Sometimes, you may be diabetic but you may not know about your condition. However, if not detected at an early stage, diabetes can get really complicated and might lead to a host of complications and damage to important organs of your body. If you think that you do need to check for diabetes and do not want to visit the doctor, here is an article that will help you determine whether you have diabetes or not at home. There are various tests that you can do at home all by yourself and check for diabetes. You can always visit a doctor post the same to get your home tests verified and double checked.

Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes To Know

In order to first detect that you have diabetes, you need to know some of the below-mentioned warning signs:

Common Warning Signs for Diabetes

The following are some of the symptoms that are common to both type 1 as well as type 2 diabetes:

• You feel hungry at all times
• You feel tired and lethargic as the essential fluids are washed away from your body
• You feel very thirsty and as a result, there is a greater need to go to the washroom and urinate
• You might also experience itchiness in different parts of your skin
• Some people also experience the problem of a dry mouth
• Inability to see clearly is another common symptom of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes
• Nausea and vomiting is a common symptom amongst all the diabetes patients.

Warning Signs That are Specific to Type 2 Diabetes

There are certain symptoms which are just specific to type 2 diabetes patients. These include the following:

• Yeast infections in different body parts such as in between the fingers, around the reproductive organs, amongst others
• Due to the damage to the nerves in different body parts, the sores and wounds take a longer time to get healed
• You might also experience a feeling of numbness and pain in your hands as well as your feet

Hence, when you experience any of the above warning signs, you know that there is a possibility that you might have contracted diabetes. It is imperative that you either check with a doctor or test for diabetes at home, all by yourself.

Diabetes Test Which You Can Yourself Do at Home

There are different tests that you can take at home in order to check if you are a patient of diabetes or not. The following explains all such tests:

Fasting Blood Glucose test

You should first buy a blood glucose meter and test for diabetes. You should also buy blood glucose test strips in order to get your blood glucose levels checked. Post that, you need to follow the following steps:

• You should not eat and drink for at least eight hours when you test your blood glucose before eating breakfast
• Post that, you should read the instructions as to how the test strips and the glucose meter should be used so that you are able to get the appropriate readings
• You can test the blood from different body parts. However, the most recommended part from where you should test the blood happens to be from the fingertips. It is also known to give more accurate results.
• Make sure that your hands are clean and washed
• There is a lancet holder with which you should prick the tip of your finger and get the blood. Avoid squeezing blood out of the fingertip
• Post that, put the test strip that is carrying your blood into the blood glucose meter and get results almost instantaneously
• Check the results:
• If your blood glucose meter reads 100 milligrams per deciliter or below that, you are normal and healthy
• If your blood glucose meter reads somewhere around 100 milligrams per deciliter to 120 milligrams per deciliter, you are prediabetic
• If your blood glucose meter reads more than 126 milligrams per deciliter, you have diabetes
• Once you see that you are not normal, you should definitely visit your doctor and understand the way forward

Post-Meal Blood Glucose Test

The above test is a test of your blood glucose levels when you have not eaten your meal. Now, what about the post-meal level of blood glucose? We answer that in this section.

• After you have done your fasting blood glucose test, eat something that contains around 60 to 70 grams of carbohydrate.
• Post an hour, you should test your blood glucose. Note down the results and again test after another hour. Repeat the process once more.
• The following will help you in understanding the condition:
• If after all the tests, your blood glucose was under 100 milligrams per deciliter, you have normal blood glucose levels
• If your blood glucose was lower than 140 milligrams per deciliter after an hour of eating and was under 120 milligrams per deciliter after two hours of eating, again you are normal.
• If, however, the level of blood glucose is over 140 milligrams per deciliter after an hour of eating and over 120 milligrams per deciliter after two hours of eating, you are prediabetic
• If the level of your blood glucose at any time of the testing you performed is over 200 milligrams per deciliter, you are perhaps diabetic.
• Once you see that you are not normal, you should definitely visit your doctor and understand the way forward

Urine Test

You can also get urine glucose test strips which can help you check the levels of your blood glucose. The fact about the urine test strips is that they only show the results when you have a blood glucose level of 180 milligrams per deciliter or higher. So, if you are getting a reading on the urine glucose test strips, it is imperative that you test for your blood glucose levels.

A1C Test Kit

Yet another way of checking if you are diabetic or not is the A1C test kits you get at home. Giving an average of the blood glucose levels over a period of the last three months, the A1C levels should ideally be lower than 5.7 %. One thing that you should remember here is that it is ideal for you to choose those at home A1C test kit which will help you get immediate results. If not, you should not choose that as it will give you inaccurate results. Once you have got an A1C tested and if it does not fall within the normal range, you should then do the above-mentioned blood glucose test.

Guidelines for Accuracy of Home Tests in Diabetes

In order to get accurate results when you are testing for diabetes at home, you need to be careful about the following few things:

• The needle of the blood glucose meter should be clean and so should be the hands you use for the test.
• Make sure you are using the right test strip. Also, the test strip should not be exposed to air for a long period of time as if this happens, it might end up showing inaccurate results
• You should keep a note of the results that you have taken. You should be mindful enough to know the time and date of the test, whether you have taken a fasting glucose test or a post-meal glucose test, foods eaten for the post-meal blood glucose test, amongst other necessary details.

Thus, follow the easy guidelines and get accurate results.

We hope that the above article has been helpful in informing and educating you about some of the ways in which you could check if you have diabetes or not at home. If you happen to experience any of the above-mentioned warning signs of diabetes, it is imperative that you either get your blood glucose checked or check it by yourself at home. It is, however important to remember that the readings you get at home for blood glucose do have some amount of margin of error and as such, it is always advisable that you double check the same!!