How can a random spike affect HBA1C?

[mikeyuk]

So I've been doing low carb and falling in between the 4-7.7 range 95% of the time, average on meter is 6 or so. But I had a bad weekend and ended up massively overcompensating and hitting 16 (gulp) briefly. Then spiked to 9 the next day a few times while I guess my body got back into order.

I have my HBA1c coming up in a week or two and just wondering how much these couple of spikes are likely to affect it?

 

[totsy]

i wouldnt worry too much as the odd spike shouldnt make any difference,
i was worried about this as id some higher than usual readings due to not being well and had my hba1c the nxt week,
my hba1c came back as 5.9 so it cant have done any damage

 

[mikeyuk]

Thanks for the response , pretty nervous ^_^

 

[totsy]

try not to worry as stress will raise your bg too

 

[Dennis]

Hi Mikey,

Don't worry about it. An HBA1C shows what your blood sugar levels have been over a 3 month period, so a couple of spikes that each lasts only a few hours only represents 0.5% of the time that is being tested and will have hardly any effect on the result. If you were spiking high every day then of course that would make a big difference.

 

[Trinkwasser]

Yes, my experience over a long time is that brief spikes mainly into the 8 - 10 range followed by drops to around 4 or less were cancelling one another out and totally failing to show in my A1c.

However how did you feel at those numbers? Perhaps I'm hypersensitive but I notice my energy starts to drop off around 7 and by 8 the neuropathy in my toes and fingers starts to come back, so I'm a bit careful to avoid such numbers as much as possible

 

[mikeyuk]

Strange phenomenon actually, I've always strived to maintain decent control but always felt like I was on the "rollercoaster" before I started low carb. My hba1cs were always under 7 but average on my meter was around 10 and surprisingly I felt fine around 9-10.

Nowadays any time my blood reaches about 8 I start to feel slightly sluggish and can definitely tell when im 9+. Amazing how the body adapts

 

[Dennis]

Hi Mikey,

It often works the opposite way as well. When your body is used to operating at a level of 9 or 10 and you drop to 5, it often triggers all the symptoms of a hypo, even though 5 is way above hypo level.

 

[Trinkwasser]

Hi Mikey,

It often works the opposite way as well. When your body is used to operating at a level of 9 or 10 and you drop to 5, it often triggers all the symptoms of a hypo, even though 5 is way above hypo level.

Yes BTDT, also the rate of change can have an effect, I've had hypo symptoms at 5.5 from a rapid drop from around 10, and no symptoms at all at 3.5 when I got there slowly from 4.5

Only some of the symptoms of a hypo are directly from the lack of glucose (and sometimes I get similar energy loss from a high, which seems to shut down the transporters so the glucose stays in the blood and doesn't get into the muscles) the rest of them are due to a dump of neuroendocrines like cortisol and adrenaline, which can be wrongly diagnosed as a panic attack