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Confused!!!!!

R

roonah

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi All,
My HbA1C is 40 which i believe is in normal range i.e not diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Just tested 14 consecutive days for fasting blood glucose and 11 of the readings were above 6.1 - i.e above normal range.
Conflicting results causing much confusion.
To muddy the waters even further, when i test 2 hours after food i am always well in normal range.
Can anybody shine any light on this for me please because i don't know if i'm non diabetic pre-diabetic or diabetic.
????????????
 
Fasting 7+ is the level you have to be concerned about. Your numbers look very good to me.
 
https://chriskresser.com/when-your-normal-blood-sugar-isnt-normal-part-1/

take a look at this study

It suggests that someone with no trace of insulin resistance will have fasting blood sugars around 83 (4.6) , though this will be higher if you are already eating a low carb diet? ,
You don't mention how old you are, or if you are overweight at all? If I had had the above facts as a younger version of me, I think I might have decided to reduce the amount of sugars in my diet and see if I could drop a little weight too, its true that the current numbers are non diabetic, but the entire thing is really just a continuum, and you do not want those numbers going up further.
 
@roonah

What are your levels when you go to bed? If you are a lot higher in the morning than at bedtime it could be a touch of Dawn Phenomenon (Liver dump) when your liver sends glucose to your blood stream to help you wake up and start the day. This is quite natural. It could also be caused by a sleepless night, restlessness, stress. Is there a pattern to when these higher levels occur?

It could also be a touch of excess protein consumed the previous day. Some of the protein we eat that is not needed by the body can convert to glucose, and this normally takes a long time, even 24 hours.

I really would not be concerned about it. It is the post meal spikes that are important and you say these are under control..
 
Bluetit1802 said:
@roonah

What are your levels when you go to bed? If you are a lot higher in the morning than at bedtime it could be a touch of Dawn Phenomenon (Liver dump) when your liver sends glucose to your blood stream to help you wake up and start the day. This is quite natural. It could also be caused by a sleepless night, restlessness, stress. Is there a pattern to when these higher levels occur?

It could also be a touch of excess protein consumed the previous day. Some of the protein we eat that is not needed by the body can convert to glucose, and this normally takes a long time, even 24 hours.

I really would not be concerned about it. It is the post meal spikes that are important and you say these are under control..
Click to expand...
Hi Bluetit,
Thanks for your input. My pre sleep levels are always in range, I've been having food 2.5 hours before i go to bed and test 2 hours after i've had this food (only a snack). I work 6 days per week and usually get 5 hours max sleep on these 6 nights. What is interesting is that when i measure on a Sunday morning after i've had a 'proper' amount of sleep,i.e 8 hours, 2 out of the last 3 readings are well in range even though they are fasting readings, so your sleep theory sounds perfectly plausible although I always sleep well, just don't get enough of the damned stuff!
As far as the pattern goes, the higher levels are always at 5.15 am every day when i test before leaving for work.
 
Hi my HBA1C was 40 also. This is at the high end of normal so you could be at risk of diabetes and it is good you are testing.

I think your confusion might be not understanding the difference between HBA1C and home testing. HBA1C is an average over 3 months of your blood sugar so all the high and low's are smothed out. So HBA1C of 40 correlates to and average of 6.6 self testing. This will come from periods of higher blood sugar either after fasting or after meals or both and lower blood sugar usually before meals.

I started with a fasting problem 6 years ago and could eat almost anything without post meal spikes.

Research studies are showing impaired fasting is one of the ways Type 2 diabetes can develop. You body may already be struggling to keep your levels normal.

You have been caught really early like I was and small changes to diet, exercise and weight loss if needed can get you closer to truly normal readings and less risk in the future.
 
Alison Campbell said:
Hi my HBA1C was 40 also. This is at the high end of normal so you could be at risk of diabetes and it is good you are testing.

I think your confusion might be not understanding the difference between HBA1C and home testing. HBA1C is an average over 3 months of your blood sugar so all the high and low's are smothed out. So HBA1C of 40 correlates to and average of 6.6 self testing. This will come from periods of higher blood sugar either after fasting or after meals or both and lower blood sugar usually before meals.

I started with a fasting problem 6 years ago and could eat almost anything without post meal spikes.

Research studies are showing impaired fasting is one of the ways Type 2 diabetes can develop. You body may already be struggling to keep your levels normal.

You have been caught really early like I was and small changes to diet, exercise and weight loss if needed can get you closer to truly normal readings and less risk in the future.
Click to expand...
Hi Alison, thanks for your input.
I've been working at reducing my HbA1C from 47 down to 40 for 2 years now utilising the techniques you refer to but my fasting levels are consistently high and have not reduced at all whilst at the same time my HbA1C has shown much improvement over the same period. My logic is telling me that as long as I have high fasting glucose levels every day my HbA1C will not reduce but the evidence from the testing shows that it has. This is now leading me to believe that there is no correlation between the two testing methods and that only one method should be used but which one should i belive is correct?
 
