Hba1c 42 to 35

[finzi1966]

Exactly - I think by people talking about stress raising blood sugars, in GoWest’s it’s kind of missing the point that their blood sugars are *entirely normal*. Their HbA1c is *entirely normal*. So is their fasting blood sugars, their post meal blood sugars, and their random blood sugars. They do not have diabetes or even prediabetes.

 

[gowest12]

Exactly - I think by people talking about stress raising blood sugars, in GoWest’s it’s kind of missing the point that their blood sugars are *entirely normal*. Their HbA1c is *entirely normal*. So is their fasting blood sugars, their post meal blood sugars, and their random blood sugars. They do not have diabetes or even prediabetes.

I got scared when I saw 8 that was random isn’t that diabetic???

 

[gowest12]

I realise I didn't reply to your point about stress. I have done a stressful two hour drive in very bad weather and seen a rise from high fours to six, if I recall correctly. Nothing eaten in that time. That's just my system ensuring I have enough fuel to cope with what I'm doing. I see similar small rises after an hour's football, again my system responding naturally and normally to "stress" - raised adrenaline and physical activity. In both cases once the "stress" stops the need to have additional fuel stops, and the liver stops adding glucose.

In no way are these "spikes", and it is misleading to call them that. They are all perfectly natural ups and downs. As you're not diabetic your system probably responds better than mine and might be much quicker at adding fuel and using it up. That is a good thing.

BTW, I don't think your pancreas "has to heal" because you've zero evidence of it being injured/damaged.

So do you think I could have a snack if I’m hungry?? Like a low carb snack? It’s the American sites that have said my numbers are diabetic. Not on this site. This site has given me great information!!! I will stick to what my doctor has said and not get tested for another year. I will try to eat more as I don’t like this feeling of hunger hopefully things will stay the same If I stay low carb and higher fat. Still I’m scared of fat!!

 

[HSSS]

Sorry for being a pain but this weekend i haven’t tested my blood sugar levels as I’m trying my best to not check but I’m finding it hard. Can I ask I know people say stress and anxiety can raise blood sugar but does it raise it so that it stays up for long that’s why im not convinced about my average being hba1c 35. Then I posted on some forums and I’m being told to be get another test done. Like the times I saw 8! That was well after a very low carb breakfast. And I don’t know how to progress now as I’m almost underweight I believe my lack of eating lowered the hba1c. I’m scared to snack as many sites say don’t snack the pancreas has to heal and was still eating a few lentils and beans as a side with my dinner. This diagnosis has me confused because it’s now going to be difficult keep the hba1c that low. And I’m thinking of those one off finger pricks that were 8 or 7 I’m sure they are diabetic numbers. I don’t know whether I should have another hba1c or will I just be making things worse? I’m so confused and with many people telling me that those numbers are diabetic !!! If anxiety raises it does it last long or do the spikes come down. My doctor has already told me next hba1c test in one year as there’s no need any earlier so I would have to go private test

The being told to retest may very well be confusion on a US site between bgl and hba1c. Or it might be people freaking (like you) about a single fasted reading. You’ve already had 2 ha1c done to check your own readings. They are fine.

If you are underweight eat more proteins and fats. Have small bean and lentil sides But most importantly don’t starve yourself or you’ll end up with more problems.

You don’t have a diagnosis. You are not diabetic. A year is fine and concentrate on what your dr is telling you.

What you do have is anxiety and a little monster on your shoulder whispering these false and negative thoughts. Listen to the angel on the other shoulder talking more sense

 

[HSSS]

I got scared when I saw 8 that was random isn’t that diabetic???

No. Over 11 for a random test suggests further checks. You’ve had further tests.

 

[KennyA]

So do you think I could have a snack if I’m hungry?? Like a low carb snack? It’s the American sites that have said my numbers are diabetic. Not on this site. This site has given me great information!!! I will stick to what my doctor has said and not get tested for another year. I will try to eat more as I don’t like this feeling of hunger hopefully things will stay the same If I stay low carb and higher fat. Still I’m scared of fat!!

I think the American posters on American sites will be making the mistake I outlined above.

Snacking - all depends on what you mean by snack. If you're actually hungry I'd recommend eating a meal, not snacking. Being hungry is hard to mistake.

