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HBA1C tests going private

P

psailing

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello,

Was diagnosed prediabetic in October (42mmol). I've made changes to my diet. The HBA1C test gives an average blood glucose for the last 2/3 months. The NHS will only do another test in a year's time. I'd like to do another test in January (about 3 months) to see if the diet changes have had any effect.

Looking on the web there are quite a few organisations who do these tests. Can anyone recommend a test provider?
 
I have used Medichecks in the past but their prices have increased by quite a bit.
Bonus is you can do you own sample at home and send it off

diabetes-hba1c-blood-test-2

If it is something you might want to do regularly then Thriva is cheaper.

Blood test packages | Thriva

An HbA1c blood test checks your overall diabetes risk. Get your blood test results in 48 hours and your GP-reviewed report online. Learn more at Thriva.
thriva.co
 
You could always invest in a glucose meter, the average from your own finger prick tests is probably more reliable than the HbA1c.
The HbA1c is not really an average, it measures how much glucose has got stuck to your blood cells in their lifetime. Blood cells tend to live for somewhere around 12 weeks, could be 9 weeks, could be 13 who knows.
My actual average blood sugar levels could be higher than yours, but if my blood cells kick the bucket at 10 weeks and yours hang around for 13, then I will probably have a lower HbA1c than you.
Thr HbA1c is a useful tool for Dr's to help with the diagnosis but for me, real time data from my glucose monitor gives me a far better understanding of how I'm doing and what my real average has been over any given period.
 
I use Kinetik products . They also do testing kits. At moment GP doing my tests 3 monthly. Was thinking of using if GP only did them once a year.
 
I have used MonitorMyHealth in the past, although for my thyroid challenges. They are excellent and reasonably priced:

Our Tests

monitormyhealth.org.uk
The MonitorMyHealth is a commercial element, run from an NHS Exeter lab.
 
Hello catinahat,
I'd been thinking that so I ordered one yesterday. I'm not sure I understand the relationship between blood glucose peaks and glycation rates. As I understand it glycation rate is a constant but how long/high a peak has to be to cause significant glycation I'm not sure, but avoiding and/or reducing BG peaks is important - so a monitor seems a useful tool. I'll still get a Hba1c done in January or February.
 
I log my blood sugar levels in the mysugr app which does give an estimate of expected A1c. remember the HbA1c test is roughly an indicator of average blood sugar levels ie peaks and troughs so you would have to do an awful lot of finger pricks to get any where near an accurate figure but the usual pre and post prandial checks will give you a good idea of how things are going.
 
Monitor I ordered arrived yesterday, I've started logging finger pricks in an app called Blood Sugar. I had a look at mysugr, it had lots of good features but it seemed necessary to create an account and be online to log results. The Blood Sugar app can be used offline, I don't know if it offers as many features as mysugr but it seems to do quite a bit.
 
My meter (Contour Next) keeps results of my last 800 tests and gives me glucose averages for various periods including 90 days, and I can use this figure to check for a predicted HbA1c using an online converter.
Our main Diabetes.co.uk site has one here:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-to-blood-sugar-level-converter.html
and Accu-Chek have similar here:
https://www.accu-chek.co.uk/tools-and-resources/hba1c-calculator#

I much prefer to use my meter with a converter as this works on actual glucose variations, whereas HBA1cs take a 3 monthly average blood sample which can give the same results whether from stable levels or big spikes and lows.

My now annual blood test results actually give my a consistent slightly higher HBA1c than do my predicted versions, so I know in advance what that will be.
 
I use a private health clinic in Guildford to supplement the 6-monthly NHS tests. It is very slightly more expensive than Thriva and the sample is taken intravenously which I think may be more reliable than the finger-prick kits. I do regular fasting finger-prick tests anyway and have found that they correlate, on average, very accurately with the hba1c results and are an excellent predictor for them. But only the hba1c results will be recorded by my GP for the purpose of maintaining my remission Read coding in my records.
 
What is this place called? I live within 30mins drive from Guildford, so that would be useful for me.
 
If you're prepared to pay private, you might find it cheaper to buy a glucose sensor and download the app. I think someone else has mentioned this possibility too. It may not be quite as accurate, but should give a reasonable indicator of bg average. The longer you use it the more accurate it will be, and may be useful in the long term. Also you can easily check bg at will. It also gives you daily patterns and averages etc. The two main choices in the UK are Libre or Dexcom. Libre works out about £25 per week.
 
The HbA1c test itself has an inherent accuracy of +/- 5% of reading. So even the same lab using the same blood sample can differ by 10% in the result. Changing labs may make this difference more pronounced. So be careful how you interpret the results since it may seem to give an improvement, but some of that change will be purely due to instrumentation error.

I am glad to see you are intending to do some independant monitoring. Tracking results over a perod should show a trend if your diet is working. again the accuracy of a home tester is +/- 15% so you need to do some averaging of your own to see any worthwhile trend. Also home testers can throw wobblers and misread, so if it suddenly jumps out of line then it may be a misread, but equally could be giving a true value due to something you ate. Out of kilter readings need to be repeated to make sure the meter is reporting properly. But eating to meter is what many of us do, and the bonus is that we can use results to fine tune our dietary choices so long term there is a benefit to self testing.

Important that you wash your hands before taking the test. Contaminants on the site can give misreadings.
 
Thanks, I hadn't realised Hba1c readings could differ so much.
 
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