What Does 'Fasting Blood Sugar' Mean And What Does It Tell You?

Dr. Siminerio answers: 'What Does Fasting Blood Sugar Mean?'

ByABC News
November 1, 2007, 2:15 PM

— -- Question: What does fasting blood sugar mean and what does it tell you?

Answer: Fasting blood sugar is what it means -- it's fasting, you haven't eaten, and usually in the diabetes world that means that you haven't eaten for about eight hours before you have the test done.

Fasting blood sugar's really very important particularly in diagnosing diabetes and oftentimes in therapeutic management, and it's important because the system is clean of at least any sugar you've eaten prior to that test, because, when you're measuring blood sugar levels, depending on what you eat that adds to that number. So if you want a clean, cleansed number, a 'fasting' is a very good barometer.

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