By "snack" I mean having a couple of almonds, or a couple of olives, or some cheese, or a bit of salami. I'm looking for taste and flavour, or salt, nothing to do with hunger. None of the things I've mentioned have any impact on my BG, particularly not in tiny quantities. For a light lunch type of thing I'd go for a 2g carb roll with ham and cheese, maybe some lettuce, mayo, mustard and tomato. Again, no discernable impact on my BG.

If by snack you mean a doughnut or pastry, you might be OK, I wouldn't.

Unfortunately the media and the official sources have done a very good job in convincing people that eating fat will kill them. It' will take a couple of generations, I guess, before they realise that, if eating fat was bad for us, the human race would have died out tens of thousands of years ago.

 

[gowest12]

The being told to retest may very well be confusion on a US site between bgl and hba1c. Or it might be people freaking (like you) about a single fasted reading. You’ve already had 2 ha1c done to check your own readings. They are fine.

If you are underweight eat more proteins and fats. Have small bean and lentil sides But most importantly don’t starve yourself or you’ll end up with more problems.

You don’t have a diagnosis. You are not diabetic. A year is fine and concentrate on what your dr is telling you.

What you do have is anxiety and a little monster on your shoulder whispering these false and negative thoughts. Listen to the angel on the other shoulder talking more sense

Thank you yes I do have the anxiety which is why I’m concerned when I see higher readings

 

[gowest12]

See this morning im back to thinking I need to get another hba1c done. Yes my first was 42 and then it was 35 but that’s basically eating nothing hardly any carbs and I’m concerned now if the anxiety and stress has impacted my blood sugars and is going to shoot them up before my next yearly hba1c. I’m feel like I can’t manage this.

 

[ajbod]

Your anxiety will not have that big an impact. just avoid eating lots of potatoes, pasta, rice, bread and pastry and you should have no problem.

 

[gowest12]

Your anxiety will not have that big an impact. just avoid eating lots of potatoes, pasta, rice, bread and pastry and you should have no problem.

Ok I’m already very low carb as I’m worried almost carbs will raise my hba1c so I’ve cut out all the major ones like potato’s pasta and bread.

 

[ajbod]

Great then just keep coasting along as you are, just ensure you eat enough protein and especially fats, so that you do not get hungry. You really are in a very good position, STOP worrying unnecessarily.

 

[gowest12]

Great then just keep coasting along as you are, just ensure you eat enough protein and especially fats, so that you do not get hungry. You really are in a very good position, STOP worrying unnecessarily.

Is it ok to have a few crackers with cheese if hungry??? I’ve tried to find low carb crackers but not much luck the best I can find are carrs table biscuits they have 2.5 carbs in each or is that too much?

 

[KennyA]

Is it ok to have a few crackers with cheese if hungry??? I’ve tried to find low carb crackers but not much luck the best I can find are carrs table biscuits they have 2.5 carbs in each or is that too much?

You have to work out how many carbs you're aiming for each day and then fitting your crackers (or whatever) into that figure, taking account of the other carbs you're eating.

M&S do a seed cracker that is extremely low in carb (I can't recall exactly how much, maybe 3g per 100g? There is a thread about them in the Food and Drink section here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/seed-crackers-m-s.184183/). Problem is they are hard to find as not all M&S stock them and those that do sell out quickly. They go fine with cheese of all types.

"Stress" is not going to elevate your blood sugars in the way that food does. When you are stressed (by which I mean anything that might trigger adrenaline), your body responds by providing fuel for your muscles from its own stores - it's using up material already in your body, and boosting your blood glucose so your muscles are properly fuelled. It's not really something I give any thought to as the only way to prevent it is to not be stressed.

 

[gowest12]

You have to work out how many carbs you're aiming for each day and then fitting your crackers (or whatever) into that figure, taking account of the other carbs you're eating.

M&S do a seed cracker that is extremely low in carb (I can't recall exactly how much, maybe 3g per 100g? There is a thread about them in the Food and Drink section here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/seed-crackers-m-s.184183/). Problem is they are hard to find as not all M&S stock them and those that do sell out quickly. They go fine with cheese of all types.

