Blood Glucose Charts to Help You

A blood glucose chart identifies ideal blood glucose levels throughout the day, including before and after meals.

Doctors use blood glucose charts to set target goals and monitor diabetes treatment plans. Blood glucose charts also help those with diabetes assess and self-monitor blood glucose test results.

What is a blood glucose chart?

Blood glucose charts act as a reference guide for blood glucose test results.  As such, blood glucose charts are important tools for diabetes management.

Keeping blood glucose levels in check often requires frequent at-home tests.

Most diabetes treatment plans involve keeping blood glucose levels as close to normal or target goals as possible. This requires frequent at-home and doctor-ordered testing, along with an understanding of how results compare to target levels.

To help interpret and assess blood glucose results, the charts outline normal and abnormal blood glucose levels for those with and without diabetes.

In the United States, blood glucose charts typically report glucose levels in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl).  In the United Kingdom and many other countries, blood glucose is reported in millimoles per liter (mmol/L).

A1C blood glucose recommendations are frequently included in blood glucose charts. A1C results are often described as both a percentage and an average blood glucose level in mg/dl.

An A1C test measures the average glucose levels over a 4-month period, which gives a wider insight into a person's overall management of their blood glucose levels.

Most blood glucose charts show recommended levels as a range, allowing for differences between individuals.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA), Joslin Diabetes Center (JDC), and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) also offer slightly different blood glucose guidelines for those with diabetes.

Time of check	Blood glucose levels for those without diabetes	Target blood glucose levels for those with diabetes
Fasting (before breakfast)	less than 100 mg/dL	80 - 130 mg/dL (ADA) 70-130 mg/dL (JDC) less than 110 (AACE)
Before meals	less than 110 mg/dL	70-130 mg/dL (JDC)
2 hrs after meal 1-2 hrs after meal	less than 140 mg/dL	less than 180 mg/dL (ADA & JDC) less than 140 (AACE)
Bedtime	less than 120 mg/dL	between 90 - 150 mg/dL (JDC)
A1C levels	less than 5.7 percent	less than 7 percent  (ADA)

Interpreting blood glucose meter results

Interpreting blood glucose meter readings depends a lot on individual norms and targets.

A good blood glucose level for one person may be too high or low for someone else. 

However, for people with diabetes, some ranges of blood glucose levels are preferable over others.

Blood glucose level	Excellent	Good	Acceptable
Before meal	72 - 109 mg/dL	110 - 144 mg/dL	145 - 180 mg/dL
2 hours after meal	90 - 126 mg/dL	127 - 180 mg/dL	181 - 234 mg/dL

Certain forms of temporary diabetes, such as gestational diabetes, also have separate blood glucose recommendations.

Time of check	Blood glucose level in mg/dL
Fasting or before breakfast	60 - 90 mg/dL
Before meals	60 - 90 mg/dL
1 hour after meal	100 - 120 mg/dL

Anyone who has very high or low fasting blood glucose levels should be concerned.

Fasting blood glucose level	Risk level and suggested action
50 mg/dL or less	Dangerously low, seek medical attention
70 - 90 mg/dL	Possibly too low, get glucose if experiencing symptoms of low blood glucose or see a doctor
90-120 mg/dL	Normal range
120-160 mg/dL	Medium, see a doctor
160 - 240 mg/dL	Too high, work to lower blood glucose levels
240-300 mg/dL	Too high, a sign of out of control diabetes, see a doctor
300 mg/dL or above	Very high, seek immediate medical attention

As long as levels aren't critically dangerous, there are ways to reduce blood glucose levels when readings are too high.

Ways to lower blood glucose include:

• limiting carbohydrate intake but not fasting
• increasing water intake to maintain hydration and dilute excess blood glucose
• increasing physical activity to burn excess blood glucose
• increasing fiber intake

These methods are not a replacement for prescribed treatment but rather an addition to any treatment plan. If blood glucose readings seem unusual or unexpected, consult a doctor. Various user and device factors can influence blood glucose readings, causing them to be inaccurate.

For the entire article, please read this.

Learning to Manage Diabetes by Yourself

If it were not for doctors and that fact that we need them for prescriptions, many of us with type 2 diabetes could do well without them. Considering that many with type 2 diabetes only see their doctor twice a year or for about half an hour, and all they do then is check your A1c to see how you are managing your diabetes. Often they do not have certified diabetes educators or registered dietitians to refer you to, which may be to your benefit.

Why would I say something like this? Read my blog here from June 25, 2012 for some of my reasoning. Granted doctors vary in how often they see patients with diabetes. For well managed diabetes, they will only see the patient two times per year. For people not managing their diabetes, they are most often seen four times per year. Most patients using insulin, if the doctor even sees them, (most are sent to other specialists) want to see patients four times per year or more often. It is more often for patients with well managed diabetes and the doctors are very concerned about hypoglycemia. When this happens, these doctors obtain a program to download the meter and they do look at the readings or they have one of the office staff to this and red circle anything below 75 mg/dl.

I feel fortunate that the person I see at the VA feels very much like I do. While she is concerned about hypoglycemia, she does not view my heart problems, cholesterol problems, and blood pressure problems as something that cannot be managed and is very satisfied with the test results. She also thinks for my abilities I should be below 6.5% for an A1c and encourages me to stay there, until such time as my tests indicate otherwise or I have cognitive problems.

Diabetes self-management is important for people with diabetes. We are covering this in our support group meetings and I may cover some of it here after some of the meetings if there is more information I want my readers have. The other important part of this is Self-monitoring of Blood Glucose (SMBG). For more on this, please read my blog from May 25, 2011.

I had several emails saying the study did not accomplish anything and that once the study ended, glycemic management stopped and glycemic management waned. This can happen because participants are no longer supplied with testing supplies and often cannot afford the extra supplies on their own. Yet people want it known that these people do not need the extra testing supplies. They want people to be managing their diabetes in the blind without the added information testing can help them. More doctors are at least giving new patients the chance by requesting the insurance companies to reimburse for extra testing supplies during the first four to six months. A few doctors are helping patients every other year, but these are not as many.

The biggest problem with testing is that many patients believe they are testing for their doctor. It is hard to convince them that they can learn from their testing and use the information to help them manage their diabetes. I have talked to a couple of doctors about this since I knew the doctor that the person was seeing. Then I am told by the patient that whom they test for was none of my business and of course, I tell them that if they want to lie to me, I don't care, but to lie to their doctor is not a good practice.