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

Normal Hba1c but high glucose readings

Thanks for the suggestions - I really appreciate it. An extended oral glucose test might be an idea as my levels have sometimes continued to increase after 2 hours too.
I don't think that's unusual after heavier meals that include fat. I've had pizza cause a spike at 4-5 hours, which makes me wonder who created these guidelines. I guess they're all eating fat free diets? Low fat meals on the other hand should be close to normal by two hours, otherwise there's a potential problem. The OGTT of course includes no fat or fiber. I completed one recently and didn't feel so great, kind of dizzy within the first ten minutes and by two hours I was hypoglycemic. It would have been nice to have markers past two hours...live and learn.
 
I don't think that's unusual after heavier meals that include fat. I've had pizza cause a spike at 4-5 hours, which makes me wonder who created these guidelines. I guess they're all eating fat free diets? Low fat meals on the other hand should be close to normal by two hours, otherwise there's a potential problem. The OGTT of course includes no fat or fiber. I completed one recently and didn't feel so great, kind of dizzy within the first ten minutes and by two hours I was hypoglycemic. It would have been nice to have markers past two hours...live and learn.
I agree with the eOGTT revealing more.
That is why this test should always be fasting.
Fat, is always an issue with dietary recommendations. Mainly because of this low fat issue, usually ascribed to saturated fats. The majority of saturated fats are good for your health, especially if you are prone to glucose/insulin response issues as it does slow the spike. It does not cause cholesterol issues or changes to your hormonal response, if you have satured fat moderately, as in all things!
The other non saturated fats or low fat are not as good for us. Low fat is known to have the fat replaced by other baddies, ingredients that are known to affect that hormonal response, industrial sugars, oils, such as palm oil, soya, others for taste. Even most cooking oils are known to be bad for metabolic issues.
The reason why, that recommendations are so skewed for us, take for example the glycaemic index, it wasn't tested on anyone who had diabetes, only done on non diabetics, with no health issues. Because they wouldn't be able to have a baseline, guideline.
That is why, when I was involved in how dpp4 inhibitiors could help with first phase response, that my endocrinologist, only had two patients to test! But it did show exact response. And a paper was published.

And eventually, my specialist endocrinologist had to alter his treatment advice for those with RH.

But I will add that, as with most things to do with our health issues, it is so individual and what causes or treatment works, is for you!

Best wishes.
 
Hi,

Just seeking some advice. I have recently had many of the symptoms of diabetes such as excessive thirst, fatigue etc and have been off work feeling so unwell so went to the GP.

My Hba1c test came back as 41 this week so just within 'normal' but I have been tracking my blood sugar levels with a home monitor.

My waking readings have been
7.4, 7.9, 6.6 and 6.6

2 hours after lunch my readings have been
14.8, 16.1, 11.4 and 12.1

Just wondered if anyone had any advice on what to do next. I shared some of these readings with the GP who wasn't particularly concerned and said to see how I am in another week or so.

Thanks for your help!
Hi and welcome.

While your A1c is in normal range your fingerprick BG readings seem consistently on the high side to me. If it was only one or two every so often, it wouldn't be an issue, but it's starting to look like a pattern.

The food you're reporting is fairly carb dense. Usually when anyone eats carbs, there's a rise in BG as the carb is digested to glucose. Someone like me with T2 and insulin resistance will get a higher rise, and the rise will persist for longer, because the system doesn't respond well to its own insulin. Instead of the glucose being moved into muscle cells it gets converted to bodyfat, or just hangs around in the blood. High blood glucose levels do physical damage to nerves and capillaries.

It's also possible to have diabetic symptoms (in my book, if you have the symptoms, you have the disease) long before glucose levels reach the point (A1c>48) where the NHS will automatically diagnose T2. I was one of those people and had a range of symptoms for ten years prior to diagnosis, but was being told I wasn't diabetic.

I would think very seriously about starting to reduce the amount of carb you're eating, and see what that does to your BG. If you eliminate things like bread, pasta, rice, fruit, sugar and root veg you will reduce the carb load that your system has to deal with. It should help to reduce your after meal readings.

The morning fasting readings take a lot longer to be affected because that's a matter of retraining your liver to accept overall lower blood sugar levels as normal. My liver took about a year to come round, but got there eventually.

Let us know how you get on.
 
That is why, when I was involved in how dpp4 inhibitiors could help with first phase response, that my endocrinologist, only had two patients to test! But it did show exact response. And a paper was published.
Hang on. So it helped your first phase insulin response, and I assume the hypoglycemia?
 
Hang on. So it helped your first phase insulin response, and I assume the hypoglycemia?
Correct!
A bit more involved than that.
In my first and second eOGTT, without the gliptin, my fasting levels would be in normal levels. After the 75g of glucose, it was both times over double figures in the trend between 13-15. When I had the spike.
Then after my fifth and sixth test, after a month on 100mg with the gliptin. The readings were from normal levels and the spike was recorded at just over 8.4 mmols.
However, I still went hypoglycaemic, but the symptoms and severity wasn't as bad as previous.
Taking into account that my body had really adjusted to very low carb as well as losing a lot of weight I had become fat adapted.
My endocrinologist was really pleased with the results but accepted that it wasn't a complete success!
But, I learned a lot about my options and having a food diary, was such an eye opener.
 
Back
Top