Blood glucose monitoring Most people with type 2 diabetes test at least once per day. The Mayo Clinic generally recommends that diabetics who use insulin (all type 1 diabetics and many type 2 diabetics) test their blood sugar more often (4–8 times per day for type 1 diabetics, 2 or more times per day for type 2 diabetics), both to assess the effectiveness of their prior insulin dose and to help determine their next insulin dose. Blood glucose monitoring reveals individual patterns of blood glucose changes, and helps in the planning of meals, activities, and at what time of day to take medications.
Glucose addition, there is also a hormone-independent regulation, which is referred to as glucose autoregulation. After food intake the blood sugar concentration increases. Values over 180 mg/dl in venous whole blood are pathological and are termed hyperglycemia, values below 40 mg/dl are termed hypoglycaemia. When needed, glucose is released into the bloodstream by glucose-6-phosphatase from glucose-6-phosphate originating from liver and kidney glycogen, thereby regulating the homeostasis of blood glucose concentration. In ruminants, the blood glucose concentration is lower (60 mg/dL in cattle and 40 mg/dL in sheep), because the carbohydrates are converted more by their gut flora into short-chain fatty acids.