Diabetes. What are the equivalent Blood Glucose Levels? American and British readings differ.?

Some information on this site can be confusing or even alarming especially for those newly diagnosed with diabetes.
e.g. British readings are given in mmol/l. with recommended levels of 4 to 6 before meals and not higher than 10 two hours after meals. What is the US equivalent? And which measurements do other counties use.
Just for info, my sister has type 2, diagnosed 7 years ago and her daughter’s partner has type 1, since childhood, and as a family we support each other a lot so we are fairly well informed from a UK viewpoint.
My question was based on the observation of a younger member of the family who thought if someone was looking on YA for information they may get a bit of a shock, as she did, bless her, if not aware of the difference in measurements. So together we thought we’d find the answer and maybe help others at the same time.

There are 2 units that are used – mmol/l is used in the uk and I think Canada, and no doubt other places, the other is mg/dl as used in the US and other places. % is used for your HbA1c (long term blood sugar), and this is the same everywhere. Gangadhar is right – to change our units (mmol/l) to US mg/dl, multiply by 18; so in their units, blood sugar should be between 72 mg/dl (4.0mmol/l) and 162mg/dl (9.0mmol/l). Check out http://www.diabetesexplained.com/diabetic-conversions.html
for more info.

It is anoying that this difference occurs as it can be v confusing, I guess we just need to put up with them! It’s important to understand the difference if you’re going abroad incase you get sick while you’re there, and always try to check insulin units if you use insulin too – some countries (mainly in poorer countries – not a prob to the us) use more diluted insulin. All this is just one of those things that seems amazingly bewildering when you’re newly diagnosed but you pick up sometime along the way! The good news is that you don’t really need to worry about it unless you’re traveling abroad or looking on web sites like this one – also watch out for info aimed at type 1s and that aimed at type 2s – often difficult to tell apart and it can be confusing as what applies to one doesn’t always apply to the other – v anoying at times!

Hope that helps xx

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