Falsely High Blood Sugar after peeling fruits

Researchers from japan have found that peeling fruits by hand before testing  Blood  Sugar with glucometers may show falsely high Blood Glucose levels. A  recent study concluded in Japan whose results have been published in the February edition of Diabetes Care shows that cleaning the finger tip with alcohol swabs  a number of times did not have any effect but washing hands before taking a finger tip sample to test Blood Sugar showed  Normal  values, the reason for this has not been elaborated but  it could be because the Sugars present in Fruits like Fructose interfere with the normal enzymatic reactions in the Glucose strips.

This is an important finding in our view since many patients on Insulin frequently measure their Blood Sugar levels just before meals, based on which they decide or correct the insulin dosage, pseodohyperglycemia or falsely high Blood Sugar levels may force patients to increase the insulin Dosage leading to hypoglycemia or Low Sugar levels.

But the take home message is WASH HANDS BEFORE TESTING BLOOD SUGAR, ALCOHOL SWABS ARE NOT JUST ENOUGH.