Mg/dL or mmol/L

I was living in Canada in 1971 when I was Dx’d. We had the mg/dL system for years. Then we shifted to mmol/L. But for some reason, I still think in the old way. Is that important?

I did notice that when we shifted from miles to kilometers that distances increased by 61%. But suddenly my car became very fast and I could hit 160 with ease. So I got to my destination in about the same time. Does anybody else living in a mmol/L country prefer mg/dL or am I the only one?

I think it depends what you are used to. I was dx in a mm/ol country so that’s my frame of reference.

I grew up in a degrees Celsius country but only experienced winter for the first time in a degrees Fahrenheit country. To this day, my cold weather sensors still function in Fahrenheit.

Growing up too, it was Celsius for oven temperatures, but I learnt to cook in Fahrenheit. So even though I cooked for 4 years in Fahrenheit and ever since then have lived in Celsius countries (17 years now), I still bake in Fahrenheit rather than Celsius.

I, being a hopeless idealist, would really like to see some standardization! I lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years, and learned to think in grams and kilos and liters, and while it took a little time to get used to it, it WASN’T impossible. So when the US, many years ago, decided to convert gas measurements from gallons to liters, I absolutely couldn’t understand the uproar, but even though I never heard any complaints, the govt. decided to change back. What a waste! If they’d just stuck to their guns, they could have ridden out the storm. And they sure do know how to stick to their guns on far less important issues!

So anyway, if they changed to mmol/L, I would get used to it. I prefer mg/dl simply because it’s what I’ve always used, but I’m NOT set in concrete. And even if I would prefer the rest of the world go to mg/dl, I’m not so stupid as to believe it would really happen. And as it stands, it’s a good reason to learn the 18 times tables! LOL!

I was diagnosed in 1991 and we (meaning Canada) were using mmol/L then. I didn’t even know there were two different systems until I actually started looking diabetes up online in 2005 or so.



I’ve been on enough online forums that I can pretty much convert between the two numbers in my head. When I post to forums I tend to put the mg/dl reading in brackets, as I know people in mg/dl countries don’t get as much exposure to the alternate as those of us using mmol/L do!

I wish we’d convert, too, even though I’m a woman of (ahem) a certain age.

It’s so much easer to divide things by 10 or 100. That’s why our money is based on 10’s. Hello?

I’ve got used to both on forums and normally use them interchangeably.
Meters in France are expensive, though you get 1 every 4 years ‘free’ on prescription. There are only a limited number of models available so I bought a ‘better’ meter in the UK but it reads in mmol/l, my pump is set up in mg/dl.

My big problem is here in France the doctors use g/l
. When I last visited the opthamologist he asked what my fasting reading was that morning. Without thinking I said 5.5.(my mmol/l reading) : I should have said 0.99 g/l : 5.5g/l is 550mg/dl … no wonder he looked at me strangely!

The numbers in mg/dl are greater than those in mmol/l that is for sure. The normal range of healthy blood glucose is very small thus I think it is better to have a scale that can describe this range in more detail. For me there is a big difference between 150mg/dl and 190mg/dl one hour after a meal. But 8.3 VS 10.5 can not impress me much. But with experience and adjustment this might change. Nevertheless I think it is important that higher number are able to impress us psychologically.



For the adjustment of higher blood glucose we can simply divide by 30 mg/dl (depends on your sensitivity) to get the number of units (190 - 110 = 80 / 30 = 2.66 = 3). This might be easier than 10.5 - 6.1 = 4.4 / 1.6 = 2.75 = 3 units. Please also be aware of the difference of 2.66 VS 2.75. Decimal places much more determine the accuracy of mmol/l calculations.



As a side note: In Germany we often do not use I:C ratios. Instead we use exchange values for the carbohydrates. This is often done my dividing the carb number by 10. So 50g of carbs are 5 bread units (BU). To get the number of insulin to inject this BU number is multiplied with the carb factor for the given hour: 5 BU * 1.3 = 6.5 = 7. Here the I:C system seems easier to handle.



This all just to provide some background how Germany is working with the mg/dl system. Germany is still divided in this aspect because the former GDR is using mmol/l like the east in general I suppose. Quite likely we will find a European standard and just from the majority this will be mmol/l.

5,5 mmol/l is 99 mg/dl

5,5 mmol/l is 99 mg/dl
Yes but 0.99 is what I should have said in grams per litre rather than milligrams/decilitre . They use the same units for other blood tests though my lab tests come with both the mmol/l and the g/l figures recorded.