"Stress" is not going to elevate your blood sugars in the way that food does. When you are stressed (by which I mean anything that might trigger adrenaline), your body responds by providing fuel for your muscles from its own stores - it's using up material already in your body, and boosting your blood glucose so your muscles are properly fuelled. It's not really something I give any thought to as the only way to prevent it is to not be stressed.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your answers. I just wanted to say when my level was 42 I was still eating a lot of carbs then was it was 35 I was surprised but not so surprised as I have been very low carb. I was sent on an nhs course which I didn’t get on well with as I was not overweight to begin with and it was all about this plate method and they recommend quite a lot of carbs and they keep saying prediabetics don’t need to watch carbs which I didn’t agree with so I did go opposite to what they said. I was eating around 50 carbs a day not quite keto but low carb. So I assume doing that got me down to 35 because many others who were still eating carbs didn’t manage to drop theirs. My question is now that I’m at this point it’s the realisation now I will have to eat like this forever???? Will I ever be able to have a treat??? I know it could easily go back to 42. And I’m confused my friend was told by her doctor she was at 42 that it was high end of normal but I was told it was prediabetic???

 

[gowest12]

Exactly - I think by people talking about stress raising blood sugars, in GoWest’s it’s kind of missing the point that their blood sugars are *entirely normal*. Their HbA1c is *entirely normal*. So is their fasting blood sugars, their post meal blood sugars, and their random blood sugars. They do not have diabetes or even prediabetes.

My concern is that the anxiety would have given high blood sugar readings and that’s why when I saw a finger prick of 8 well after 2 hours of breakfast I panicked thinking it’s the anxiety doing that and that’s why I wasn’t sure whether the hba1c was accurate. I have gone very low carb and I’m just scared that even doing what I have been doing the anxiety will raise the hba1c? I know people have commented here saying it doesn’t have as much impact as the food we eat. My doctor won’t repeat the hba1c but I wanted to get another one so it could include that week where I was most anxious and that’s when I saw higher readings. As I feel the hba1c missed out that last week

 

[KennyA]

My concern is that the anxiety would have given high blood sugar readings and that’s why when I saw a finger prick of 8 well after 2 hours of breakfast I panicked thinking it’s the anxiety doing that and that’s why I wasn’t sure whether the hba1c was accurate. I have gone very low carb and I’m just scared that even doing what I have been doing the anxiety will raise the hba1c? I know people have commented here saying it doesn’t have as much impact as the food we eat. My doctor won’t repeat the hba1c but I wanted to get another one so it could include that week where I was most anxious and that’s when I saw higher readings. As I feel the hba1c missed out that last week

Couple of things - firstly the HbA1c is a sort of average of the last three months, so a day, or even a week, will make very little difference to it. There's maybe more inbuilt error in the test itself. So another HbA1c will give you a similar result, but cause you additional anxiety which you are feeding by the repeated testing. That's the reason your doctor doesn't think a further test is appropriate.

I did that course too. I might have been a bit luckier than you as I had a dietitian who was very pro-low carb. It helped.

Do you have to eat like this forever? That's your decision but I would say you don't have to. You're not diabetic. You've shown you can reduce your BG by low-carb eating. You're in control of that.

42 is indeed the top end of normal - I've attached the link to the NICE guidelines before so I won't do it again. I don't know why you were told you were pre-diabetic, when your reading didn't show that. You can of course have a treat - I do, but not that often. You should be able to manage that too, more easily than me. I don't think a single meal, or a single day, off keto would cause me a problem: the problem for me would be going back to an entire pattern of eating carb. You have already shown you can control that, so you needn't be scared of it.

 

[catinahat]

Will I ever be able to have a treat??? I know it could easily go back to 42

Of course you can have a treat, your HbA1c is 35, a little bit of what you fancy now and again is not going to do you any harm.
We all have to find a way of eating that we can enjoy and keep our levels reasonable, quite often it's a compromise, we accept that our HbA1c will be a bit higher if we indulge in the occasional treat, but life is not a rehearsal, we only get one chance to enjoy it.
You seem to be in fear of a higher HbA1c, when yours was 42, did anything bad happen? or did life just carry on as normal.
Many of us have had HbA1c levels much higher than 42 and yet we are still here to tell the tale.
I understand that you're feeling anxious, you're not alone, many people experience anxiety about their health.
It's important to remember that anxiety can make us feel like the worst-case scenario is going to happen, but that doesn't mean it will.
In fact most of the things we worry about never happen and if they do they are rarely as bad as we imagined.
Our imagination is quite often far scarier than reality, focus on the present and things you can control, like eating a healthy diet, getting enough exercise and enjoying life.

