Category Archives: Health

The onset of a cold?

It’s been a while since I remember having a nasty cold and I’ve been attributing this to my supplements of Vitamin D. Same goes for the rest of my family which also takes Vitamin D supplements.
Recently there has been some cold virus going around where people have been quite ill and I thought I was spared. Maybe not?

I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat and the feeling in my breathing that I get just before I come down with a cold. It’s a feeling in my lungs that I can’t really explain. When I breathe in the air passing into my lungs feels different just before the onset of a cold.
A few days ago (on friday) I was out to a concert which ran until 2am so I didn’t get to sleep till near 3am. The next morning I got up around 8am so only 5hrs of sleep.
For the next few nights (saturday, sunday and monday night) I felt really tired in the evenings. So tired in fact that I went to sleep around 8pm or 9pm each night. During the day I was fine and alert. I had a thought that maybe I was fighting something, but not having had any other symptoms, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I thought I was just recuperating from sleep loss on friday night.
Other then the subtle sore throat and feeling in my lungs, I feel a little tired today with a very mild headache. More like just some pressure then an ache.
I haven’t stopped my daily Vitamin D supplements (5000IU) but I will continue to document how this cold progresses.

Saturday: Tired in the evening; went to sleep at 8pm
Sunday: Tired in the late afternoon/evening: went to sleep around 9pm
Monday: Tired in the afternoon even after my 2pm tea. Tired through the late afternoon and evening; went to sleep at 9pm
Tuesday: Woke up with a slight sore throat and the feeling I get in my lungs before the onset of a cold; also a little tired with a very mild headache.

Blood glucose meter research

Looking for a blood glucose meter.
Best 10 glucometers as lsorted by Men’s health
http://www.menshealth.com/spotlight/diabetes/top-blood-glucose-meters.php
It looks like not all blood sugar meters are equally accurate. List of a bunch of meters on this page.
http://www.diabetesdaily.com/voices/2013/07/blood-glucose-meter-accuracy-comparison-chart/
Same data sorted by total accuracy from lowest to highest (total accuracy = the sum of all the entries for each unit)
(table at the bottom of post)

Some recommendations for the Accu-Chek Active since it’s accurate and test strips are least expensive.
Excellent article on the technical challenges of getting accurate readings from glucometers:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769957/

Meter Within 15% Within 10% Within 5% Within 15% Within 10% Within 5%
Under 100 mg Under 100 mg Under 100 mg Over 100 mg Over 100 mg Over 100 mg
SeniorLine GM210 15% 0% 0% 79% 55% 29%
Glucohexal II 50% 21% 7% 80% 64% 32%
GlucoRx (TD-4230) 83% 41% 14% 65% 40% 14%
Wellion CALLA Light 68% 33% 13% 89% 73% 52%
GlucoSmart Swing 84% 53% 15% 94% 67% 33%
Futura Monometer 90% 68% 27% 79% 59% 26%
IME-DC Fidelity 72% 43% 18% 94% 85% 48%
Biocheck TD-4225 76% 52% 22% 97% 80% 49%
Element 90% 79% 48% 83% 64% 30%
GlucoTel 89% 70% 33% 92% 72% 41%
Bayer Contour usb 90% 69% 45% 91% 68% 34%
smartLAB genie 84% 52% 23% 98% 87% 57%
iDia 96% 80% 47% 90% 71% 40%
GlucoCheck Classic 97% 84% 55% 85% 66% 38%
Beurer GL32 85% 62% 40% 99% 91% 56%
iBGStar 96% 90% 52% 90% 72% 35%
WaveSense Jazz 100% 75% 38% 95% 80% 47%
GlucoCheck XL 97% 92% 58% 88% 65% 40%
Pura 100% 95% 48% 100% 74% 30%
GlucoCheck Comfort 96% 86% 56% 95% 74% 41%
iXell OLED 97% 85% 52% 97% 79% 39%
smartLAB global 91% 85% 57% 93% 79% 48%
Beurer GL40 98% 90% 52% 95% 78% 42%
Omnitest 3 94% 86% 64% 91% 79% 48%
iXell 100% 98% 68% 89% 75% 38%
OneTouch Verio 97% 78% 40% 100% 95% 64%
microdot+ 98% 95% 62% 94% 83% 43%
Accu-Chek Compact Plus 100% 86% 27% 100% 94% 69%
Gluco-test Plus+ TD-4230 96% 94% 76% 95% 79% 42%
OneTouch VITA 98% 93% 72% 99% 87% 50%
BGStar 98% 92% 80% 97% 87% 62%
Accu-Chek Performa 100% 95% 72% 99% 94% 68%
Accu-Chek Mobile (maltose independent) 100% 98% 71% 100% 94% 66%
Accu-Chek Performa 98% 97% 78% 98% 92% 66%
Accu-Chek Aviva 100% 97% 80% 99% 91% 64%
Accu-Chek Mobile (maltose dependent) 98% 98% 73% 100% 96% 66%
Accu-Chek Nano 100% 96% 80% 99% 95% 65%
Accu-Chek Performa Nano 100% 98% 87% 100% 96% 64%
Accu-Chek Active 100% 100% 72% 100% 100% 79%
Accu-Chek Go 100% 100% 94% 100% 96% 79%
FreeStyle Lite 100% 100% 93% 100% 100% 86%
FreeStyle Freedom Lite 100% 100% 98% 100% 98% 90%

 

Quotes I found inspiring

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” LINK.