CherryAA said:
https://chriskresser.com/when-your-normal-blood-sugar-isnt-normal-part-1/

take a look at this study

It suggests that someone with no trace of insulin resistance will have fasting blood sugars around 83 (4.6) , though this will be higher if you are already eating a low carb diet? ,
You don't mention how old you are, or if you are overweight at all? If I had had the above facts as a younger version of me, I think I might have decided to reduce the amount of sugars in my diet and see if I could drop a little weight too, its true that the current numbers are non diabetic, but the entire thing is really just a continuum, and you do not want those numbers going up further.
Click to expand...
Hi CherryAA, thanks for your input.
I'm 55, reduced my HbA1C from 47 to 40 over the last 2 years by following DR Michael Moseley's blood sugar diet, which is essentially a low carb plan. I've lost 2 stone but still have a further 2 to go to get in healthy BMI range. My pre food and post food levels are always in range but my fasting levels are always between 6.3 and 7.6 so I feel like no matter what I do I can't impact my liver performance throughout the night?
 
roonah said:
Hi All,
My HbA1C is 40 which i believe is in normal range i.e not diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Just tested 14 consecutive days for fasting blood glucose and 11 of the readings were above 6.1 - i.e above normal range.
Conflicting results causing much confusion.
To muddy the waters even further, when i test 2 hours after food i am always well in normal range.
Can anybody shine any light on this for me please because i don't know if i'm non diabetic pre-diabetic or diabetic.
????????????
Click to expand...
I wish I could have results like that! I am on mmol/ltr of blood which indicates 5 as being the standard. On occasion I have jumped from 6.7 to 27.4 within 30 minutes!! Your results, as I see them, appear quite normal, but....get a professional opinion. Better safe than sorry!!!!
 
leslie10152 said:
I wish I could have results like that! I am on mmol/ltr of blood which indicates 5 as being the standard. On occasion I have jumped from 6.7 to 27.4 within 30 minutes!! Your results, as I see them, appear quite normal, but....get a professional opinion. Better safe than sorry!!!!
Click to expand...
Thanks Leslie10152, GP here I come!
 
roonah said:
My pre food and post food levels are always in range but my fasting levels are always between 6.3 and 7.6 so I feel like no matter what I do I can't impact my liver performance throughout the night?
Click to expand...

Unless you test a couple or more times during the night, say if you need the loo, you have no idea what your levels are during the night. Your morning high may have only been that high for 5 minutes. That begs the question - when do you do your first test? Is it as soon as you get up and before anything else such as showering and dressing? There are so many things that affect our fasting levels.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Unless you test a couple or more times during the night, say if you need the loo, you have no idea what your levels are during the night. Your morning high may have only been that high for 5 minutes. That begs the question - when do you do your first test? Is it as soon as you get up and before anything else such as showering and dressing? There are so many things that affect our fasting levels.
Click to expand...
Hiya Bluetit, i test at midnight (always in range) just as i,m going to bed and then test again at 5,15 am (range between 6.2 and 7.6) if i continue to fast my levels stay high but if i have food and test again after 2 hrs i'm always in range. On that evidence it suggests that my pancreas is reacting correctly to the food I've just consumed. The problem only occurs after fasting. Each time i have taken a glucose intolerance test i pass easily which further confirms that my problem isn't with foodstuff consumption but rather with the absence of food. I'm not sure if i'm getting my knickers in a twist over something that may be trivial because if i look at the big picture it looks like this:- HbA1C - in range, after food readings - in range, after fasting readings - out of range.
Is 2 out of 3 ok or do all 3 need to be spot on?
 
If you are able and willing to bear the cost, a Freestyle Libre would be very revealing for you. You could see how low your levels go during the night, how much they rise with dawn phenomenon, how how they peak after meals etc. Using finger pricks, you might miss the peak.

Re the discrepancy between BG and HbA1C - if your diet changes and weight loss have successfully reduced your post-meal peaks then your HbA1C will have come down, even if your fasting level hasn't.
 
@roonah It is often reported on here that the fasting bg level is the last one to come down as the result of lifestyle changes so you may just have to be patient. I have given up worrying about my fasting level. I don't think the dawn phenomenon is such a bad thing - I would be more worried if my liver was not giving me a little nudge to prevent me going too low when asleep. I have found however that my fasting is lower if I don't snack in the evenings, but everyone is different.
 
BarbaraG said:
If you are able and willing to bear the cost, a Freestyle Libre would be very revealing for you. You could see how low your levels go during the night, how much they rise with dawn phenomenon, how how they peak after meals etc. Using finger pricks, you might miss the peak.

Re the discrepancy between BG and HbA1C - if your diet changes and weight loss have successfully reduced your post-meal peaks then your HbA1C will have come down, even if your fasting level hasn't.
Click to expand...
Hi BarbaraG, thanks for your input. Thats a really interesting point you make about the discrepancy. I will investigate the Freestyle Libre as you suggest because it seems that is the only way i will get to the crux of what is going on. Another contributor suggested earlier that my high levels may occur only a short time before i get up and therefore may only be elevated for a short period of time as opposed to the way i've been thinking which is that they've been elevated for hours. I've been working on the assumption that my daily raised levels were causing the previously high HbA1C but now my HbA1C is in normal range and my fasting blood glucose is still high this theory is blown out of the water!
Thanks again for your observations, things are starting to make sense at last.
 
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