Do Expired Glucose Test Strips Read High Or Low
One of the reasons why most diabetic patients do not hesitate to use expired test strips is the belief that they always give a lower value than your actual blood sugar reading. However, this is a misconception. Patients believe that they just need to add a few numbers to the reading provided by the glucometer and that would be the correct reading they would have got if they had used the un-expired strips.
So, they think that as far as the reading with the expired test strip is slightly lower than the normal range, it can be considered to be normal.
And in case, the reading shows a higher value, they perceive it as their blood sugar level is too high for which they need to seek medical advice for the correction of dosages or anti-diabetic drugs. This is why they continue to use the test strips that are expired.
This false belief can prevent them from adopting healthier dietary and lifestyle habits or even consulting a physician when the reading of the blood sugar test shows a lower range as they perceive it to be a normal range.
However, the fact is that the strips may not always give a slightly lower reading than your actual blood sugar levels. It may show slightly lower, slightly higher, very high, very low, or even normal values of your blood sugar levels.
While some glucometers are designed to reject the expired strips, not all of them do so, putting the patients at a risk of having a wrong reading in case they happen to use one.
Information About Accusure Gold Blood Glucose Test Strip
AccuSure Gold Blood Glucose Test StripUses:Product Specifications:
- Reaction time of 8 seconds
- Comes with 25 tests strips and large LCD display
- Measuring range of 20-600
Minimum Blood Sample Needed:
- Insert test strips in the blood glucose monitoring system
- Monitor turns on automatically
- Apply blood and results will display in few seconds
Safety Information:
- Keep out of the reach of children
- Read the manual carefully before use
How Do Glucose Test Strips Work
If you have diabetes, its probably a very familiar drill: You stick the test strip into the meters slot, prick a finger with the lancet, draw out a drop of blood, and transfer the blood to the edge of the test strip.
Even though the technology might seem old-fashioned when compared with insulin pumps, CGMs, or other new technologies for diabetes care, what happens next is pretty ingenious:
The science behind test strips is quite complicated. They are made up of at least five layers, including a super thin layer of gold that helps conduct the current. Click here to see an illustration.
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The Freestyle Librelink App
Conveniently check your glucose with your phone instead of the FreeStyle Libre reader:§
- Access real-time glucose information view your current reading, trend arrow and history
- Get more glucose insights from the FreeStyle Libre reports
- Stay connected to your healthcare professional and loved ones virtually
Can You Use Expired Diabetes Test Strips
Regular monitoring of blood glucose levels is an essential part of good diabetes care. Keeping an eye on your blood sugar levels helps you make decisions, in collaboration with your healthcare team, about nutrition, physical activities, and when to take your medications. These are all important decisions that can delay or prevent diabetes complications such as heart attack, blindness, and amputation.
In previous blogs we covered various methods to monitor glucose levels, including continuous glucose monitoring devices but also emerging technologies like using saliva as a pain-free and cheaper alternative to blood for monitoring diabetes, measuring glucose in your tears and using a smart-patch.
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Are You Paying Too Much For Test Strips
If you have ever purchased test strips out of pocket at a pharmacy, chances are you paid WAY too much for them. In fact, you may have paid as much as 64% too much.
Like you, we at Valley Rain Medical are appalled at the high pharmacy prices of test strips. So we developed a solution! We sell overstock test strips to consumers at significantly reduced pricesup to 64% off.
Dont ever pay too much againvisit our online store and grab your preferred brand while theyre still in stock.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, one more fascinating question
What Does It Cost To Make A Test Strip
Test strips are so crazy expensive, they must have gold in them! So if big pharmacies sell name brand test strips for $1.40 to $1.90 per strip, how much does it actually cost manufacturers to make them?
According to David Kliff, founder of DiabeticInvestor.com, “To manufacture the most advanced test strip is no more than 15 cents per strip.”
Manufacturers will argue that the high prices are defensible because of the research and development that goes into producing test strips, to say nothing of the ongoing costs of regulatory compliance. Well grant them that, but it still doesnt fully explain the horrendous prices.
$0.15 or less for a strip that sells for up to $1.90?! Do you feel sick yet?
Now here comes the really bad news, but with a silver lining
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How Test Strips Work
Diabetes test strips pack a lot of technology into a small space. The plastic strips are coated with a very thin layer of gold. The gold is cut into a pattern that becomes the stripâs circuit.
One end of the strip also has a coating of chemicals. They soak up your blood like a sponge and turn the glucose into electricity.
An electrical signal travels from the strip to the meter. The number you see on the meter is the speed of the electrical current. More blood sugar means a stronger signal. A stronger signal means a higher number on your blood glucose meter.
