Helpful Diabetes Information

There are plenty of ways on how to determine the quantity of blood sugar in the body for patients who have shown certain Diabetes Mellitus symptoms. Getting a sample within the blood is a very reliable diagnostic test. This test may even come in many types of procedures.

The oral glucose tolerance test is a procedure in which the plasma blood sugar levels are repeatedly measured following the administration of an oral glucose load, under certain specific conditions, with the goal of ascertaining features of your glucose metabolism. Uses of this test are to aid in the diagnoses of diabetes or other categories of glucose intolerance.

One of the important diabetic guidelines about this procedure is to discover when it is done. The test begins each morning after an overnight fast of 10 to 14 hours. To begin the test, blood is collected for a fasting plasma determination. You will drink a prepared solution containing 75 g of glucose. Plasma glucose determinations are then drawn at 30-minute intervals for the following 2 hours. Occasionally, further glucose measurements are obtained at an hourly interval for as long as 5 hours.

Medications that could alter the blood glucose level are omitted as directed by a physician for 3 days before testing, and a well-balanced diet containing at least 150 g of carbohydrate should be eaten. You are not allowed almost anything to eat or drink except water for 10 to 14 hours prior to the test. You shouldn’t drink coffee or smoke and really should remain at rest immediately before and through the test.

These are the vital facts that you should remember especially when you are about to be tested to have an oral glucose tolerance test. Your physician will tell you what to do but it would be significant if you have some idea on how it is done and what you need to do. Check out more details at http://diabetesguidelines.org/.