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HBa1C

Angela64

Well-Known Member
Messages
273
Location
Berkshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
T2 and PAF & now Haemochromatosis!
Seems the Diabetes association has these tests for sale. Has anyone tried them and do you think they’re reliable?
 

HbA1c At-Home Blood Test

Measure your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and see how well your body controls glucose. HbA1c refers to glycated haemoglobin which is a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body, joining with glucose in the blood to become glycated. Essentially the HbA1c test...
shop.lowcarbprogram.com

Is that what you mean? I've not tried one but I understand you take blood yourself at home and then post the sample to a lab, which is what many GP practices do.

I expect the test would need to comply with normal UK standards - which iirc is that 95% of tests will have a total allowable error of 10% (eg plus or minus 5mmol/mol at a reading of 50mmol/mol).

This link goes into a lot more detail.
 
Angela64 said:
Seems the Diabetes association has these tests for sale. Has anyone tried them and do you think they’re reliable?
Click to expand...

Looking at the packaging, it looks like the underlying company is Thiva. They are run be reputable folks.

If I am having "private" tests done, I tend to use Monitor My Health (MMH) who are very reasonable, and is a commercial element run out of the NHS lab at Exeter Hospital, so very likely acceptable to your GP, should you want to discuss your results.

MMH are quick, efficient and helpful if you have any queries.

Our Tests

monitormyhealth.org.uk

To be clear, I have absolutely nothing against Thriva (the DCUK offering), but haven't used them myself.
 
Thanks, just wondered really as I’ve not seen a private testing before. I’m not wanting to fork out more money as had lot of private bills to pay recently. But this may be option in future.
 
I've done Thriva tests many times before and find them to be similar in results to my gps ones
Only issue like most of these at home kits is you collect blood yourself from a Lancet you trigger on your finger. It's like the bg meter readings ones but produces a deeper stab. They give lots of tips on how to do this successfully and personally I've found it works fine but some find it difficult eg my OH has tried to do these sort of tests and can't get his finger to give up enough blood! He was refunded though if remember correctly.
 
I can confirm it takes a fair bit more blood for these tests.
 
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