GenUltimate 50 Test Strips For Use with OneTouch Ultra Meters

I have been a Type 2 diabetic for three years and use a One Touch Ultra Mini meter with One Touch Test Strips. Those One Touch test strips cost $1.00 each – that’s my co-pay using my health insurance and buying a 90 day supply through their designated mail order pharmacy. Even at this high price my insurance will provide enough strips for only one test per day. I could buy more One Touch strips on the open market without help from my insurance – at a cost of about $1.50 each. How much do you think it costs to mass produce a test strip? Right – a whole lot less than a buck!I had my fill of that and decided to buy a vial of 50 Gen Strips at $0.25 each on Amazon to conduct my own trial. For a month I tested them “side by side” with the One Touch strips when I test in the morning before breakfast. Using the same site, I used one strip first then the other immediately afterward. Of course, I recalibrated the meter for the different Code numbers of the strips. (If you’ve never done it – it’s a simple process described in your meter’s instruction manual.) Here are the results:Date.............................................One Touch .....Gen StripFriday, June 03, 2016.................106..................112Saturday, June 04, 2016.............117..................122Sunday, June 05, 2016...............109...................111Monday, June 06, 2016...............119..................111Tuesday, June 07, 2016..............104....................98Wednesday, June 08, 2016.........114..................107Thursday, June 09, 2016.............163..................152Friday, June 10, 2016..................108..................118Saturday, June 11, 2016..............141..................129Sunday, June 12, 2016................126..................134Monday, June 13, 2016...............147..................139Tuesday, June 14, 2016..............142..................144Wednesday, June 15, 2016.........119..................125Thursday, June 16, 2016.............150..................165Friday, June 17, 2016..................147..................157Saturday, June 18, 2016..............150..................157Sunday, June 19, 2016................127..................131Monday, June 20, 2016...............139...................137Tuesday, June 21, 2016..............134...................123Wednesday, June 22, 2016.........112...................130Thursday, June 23, 2016.............142...................141Friday, June 24, 2016..................132...................141Saturday, June 25, 2016..............132...................137Sunday, June 26, 2016................133...................148Monday, June 27, 2016................134...................154Tuesday, June 28, 2016...............131...................143Wednesday, June 29, 2016..........110...................120Thursday, June 30, 2016..............102...................103Friday, July 01, 2016....................114....................131Saturday, July 02, 2016................136....................144Sunday, July 03, 2016..................188.....................167The difference between the One Touch and the Gen Strip varied by an average of 9 points or 7%. The largest single variance was 18 points or 16%. The instruction manual for the One Touch indicates that it is considered accurate if it is +/- 20% of a laboratory measurement. This Gen Strip accuracy is good enough for me. I’ll keep some One Touch-branded strips around, but I am switching to the Gen Strip, saving 75% on costs, and testing whenever I want.Being diagnosed with diabetes was rotten enough luck, but having to pay predatory prices for the supplies I need to take care of myself really added insult to the injury. We diabetics are a big community, and we can respond to high priced products the only way the big corporations understand – buy not buying their products! I encourage you to try the Gen Strip, conduct your own tests, and decide.

These are easy to use and work great with my meter. Watching my glucose in the morning, before l eat, after l eat, after l exercise, etc., have given me a clear understanding of how my body reacts to various foods, or activities. I now know that walking for 15 minutes right after a meal keeps my sugar from going up almost at all, whereas hard exercise(using my rower) makes my sugar go up even if l haven't eaten. I hear that is because the liver releases glucose to give me energy during physical stress, but walking doesn't excite the liver to release glucose. When l walk immediately after l eat, my body uses up all the carbs to give me energy instead of processing it in a way that makes my sugar spike. I would never have discovered how amazing this "trick" is without these test strips! I also learned that salad meals, even low carb, digest fast and cause a quicker spike in glucose. Steak, keto pancake breakfasts, etc., digest slower making it easier to walk cabs off of digesting food. I could go on and on. I have become my own lab rat to learn about me and l am amazed. I feel like l will live a much longer, healthier life with just what l have learned over the past months of using these. 10 STARS!

I was somewhat hesitant about buying generic strips, so I did a statistical analysis. Over 21 days my average was 97 for both. If you want to know the full extent of my nerd rage, read on. My results showed no statistical difference between the brand name (M = 97.76, SD = 10.93) and the generic strips (M= 97.10, SD = 9.90); t(20)= 0.35, p = 0.73. Over 21 days my average was 97 for both. If the generic strip consistently measured higher, than the brand name would have been 97 and the generic a higher value.I checked my sugar for 21 days. I have two OneTouch Ultra 2 meters. I tested myself using OneTouch Ultra strips (#25) and the GenStrip (#4). I put a strip into each meter and measured the sugar levels within seconds of each other. After the 21 days, I did not renew my brand name strips and used the generics exclusively. I know that if I used a brand name strip, the results would not be the same during the same reading, but over a period of time, the generic strips perform the same. It was nice to see that the generic strips had the same standard deviation as published tests. [...] Most meters and strips are designed to have a variability of 20%, so expect differences between measurements taken with the exact same meter and strips taken at the same time.

These strips are working within reasonable accuracy and consistency on my One Touch Ultra Mini, which I purchased a few weeks ago from Walgreens (The Rev. date on the back of the glucometer is from the year 2010).On my machine these generic strips read about ten points lower than standard proprietary One Touch Blue strips but they are reasonably consistent so I can mentally adjust - if the generic strips read, for example, 150, I can fairly safely assume that the One Touch strips would probably read in the 160 range. In my own experience, actual brand-name One Touch strips have read as much as 20 points apart testing both strips on the same machine within seconds of each other, so given that even the brand name strips can vary so widely, these strips are reasonably consistent.Make sure to adjust the machine's code to match the generic strips, use testing solution regularly to calibrate the machine, and occasionally compare a reading between the generic strips and the brand name strips to make sure that you're not being led down the proverbial garden path where your vital blood sugar readings are concerned. I recommend that you always keep some of the brand name strips on stand-by: that way, when you are using the generic strips and get a reading that is anywhere close to the dangerous range, you will then be able to confirm it with one of the brand-name strips. With these simple and sensible safeguards you should be able to save tons of money on these generic strips.