HBA1C Normal at 58?

[fiona35]

So my recent HBA1C test has come back and I’ve had a text message from my surgery stating that it’s normal and no further action required.
Unless I’m mistaken, it’s not that great a reading??
Shouldn’t be somewhere around 53 or dare one hope for it to be below 50?
Thanks

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @fiona35 There is 'normal' and there is 'normal for somebody on insulin'. So I can understand your confusion.
Normal for a non-diabetic is just that, a non-diabetic HbA1C which in the UK is 40 or lower.
But this would probably be dangerously low for somebody taking insulin because it would likely mean they were going too low (hypos) quite often.
Thus I assume that the surgery feel that the majority of their Type 2 patients on Insulin have an HbA1C somewhere in the 50's.

For those of us T2's who are fortunate enough to be in remission then, yes one can hope for a lot better than an HbA1C of 50 - but probably when on diet only, not while needing to take Insulin.

 

[fiona35]

Thank you for coming back to me, makes sense now