Non diabetic hba1c

[Doireallyneedanams]

Hi all

Long story short, I was told I had “borderline gestational diabetes” very late during my pregnancy due to some reads over 7.8 after very carb heavy take aways. One being a breaded chicken burger, mac & cheese bites, and sweet potato fries. I read 8.7.

The hospital dietician said she didn’t think I had GD as all pregnant women become somewhat insulin resistant.

They did an hba1c test there and then which came back at 33. “Definitely not diabetes” they said. If anything, it’s gestational. But Dr google told me that hba1c is not reliable in pregnancy, so I then convinced myself I must have been undiagnosed type 2 as it runs in my family (siblings.)

From this point onwards I cut out all refined carbs. Lost the excess weight as I was slightly overweight. Had my follow up hba1c 5 months later and it’s 30.

I appreciate these are non diabetic numbers, but now I’m worrying that given I changed my diet SO drastically (used to be extremely carb heavy) shouldn’t it have reduced more than from 33 to 30!?

To be honest I’m still scared I’ve got undiagnosed type 2. I regularly check my fasting glucose which is still 5 & under.

Is it the case that my hba1c of 33 was probably accurate despite it being taken in late pregnancy?

 

[xfieldok]

I think you are doing great. At least with your family history, you are aware, you can keep an eye on things going forward.

 

[KK123]

Hi all

Long story short, I was told I had “borderline gestational diabetes” very late during my pregnancy due to some reads over 7.8 after very carb heavy take aways. One being a breaded chicken burger, mac & cheese bites, and sweet potato fries. I read 8.7.

The hospital dietician said she didn’t think I had GD as all pregnant women become somewhat insulin resistant.

They did an hba1c test there and then which came back at 33. “Definitely not diabetes” they said. If anything, it’s gestational. But Dr google told me that hba1c is not reliable in pregnancy, so I then convinced myself I must have been undiagnosed type 2 as it runs in my family (siblings.)

From this point onwards I cut out all refined carbs. Lost the excess weight as I was slightly overweight. Had my follow up hba1c 5 months later and it’s 30.

I appreciate these are non diabetic numbers, but now I’m worrying that given I changed my diet SO drastically (used to be extremely carb heavy) shouldn’t it have reduced more than from 33 to 30!?

To be honest I’m still scared I’ve got undiagnosed type 2. I regularly check my fasting glucose which is still 5 & under.

Is it the case that my hba1c of 33 was probably accurate despite it being taken in late pregnancy?

I actually think that each human being has a tolerance level in all things and as long as that is within acceptable (non flawed) levels then your body will do all it can to keep it at that level. Trying to force it to be something that it's not is asking for nothing but stress. Don't get me wrong, I make every effort to keep my levels within an acceptable (for me) range which is between 4 & 7 when fasting, and an hb1ac of around 6 or less. Now I know I could force my levels lower by using more insulin or eating even lower carbs but having experimented with this in the early days, I realised no matter WHAT variable I tweaked, my levels ALWAYS returned to between 5 and 6. It was as if they were saying forget being in the 4s, it's not for you and insisted on releasing glucose when it fell into the 4s (with a LOT of effort and angst). It's like anything, blood pressure?, on the cusp of high but healthy in every other way, cholesterol?, higher than the so called average but ratios perfect. Your hb1ac of 30?, why do you think that is somehow a bad thing? x

 

[Doireallyneedanams]

I actually think that each human being has a tolerance level in all things and as long as that is within acceptable (non flawed) levels then your body will do all it can to keep it at that level. Trying to force it to be something that it's not is asking for nothing but stress. Don't get me wrong, I make every effort to keep my levels within an acceptable (for me) range which is between 4 & 7 when fasting, and an hb1ac of around 6 or less. Now I know I could force my levels lower by using more insulin or eating even lower carbs but having experimented with this in the early days, I realised no matter WHAT variable I tweaked, my levels ALWAYS returned to between 5 and 6. It was as if they were saying forget being in the 4s, it's not for you and insisted on releasing glucose when it fell into the 4s (with a LOT of effort and angst). It's like anything, blood pressure?, on the cusp of high but healthy in every other way, cholesterol?, higher than the so called average but ratios perfect. Your hb1ac of 30?, why do you think that is somehow a bad thing? x

Yes, I did think that could be the case.

well, the “normal” Hba1c range begins at 4% apparently, although some sources claim that is abnormally low - when compared to that, my 4.9% isn’t great considering I eat a low carb diet! If, however, it was 5.2% when I was eating an extremely high carb diet then maybe it is like you say, we all have our set levels and we generally tend to stay there. My fear of course being that if I are normal carb I’d go in to diabetic levels.