Control of high blood pressure and blood fats was shown to be helpful as well.

Learn more about types of testing.