 

[gowest12]

I think the American posters on American sites will be making the mistake I outlined above.

Snacking - all depends on what you mean by snack. If you're actually hungry I'd recommend eating a meal, not snacking. Being hungry is hard to mistake.

By "snack" I mean having a couple of almonds, or a couple of olives, or some cheese, or a bit of salami. I'm looking for taste and flavour, or salt, nothing to do with hunger. None of the things I've mentioned have any impact on my BG, particularly not in tiny quantities. For a light lunch type of thing I'd go for a 2g carb roll with ham and cheese, maybe some lettuce, mayo, mustard and tomato. Again, no discernable impact on my BG.

If by snack you mean a doughnut or pastry, you might be OK, I wouldn't.

Unfortunately the media and the official sources have done a very good job in convincing people that eating fat will kill them. It' will take a couple of generations, I guess, before they realise that, if eating fat was bad for us, the human race would have died out tens of thousands of years ago.

So it’s me again and I’m upset today i weighed myself on the boots scales in the shopping centre and decided to get my body fat checked and I’m 7 stone 6 4ft 11 and it gave me a body fat percent of 41!!!!! I already wasn’t overweight when I was diagnosed at 42 prediabetes but since then lost more weight and now I know I can’t lose anymore I don’t want a lower bmi but this body fat has freaked me out. I’ve been going to exercise classes the hba1c dropped but my body fat didn’t so it still has me at high risk for diabetes and heart disease! Firstly are these things accurate?? Because I did one also when I was at hba1c of 42 and the body fat percent was exactly the same am I not losing any fat then?! I’m so upset with this as when I measure my waist to hip ratio it’s the same story what more can I do??

 

[KennyA]

So it’s me again and I’m upset today i weighed myself on the boots scales in the shopping centre and decided to get my body fat checked and I’m 7 stone 6 4ft 11 and it gave me a body fat percent of 41!!!!! I already wasn’t overweight when I was diagnosed at 42 prediabetes but since then lost more weight and now I know I can’t lose anymore I don’t want a lower bmi but this body fat has freaked me out. I’ve been going to exercise classes the hba1c dropped but my body fat didn’t so it still has me at high risk for diabetes and heart disease! Firstly are these things accurate?? Because I did one also when I was at hba1c of 42 and the body fat percent was exactly the same am I not losing any fat then?! I’m so upset with this as when I measure my waist to hip ratio it’s the same story what more can I do??

So that's 104lbs and 4 foot 11 inches - seems to be BMI 21. Which is a normal BMI, on the low side (point of order - I think BMI is a duff measurement).

I understand that the machine estimates body fat percentage by using biolelectrical impedance - basically it measures how much resistance there is to a small electric current passing through your body. I can think of a number of factors that might affect this, and it seems to give nothing but inaccurate results - two seconds googling will show you that.

From your weight and height you obviously do not have 41% body fat. You cannot be carrying 40lbs of fat. You say you've lost weight, which will be body fat, but then say the machine is telling you that the percentage hasn't changed.

The answer is that the machine is wrong.

 

[gowest12]

So that's 104lbs and 4 foot 11 inches - seems to be BMI 21. Which is a normal BMI, on the low side (point of order - I think BMI is a duff measurement).

I understand that the machine estimates body fat percentage by using biolelectrical impedance - basically it measures how much resistance there is to a small electric current passing through your body. I can think of a number of factors that might affect this, and it seems to give nothing but inaccurate results - two seconds googling will show you that.

From your weight and height you obviously do not have 41% body fat. You cannot be carrying 40lbs of fat. You say you've lost weight, which will be body fat, but then say the machine is telling you that the percentage hasn't changed.

The answer is that the machine is wrong.

Thank you once again!!!! You have been so kind with all your answers!!! I do feel better now I was thinking perhaps I do have that much body fat as I still have belly fat. And my waist to hip ratio puts me at risk. I’m just confused with all this as although I lost weight the waist doesn’t seem to shrink!!!