Please read to the end before getting too upset, the following contains seemingly bad advice :)
I just got my monthly newsletter email from my family physician's office. One of the things mentioned is that they're following some guidelines from "Choosing Wisely" An organization dedicated to reducing unnecessary medical interventions (things like stop prescribing antibiotics for viral infections or self limiting bacterial ones).
One recommendation jumped out at me:
Don’t advise patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes to routinely self-monitor blood sugars between office visits.
huh. That seems like a bad idea. So I went to the site for more detail and their justification sounds a little more reasonable than the headline of "T2's shouldn't test"
"Once target control is achieved and the results of self-monitoring become quite predictable, there is little gained in most individuals from repeatedly confirming this state. There are many exceptions, such as acute illness, when new medications are added, when weight fluctuates significantly, when A1c targets drift off course and in individuals who need monitoring to maintain targets. Self-monitoring is beneficial as long as one is learning and adjusting therapy based on the result of the monitoring."
My question is, how common is the state they describe for T2: A1c down; lifestyle stable; BG readings predictable? And once you're there, how easy or hard is it to stay there (is random Wednesday likely to send you out of control)? Once you're in a state of remission, is routine self monitoring necessary or could it be seen as adding unnecessary anxiety and cost?
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