SmallestSparrow
Very Active Member
Since I know I’m not alone in the search for the right probiotic I want to share something I just learned—just in case I’m not the only one who didn’t know this. What I will say applies only to maltose and any meter that uses glucose dehydrogenase (read on)
Glucometers have two essential ingredients: an enzyme system that reacts with blood, and a method of reading the reaction either by color change or generation of electrons. The enzyme system is dehydrated and stored on the test strips. There are a variety of enzyme systems used, alpha trak and some human meters use glucose dehydrogenase. You can probably find what yours uses by looking at the package insert that came with the strips (for the alpha trak it’s at the very end of the insert under “strip composition”
Maltose is an ingredient in a probiotic I bought designed to relieve cat constipation. I suspect it’s there as an osmotic laxative like miralax is (miralax is NOT maltose) but I’m awaiting email from company that makes it to discuss why it’s there. (Listed as an inert ingredient)
maltose can be read by glucometers that use glucose dehydrogenase systems as being glucose when it is not. In theory this could cause erroneously high glucose readings. Alpha trak couldn’t say how much, but I’m just not going to use anything containing maltose. You may want to closely read anything given for constipation and also check what system your meter uses.
Glucometers have two essential ingredients: an enzyme system that reacts with blood, and a method of reading the reaction either by color change or generation of electrons. The enzyme system is dehydrated and stored on the test strips. There are a variety of enzyme systems used, alpha trak and some human meters use glucose dehydrogenase. You can probably find what yours uses by looking at the package insert that came with the strips (for the alpha trak it’s at the very end of the insert under “strip composition”
Maltose is an ingredient in a probiotic I bought designed to relieve cat constipation. I suspect it’s there as an osmotic laxative like miralax is (miralax is NOT maltose) but I’m awaiting email from company that makes it to discuss why it’s there. (Listed as an inert ingredient)
maltose can be read by glucometers that use glucose dehydrogenase systems as being glucose when it is not. In theory this could cause erroneously high glucose readings. Alpha trak couldn’t say how much, but I’m just not going to use anything containing maltose. You may want to closely read anything given for constipation and also check what system your meter uses.