Help please?

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Hi, can someone help me please? My HbA1c is 38, so from my understanding I am not quite pre-diabetic, however my fasting blood sugar is 7.0mmol which indicates diabetes?!? Am I doing something wrong? Many thanks in advance.
 

bulkbiker

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19,576
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Hi, can someone help me please? My HbA1c is 38, so from my understanding I am not quite pre-diabetic, however my fasting blood sugar is 7.0mmol which indicates diabetes?!? Am I doing something wrong? Many thanks in advance.
Hi and welcome.. not really sure what you mean by "doing something wrong".
There can be lots of reasons for high early morning blood sugar.. how often have you seen the 7 or is it a one-off reading that you have taken?
 
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Hi and welcome.. not really sure what you mean by "doing something wrong".
There can be lots of reasons for high early morning blood sugar.. how often have you seen the 7 or is it a one-off reading that you have taken?
Thanks for the reply. Since I found out my HbA1c was 38, I’ve cut out all carbs, sugar etc but tested FBS yesterday and it was 6.3 and today 7.0. I thought by being “good” the FBS would be lower?
 

bulkbiker

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Type of diabetes
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These things can take time.. and high early morning readings can be indicative of the "dawn phenomenon' where our liver dumps some sugar to get us up in the morning as well as poor sleep or stress or lots of other things..
As your HbA1c is in the "normal" range which yours is then you'll find that your sugars are probably lower later in the day.. maybe try a few test readings to check at others times. And to view the effect of a meal try just before eating then 2 hours after the first bite.
 
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Thank you! I tested all day yesterday;
6.0 10hrs fasting
6.3. 12hrs fasting
8.8 1hr after 2xtoast, 1 x cookie and coffee
8.3 2hrs post eating
I’m very new to all this. Do these look bad results? And do I NEED to be so extreme in diet with that HbA1c reading. Thanks again!
 

HSSS

Expert
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Type of diabetes
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I don’t think you are cutting out carbs and sugar, and if that’s typical it’s not overly extreme either. Toast and cookies are not low carb /no sugar items.

With an hb1ac of 38 they seem a little high but to be fair that food would’ve sent mine much higher. You don’t appear to be diabetic or veg prediabetic but maybe have some small degree of insulin resistance (impaired fasting glucose). In which case lowering carbs should help things but might not change overnight. It certainly won’t hurt to be more moderate with them.

Was the 6.3 immediately before the toast? You need a reading just before eating as well as the ones after so you can see what change the food makes. 2mmol rise is the most you should want, less is better.
 
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I don’t think you are cutting out carbs and sugar, and if that’s typical it’s not overly extreme either. Toast and cookies are not low carb /no sugar items.

With an hb1ac of 38 they seem a little high but to be fair that food would’ve sent mine much higher. You don’t appear to be diabetic or veg prediabetic but maybe have some small degree of insulin resistance (impaired fasting glucose). In which case lowering carbs should help things but might not change overnight. It certainly won’t hurt to be more moderate with them.

Was the 6.3 immediately before the toast? You need a reading just before eating as well as the ones after so you can see what change the food makes. 2mmol rise is the most you should want, less is better.
I don’t think you are cutting out carbs and sugar, and if that’s typical it’s not overly extreme either. Toast and cookies are not low carb /no sugar items.

With an hb1ac of 38 they seem a little high but to be fair that food would’ve sent mine much higher. You don’t appear to be diabetic or veg prediabetic but maybe have some small degree of insulin resistance (impaired fasting glucose). In which case lowering carbs should help things but might not change overnight. It certainly won’t hurt to be more moderate with them.

Was the 6.3 immediately before the toast? You need a reading just before eating as well as the ones after so you can see what change the food makes. 2mmol rise is the most you should want, less is better.
Apologies, my mistake. For the past week I haven’t had and carbs/sugar. Then when I had the 6.0 & 6.3 I had the toast and cookie to see what that did.
 

Lazybones

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Messages
397
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Your HbA1c may appear to be lower, but you should bear in mind that this reading is THE AVERAGE reading of your Blood Glucose levels over the 12 weeks that preceeded the sample being taken. In other words it is the mean average of all the HIGH'S and LOW'S (Which also includes all the Morning BOOSTS due to the 'Dawn Phenomena').

Your Random Samples taken using your home self-monitoring B/G meter, taken both before a meal and 2 hours later are only a short part of what would make up the HbA1c final result, though these samples are still very useful as they indicate how well or otherwise we have delt with the glucose rise from what we had just eaten. Knowing this (It's often refered to as SPIKES) and this knowledge helps us Type 2's to greately take command and control of our own diabetes by what we choose to eat or drink.

Hope this simple explanation helps and makes things a little less confusing.
 
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6,107
Type of diabetes
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Diet only
My opinion is that you are probably not diabetic but you can never be certain that you are not showing some signs. None of the readings are over any limit and although the toast and cookies come a little close I would argue that if you are going to eat a meal consisting of only carbohydrates then that's what you would expect to happen.

The Hba1c is the reading to trust and yours is fine.
 
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My opinion is that you are probably not diabetic but you can never be certain that you are not showing some signs. None of the readings are over any limit and although the toast and cookies come a little close I would argue that if you are going to eat a meal consisting of only carbohydrates then that's what you would expect to happen.

