• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

HBA1c result given and not explained

G

GM1986

Active Member
Messages
25
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hi everyone, I had been monitoring my blood sugar levels due to being symptomatic of possible type 2 or pre-diabetes. My doctor did an HBA1C blood test which came back at 32mmol. He said this was the gold standard for diagnosing diabetes.
So, since my result came in below 42mmol does that mean I don’t need to worry about making sure my blood sugar is between 4-6 before I eat a meal? Does it mean I don’t need to worry about my blood sugar spiking up to 9 after a small meal and perhaps not returning to normal within 2hrs?
I was convinced I was going to be prediabetic because of the measurements I was getting but now I’m just confused? Any help from the community would be greatly appreciated! I’m a worrier! Sorry
 
32mmol is absolutely excellent. You could hardly have a result further from diabetic. Although there are some rarer conditions may give symptoms that overlap. What symptoms do you have? The timing of tests post meal is vital as is realising even non diabetics rise before they fall and they don’t always return to baseline in 2hrs if it’s a carb heavy meal.
 
HSSS said:
32mmol is absolutely excellent. You could hardly have a result further from diabetic. Although there are some rarer conditions may give symptoms that overlap. What symptoms do you have? The timing of tests post meal is vital as is realising even non diabetics rise before they fall and they don’t always return to baseline in 2hrs if it’s a carb heavy meal.
Click to expand...
I’m getting fasting glucose levels between 5.5-7.1. That’s what had me most concerned because it was in pre-diabetes range pretty much all the time. My heart races 100+bpm for a long time after eating, especially in the morning or the first meal of the day, Even if it’s only something very small. That can last for an hour or 2 and is quite debilitating.
 
Depending on your diet fasting levels can be a little misleading (very low carb can give higher fasting but excellent rest of the day readings for example and not be an issue). Avoiding carb heavy breakfasts might be worth a try.

Personally I’ve not heard of heart racing as a diabetic symptom. Is your dr investing or explaining it?
 
Has your Dr offered an alternative explanation for your symptoms. With a HbA1c of 32 you obviously don't have diabetes. Do you think that your anxiety could be the problem, stress can cause raised blood sugar.
As you don't have diabetes it might be wise not to feed your anxiety by doing unnecessary finger prick tests
 
HSSS said:
Depending on your diet fasting levels can be a little misleading (very low carb can give higher fasting but excellent rest of the day readings for example and not be an issue). Avoiding carb heavy breakfasts might be worth a try.

Personally I’ve not heard of heart racing as a diabetic symptom. Is your dr investing or explaining it?
Click to expand...
My doctor is pretty uninterested, they are under so much pressure I don’t think they are really investigating much of anything at the minute. My blood sugar dips around dinner time, like 4/5pm right down to 4.4 everyday for some reason too but I feel more confident eating when it’s nice and low.
If I’m not diabetic does it matter how high my glucose level gets after I eat as long as it comes down again? Eg say it starts at 5.5, I eat and after an hour it’s 10 then after 2hrs is 6.5? Is that ok? Or do I need to worry about how high it is spiking after I eat?
 
catinahat said:
Has your Dr offered an alternative explanation for your symptoms. With a HbA1c of 32 you obviously don't have diabetes. Do you think that your anxiety could be the problem, stress can cause raised blood sugar.
As you don't have diabetes it might be wise not to feed your anxiety by doing unnecessary finger prick tests
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think I’ve become a little obsessed with testing because I was sure I was going to be diabetic. Hopefully I can stop myself testing and relax a bit.
 
Your sugar levels are on the move all day reacting to the needs of your body, your body does this automatically, just like breathing and your heart beating. As you don't have diabetes you can just trust your body to regulate your glucose, whatever your level is, is what it needs to be.
Don't look for problems, especially by continually testing with a not very accurate meter.
 
Here's a link to what happened when some non diabetics wore a cgm for a couple of weeks.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Profiles in Healthy Nondiabetic Participants: A Multicenter Prospective Study - PMC

Use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is increasing for insulin-requiring patients with diabetes. Although data on glycemic profiles of healthy, nondiabetic individuals exist for older sensors, assessment of glycemic metrics with new-generation ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And as @catinahat says, blood sugar meters are only required to be accurate +-15%, so they aren't always that accurate.
 
GM1986 said:
My doctor is pretty uninterested, they are under so much pressure I don’t think they are really investigating much of anything at the minute. My blood sugar dips around dinner time, like 4/5pm right down to 4.4 everyday for some reason too but I feel more confident eating when it’s nice and low.
If I’m not diabetic does it matter how high my glucose level gets after I eat as long as it comes down again? Eg say it starts at 5.5, I eat and after an hour it’s 10 then after 2hrs is 6.5? Is that ok? Or do I need to worry about how high it is spiking after I eat?
Click to expand...
4.4 is entirely normal before meals. I’m jealous. Everyone rises immediately after meals. The difference is how high and how long. Yours looks totally normal to me. More jealousy.
 
Back
Top