How important are A1C numbers? Should I get a second opinion?

Hello, all. I am new to the forum. I'm going to try and give all relevant information I can think of. I recently had to do a health and wellness screening for my employer health care. This included a blood test. I was a bit surprised by some of my numbers that came back on it.

I previously had no knowledge whatsoever about diabetes. My fasting blood glucose level was 83, and my A1c was 5.6. According to the paper itself that came in the mail 5.7 is considered prediabetic. I asked the health care provider who did the blood test if I needed to do anything about these results and she said no. However, this is not an actual doctor, it is a nurse practitioner. The clinic I had it done at is just a basic, nothing special health clinic that you don't have to pay any copays or payments at. I do have the option to go to a regular doctor, with regular copays and better service, for healthcare purposes, but this particular clinic is what our employer requires us to use for the health screening.

Anywho. When I read it, 5.6 is only .1 away from being prediabetic, so in my mind, that definitely means I need to be doing something. Because, before it was 5.6, it was 5.5, and before that it was 5.4 and so on. It didn't get there overnight, and if I do nothing, it won't be long before it IS 5.7 and that is something I'd like to avoid if possible.

I have read conflicting things online. Some say 5.6 is a definite sign of almost being prediabetic. Some say if that number is off but glucose is normal, then it's fine. And it does appear that a fasting glucose of 83 is textbook perfect normal.

The reason this number is a bit concerning for me is, 3 weeks prior to having my bloodwork drawn, I had started the Atkins diet because it had been highly recommended to me by several people for being a really effective weight loss program. I had been doing well with it and at that time, I had lost 11 pounds from my previous weight when I went in for my bloodwork. So after 3 weeks of eating less than 25 grams of carbs per day, my A1c was still 5.6. Since then ( that was approximately 6 weeks ago) I have lost 14 more pounds, still doing low carb.

It is also worth noting that I have somewhat recently given birth. I have a 9.5 month old child. I had bloodwork drawn twice during my pregnancy and neither time did my OB say anything about gestational diabetes or watching what I ate. I gained very little weight during my pregnancy. I took a glucose test, complete with extremely sugary drink. I did not fast before my glucose test. I passed the very first time. My baby was very normal sized.

I include that info to say that I'm a bit confused how, less than a year ago, for at least 9 months I was perfectly fine, to now only 18 months later being borderline prediabetic. I would love to hear from those of you who have been dealing with prediabetes, diabetes, or gestational diabetes how important an A1c of 5.6 really is. Does this sound like I should get a second opinion? I don't plan on stopping with the low carb.

Bump.

Bump.

Andrew Colvin said:

When you are low carbing your body runs your glucose levels a little higher to ensure your critical systems get the glucose and not stored as glycogen. Additionally if you are Atkins then you may have quite high protein which will get broken down when you have more than needed And this raises glucose average. So all in all I wouldn't worry

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Thank you for your reply. I'm not quite sure I 100% understand what you're saying though. My glucose (not my A1C) was pretty average, I think. So, if my body is running my glucose level a little higher, does that mean it would normally be a bit less than that?

4ratbags said:

Simply put you know from your most recent blood test that you are almost in the pre diabetic numbers and given the fact that you have been following the Atkins diet it is more than likely that you may have been in the pre diabetic range before starting the diet. The best thing you can do is to keep moving forward by sticking to the Atkins diet and get yourself retested at the Drs in 3 months time. Its great to see you are taking an interest in your health. Please keep us informed.

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I was kind of thinking I was probably already in the range before starting the diet as well. Of course, the person drawing the bloodwork and answering questions would not have known that, but I thought surely with me still being slightly overweight and having numbers that close, she would have recommended me at least seeing a doctor about the results. I think the fact that she said do nothing was what shocked me the most, which is why I felt I had to take matters into my own hands. Researching, being especially careful to stick to low carb, I was planning on asking them to redo my blood test but I wasn't sure how long I should wait to see if I had any improvement. 3 months since starting low carb should be coming up pretty soon, and I guess I'll decide after seeing those numbers (improvement or not) whether I should take more action. Hopefully it has improved drastically.

ladybird64 said:

There's no need to keep bumping your post, you do need to be a little bit patient for someone to answer!

I'm sure others will add their thoughts, but I wouldn't be worrying too much about that result. A lot can happen in life, you gave birth less than a year ago, and there are lots of things that can have an effect on glucose readings. Low carbing is one of the best ways of getting glucose levels down so you are on the right track already - avoidance is the name of the game!

My advice would be to stick with what you are doing and not to stress out about the numbers.

Edited - in the time I wrote this, two replies before mine!

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Sorry about the bumping, I am new to this forum and it is set up very differently than other forums I use where if your post doesn't get answered it drifts off into cyberspace, never to be seen again, and I could see that other posts were getting answered but mine wasn't, so I thought that's what I thought was happening. lol.

So far, that has been my only real plan. Keep low carbing and not worrying. But In the past week, I've started noticing other symptoms so it has brought the thought of wondering if I should be checking on this back to the forefront of my mind. Though to be fair, the symptoms could be related to a possible second pregnancy - unplanned - and if so, I will almost definitely have to see a doctor soon, as I have no idea what possibly slipping into the prediabetic range could mean for me during a pregnancy. Though if at all possible I plan to stay low carb if pregnant, but not less than 25 grams per day. Thank you everyone, I plan on staying active in this forum for awhile, until I have my numbers, weight and symptoms in check and will likely update once I know more.

Update. I am pregnant. Will be having blood test asap to determine if I will need to continue limiting carbs during pregnancy. For now, I am continuing low carb, but increasing from 25g to possibly 50 for baby until I find out a safe level to consume.