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Hba1c recommended levels

C

ChrisBurrows

Member
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8
Could someone advise what the recommended hba1c level should be to be in the “safe” zone? I have been told different levels by my GP surgery and through someone else who has T2. Getting a bit confused now.
 
Also, another question. I have been suffering with fungal infections in my throat, my limbs and my face. The gp says this is as a result of diabetes. Is this common amongst people with T2?
 
ChrisBurrows said:
Could someone advise what the recommended hba1c level should be to be in the “safe” zone? I have been told different levels by my GP surgery and through someone else who has T2. Getting a bit confused now.
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Have you been diagnosed?
 
@ChrisBurrows have you taken a look around www.diabetes.co.uk?
If you hop onto the Home page you will find an amazing library of diabetes information which will answer most of the questions you can think of ... and more.
There are links to Popular Questions, there are Editor Picks of interesting articles, there are easy to navigate and there is a Search in the top right.
For eaxample, I typed “Hb1ac” into the Search box and quickly found this page, https://www.diabetes.co.uk/what-is-hba1c.html, which answers your first question.

(Note: the Search on the forum pages, only searches the forum. You need to jump to the Home page to search the full site.).
 
Up to 41 is considered normal.
42 to 47 is recognised as Pre Diabetes.
A result of 48 or more means Type 2 Diabetes.

Fungal infections can be a problem for those whose blood glucose levels are high for long periods, lowering these levels will certainly help if it is indeed Diabetes that is causing the problem.

Edited to add.

These are numbers for the UK. Some other countries have different criteria but they are similar.
 
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There is a difference between safe levels and target levels. Safe levels are most likely an HbA1c under 42. However, doctors/nurses agree target levels as something for each individual to aim for. These vary between each individual according to circumstances. Once the target level is reached and maintained, the target can be lowered. Target levels are not necessarily safe levels.
 
Also, I think they have a target which minimises risk of hypo or over prescribing for those on medication, which is higher than many would choose
 
Mr_Pot said:
Also I think they have a target which minimises risk of hypo or over prescribing for those on medication.
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Do we know what that is, approximately?
 
Listlad said:
Do we know what that is, approximately?
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Depends on the medication prescribed, on how well a particular patient understands their diabetes, on how predictable a particular patients diabetes behaves, on willingness and possibility to test a lot, use GCM, having regular night time hypo's, life expectancy and some other variables.

The latest from the professional field is individualised goals, so they start to understand.
 
So given my hba1c level was 58 in Jan last year from a routine blood test, but I only found this out in August when my bloods showed 96, then this is something my gp should have flagged up to me at the time, given it’s in the diabetes levels. Very angry !!!
 
At 58 your Hba1c showed that you were fully diabetic.
From January 2018 - you could possibly have been in normal levels for almost a year now if you'd been told, instead of up in the high teens (at diagnosis I had blood glucose over 17mmol/l and Hba1c of 91, just for comparison)
 

This is one reason of many why we need to get print outs of every blood test we have, and if in England we can register for these to be put on line. Mistakes are made. Also health professionals are keen to say "normal" or "fine" or similar, when we could easily be on the edge of not being normal. We need to know. I suggest you get your print outs and enquire about results on line if you are in England.
 
ChrisBurrows said:
Could someone advise what the recommended hba1c level should be to be in the “safe” zone? I have been told different levels by my GP surgery and through someone else who has T2. Getting a bit confused now.
Click to expand...
@ChrisBurrows Here's a bit of text off of one of the pathology report for my hba1c results.

Pretty easy to understand.



Edit: Tagged OP
 
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Tipetoo said:
Here's a bit text off of one of the pathology report for my hba1c results.

Pretty easy to understand.

Click to expand...

Except these have to be personalised for the individual. What about someone diagnosed with an HbA1c of 53? (as I was) I would already have good control without doing a thing.

I like the last comment particularly (in patients with normal red blood cell turnover)
 
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