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What Does A Diabetes Test Involve?
By M. A. Fulmar

Diabetes is a disease whereby the body is unable to break down the glucose for easy absorption by the cells of the body. As a result, the sugar stays in the blood and creates a host of problems. This condition is called blood sugar disease or diabetes mellitus. The symptoms of this disease are manifested through unusual thirst, fatigue, weight loss, excessive urination and the like. If you think you have diabetes, you will need to run a diabetes test for confirm it.

Treating Diabetes Will Depend On The Correct Diagnosis

There are many types of diabetes. Your treatment will depend on what type of diabetes you are suffering from. In order to identify it, you will need to undertake a diabetes test. There are three types of diabetes tests, i.e. (i) fasting plasma glucose test, (ii) random blood sugar test and (iii) oral glucose tolerance test. Normally, the first two tests are sufficient for diagnosis. The third test is ordinarily reserved for pregnant women.

1. Fasting plasma glucose test – This is the most common diabetes test used for diagnosis of this disease. You will need to give a little amount of blood (drawn from a vein). You would be required to abstain from taking any type of food prior to this test (minimum 10 hours). The blood thus taken will be checked for sugar content; the test is considered to be positive if the glucose level is more than 126 mg/dl.

2. Random blood sugar test – This test is almost the same as the fasting plasma glucose test. The only difference is that you do not need to fast before the test here. You will be required to eat as usual before taking this test. The glucose content in this case would be a bit higher than the fasting plasma glucose test – however, if the reading is more than 200 mg/dl then you will be recommended for the fasting sugar test for confirmation.

3. Oral glucose tolerance test – this diabetes test is usually conducted to diagnose gestational diabetes in pregnant women. You will need to drink glucose mixed in water after which blood will be drawn at regular intervals of three hours each. Depending on the sugar level in the blood, the diagnosis will be made. This test is very seldom used for diagnosing diabetes for other patients (other than pregnant women).

Once the diagnosis is made, diabetes is a disease that can be controlled well and if the diet and medication is closely monitored, one can lead a very normal life.

Author Details:
M. A. Fulmar writes about Diabetes and other health matters for various web sites including, The A to Z of and Information Junkie.

Source: Free Health Article Directory

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