I usually test fasting, and two hours after each meal. Today I felt tired about 4:30 pm and decided to test. The result was 4.3, which is lower than I usually ever see. This was about four hours after my last meal. Normal or low? I am type 2.
It is in the normal range which is between 3 and 6. If you haven’t had any reading like this it can feel like a low.
Thanks. It didn’t feel bad, just different! Just a little sluggish. It is funny but I know some non diabetics who complain that their BG is low all the time when they are just hungry or tired.
The problem is that our meters are not very accurate. With 4.3 mmol/L or 77.4 mg/dL you are on the edge of low. It is not true that normal begins with 3 like Jeroen wrote. I think 3.8 mmol/L is the lowest value we should consider as normal. Now with the current inaccurracy of meters your 4.3 can actually mean that your blood glucose was +/- 15% different from that. This translates to +/- 0.66 mmol/L. So in the extreme case you hit 4.3 - 0.66 = 3.64 mmol/L or 66 mg/dL. As a T2 and as a healthy person you should feel the effects of these numbers - hopefully as a T1 too.
Thanks Holger. But I assume no treatment is necessary for this, unless it gets lower. Which it shouldn’t, since my pancreas still functions. I am on metformin, which I thought helped prevent hypoglycemia.
Well, I always thought that the capability of T2’s to produce insulin will help to prevent lows by just lowering the production output. On the other hand I have read several stories about metformin causing lows. What does the documentation of your Metformin say?
Here is one link that references some studies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1481671/ it might be a little confusing because it is in quiz format.
No it is fine. the normal range is 4 to 6.