Difference between Glucose Fasting & Hemoglobin A1C/Total Hemoglobin

[Bluetit1802]

You can ignore your total cholesterol as that is just the total of the good stuff and the not so good stuff, although your GP may still be in the dark ages about this.

The HDL is the good stuff and needs to be as high as possible, and at the very least above 1.2. (Mine is 2.6)

The triglycerides are the baddies and ideally should be under 1.9, but as low as possible.

The LDL is a mix of a few things. It is made up of particles. Some of these particles are small and dense. Those are not good. The rest are large fluffy particles and are good. Unfortunately we don't get the particles tested as a matter of routine, so we don't know how many of each we have. The best guess we can make is that the lower the trigs are, the more of the good fluffy ones we will have.

The important figure is the ratio between trigs and HDL. (divide trigs by HDL) This ratio should ideally be under 0.87. Yours is a little higher than that, but you can improve this by increasing the HDL.

One way to increase HDL is to reduce carbs. Carbs are known to deplete it.

One other thing - did you fast for either of these tests? It is important to fast because otherwise the triglyceride levels will be raised.

 

[bulkbiker]

What @Bluetit1802 said.. ^^^^^

 

[New2ThisType2]

Yes, I did fast for 12 hours beforehand.

Carbs.
Hmm.
I am pretty strict about carbs and generally stay under 20g a day for carbs but as mentioned earlier, I have been cheating with a bit of quinoa as of late.

I have been staying under 20g net carbs daily for about 6 months but perhaps 2 days out of each 7 I do go higher.

Ok so out goes the 2 other days that go above 20 g so I can see where it can be tightened up but what few carbs I do eat doesn't explain the higher A1C levels.
I have another test in 4 weeks and then another 2 months after that so I will immediately cut out what needs to be done.


Saving your post as I will have to read further about all of this myself so I am able to understand cholesterol numbers as you all seem to do easily.

Thank you.

 

[New2ThisType2]

The important figure is the ratio between trigs and HDL. (divide trigs by HDL) This ratio should ideally be under 0.87. Yours is a little higher than that, but you can improve this by increasing the HDL.

One last question as I am not positive which one you are pointing towards.

Do you mean the number for HDL Cholesterol, mine being 0.92?

If so, I'd be curious what your number might be, as well as bulkbikers at your last reading, if handy just for comparison's sake.


Thank you.


Last but not least if in my position with my numbers would you continue with the statin or not?
Understanding that you are not a doctor but I am curious what the two of you would do.
Guessing that you would both go without, even with this higher number of mine.

 

[bulkbiker]

One last question as I am not positive which one you are pointing towards.

Do you mean the number for HDL Cholesterol, mine being 0.92?

If so, I'd be curious what your number might be, as well as bulkbikers at your last reading, if handy just for comparison's sake.


Thank you.


Last but not least if in my position with my numbers would you continue with the statin or not?
Understanding that you are not a doctor but I am curious what the two of you would do.

Mines in my signature with all my other numbers too

 

[New2ThisType2]

I see your A1C numbers but was curious about the HDL Cholesterol number if that was indeed the set that bluetit1802 was referring to when speaking of mine.

Edit: Never mind, I see them now. Could only see the A1C before it expanded.
Still a bit unsure of this.

I see your Trigs as 1.0 but mine is 1.67 so considerably higher
I see your HDL as 1.51 but mine at 0.92 so lower?

Apparently affecting my confusion levels as well

 

[bulkbiker]

I see your A1C numbers but was curious about the HDL Cholesterol number if that was indeed the set that bluetit1802 was referring to when speaking of mine.

Edit: Never mind, I see them now. Could only see the A1C before it expanded

Also what doctors never really seem to consider is that cholesterol levels go up and down all day every day possibly even impacted by what you have eaten in the preceding days so to prescribe lifelong meds based on a snapshot picture seems to me a bit premature. There is no HbA1c for cholesterol....

 

[New2ThisType2]

Well, I believe I am going to stick to 7 days of net carbs under 20, so tighten up where I need to, not take the statins and see where this leaves me on both next months test and the one 3 months later. I think that will give me a better idea at that time what might be going on.

 

[HSSS]

Did you notice your good hdl also dropped?

My figures are a fair bit worse than yours and I won’t take statins.

 

[New2ThisType2]

No I didnt but to be honest I am just seeing numbers in front of me and have not yet sorted out what they mean. All the information about diabetes was as confusing at the beginning as well. Thanks for that piece of information as I am certainly not going to be taking any more statins at least until I read up further about it.

 

[Bluetit1802]

One last question as I am not positive which one you are pointing towards.

Do you mean the number for HDL Cholesterol, mine being 0.92?

If so, I'd be curious what your number might be, as well as bulkbikers at your last reading, if handy just for comparison's sake.


Thank you.


Last but not least if in my position with my numbers would you continue with the statin or not?
Understanding that you are not a doctor but I am curious what the two of you would do.
Guessing that you would both go without, even with this higher number of mine.

Yes, the HDL cholesterol of 0.92 is what I meant. That is low. Statins will not help this at all. They don't alter HDL. Mine is 2.67.

Personally, I would not take statins under any circumstances. Your numbers were very good BEFORE you started statins. The only thing you need to concentrate on is raising your HDL (good cholesterol) and statins will not help with this. Try eating a lot of oily fish - especially salmon, flaxseed and chia seed, (can be ground and added to food), olive oil, avocado, and a glass of red wine. Avoid at all cost most processed vegetable oils as they contain omega 6 rather than omega 3. Cook with olive oil or animal fats such as butter, lard etc. If you have sunflower oil or similar in your cupboard, throw it away

 

[bulkbiker]

No I didnt but to be honest I am just seeing numbers in front of me and have not yet sorted out what they mean. All the information about diabetes was as confusing at the beginning as well. Thanks for that piece of information as I am certainly not going to be taking any more statins at least until I read up further about it.

Basically you want to aim for HDL as high as possible and Triglycerides as low as possible so that Trigs/HDL is lower than 1.0 and ideally lower than 0.87. So from my most recent numbers Trig/HDL is 0.66 which made me very happy.

 

[New2ThisType2]

Thank you for all of your help. I have saved all of this information and will better understand it the more I read. At least now I have an idea of where I need to be, that I didnt before today. A great place to start and NO statins from this point onward!!!!!