- Messages
- 1,945
- Type of diabetes
- LADA
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Reposting a 2010 DiabetesMine article originally posted by @phoenix on an old thread, on how we can lower our complications risk, and what A1cs and standard deviation actually tell us about complication risk. The author cites Irl Hirsch and a colleague stating that in the DCCT trial, A1c levels only accounted for 11% of the risks for complications. I had not seen this and it is somewhat gob-smacking.
(...)
"According to an April 2008 Diabetes article, analysis of the participants in DCCT found that A1c was only responsible for 11% of the overall risk for developing microvascular complications. That means 89% of our risk for complications is coming from somewhere else. But whether that's standard deviation, environment, genetics, or something else entirely, no one knows.
"In a recent Journal of the American Medical Association article entitled, "Beyond HbA1c: Need for Additional Markers of Risk for Diabetic Microvascular Complications," co-authored by Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Michael Brownlee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the authors state that it is "crucial" to find out what causes the remaining 89% of microvascular risk. They write, "Physicians will have to realize that much remains to be done in identifying important factors contributing to microvascular complications risk, which are not captured by the HbA1c."
(...)
"The theory went that low standard deviation, i.e. less blood sugar swings, would be a good indications that a person's risk of complications is lower than someone with a high standard deviation, even if their A1c was higher than recommended (above 7%). This is supposedly so because the wild swings in blood sugar levels supposedly take a toll on a body — possibly even more so than having slightly elevated BG levels that remain steady.
' "The fundamental question is does variability give you an independent risk for getting diabetes complications? It's the 500 pound gorilla and we just don't know," says Dr. Irl Hirsch, endocrinologist at University of Washington and a lifetime type 1 himself, who's been one of the most famous proponents of applying standard deviation to diabetes care. What's that? We don't know? Not enough evidence here?!"
Just throwing this back in again.' "The fundamental question is does variability give you an independent risk for getting diabetes complications? It's the 500 pound gorilla and we just don't know," says Dr. Irl Hirsch, endocrinologist at University of Washington and a lifetime type 1 himself, who's been one of the most famous proponents of applying standard deviation to diabetes care. What's that? We don't know? Not enough evidence here?!"
Last edited by a moderator: