Body & Brain
Handling fruit can throw off blood-glucose tests, plus an autism gene and itchy feelings in this week’s news
By Science News
Unreliable blood-glucose readings
People with diabetes who monitor their blood glucose by pricking a finger can get an erroneous reading if they handle or peel fruit beforehand, two studies in the March
Diabetes Care
show. In one report, researchers in the Netherlands found that some people who didn’t wash their hands before taking a blood-glucose reading got widely different readings between the first and second drops measured. Handling fruit first led to such differences in nearly all patients. Scientists in Japan found that blood-glucose tests were elevated in people who had peeled fruit, despite swabbing the finger with alcohol after the peeling. —