How is Blood Sugar Measured?
Most of the time a normal blood sugar level is measured in mg/dL which stands for milligrams per deciliter however now more and more of the world is moving to using mmol/L as the standard for measuring blood sugar levels. Mmol/L stands for millimoles per liter. Now both of those are pretty confusing, but they are measuring the same thing by two different methods.
Mg/dL is measuring the concentration of sugar in the blood by weight in milligrams per deciliter of blood and mmol/L is measuring the same thing by using molecular count or moles to determine the amount of sugar per liter of blood. mmol/L is the world standard for measuring glucose in blood, but it’s not yet become the universal measure for doing so. Plenty of countries still use mg/dL to describe the amount of sugar in the blood.
1 mole is equivalent to 6* 1023 molecules which is a lot of molecules. That’s about as deep into molecules as I can go and an in depth chemistry class would serve to explain it further.
These standards are easily verified by doing an internet search and depending on the country your results come from will tend to either one or the other measurements.
Converting between the two different ways of measuring is relativity simple to do, but more numbers than I can keep straight in my head. mmol/L of glucose converts to mg/dL by multiplying by 18. Fairly easy with a calculator and doable with a pencil and paper. mg/dl converts to mmol/L by dividing by 18 or you can multiply by .055. Neither are difficult computations, but a calculator makes it quicker.
Numbers on the results you get from the lab can be confusing. If you are used to mg/dL and your number showed up in mmol/L and you were relying in 80-100 as being a normal blood sugar level and your test showed a 5.5 you would be scratching your head about that one. 100 divided by 18 = 5.56 and 5.5 multiplied by 18 = 99 so the number is what you were expecting, the units were just different from the standard way of doing things. Keeping up with changes can be confusing at first, but a little research on the subject can clear the confusion away into understanding.