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Q: Can certain medicines cause blood glucose to rise? My fasting blood glucose at the doctor's office was 190. At home, it was 130. I didn't eat anything except an aspirin and my blood pressure medicine. My fasting numbers at home average 120.

A: Aspirin doesn't cause blood glucose levels to rise, but check with your health-care provider to make sure your blood pressure medicine doesn't.

There are a number of reasons why you could have variations in your blood glucose readings:

• You might have been stressed when visiting your doctor. Stress can make your blood glucose levels rise.
• The timing of the test; it might have been done later in the day.
• The reading done in your doctor's office might have been taken from your arm and analyzed by the lab. Blood glucose readings from the laboratory are the most accurate. Results from your blood glucose meter can vary 15 percent from the lab or from another meter. Next time, check your meter reading against the lab's or the doctor's office meter. When they take your blood, do a test.

Madhu Gadia, M.S., R.D., is a certified diabetes educator.