Best Blood Glucose Meter!

By Dr. Jody Stanislaw, Naturopathic Physician and Diabetes Expert

What is the best blood glucose monitor?

The Flash Freestyle Meter is my favorite, and what I personally use.

Having had diabetes since 1980, I can vividly remember the time in which blood testing didn’t even exist. The only way I could monitor how much glucose was in my blood was by examining how much had spilled over into my urine over the past several hours.

At just seven years old, I peed into a cup 2-4 times per day, put a dropper full of it into a test tube along with this little chemical tablet, and then watched it fizz into a joyful, deep blue color when my sugar level was normal, or into a depressing orange color if is was too high.

So think about that…there was no way to ever really know what the blood glucose level was at any particular moment. Thus every test was only an average of what the blood glucose had been over the past several hours. Challenging for ideal control, to say the least!

Thank goodness for the invention of home glucose monitoring! Even though the first blood test strips took two minutes to present the result (which was manually read comparing the colored strip to a color chart), I was thrilled to no longer have to deal with peeing in a cup (especially when spending the night at friends’ houses!).

Eventually, meters were introduced and my first one was about the size of a VHS tape. Of course, over the years they have become smaller and faster. And now, finally, I think I’ve discovered my favorite meter of them all: the Freestyle Flash.

There is a dizzying array of meter choices out there, so I certainly have not tried them all; but let me tell you why I like this one so much. It’s small so it easily fits into my tiny diabetes supply bag that I carry with me wherever I go, or even in the tiny pocket of my running pants when I go for a jog.

The result appears in 2-3 seconds. It uses the tiniest amount of blood of any meter I have ever tried. But the thing that makes it stand out to me as my favorite of all is something so simple but sooooo convenient: it has a light!

After years of struggling to test my blood sugar in the dark at a movie theater, driving in a car at night, or in bed in the middle of the night (or countless other places when the light is dim), I am overjoyed that a meter company finally has taken the time to think about how they could take that extra step in helping make our lives easier.

I cannot tell you how wonderful this simple extra feature is! As soon as the strip is inserted, a little light illuminates the strip (so wonderful…thus even in poor light, I know exactly where to add my drop of blood), and then as soon as the adequate amount of blood has been taken into the strip, the light on the strip turns out (thus clearly telling me that I can confidently take my finger away), and then the screen lights up, thus easily allowing me to see my results!!

I LOVE this meter! Thank you, Abbott, for going the extra mile in realizing how valuable this ‘little’ extra feature is!

All the best to you,

Dr. Stanislaw

After being diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of seven, Dr. Jody Stanislaw has grown a special interest in diabetes and helping others live a healthy and vibrant life.

If you have any further questions about diabetes you are welcome to leave them in the comments section.

Dr. Nicole Sundene, NMD is a licensed Naturopathic Medical Doctor at Fountain Hills Naturopathic Medicine 16719 E Palisades Blvd, Suite 205, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268.

She believes we should utilize natural medicines to treat the root cause of disease rather than just treating symptoms, as symptoms are a message of imbalance sent from the body and will persist until they are properly addressed.

For appointments please visit http://FHnaturopathic.com for more information about Naturopathic Medicine services.
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