Found this article on “Revolution Health” today:
Routine self-monitoring of blood glucose counterproductive in type 2 diabetes.
At least WE know better… Just try convincing your insurance provider.
Scary article. Isn’t a certain level of stress about your health a prerequisite to taking care of yourself? And for that matter, it’s fairly common for people in a control group in a study such as that one to do better than the average person not in the study. Just knowing that you are in the study and that someone will be checking on your results is enough to motivate you.
My medical research horror story:
I attended a Canadian Diabetic Association meeting where we were deciding on how we thought we could ask the Alberta Provincial Government to fund people who could not afford to buy test strip or supplies. A medical researcher from the University of Alberta stood up and said, “Since research shows that some diabetics with unlimited free supplies still won’t test, we should tell the Goverment not to fund poor individuals at all. The funds should all go to research.”
I actually sort of agree with their conclusions. I find that when I excessively monitor I do end up getting depressed much easier. I tend to go in bits and spurts - I’ll do a several-times daily monitoring for one to two weeks to identify any trouble areas and to adjust my routine, then I will do spot checks a few times a week after that. Probably not optimal, but the alternative is crying in the bathroom after a random ‘high’.