• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Hba1c dropped 10 points in 12 weeks - need help understanding

C

confused86

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi all, my previous reviews have all been pretty consistent with 57 to 58 being my typical number I take metformin twice a day.

Since my last review in May I have worked away and stayed in hotels a lot, my diet has taken a bit of a battering and water intake dropped a lot just down to being so busy, on top of that I have been dealing with a lengthy psoriasis flare up, and I had pneumonia which lead to antibiotics for 3 weeks .... all in all a pretty rough few months on all levels.

My BG has been ranging between 9 and 14 whenever I have tested and I was fully preparing myself for a bit of a telling off from the DN at this review because my A1c HAD to have gone up right?

Well no, I was so shocked to see that this Hba1c was 48, the lowest its ever been ....and as happy as I am - I'm just all the more confused because I honestly thought I understood the way this all worked.

Can anyone share experiences of fluctuations like this, i want to be happy about it but i can't help being confused and a little frustrated in all honesty. I feel like all my hard work has been for nothing as quite clearly, my body responds better to rubbish hotel food, no sleep and social drinking then it does to, low carb, no sugar, no alcohol, no joy!! ... I don't want this to come accross as moaning or whatever, I'm just so confused by it!
I am awaiting GAD antibody results as my mum has recently had her diagnosis changed from type 2 to LADA and I already have autoimmune issues so there is a chance I have it too, but this most recent result has really thrown me and I just need some help form the experts on here to try and understand why doing all the wrong things has given me the best numbers I've had since diagnosis.
 
Wow Agreed it's all confusing.
No idea what the reason's are but if, in my no medical knowledge, I may suggest. I believe it may have something to do with how your body is using the higher blood sugars. If your BG is high and not using it for energy or fighting any infections, it will stay longer in the blood where as if the body is using it to do exercise and or fighting infections it won't stay for long although continuously the BG showing higher. Forgive me if I'm totally wrong here but I think the HBA1C levels are due to the Glucose staying in the Blood long enough to bind with the Hemoglobin. If the sugar going in is used quickly, albeit showing high due to continuous doses of glucose going in, it won't have time to bind with the Hemoglobin and therefore your HBA1C showing lower.

This reply is probably more a question than answer lol so hopefully the experts will explain.
 
That is pretty confusing, and I totally understand the sense of... "if I don't understand what's going on, what's the point of trying..."

My sense.. (and I'm not a doctor.. so take this for what it's worth...) is that while we think about controlling blood glucose, because that's what we can measure.. it's all more a question of being out of balance hormonally.. high blood sugar indicates likely high blood insulin, and repeated high insulin will give rise to insulin resistance, which can affect everything. Psoriasis and Pneumonia are both inflammatory conditions which have direct links to insulin resistance.. and if you turn it over in your head... lifestyle leads to insulin resistance leads to outcomes which can be inflammatory and higher blood glucose over time...

In other words .. through this period, I think I would see it that you have just had other outcomes.. you have gotten past that (I think, from what you've said) and now from a better heath baseline, you can look to the next period.. and gather that motivation.

Ie, it's all connected. The best part if this is that over time, if you can bring down your level of insulin resistance, you may find that you also have health benefits across the board..

I hope this helps (I realise it's complicated..) but to me, you don't need to think that "these things happened, and independently, my BG went down when I expected it to go up" .. they are all connected, and anything you do to control your BG will help your insulin levels, and that will help the other inflammatory conditions too..
 
Thank you both! Dont get me wrong I'm happy to see the decrease and will skip into my next appointment quite happily but I was so thrown to see such a drop after a really bad few months diet and health wise! The little devil on my shoulder was really pushing the eat cake, be happy vibe and the numbers backed it up I just needed to motivation to get back on track and this has helped, I will see what the DN says next week .... your right, it's all linked so I just need to see it for what it is and not get too disheartened if its gone up again next time after I've got back on track
 
Back
Top