HB1AC and monitoring

[sparrott]

Good morning all,

In Sept 2020 I had a HB1AC of 59. The Doctor has expected this be lower after putting me on Metformin, 2 x 500 a day, 6 months earlier. I did explain to him that I was very hit and miss with the 2nd tablet of the day, at meal time, and told him I would be better and to try another HB1AC is 6 months. So I stuck to taking the 2nd Metformin religiously and had another HB1AC at start of Feb.. came back as 64! I have greatly reduced red meat/processed foods, between Sept to Feb, though have not been exercising as much as I was pre Sept. We spoke about this and the doctor suspected this may be a factor and said OK crack on with exercise and lets do another HB1AC in 3 months, I really don't want to take another Metformin per day.
I have purchased a Gluco Navii meter as I thought it may be good to have a look at my bloods a few times a week. I tried it out the other day, pre meal, and got a 6.6 and did a fasting one and got 8.5 this morning. So a few questions

Pre dinner - what reading should I expect?
A HB1AC of 64 .. does that equal an average of 6.4mmol over 3 months or is this a different type of reading? I think I may be confusing he 2?

Any help/advise/guidance is appreciated. Cheers Steve

 

[EllieM]

Welcome to the forums.

As a T2, your problem is carbohydrate, your body does not process it correctly and vainly produces more and more insulin to attempt to reduce your blood sugar levels,

Processed foods tend to contains a lot of carbohydrates so may be best to avoid, but though red meat may have health issues it doesn't have any carbs.

Most of the T2s posting here reduce their blood sugar levels to normal by reducing their carb intake to a level their bodies can cope with. Exercise reduces insulin resistance (the reason your body fails to cope with carbs) but reducing the carbs in your diet is a more direct solution to your problems.

Metformin doesn't have a massive effect on blood sugars, it reduces the amount of sugar produced by your liver, but looking at th the blood sugar levels on your meter will be massively helpful. Some T2s have bodies that can cope with 150g of carbs a day, others can only cope with 20g. Eat to your meter.

Here''s @JoKalsbeek 's massively helpful blog about T2 and diet. Good luck (64 isn't desperately high on the diabetic pathway so there's a good chance you can control it by diet.)
JoKalsbeek's blog | Diabetes Forum • The Global Diabetes Community

An hba1c of 64 corresponds to an average bg of 10.2mmol/L, high but I've seen much worse. Non diabetics keep under 8 most of the time.

Here's a link to bgs of diabetics and non diabetics
Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges - Blood Sugar Levels for Diabetes

Good luck

 

[xfieldok]

Welcome to the forum.

Diet is key. Have a read of the link in my signature.

What are you eating in a typical day please?

Tou should test before you eat and again 2 hours after the first bite. Your rise should be no more than 2mmol.

 

[KennyA]

Good morning all,

In Sept 2020 I had a HB1AC of 59. The Doctor has expected this be lower after putting me on Metformin, 2 x 500 a day, 6 months earlier. I did explain to him that I was very hit and miss with the 2nd tablet of the day, at meal time, and told him I would be better and to try another HB1AC is 6 months. So I stuck to taking the 2nd Metformin religiously and had another HB1AC at start of Feb.. came back as 64! I have greatly reduced red meat/processed foods, between Sept to Feb, though have not been exercising as much as I was pre Sept. We spoke about this and the doctor suspected this may be a factor and said OK crack on with exercise and lets do another HB1AC in 3 months, I really don't want to take another Metformin per day.
I have purchased a Gluco Navii meter as I thought it may be good to have a look at my bloods a few times a week. I tried it out the other day, pre meal, and got a 6.6 and did a fasting one and got 8.5 this morning. So a few questions

Pre dinner - what reading should I expect?
A HB1AC of 64 .. does that equal an average of 6.4mmol over 3 months or is this a different type of reading? I think I may be confusing he 2?

Any help/advise/guidance is appreciated. Cheers Steve

Hi, welcome to the forum. If your blood glucose is going up then something isn't going right. You say you've cut down on processed foods and red meat. - I have excluded processed foods (almost?) completely but eat meat - red, white, fish, whatever - at every meal. Normal ranges for BG are discussed here - www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html - you'll see it depends on a number of things.

It might help people to advise you if you were to set out what you are eating - there are carbs in a lot of unexpected places and things like fruit are full of fructose. Good luck.

 

[bulkbiker]

I have greatly reduced red meat/processed foods

Reducing the processed foods is a great idea.. the reduction in red meat however is completely unnecessary and possibly counter[productive depending on what you have replaced it with..

 

[sparrott]

Thanks EllieM. Very interested in what you said about HB1AC and respective mmol/L. Is there a basic calculation for this or chart? Would I be correct in thinking that if I took my bloods each week for 12 weeks and they were between 8 to 9mmol/L then the HB1AC would be respectively lower?

