Always massage your finger before taking blood sugar

Diabetics should massage fingers before taking blood sugar

Many people with diabetes need to control their blood sugar themselves. Especially inexperienced people can get wrong results. Experts explain how to avoid typical mistakes. 

Measuring blood sugar correctly
People with diabetes must regularly check their blood glucose levels. However, it is difficult for many sufferers, especially at the beginning of the disease, to accurately measure the blood sugar. According to a message from the news agency dpa on its homepage, the "Ärzte Zeitung" points out that training with a diabetes consultant can help here, among other things. Proper measurement results are definitely important because lowering blood sugar levels is an essential part of treating the disease.

Finger massage promotes blood circulation
Those affected should be more cautious anyway. The German Diabetes Aid had recently pointed out that diabetics should better measure the blood sugar during a swimming trip. This is because the energy requirement of the body increases especially in very cold water. As a general rule, hands should be clean and dry before measuring. The circulation can be promoted by washing with warm water and a finger massage. A quick puncture is not so painful. One should not constantly pique in the same finger, but change the injection points systematically. It should be noted that there are also many things that can falsify the measurement result.

Value can be wrong
For example, if the fingertip is literally squeezed before the puncture. This can cause tissue fluid to enter the blood, making the value incorrectly too low. The problem can occur according to the experts even if the injection site is disinfected before the measurement, but not completely dried: Then the blood drop is liquefied by the agent and the result of measurement is too low. However, the value can also be too high if you have not washed your hands before the measurement and, for example, cut fruit or eaten. In such a case, glucose and fructose may still be on the fingers (ad)