Real Life Fitness and Health

Source: Diabetic Digest

How do doctors determine if you have Type 2 Diabetes? The healthcare team has three different tests they can perform to see if your blood glucose levels fit into the range of diabetes or pre-diabetes. These include the fasting plasma glucose, the oral glucose tolerance test, and the random plasma glucose test. All but the last one will then diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes. The last one will only diagnose diabetes. When you come into the doctor’s office with a list of symptoms, your doctor will likely recommend one of these three. Let’s look at each one and what the results may be.

The first type of test your doctor may perform to check for type 2 diabetes is the fasting plasma glucose or FPG. This health test is both convenient and also low priced. This makes it the first choice for many physicians to make an initial diagnosis. It may occassionally yield a wrong answer or a false negative. So many medical teams may use another test to then verify. With this test, the patient must fast for 8 hours before. Many doctors perform the test early in the morning before the patient eats breakfast. The test measures the glucose levels in milligrams per deciliter or mmol/L. With a blood sugar level of about 99 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/l) or below, the patient is normal and does not have diabetes. If the reading is between 100 and 125 mg/dl (5.6 – 7.0 mmol/L), the individual most likely has pre-diabetes. A value over 125 mg/dl (7.0 mmol/l) now implies the individual likely has Diabetes Type 2. Your doctor will repeat the test to verify results.

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