CSS Electronic Logbook Helps Patients Eliminate Paper And Identify Patterns For Better Blood Sugar Management (NAPSA)—Keeping a diary or logbook of your blood sugar results and what you eat, together with a good counseling program, maybe good for your health if you have diabetes. That was one of the key findings of a study reported recently in Diabetes Care magazine. The study examined blood sugar monitoring in 250 patients with type 2 diabetes, which affects 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes patients. The research showed that when blood sugar testing was performed prior to and one hour after meals in patients who received a standardized counseling program, there was a significant improvement in A1C levels, an important measure doctors use to tell how well a diabetes patient is managing the disease. Researchers found significantly less progress in patients who did not test their blood sugar and did not get regular counseling. What’s more, among the patients whotested their blood sugar around meals, those who also kept a combined diary for blood sugar data and information on what they'd been eating showed twice the improvement in AIC levels and even improved their sense of well-being. Research shows that people with diabetes can reduce their risk for eye, nerve and kidney damageby up to 60 percent if they regularly test and control their blood sugar, and a logbook is one of the key tools they use to stay on top of their blood sugars and other diabetes information, like exercise, medication and what they eat. But paper logbooks can be a burden to maintain, and patients can find it difficult to spot patterns or identify problem areas in ing from her nutritionist that split peas have a higher carbohydrate content than lentils, she was able to make a change in her diet and avoid something that could have, otherwise, continued to result in A new palm-sized device helps make it possible to record key diabetes-related information with the touch of a couple of buttons. their blood sugar levels simply by looking at individualentries. That’s why diabetes patient Debra Chase recently switched from using a paper diary to a new blood sugar meter that’s combined with an electronic logbook. The new device, the OneTouch Ultra- Smart™ Blood Glucose Monitoring System, organizes blood sugar results and diabetes information into simple, meaningful charts and graphsthat can help patients see how factors like food, medica- tion and exercise are affecting their blood sugars. In one instance, Chase, who carefully watches what she eats and checks her blood sugarlevels frequently, noticed a graph on the new system that showedher blood sugar levels spiking after lunch on Thursdays only. Recalling that she ate at the samedeli every Thursday, she checked with the deli and found out that the lentil soup she’d been eating actually contained split peas instead of lentils. Learn- high post-lunch blood sugars. “If I hadn’t seen a chart that showed my after-lunch blood sugar levels spiking just on Thursdays,” Chase said, referring to the new device, “I might not have learned that I was eating a food that was bad for my diabetes management.” Chase added that with the new system, she now feels that her goal of good blood sugar control is within reach. In addition to its helpful charts and graphs, the new palm-sized system that Chase uses provides blood sugar results in five seconds and prompts the user to enter a comment from a menu whena test result is outside the user’s target blood sugar range. This can shed light on what might be the cause of the out-of-range result. The device also features SmartButtons”, which are identified by easy-tounderstand icons and offer dropdown menusto simplify information related to exercise, food, medication and overall health. “A tool like the OneTouch UltraSmart is a major step forward in empowering people with diabetes to understand how their actions directly affect their blood sugar levels,” stated Gillian Katz, M.D., clinical assistant professor of medicine (endocrinology) at New York University School of Medicine. The new system is available in pharmacies nationwide. For more information, call 1-800-227- 8862 or visit the Web site: www.LifeScan.com.
