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Hba1c Help please

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Yorkie608

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Hi
I have been diagnosed now for about 4 weeks. I am still trying to come to terms with it emotionally. Can someone tell me as I don’t understand about Hba1c - I understand that it is a test of average blood sugar for the past three months or so. When I had first test it was 59. After two weeks of good eating it was down to 57. Does it go down quick or not? I am now on 500mg of metformin and still tying to eat better. Got a private test to do shortly as can’t wait another three months to see if I am making progress. When I say I am eating better I have cut toast and jam and now have porridge or scrambled egg on granary toast. Make sure I eat lunch. Stopped snacking. Stopped takeaways. What’s my realistic expectations?? I have lost 4kg
 
Yorkie608 said:
Can someone tell me as I don’t understand about Hba1c - I understand that it is a test of average blood sugar for the past three months or so. When I had first test it was 59. After two weeks of good eating it was down to 57. Does it go down quick or not?
Click to expand...

Not. It's an average over the last 12 or 13 weeks (though most recent weeks count slightly more) so if you test after 2 weeks you're only going to see a change in about a sixth of the amount ie you are influencing about 10 of that 59 result. So even if you halved your average bg you'd probably only see your hba1c go down by 5 or so. (Lots of rough and ready mental maths going on here, assuming linearities that aren't quite there, but for small time scales aren't too bad.)

Lots of excellent dietary advice in your previous thread so I'll stop there, but it looks to me that you are making excellent progress.
 
Hi @Yorkie608 and welcome to the forums. I just realised that the previous thread you posted in wasn't yours, so you missed out on a welcome. :)

And I'll say a bit more about dietary advice in case you didn't read that thread.

Most of the posters on here find that reducing the carbs in their diet is the best way to reduce their bg levels (and their weight as weight gain is a side effect of T2). Honestly, in my opinion, you'd be better off spending the money for an hba1c test on a testing meter and some strips, as you can tell a lot more by testing your blood sugar levels than by your hba1c.

Here's @JoKalsbeek 's awesome blog on T2 and diet
JoKalsbeek's blog | Diabetes Forum • The Global Diabetes Community

Good luck
 
And I'll tag in @Rachox for her info on cheap UK meters.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from the T2s soon, but most of the UK ones are currently in bed. :)
 
Although your Hba1c is not really high, it will not drop down all that fast if you eat high carb foods, as they will keep your blood glucose levels high.
If you get a meter to check your levels so you can fine tune the amount of sugar and starch you eat to what you can cope with it will enable you to set your menu to what is right for you.
For me bread and porridge are out, as I can only manage 40 gm of carbs as a regular daily intake, but others can eat 60 or 80 gm or more, particularly if they do daily exercise. I don't mind surviving on stir fries and salads, stews and curries so 40 is fine by me, and my daily blood glucose is in the normal range.
 
Yorkie608 said:
Hi
I have been diagnosed now for about 4 weeks. I am still trying to come to terms with it emotionally. Can someone tell me as I don’t understand about Hba1c - I understand that it is a test of average blood sugar for the past three months or so. When I had first test it was 59. After two weeks of good eating it was down to 57. Does it go down quick or not? I am now on 500mg of metformin and still tying to eat better. Got a private test to do shortly as can’t wait another three months to see if I am making progress. When I say I am eating better I have cut toast and jam and now have porridge or scrambled egg on granary toast. Make sure I eat lunch. Stopped snacking. Stopped takeaways. What’s my realistic expectations?? I have lost 4kg
Click to expand...
Testing via HbA1c every couple of weeks won't tell you much. I think you're wasting your money on paying for a HbA1c test. It's a proxy for your average blood glucose over the past three months, so recent changes won't work through for some time, and it will still be weighted towards your pre-change habits. . If you don't have a meter, you should get one, then test and record regularly. That will give you a snapshot of where you are right now - it will tell you how particular foods affect you and how well you're doing. As you are eating at least a couple of very high carb items this could be informative. I'm afraid porridge and toast (whatever kind) would be unacceptable for me - they would each spike my BG considerably. What they tell you is "healthy" ain't necessarily so. You might be lucky - but the only way to find out is to use a meter.
 
Hi and Welcome @Yorkie608

With your levels you should be able to to impact them reasonably quickly and you are on the right track by using this forum and starting to reduce your carbs. As mentioned by @EllieM and @Resurgam get your self a meter and test. Then you can know where you are at everyday and test your meals to see how they impact your levels. It gives you control.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum @Yorkie608 , thanks for the tag @EllieM

Sorry about the delay in replying, but here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.


Home Health have recently bought out the Gluco Navii, but I haven’t heard any reviews yet, links to strips and the meter:

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/

There are also discount codes for when you come to buy more strips - "navii5" and "navii10" will give you 20% off purchases of 5 packs of strips and 25% off 10 packs of strips respectively.


Disclaimer, I haven’t used the discount codes that I have quoted recently so I don’t know if they are still current.





Spirit Healthcare have a meter called the Tee2 + found here:



https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793

with the strips found here:



https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097

Some members have got a free Tee2+ by phoning up to order, with a large order of strips they often throw the meter in for free:

Phone number 0800 8815423


With more expensive strips is their Caresens Dual which I currently use, this one has the advantage of glucose and ketone testing in one machine, it’s to be found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/caresens-dual



If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.


Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)
 
The hba1c value measures the average blood sugar quantity in the body over a 3-month period. It is a very slowly changing average value, so if you measured hba1c yesterday the hba1c value measured today would be nearly the same. A hba1c value above 47 indicates you have diabetes, a value below 40 indicates you have no diabetes, or, you have diabetes on a very well controlled diet at the time of the measurement and the carbs in the food did not contribute much to the hba1c value.
I realised I had diabetes 2-3 years ago and changed to a 20g carbs/day keto diet and measured blood sugar with a meter after my favourite foods for a couple of weeks to see what I could eat. Then had 3 meals per day, dinner being the largest. I always finger-prick 2 hours after dinner and measure values in the range 5.8-7.8 mmol/L (values higher than 7.3 caused by colds, flu, overtiredness, stress).
 
Hey Welcome to the forum. This is the best resource you will find so stick with us and you will be just fine.
I was in exactly your position about five years ago and put my type2 in remission within 6 months due to the knowledge gained here. And I remain largely ( occasional wobble ) in control because of that too.
So get a cuppa and start browsing there is a lot to learn
I’m not sure I’d be overly worried about your hbA1c for a while yet.
Without lecturing you need to learn about :
Don’t necessarily believe everything you think you know.

Carbs are the key

LCHF low carb lifestyle

Get all you medical info you need to know your starting point

Eat to your meter and keep records

Take some excersise if you can

Have a look around here and you will learn a lot.


Plus there are loads of testimonials of success to inspire you if it gets tough.

But most importantly stick with us and remember no question is a stupid question.
It will be fine
 
I agree with what many others have said here, a BG monitor is so helpful.

My reader has a 7 day, 14 day and monthly average, so I take note of the those and compare to the previous averages so I can see how I’m progressing.
 
It is also a good idea to keep a food diary and note how a specific food impacts on your blood sugar levels. I would test before eating individual items and then after 1 hr and 2 hrs and then decide if it’s a keeper or it’s off the menu.
But we are all different I can’t look at rice,disastrous for my blood glucose (81% carbohydrates tho) but some brown bread in small amounts I can tolerate.
But you need to know what you can tolerate.
On a brighter note pretty much everyone here is good with bacon and eggs!!!
Who knew!!’
 
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