Is It Legal To Resell Diabetes Test Strips
Theres no law against buying and selling diabetes test strips on the open market. As a result, a growing gray market has emerged, where companies buy and resell test strips. Go online and youll find more than a few outfits doing this, with names like TestStripSearch.com, QuickCash4TestStrips.com, and Stripsupply.com.
As mentioned in another article, the savings here dont appear to be that great, and given that the quality control in these outfits is uncertain, we urge caution. Some sellers may try to peddle expired goods, for example.
Partly in response to this gray market, California has begun to regulate the supply chain of diabetes products, including glucose test strips, to prevent fraud and ensure patient safety.
The FDA issued
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The Freestyle Libre Reader
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Easy to hold and carry around¶¶
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Easy-to-read graphs
Offers easy-to-understand graphs with a quick summary of glucose history
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Backlit colour touchscreen
Enhances the user experience can be read in the dark
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Complete glucose picture
Stores 90 days of glucose data to provide a complete glucose picture over 3 months
Why Do Test Strips Have Coding Numbers
Enzymes are a critical part of the proper functioning of test strips, and the amount of enzymes included in test strips can vary from batch to batch. For this reason, manufacturers assign a code to each batch of strips, and the code calibrates your meter to give the correct reading for the amount of enzymes in your strips.
Neat, huh? As technology improves and manufacturers find ways to keep enzymes more stable, the need for codes is going away. Some manufacturers have created strips that automatically pass the code to your meter, rather than you having to manually type it in or insert a chip.
Now surely youve wondered this
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Can You Buy Glucose Test Strips Over The Counter
In the United States, glucose test strips are available over the counter at big box stores, independent retail pharmacies, and many websites, including Amazon, eBay, discount pharmaceutical sites like GoodRx, and manufacturers online sites. You can also find them in the so-called gray market .
Test strips are covered by:
- most commercial insurers
According to survey data passed directly to us from the diabetes research firm dQ& A, most people with diabetes get their test strips through health insurance 82% of people with type 1 diabetes and 76% of those with type 2 diabetes, to be exact.
But even with this coverage, test strips can often be very pricey.
For one thing, if you have a high deductible health plan, you still might need to pay over-the-counter prices for supplies until you meet the deductible.
However, you could catch a break if you have a health savings account , as the Treasury Department recently said that diabetes supplies and insulin would be covered in high deductible plans for people who have HSAs.
Also, your insurance might not cover the brand of test strips you want. Many insurance plans put specific preferred brands of meters and test strips in their top formulary tiers. That means brands not in those tiered lists will cost much more.
This can be a problem for those who need specific meters that transmit readings to their insulin pumps, or who switch insurance plans and dont like the meters and strips covered by their new plans.
How Often Are You Supposed To Change Your Lancet
Although most lancets tend to get dull or blunt after being used several times, the difference between the old and a new lancet is often not apparent to the patients as its use involves a quick finger prick with just a drop of blood being withdrawn.
Hence, though it is a good idea to change the lancet once every day, most diabetics do not experience any issue with changing it after 1 or 2 weeks, if they are using it daily, or after using it at least 10 to 12 times.
However, healthcare professionals insist that the lancets must be changed after each finger prick. The FDA has also recommended changing the lancets after each use, particularly if it involves more than one patient. This is especially important for avoiding the risk of infections involved in using the old and blunt ones.
Reusing dull lancets may also lead to callused fingers ad scars. These issues can also make it difficult to test your blood sugar levels at the same puncture site.
Moreover, as lancets get dull after each use, they can also hurt more when used to prick a finger and may also be ineffective for drawing blood. The pain caused due to the use of blunt lancets can prevent diabetes patients from checking their blood sugar levels frequently thus compromising their glycemic control.
The inefficient drawing of the blood, on the other hand, could lead to inaccurate results thus further contributing to improper diabetic control.
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The Strange Marketplace For Diabetes Test Strips
It is legal to resell unused test strips for blood glucose, and many patients do, driving an unusual trade online and on the streets.
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On most afternoons, people arrive from across New York City with backpacks and plastic bags filled with boxes of small plastic strips, forming a line on the sidewalk outside a Harlem storefront.
Hanging from the awning, a banner reads: Get cash with your extra diabetic test strips.
Each strip is a laminate of plastic and chemicals little bigger than a fingernail, a single-use diagnostic test for measuring blood sugar. More than 30 million Americans have Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and most use several test strips daily to monitor their condition.
But at this store on W. 116th Street, each strip is also a lucrative commodity, part of an informal economy in unused strips nationwide. Often the sellers are insured and paid little out of pocket for the strips the buyers may be underinsured or uninsured, and unable to pay retail prices, which can run well over $100 for a box of 100 strips.