The Hba1c is the reading to trust and yours is fine.
Thank you so much. This I understand. Any lunch ideas as I’m struggling
 

Shas3

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653
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
At the cost of oversimplification I would say your numbers are no reason to panic but definitely a good idea to start making some changes. Numbers fluctuate a lot and getting lost in detail at this stage may not be necessary in my view. Following below may help while you get your head around all these measurements.

A) Cutting bad carbs (processed/ refined flour stuff) and sugar to almost zero

B) limiting quantities of so-called-good-carbs to smaller portions and reasonable sizes

C) if cutting carbs is leaving you hungry or weak- increase a bit on protein and “good fats”. Don’t be scared of good fats.

D). Avoid all so called “low fat” nonsense

E). Limit fruits to one serving per day and vary them over tine to get variety

F). Exercise regularly. Doesn’t have to be super rigorous but pushing yourself and regularity are important- 5 days a week would be great

With your numbers the above should be good in my opinion while you monitor your numbers, without obsessing about every individual number and slowly you will understand how to interpret the numbers. I used to initially measure at random times and get worried or elated. Best approach is (even though many may not agree) - take one wake up reading and after 2 hours of eating a meal. I wouldn’t recommend “every” meal either. Maybe the heavier meal of the day, which has the higher carbs.
fda85e497784a88e20bace7d7c452e78.jpg


Check against these. If consistently you are getting High numbers you need to think a bit more. For now I would say panicking is unwarranted while actively making sustainable changes would be great

Good luck
 
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Your HbA1c may appear to be lower, but you should bear in mind that this reading is THE AVERAGE reading of your Blood Glucose levels over the 12 weeks that preceeded the sample being taken. In other words it is the mean average of all the HIGH'S and LOW'S (Which also includes all the Morning BOOSTS due to the 'Dawn Phenomena').

Your Random Samples taken using your home self-monitoring B/G meter, taken both before a meal and 2 hours later are only a short part of what would make up the HbA1c final result, though these samples are still very useful as they indicate how well or otherwise we have delt with the glucose rise from what we had just eaten. Knowing this (It's often refered to as SPIKES) and this knowledge helps us Type 2's to greately take command and control of our own diabetes by what we choose to eat or drink.

Hope this simple explanation helps and makes things a little less confusing.
Thank you!
 
Messages
13
At the cost of oversimplification I would say your numbers are no reason to panic but definitely a good idea to start making some changes. Numbers fluctuate a lot and getting lost in detail at this stage may not be necessary in my view. Following below may help while you get your head around all these measurements.

A) Cutting bad carbs (processed/ refined flour stuff) and sugar to almost zero

B) limiting quantities of so-called-good-carbs to smaller portions and reasonable sizes

C) if cutting carbs is leaving you hungry or weak- increase a bit on protein and “good fats”. Don’t be scared of good fats.

D). Avoid all so called “low fat” nonsense

E). Limit fruits to one serving per day and vary them over tine to get variety

F). Exercise regularly. Doesn’t have to be super rigorous but pushing yourself and regularity are important- 5 days a week would be great

With your numbers the above should be good in my opinion while you monitor your numbers, without obsessing about every individual number and slowly you will understand how to interpret the numbers. I used to initially measure at random times and get worried or elated. Best approach is (even though many may not agree) - take one wake up reading and after 2 hours of eating a meal. I wouldn’t recommend “every” meal either. Maybe the heavier meal of the day, which has the higher carbs.
fda85e497784a88e20bace7d7c452e78.jpg


Check against these. If consistently you are getting High numbers you need to think a bit more. For now I would say panicking is unwarranted while actively making sustainable changes would be great

Good luck
Thank you thank you. The advice is brilliant. Now the next question is my cholesterol is 0.1 away from being high, so I need to avoid fat?
 
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Shas3

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653
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Thank you thank you. The advice is brilliant. Now the next question is my cholesterol is 0.1 away from being high, so I need to avoid fat?

You are welcome. Cholesterol is complicated and i am definitely no expert and the UK scale is even more confusing. In my opinion)and again everyone may not agree) making the changes I mentioned above also helps cholesterol. In fact after i moved to full fat / good fat and started using them rather generously to make up for carbs, my cholesterol numbers improved significantly. So I personally would not worry about using good fats reasonably while following all the above steps. Fats are demonized too much. The real bad stuff is trans fats which is used in many processed foods. That and some “fad oils” (sunflower oil etc.) i would totally avoid. I would stick to traditional good fats and use them reasonably. Others may differ...
 
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You are welcome. Cholesterol is complicated and i am definitely no expert and the UK scale is even more confusing. In my opinion)and again everyone may not agree) making the changes I mentioned above also helps cholesterol. In fact after i moved to full fat / good fat and started using them rather generously to make up for carbs, my cholesterol numbers improved significantly. So I personally would not worry about using good fats reasonably while following all the above steps. Fats are demonized too much. The real bad stuff is trans fats which is used in many processed foods. That and some “fad oils” (sunflower oil etc.) i would totally avoid. I would stick to traditional good fats and use them reasonably. Others may differ...
My weekend just got better. Thanks again!!
 
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