• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

rapid drop in A1C

F

Flowercity

Member
Hi can anyone give me an example of rapid A1C drop in the early worsening retinopathy theory, Like from what number to what. I have read articles on this however cant seen to find examples of what they mean by rapid and concerning level A1C drop. Thanks .
 
Hi @Flowercity , I would say I dropped dramatically and quickly, as per my footer and could not see without a x3 strength magnifying glass for a month straight after diagnosis - my vision had become a little blurry, (hard to read texts on my phone before diagnosis), to full on could only make out 'people' on the TV but not faces etc.

My first retinopathy screening a month after was all clear, and I am being screened again soon, and hopefully still all good. I don't know if the length of time at a high HbA1c causes more damage - my first mild diabetic symptoms were, with hindsight, 6 months before diagnosis, and blurry vision for about a month, and my HbA1c had been completely low non-diabetic 3 years previously, all I have to go on, sorry.

Guessing may be another one of those 'everyone is different' moments.
 
I went from 50 to 36 in four months. It did affect my eyesight but that's not retinopathy - it is the change in the density of the fluids in the eyeball as the sugar concentration goes down. That affects your vision. Once the level stabilised I quickly adjusted, but it was annoying for a few weeks.

Retinopathy is damage to the eyes themselves. According to Bilous and Donnelly in the Handbook of Diabetes, it's usually damage to the retina whch might be caused by increased blood flow as a consequence of diabetes. Part of the reason for switching to a diagnostic test at 48mmol/mol (or 6.5%) for T2 diabetes was that "moderate retinopathy in recent trials is rare below this HbA1c threshold". Retinopathy is therefore a result of a prolonged exposure to high levels of sugar in the blood.

If you're asking about the situation where a very large and sudden fall in blood glucose can make existing retinopathy worse, have a look here: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/diabetic-retinopathy.html. The figure is given as a fall of 30mmol/mol (3%) but there is nothing on the time period.

The studies this figure is taken from are referenced in Bilous and Donnelly ( I don't have a link) as "DCCT, KROC, Stockholm and Oslo Studies".

best of luck.
 
Last edited:
KennyA said:
I went from 50 to 36 in four months. It did affect my eyesight but that's not retinopathy - it is the change in the density of the fluids in the eyeball as the sugar concentration goes down. That affects your vision. Once the level stabilised I quickly adjusted, but it was annoying for a few weeks.

Retinopathy is damage to the eyes themselves. According to Bilous and Donnelly in the Handbook of Diabetes, it's usually damage to the retina whch might be caused by increased blood flow as a consequence of diabetes. Part of the reason for switching to a diagnostic test at 48mmol/mol (or 6.5%) for T2 diabetes was that "moderate retinopathy in recent trials is rare below this HbA1c threshold". Retinopathy is therefore a result of a prolonged exposure to high levels of sugar in the blood.

If you're asking about the situation where a very large and sudden fall in blood glucose can make existing retinopathy worse, have a look here: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/diabetic-retinopathy.html. The figure is given as a fall of 30mmol/mol (3%) but there is nothing on the time period.

The studies this figure is taken from are referenced in Bilous and Donnelly ( I don't have a link) as "DCCT, KROC, Stockholm and Oslo Studies".

best of luck.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for this very helpful information.
 
I was diagnosed with HbA1c of 70, first retinal scan then was normal. I reduced from 70 to 36 in four months. My scan the following year show background retinopathy, which had disappeared by the following year.
 
Like @KennyA , I'm a T2 and my HbA1c dropped dramatically from my diagnostic results of 60-61 down to 47 within three months. Initially I did have some fluctuations in my eyesight which were nothing to do with retinopathy, but were due to changes in glucose levels, and they ceased as levels stabilised.

I've now been diabetic for over nine year with lowish pre-diabetic HbA1s and only in the last few years have my annual eye checks shown a little background retinopathy on a couple of occasions which have not require any treatment.
 
Back
Top