Blood Glucose Meters in Canada

Interestingly enough I was reading The CR Way by Paul McGlothin & Meredith Averill and it suggested that individuals may want to become more knowledgeable about the effects of various carbohydrate sources on their blood glucose levels. That in itself was not the interesting part. The next day I ended up getting an overview of how blood glucose meters are sold in Canada. It turns out that measuring your blood glucose level may be rather inexpensive if you're not testing a huge amount everyday.

So, the interesting parts are these:

• Blood glucose meters are given away to many new diabetics in hopes of selling the patients more lancets, and test strips.
• Almost every blood glucose monitor in Canada purchased in a pharmacy includes paperwork to be reimbursed by the manufacturer for the purchase price. This rebate essentially makes the blood glucose meter free.
• Test strips are often specific to a particular brand of machine and with some manufacturers are only useful with specific models.
• LifeScan by Johnson & Johnson has about 50% market share in Canada followed by Roche and Abbott's product lineups.
• Apparently filling out the warranty card earns the pharmacy you purchased the unit from an additional $15 or so from the manufacturer.
• Completely new blood glucose monitors come out about once a year. So there is a constant planned obsolesence inherent in the industry.
• Type II diabetics likely check their levels once a day where Type I diabetics often check 6 to 12 times a day.

From here I started to formulate a plan if I ever wanted to measure my blood glucose levels. I would find the most inexpensive test strips and then purchase the monitor and get reimbursed for the purchase price.

I hope some of this info helps or entertains you!