A1C 6.5. yet home testing average 100. testing over ten times a day. please help

[Gavin0305]

Please help me with some advice. I was diagnosed with type 2. exactly 3 months ago. 40 year old male. no history in my family and not over weight. my a1c was 10.6. I took 500mg of metroformin twice a day. for the first 3 weeks my bs stayed high. I then changed my diet and exercise regime bought a home test kit. i test in the morning. before and after every meal. one hour and two hours. with the home test kit. which is meant to be the most accurate on the market my fasting bs is usually between 84 and 95. my blood sugar rarely goes beyong 140. only seen it above that 3 times at one hour mark. then it is always below 100 on two hours. yet my a1c i had today was 6.5. which is an average of 140. how is this possible if i have only seen it at thos

 

[MellitusTrap]

1) check your machine is calibrated (should be notes on how on the packaging)
2) sugars rise and fall. Test out of bed, before meals and two hours after.
3) metformin takes ages to build up in your body.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

It is very tempting to try to find a correlation between Hba1c and a lot of finger prick tests but in truth there isn't one. The reason is that glycation of haemoglobin takes place 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and is a continuous process. The Hba1c is a measure of the result. The process is complex and if you have been told that the result is an average over the last three months then you have been misinformed.

Finger pricks cannot match this no matter how many instantaneous readings are taken. You could have done your tests during highs or lows or neither resulting in high or low averages or somewhere in between. It's bit poke and hope really.

Your meter is best used for identifying trends on a day to day basis and not for tryng to confirm your Hba1c figure.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. You can't equate the HBa1C with a blood sugar 'average'. An HBa1C of 6.5% is the same as 47mmol (see the units converter on this website) and not 140 (mg?). An HBa1C of 6.5% is quite good. You only need to test 2 hours after a meal and also just before if you want to measure the change. With that good sugar level you don't need to test after every meal; perhaps once a day? The right diet and exercise will always help diabetes so you've done the right thing.

 

[MellitusTrap]

It is very tempting to try to find a correlation between Hba1c and a lot of finger prick tests but in truth there isn't one. The reason is that glycation of haemoglobin takes place 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and is a continuous process. The Hba1c is a measure of the result. The process is complex and if you have been told that the result is an average over the last three months then you have been misinformed.

Finger pricks cannot match this no matter how many instantaneous readings are taken. You could have done your tests during highs or lows or neither resulting in high or low averages or somewhere in between. It's bit poke and hope really.

Your meter is best used for identifying trends on a day to day basis and not for tryng to confirm your Hba1c figure.

What he said =)

 

[tim2000s]

What the others have said is correct. What you can't see from an Hba1C is the spikes and the rate at which you yourself glycate. That can have a big impact on your Hba1C as well.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

While HbA1c is related to your average blood glucose level, the relationship is not the same for everyone. The graph below shows results for a large number of people. You can see that there is quite a range. The important thing is that your HbA1c has gone down quite a bit, as have your spot checked blood glucose levels.

 

[Gavin0305]

Hi Guys thanks for all the help. In trying to understand all of thus while living in Indonesia where very few people speak. English. Am I right in understanding that lifestyle and diet changes made will take longer than 3 months to see the full impact on am A1c?

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

Hi Guys thanks for all the help. In trying to understand all of thus while living in Indonesia where very few people speak. English. Am I right in understanding that lifestyle and diet changes made will take longer than 3 months to see the full impact on am A1c?

Theoretically it could take longer than 3 months to see the full impact, but 3 months is generally considered to be the time it takes the average person to recycle all their blood cells. There's another test called a fructosamine test that reflects your average blood glucose level over the last 2-3 weeks:

https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/fructosamine/tab/test/