 

[Antje77]

Is there a basic calculation for this or chart?

Here you go: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-to-blood-sugar-level-converter.html
Your hba1c is in mmol/mol so you can ignore the % one.
This chart may be helpful as well. Again, ignore the % column:

 

[sparrott]

Antje77 - thank you so much for the chart. It's helped me have a much better understanding of mmol/L and HB1AC. I was concerned that a 8.5mmol/L was equal to an 85 HB1AC .. I feel better knowing its more like 58.

 

[sparrott]

xfieldok. During the week I have a breakfast of Porridge with flaked almonds a few raisins and skimmed milk. Lunch is a vegetable based soup. Snack in the day 2 oranges, maybe 3. A Nature Valley bar. Dinner does tend to be red meat/processed foods free and is normally with around 40 grams of carbs, such as rice/pasta but rarely potato .. maybe once a week. Evening snack normally some type of crisp/twiglet/starch probably around 50 grams carbs. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing where my problem could be ... carbs. If anyone has a good substitute for the crisps etc??

All advice offered is greatly appreciated

 

[xfieldok]

Fruit apart from berries are bad for T2. The only organ that can use the fructose is the liver.

Porridge can be problematic for some. Your meter can tell you.

Rice and pasta also not good. Consider spiralized or ribbon cut courgettes, cauliflower rice is a good alternative.

As for snacks, there are millions of recipes online. You can make your own cheesy snacks. Google keto snacks as a starting point.

Bars are very processed. You could make your own granola bars using your choice of nuts and seeds.

You can make low carb pizza. Pretty much anything you fancy you can have.

 

[Larissima]

Breakfast: eggs (boiled, poached, fried, scrambled, etc) with bacon/smoked salmon/cheese/crudites
Lunch: salad of crunchy + green veg with chicken/fish/eggs/cheese
Dinner: steak/chop/roast/chicken/fish with roast/stir-fried/sauteed green veg
Snacks: celery sticks, cucumber, small handful (10-15 pieces) of plain nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts).

For more ideas see the Low Carb board on here, Diet Doctor website, and many more.

 

[1970clea]

I use slim noodles to replace pasta - not perfect but very low calorie and zero carb

 

[Resurgam]

xfieldok. During the week I have a breakfast of Porridge with flaked almonds a few raisins and skimmed milk. Lunch is a vegetable based soup. Snack in the day 2 oranges, maybe 3. A Nature Valley bar. Dinner does tend to be red meat/processed foods free and is normally with around 40 grams of carbs, such as rice/pasta but rarely potato .. maybe once a week. Evening snack normally some type of crisp/twiglet/starch probably around 50 grams carbs. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing where my problem could be ... carbs. If anyone has a good substitute for the crisps etc??

All advice offered is greatly appreciated

Ouch - rather a lot of carbohydrates there - lower carb choices are going to result in lower blood glucose and that ought to produce lower Hba1c results.

 

[sparrott]

Thanks to all for the very helpful info. Looks like my carbs are a bit too much ,, and I kind of thought that.

Just a quick question on mmol/L. I did a fasting one this morning and got 8.5, then just out of curiosity tried a different finger and got 9.3??? I did't know what to think. Curiosity eh..

 

[EllieM]

Thanks to all for the very helpful info. Looks like my carbs are a bit too much ,, and I kind of thought that.

Just a quick question on mmol/L. I did a fasting one this morning and got 8.5, then just out of curiosity tried a different finger and got 9.3??? I didn't know what to think. Curiosity eh..

Blood glucose meters are only required to be accurate within 15%, though most are more accurate than that. Those two figures are only 10% apart, not that significant.

 

[KennyA]

xfieldok. During the week I have a breakfast of Porridge with flaked almonds a few raisins and skimmed milk. Lunch is a vegetable based soup. Snack in the day 2 oranges, maybe 3. A Nature Valley bar. Dinner does tend to be red meat/processed foods free and is normally with around 40 grams of carbs, such as rice/pasta but rarely potato .. maybe once a week. Evening snack normally some type of crisp/twiglet/starch probably around 50 grams carbs. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing where my problem could be ... carbs. If anyone has a good substitute for the crisps etc??

All advice offered is greatly appreciated

That's a LOT of carbs - porridge, rice/pasta, crisp/twiglet/starch, and probably the soup too - and quite a bit of sugar via the fruit. IIRC Nature Valley bars are around 65% carbs/sugar as well. This is the sort of thing we are urged to eat by the "Eatwell Plate" and which, speaking personally, did me no good at all. I think you might need to reset your views of what "healthy" eating actually is in your case - I certainly had to.