Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by lotsofshots on February 11, 2013 at 3:57pm

I think that since the stips have been around a while the generic ones will be okay. Usually the name brands are just easier, faster or the machine takes less time or is smaller. I think that if you eat right and eat the right foods at the right times that you can keep the numbers stable with checking four times a day. Just when sick it takes more. Anyway, I guess in the old US we should be happy we have insurance at all! I hope that I make it to the age of 65 and that by then Medicare is still there. The best thing to do is stay in the present moment. Don't worry about the future. I am happy to have medical stuff at all when I think about all the countries that don't. Now just when the technology is getting good, we probably will go backward. At least we are all smart enough that we know what to do. I don't even go to the doctor for diabetes anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Betty J on February 11, 2013 at 7:17pm

Lotsofshots, how do you manage to not see your doc for Diabetes? what does your insurance say? It would be great if we all could do it and still manage. There are tons of reasons why we need extra strips like for instance as you mentioned, sickness and there are others who D doesn't conform to the rules. People with Gastroparesis and other autoimmune diseases and disorders that interfere with their Diabetes. To have a restrictions on how many strips would disrupt good management.

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Permalink Reply by Leo2 on February 11, 2013 at 4:35pm

I decided to do a bit of research on what my BG would be at 4 tests a day (vs. my usual 7). I did it for 14 days. Average 142.
My usual average is 113 on 7 strips.
Makes a big difference, even in a person on low-carb with an A1c of 5.7.

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Permalink Reply by lotsofshots on February 22, 2013 at 3:03am

I found this unbiased discussion on the new health care changes in the US to be very helpful.

http://youtu.be/XlBafMsubM8

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Permalink Reply by jims on February 22, 2013 at 7:58am

Delve into the ability of some cheap chicken bandit glucose meters to only measure the glucose D and ignore the interferors ( if you can find that data). Second, check and ensure your body is more in the middle of the range of operation of that meter and strips and your body helps block the interferor sugars from your blood system from the digestion system as well as the hematocrit numbers, oxygen and typical hydration are not at end of the range and yes maybe you can use the generic cheap crap. Otherwise your numbers can be 40 to 100 points too high, On top of that you need to use less strips and that is based upon the fact that your body is not doing ang fast liver add tricks and any other fast dynamic blood glucose moves/changes.

Here agin, somebody using statistic bs analysis and not worst case body issues has entered the picture and found some stupid trick to save money. ( not lives or better control your glucose) Who cares numbers are exploding into the stratosphere anyways!

Next time at 40,000 feet when riding on your latest jet airplane - you better pray that worst case honest stress testing analysis was really done on that plane design and not statistical flim flam rules that suggest that statistically odds are low enough and plane should be good and not crash. Are you a gambling person?

Next time you buy one of these glucose meter gems, look for a full and proper data sheet containing actual meter/strip system performance and not just the stats on the battery type, size and other useless trivia.

You bet,its a brave new world as we ride into hell with no proper seat belts or proper safety systems. Good luck and best wishes to the rest of you riding the airplane as well. A dead brain unhuman computer and its limited scope rules and unability to use more human thought and rational ethics processes is all there is today riding herd on this crap - whoops - I forgot, maybe we still have a skilled practical human pilot in the pilot's seat with much experience still riding herd on the crap who can override the computers in a moment's action not like in other scenarios of humans running around at last moment looking for the kill/reset switch before being driven into the ground.

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Permalink Reply by barbraann on February 22, 2013 at 3:00pm

Ah.... huh?

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Permalink Reply by Sam on February 22, 2013 at 11:41am

I prefer the generic strips actually and for me they have actually been substantially more accurate, surprisingly, than the one name brand I have used

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Permalink Reply by jims on February 22, 2013 at 4:36pm

yes and you lucky to be in the right class and part of spectrum. May your gods go with you.

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Permalink Reply by Sam on March 10, 2013 at 10:34am

Seriously, what are you talking about? I have no idea what assumptions you are making about anyone's "class" or place in any "spectrum." I certainly can't fathom how your assumptions of either have anything to do with anyone's glucose test strip preference.

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Permalink Reply by jims on March 10, 2013 at 11:43am

Sam - thank you for asking. I am not riding on asumptions here but actual recorded readings on about 5 different meters so far.

Simplest answer is that for most folks their body characteristics seem to run in the middle of the operating ranges and do not allow man made sugars to escape from liver to rest of body. In cases like that; if the meter you are using does not filter out alternative sugars they will not be issue for you.

For me is a proveable item in a court and FDA has the data on line on its release pages about meter/strip operating ranges on the interforors and ability to reject, water content range ( working hydration range), the hemocratic operating range ( some meters for hospital use have an extra well on strip to compensate and correct readings while home units do not), oxygen range.

If ones body is operating close to one end of a range and some meters do vary; it is possible to get erroneous readings.

No assumptions are being made here and is based un oservable repeatable comparative data and confirmed by specs from FDA.

I test every new meter out there to see how they perform and I need to test the latest low cost one and strips from Walmart. I hope that works for me. That would be great.

Thank you for responding.

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Permalink Reply by Sam on March 10, 2013 at 12:05pm

Do you want to share the results of some of those meters? When I first got the generic trueresult meter I sat down with it and my onetouch mini and the new generic. I tested ten times with each. The a average deviation with the onetouch was 20. With the generic, which also read concistently lower, the average deviation was 6. This was while my levels were normal, around 100 and not rising or falling. Not exactly a tightly controlled experiment, but it was good enough to convince me that for me the generic brand was a better investment.

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