A useful guide to blood tests

[BigG]

Hi,

This is really useful information and easy to understand what my levels should be and at each point of the day before/after meals etc. But where I get confused is with my HbA1c? I did not know until about 1 year ago to ask my practice nurse for this info even though diagnosed with type 2 about 5 years ago. I have just been to visit my practice nurse for my 3 month blood test and asked what my previous HbA1c was. I got a concerned look and was told it was 9% and advised to improve my diet. I advised that I have since my last visit better controlled my diet, so took she more blood. So of course I am now concerned.

However I do not know what the 9% means in reality and if this can be converted to mmol? So I can understand why the nurse was concerned. Also what should my HbA1c levels be between?

I look forward to finding out !!

 

[Dennis]

Hi BigG and welcome,

Yes there is a way of converting an HBA1C percentage into an average mmol reading. Here's a link to our converter

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-to-bloo ... erter.html

You need to remember that this figure is only an average over a 3 month period so, while it will give your GP an idea of which direction your BS is going in (assuming that he is arranging tests every 3 months as is supposed to be the case for all newly-diagnosed), it doesn't give you any idea of the highs and lows or what your levels are now.

 

[welshtony]

One of the things that has confused since I started testing myself last August was exactly when I was supposed to test. I've been testing quite frequently, although only recently have I realsied that the best way to ensure I checked an hour after food was to set the alarm on my phone!

But I've just read an interesting blog http://www.mendosa.com/blog/?p=362#more-362 which seems to make a good case for testing 73 minutes after the first bite of food! Now I know how to set my alarm, I'm going to try that for a few weeks and see if I get more consistent results than I have had so far.

 

[hanadr]

Yes I think David did some work to find the best time to test to find the top of the spike.

 

[joycey]

I understand that the UK readings should not exceed 7 as a general rule,but I am in Spain using a european meter that gives me totally different readings, todays, for example was 93,
Can anyone confirm what the acceptable euro reading should be.

 

[Dennis]

Hi Joycey,

To convert between UK and European blood sugar readings, multiply the UK ones by 18, or divide the European ones by 18. So uk 7mmol is the same as Euro 124mg/dl. Euro 93mg/dl is UK 5.1mmol.