Being still fairly new to this diabetes thing, and new to this great forum, I wonder if someone could help me make sense of a numbers problem. My latest A1c was 6.1%, which I believe is good (OK, in the 5% bracket would be even better). However, using the conversion programme found at http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/A1ccalc2.php (great website) I find that this converts to an average blood glucose of 7.1 mmol/L. I understand this to mean that over the course of a day my level might fluctuate between, say 6.1 mmol/L and 8.1 mmol/L, with 7.1 therefore as an average. However, according to what I read in many good places (including this site) 6.1 is still too high for a fasting reading, and 8.1 too high for a post meal spike. So am I missing something here? Or is an A1c of 6.1% actually not that good at all and I need to try to get it lower?
A1c calculations can be flawed for many reasons. You can have the same A1c from spot readings which vary hugely as from spot readings which vary little. Then for various reasons some people are high or low glycators and A1c is reliably different from what would be expected.
see what the actual range of your numbers is, especially looking at those postprandial spikes. Then see if you can discern a relationship, some individuals can predict their A1c quite accurately, others can't. In some cases a fructosamine test may show a significant difference from A1c, but try getting one of them on the NHS!
