Prediabetes Am I a Diabetic?

[Morpheus5575]

Hello Everybody
I am a new member and a bit lost at present. I am 62 years old and i now weigh 184lbs and i am 5' 9" tall. I still can't believe that i am looking up a diabetic forum,i don't even know anybody who is diabetic. I hope you wont mind if i give a brief synopsis of where i am.

At a meeting with my GP about 2 months ago he informed me that my a1c bloods results had thrown up a big spike in my BG levels. He said i was at 148 which was knocking on the diabetic door. This was the first time my bloods had ever mentioned diabetes. When i asked him where that left me he said to give up bread. And that was it. I immediately went online and came across the Blood Sugar Diet by Dr Michael Mosely. I went on the eight week diet straight away.

I had another blood test at my request about 3 weeks later. When we went through the result he told me that my BG level had dropped to a normal reading of 145 which he said he was very happy with. My cholesterol had dropped from 5.5 to 2.2 and my Triglycerides had dropped to .9 he also said my blood sugar level for the day of the test was 4.0 He was amazed at the change as was I. The diet really kicked in really quickly with weight loss, Waist reduction and BG reversal. I am now on week 8 of the diet and i have lost 40lbs so far while also walking for 90 minutes per day. I have been checking my blood glucose at random times mostly the odd morning or midday and the readings have been ranging from 5.9 to 4.9 over a two month period about 12 checks in all.

What i don't understand is what kind of blood measurement is he using? I cant find anything similar anywhere. A friend of mine told me he had been to his GP and he was told that he was 6.8% so I am at a loss. I asked the doctor more than once but never got a straight answer. Btw I live in Ireland and i guess we would be on the same wavelength as the UK. He told me originally that i was technically a diabetic at the first meeting, and he says that I am now a diet-controlled diabetic. But my blood testing seems to throw up normal results all the time. Can anybody help me understand where i am at? This is all very new and a bit scary to be honest.

Please forgive me if this post is all over the place I hope you can make sense of it. I am posting in the prediabetes section for now.

 

[Grateful]

Ask your doctor for the result of the HbA1c test. This test is explained here: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/what-is-hba1c.html.

This is the gold standard for diagnosing diabetes, and pre-diabetes, in the modern era. There are "fasting glucose tests" that are also useful, but the HbA1c is the best single test to answer your question.

When I was diagnosed, I had the "fasting glucose test" first (albeit under non-fast conditions). This yielded a very large number, far higher than normal for a person without diabetes. The doctor then ordered the HbA1c.

 

[urbanracer]

Hello Everybody
I am a new member and a bit lost at present. I am 62 years old and i now weigh 184lbs and i am 5' 9" tall. I still can't believe that i am looking up a diabetic forum,i don't even know anybody who is diabetic. I hope you wont mind if i give a brief synopsis of where i am.

At a meeting with my GP about 2 months ago he informed me that my a1c bloods results had thrown up a big spike in my BG levels. He said i was at 148 which was knocking on the diabetic door. This was the first time my bloods had ever mentioned diabetes. When i asked him where that left me he said to give up bread. And that was it. I immediately went online and came across the Blood Sugar Diet by Dr Michael Mosely. I went on the eight week diet straight away.

I had another blood test at my request about 3 weeks later. When we went through the result he told me that my BG level had dropped to a normal reading of 145 which he said he was very happy with. My cholesterol had dropped from 5.5 to 2.2 and my Triglycerides had dropped to .9 he also said my blood sugar level for the day of the test was 4.0 He was amazed at the change as was I. The diet really kicked in really quickly with weight loss, Waist reduction and BG reversal. I am now on week 8 of the diet and i have lost 40lbs so far while also walking for 90 minutes per day. I have been checking my blood glucose at random times mostly the odd morning or midday and the readings have been ranging from 5.9 to 4.9 over a two month period about 12 checks in all.

What i don't understand is what kind of blood measurement is he using? I cant find anything similar anywhere. A friend of mine told me he had been to his GP and he was told that he was 6.8% so I am at a loss. I asked the doctor more than once but never got a straight answer. Btw I live in Ireland and i guess we would be on the same wavelength as the UK. He told me originally that i was technically a diabetic at the first meeting, and he says that I am now a diet-controlled diabetic. But my blood testing seems to throw up normal results all the time. Can anybody help me understand where i am at? This is all very new and a bit scary to be honest.

Please forgive me if this post is all over the place I hope you can make sense of it. I am posting in the prediabetes section for now.

I think you will find this page useful @Morpheus5575 , it explains the different scales used for blood glucose results.


http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
Please come back with more questions if you have them and a warm welcome to our forums.

 

[Alison Campbell]

Hi @Morpheus5575, there is definately something wrong with the numbers you have. You have every right to a print out of your test results which will give you the name of the test you had. Without this we can only guess.

My guess would be that the figures could be from a HBA1C test of 48 and then 45 mmol/mol

Within the range

• Normal: Below 42 mmol/mol (6.0%)
• Prediabetes: 42 to 47 mmol/mol (6.0 to 6.4%)
• Diabetes: 48 mmol/mol (6.5% or over)

 

[Grateful]

Hi @Morpheus5575, there is definately something wrong with the numbers you have.

I agree that they look strange. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps it is the old fasting glucose test, which they did for me here in America when they diagnosed my diabetes last February. Mine was so high (more than 200) that it was immediately flagged in red and they then ordered an HbA1c, which confirmed diabetes. @Morpheus5575 had 148, which looks like a similar kind of "scale" but who knows, really?

The normal (non-diabetic) range for that test is 70mg/dL to 100mg/dL here in America, with greater-than-125 indicating "provisional diabetes" (to be confirmed with an HbA1c).

I have attached a graphic of my result (at diagnosis) as a graphic below. Click on it to view. The dates are given American style (month/day/year).

 

[Morpheus5575]

Thank you so much guys for reply so quickly,very much appreciated. I will book an appointment on Monday. Something else about my blood test: i had been very ill for a few months with chest infections at first,then was admitted to hospital for a week with borderline pneumonia. During this period i was on one course of antibiotics after another and each accompanied by a course of deltacortril steroids. While i was in hospital i was i was given two different antibiotics directly into my veins and followed by steroids in the same way,this went on around the clock every 6 hours for four days. When i got home they put me on the same formula orally for 4 weeks. So what i am curious about is the effect all those steroids would have on my blood sugar? I seem to recall reading somewhere that steroids play havoc with sugar levels. Could they have been the cause of a high-ish reading?

 

[Grateful]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that steroids play havoc with sugar levels. Could they have been the cause of a high-ish reading?

Yes. But I assume your doctor knew about the steroids, and yet, still diagnosed diabetes. So presumably he took the steroids into account.

It is good that you have an appointment soon.

 

[Morpheus5575]

Thank you Grateful for the reply. Yes i will make an appointment to see my GP tomorrow. I need to get a few points cleared up. In the meantime i am continuing to lose weight,42lbs gone now, and i think i will settle for 7lbs more. I plan to continue following the Dr Mosley blood sugar Mediterranean diet into the future,increasing the calories to maintain my current weight. So hopefully all will be well.