On Mon, 1 Feb 2021 17:27:33 +0000, alan_m
wrote:

On 01/02/2021 16:19, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Caecilius pretended :
I'm confused by the large number of meters & test strips available,
and most articles I read are either marketing puff or clickbait that
ends up talking about what meters do and why its useful, which I know
already.

Be aware that the test strips have best before dates.


The codefree strips I get have a least a year as a best before date.
This is the unopened pack date. From memory, they recommend using an
opened pack within 6 months.

Codefree come in tubes of 50 strips which for pre-diabetes a couple of
tubes should be enough to establish a glucose pattern and what happens
after diet/exercise changes etc. Afterwards I would expect their use to
be a lot less frequently. The novelty of pricking your finger multiple
times a day rapidly wears off, especially if having been told that you
don't really need to do it

I'm type 2 diabetic and my doctor and diabetic nurse don't necessarily
recommend testing with strips preferring instead to use the bi-annual
blood test to see how well the diabetes is being controlled. One of the
blood tests is much like taking an average value of glucose, over a
couple of months.

Yes, I've been told that I should get annual HbA1c tests.

I mainly want the machine to allow me to establish a baseline and
determine my body's reaction to various diet & lifestyle changes.

I'm sure that pricking your finger multiple times a day isn't exactly
fun, but it doesn't seem so bad to me when I look at the effects
diabetes had on some of my relatives.