Some clinicians are surprised to learn of this vast resale market, but it has existed for decades, an unusual example of the vagaries of American health care. Unlike the resale of prescription drugs, which is prohibited by law, it is generally legal to resell unused test strips.
Research Lower Cost Alternatives
There may be other prescriptions that work equally well at treating a condition, but that are available at different prices. Ask your doctor if there are any lower cost alternative drugs that – and if switching to a different drug could affect your treatment. To get started, check the section below for other drugs related to accu-chek-guide-test-strip.
accu-chek-guide-test-strip Drug Class
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How Does Squeezing A Finger Affect Blood Sugar
Patients with diabetes are often advised to test their blood sugar level at home using a glucometer. The use of this device involves adding a drop of your blood to the specific part on a test strip inserted into it.
While adding the drop of blood to the test strip, patients have to squeeze the finger slightly to allow the blood to ooze out from the capillaries. However, the pressure exerted on the finger while squeezing should neither be too hard nor too low.
The researchers have found that squeezing the finger with too much pressure might interfere with the accuracy of the test results. One study has revealed that about 5 to 13% of patients are likely to have a significantly inaccurate blood sugar reading due to the variation in the pressure exerted on the finger for squeezing out a drop of blood.
On average, it was found that the blood sugar readings showed a lower than the actual value when people put more pressure on the finger.
This means diabetic patients should avoid squeezing the finger too tightly as this can dilute the sample of blood with the tissue fluid called plasma and thus, increase the chances of a wrong reading or even hemolysis. The squeezing should be mild enough to just let a drop of blood ooze out onto the test strip.
However, once the blood collection step is complete, they can apply firm pressure to the puncture site to stop the oozing of bleeding.
Do Test Strips Really Have Gold In Them
The answer is yes, many of them do! An extremely thin layer of gold makes up the circuitry that allows your blood glucose levels to be read by your meter.
Not only that, but if you have a look at YouTube you can actually find videos of people who remove the gold from strips.
There, dont you feel smarter about test strips now?
Before you leave, do the really smart thing and visit our store to find out just how much you could save by purchasing test strips from Valley Rain Medical.
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The Signs Have Popped Up Around York County
An unusual offer is popping up on roadside signs around York County an offer to buy diabetic test strips.
About 6 million people in the U.S. use insulin to manage their diabetes, according to Matt Petersen, a managing director at American Diabetes Association. Those people use the test strips, along with a device called a glucometer, to check their blood glucose levels.
“Test strips are absolutely necessary for anyone who uses insulin to be able to safely adjust the dose of insulin to a persons blood glucose levels,” Petersen said in an email. “They are also helpful for people with diabetes who dont use insulin to know how well theyre managing their diabetes.”
However, not all people have the right amount of test strips, Petersen said. Some have too many, and others don’t have enough, creating the unusual resale market.
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Diabetic test strips are expensive, and for some people with diabetes, insurance doesnt provide as many strips as a health care provider might recommend, said Rachel Kostelac, spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
Particularly, those with Type I diabetes might need more test strips than their insurance provides, said Debra Bell, Family First Health director of clinical quality improvement. “A person has to have some way to check their blood sugar because their pancreas doesn’t create insulin.”
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What Do You Do With Expired Diabetic Test Strips
If you want to be a good citizen of the planet, its best not to throw out medical waste in regular trash bags or public trash bins, including glucose test strips, lancets, or alcohol swabs.
Once the strips expire, its best to put them in dedicated bio waste containers along with other medical waste, as noted by the Diabetes Council. Read a guide to recycling and disposing of the various components of your glucose testing kit here.
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Real People With Diabetes Real Freestyle Libre Stories
Explore inspirational#FreeStyleFreedom stories to see how the FreeStyle Libre system is allowing real people with diabetes to have more freedom in their day-to-day lives.
You have more options when it comes to purchasing the FreeStyle Libre system! Buy today at your local pharmacy or order now online!¶¶¶
Popular Glucose Test Strip Brands
Glucose test strips pretty much all work the same way. You simply plug one into the glucose meter brand they are designed for and place your blood sample on the end of the strip where a tiny sensor is embedded to get a reading. The slight differences in strip brands are found in the amount of blood required, time to result, and cost.
The costs can vary dramatically, and they can add up, especially if you buy them without insurance.
Prices change frequently, but to give you an idea of the range, at the time of publication, Amazon showed the following brands at these comparative costs:
- compatible with all Prodigy meter models: Voice, Pocket, and AutoCode
- need 0.7 microliter of blood for testing
- results in 7 seconds
- uses patented DoubleSure Technology that automatically checks each blood sample twice for utmost accuracy
Cost: about $1 per strip
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