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Help understanding blood glucose and HAB1C

N

Naelith

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
Hello

I have a family history of type 2 diabetes and because of this every now and again I do a blood glucose just to make sure I'm not developing any problems.

I have been having symptoms for a couple of years of needing to go to the toilet more often, thirst and feeling pretty exhausted with joint pain so started checking my levels a bit more frequently.

My bg first thing in the morning are anywhere from 9 to 12mmol. 2 hours after food I'm around 8 to 10 mmol and at night I'm between 3 and 5 mmol.

I told the dr my levels and that my vision is blurry now all the time and I have muscle weakness and they did a HBA1C which they said has come back normal so because of that I don't have a sugar problem and should stop testing myself and carry on normally. My bladder problems are just irritable bladder apparently

Does anyone have any advice? Should I stop worrying and assume my bg is normal? Are my blood sugars normal?

Thanks in advance
 
I forgot to ask the dr and when I asked the receptionist They wouldn't tell me, I have another appointment next week and I will ask the dr what it was at the appointment
 
Between 9 - 12 first thing in the morning seems high to me, is this fasted?

I'd complain about the receptionist.
 
Naelith said:
I forgot to ask the dr and when I asked the receptionist They wouldn't tell me, I have another appointment next week and I will ask the dr what it was at the appointment
Click to expand...
Try and get a printout of your results or if you are in the UK try to get access to your test results online then you can keep your own records.
 
Mark_1 said:
Between 9 - 12 first thing in the morning seems high to me, is this fasted?

I'd complain about the receptionist.
Click to expand...

Fasting levels are notorious for picking up the dawn phenomena. Unless a person is well versed on their own levels re diet, excercise, general health and even temperature then random fasting readings mean little.
 
The HbA1c test is a reading of your average glucose levels over the past few weeks (usually 12). The readings taken at home show your blood glucose level like a snapshot and can be affected by all sorts of things apart from your diet. My advice would be to wait until you know your HbA1c level and then decide what you would like to do.
 
35 is normal. It has to be over 41 to be considered pre-diabetic, and over 47 to be diagnosed diabetic.

However, the HbA1c is an average. It doesn't catch all the swings from high to low. Most people spend far more time at lower levels than higher levels - the highs are mainly restricted to a couple of hours after meals and sometimes fasting. Also, the HbA1c can be unreliable in people that have certain other issues, such as anaemia and other red blood cell abnormalities, hypothyroydism, certain medications etc. It also depends on how long your red blood cells live. The standard is around 120 days, but some of us have red blood cells that don't live that long, and some of us have RBC that live longer than that. The HbA1c assumes we all have standard ones. Most people fall in the standard range.
 
Thanks for the info, I have hypothyroidism which is proving tough to control at the minute as my tsh and antibodies isn’t stabilising, also have really low folate so not sure if that would muck my tests up. My kidney function has come back a bit screwy too so looks like I’m falling apart lol but thanks for taking the time to reply
 
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