Recent hba1c due to GD

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Doireallyneedanams

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Hi All

I had suspected “mild” gestational diabetes during my late pregnancy in 2020. It was never confirmed via OGTT but rather my own home tests as I got a 8.3 1 hour after a heavy carb takeaway (100g carb.) My third trimester hba1c was 33

I digress. I’ve since had to have annual hba1c’s, which have been 30, 31 and today’s, 32.

I am over the moon that they are still low but I just want to double check my logic as they have obviously gone up one point each time. My 30 was achieved after a strict low carb diet, whereby I ate mostly chicken salads and one meal a day. I have since relaxed my diet significantly and whilst I still don’t eat bowls full of pasta and potato, burgers or pizza etc, I do have treats more often than I should (every day) and snack a fair bit of biscuits and dairy milk iced coffee!

I am hoping it is therefore ok that it has risen consistently each time, as my carbs have gone up over this period too, and that I’m right in thinking my 30 was due to the extreme diet and I am simply just settling back to where I was (likely) pre pregnancy? It’s not the case that every year I will just go up 1 point and end up diabetic in no time? I have a very strong family history of type 2 so I will spend the rest of my life eating with that in mind anyway.
 
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EllieM

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Doireallyneedanams said:
It was never confirmed via OGTT but rather my own home tests as I got a 8.3 1 hour after a heavy carb takeaway (100g carb.) My third trimester hba1c was 33
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Have a read of this study of 153 non diabetics who wore a cgm for a week.
Continuous Glucose Monitoring Profiles in Healthy Nondiabetic Participants: A Multicenter Prospective Study - PMC (nih.gov)

I personally don't think one 8.1 after a pizza proves anything.

I also think that there's probably some error in hba1cs, so a difference of 1 is not very significant.

The only concern I'd have in your position is your family history, so maybe watch your weight and/or waistline and if they start to go up you might want to reduce your carbs.

Doireallyneedanams said:
I have a very strong family history of type 2 so I will spend the rest of my life eating with that in mind anyway.
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In my T1 non medical opinion you've got it sorted.
 
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Yulkuy

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Yaya10_10 said:
thanks for the link.

is the guy in the video non-diabetic?
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Well he is young and thin, so probably not type 2 or prediabetic and his glucose comes down too nicely for type 1. He says in the video he is not diabetic but you know, a lot of diabetics don't know about their illness... His glucose curves are fairly nice anyway to suggest any serious problem.

There is also this guy getting hype from measuring his glucose after eating fast food, here is the response to coke https://www.instagram.com/p/Cda58bHgern/
 
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Doireallyneedanams

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Thanks all.

I should say it was the hospital that “diagnosed” it, I didn’t self diagnose. I had 3 readings over 7.8 at 1 hour (all after very carby take away) but still all under 9. They said 3 and over was a diagnosis. I am still sceptical about all of that to be honest but I treated the remainder of my pregnancy as if I did have GD just to play it safe. Through out labour my glucose was stable at 4.6 the entire time which the midwives did say would be highly unusual for someone with GD or diabetes!

Still, I have 2 brothers with type 2 in their 50’s so I do believe there is a degree of insulin resistance going on with me too. I have to be careful.
 
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Yaya10_10

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Yulkuy said:
Well he is young and thin, so probably not type 2 or prediabetic and his glucose comes down too nicely for type 1. He says in the video he is not diabetic but you know, a lot of diabetics don't know about their illness... His glucose curves are fairly nice anyway to suggest any serious problem.

There is also this guy getting hype from measuring his glucose after eating fast food, here is the response to coke https://www.instagram.com/p/Cda58bHgern/
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wow it is insane. His BG went to the roof.

that is why I use coke to treat my lows
 
NicoleC1971

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Doireallyneedanams said:
Thanks all.

I should say it was the hospital that “diagnosed” it, I didn’t self diagnose. I had 3 readings over 7.8 at 1 hour (all after very carby take away) but still all under 9. They said 3 and over was a diagnosis. I am still sceptical about all of that to be honest but I treated the remainder of my pregnancy as if I did have GD just to play it safe. Through out labour my glucose was stable at 4.6 the entire time which the midwives did say would be highly unusual for someone with GD or diabetes!

Still, I have 2 brothers with type 2 in their 50’s so I do believe there is a degree of insulin resistance going on with me too. I have to be careful.
Click to expand...
You score high in the at risk category given the family history though being female helps as does being young and I hope not having a high BP at this poiont. GD is a fore warning of your type 2 risk and occurs because any state of rapid growth (pregnancy and adolescence) encourages the body to become insulin resistant to encourage its energy to be used for growth.
You know that low carb is healthy and safe but maybe you can lessen the strictness if you find it too restrictive unless you notice any extra waist being acquired or a change in your hdl/trig ratio (HDL is ideally the same as or higher than trig) on blood tests or higher blood pressure. Your excellent hba1c s and finger prick tests will be last place for the diabetes to show itself and your brothers likely had the other symptoms I mentioned long before t2 but like many people may have discounted it has middle aged stuff.
Are your brothers aware of how you are managing your risk so sucessfully?
 
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Doireallyneedanams

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NicoleC1971 said:
You score high in the at risk category given the family history though being female helps as does being young and I hope not having a high BP at this poiont. GD is a fore warning of your type 2 risk and occurs because any state of rapid growth (pregnancy and adolescence) encourages the body to become insulin resistant to encourage its energy to be used for growth.
You know that low carb is healthy and safe but maybe you can lessen the strictness if you find it too restrictive unless you notice any extra waist being acquired or a change in your hdl/trig ratio (HDL is ideally the same as or higher than trig) on blood tests or higher blood pressure. Your excellent hba1c s and finger prick tests will be last place for the diabetes to show itself and your brothers likely had the other symptoms I mentioned long before t2 but like many people may have discounted it has middle aged stuff.
Are your brothers aware of how you are managing your risk so sucessfully?
Click to expand...

One sibling did indeed have high blood pressure and cholesterol but the other does not. Interestingly they both manage their diabetes completely differently, one having gone full keto and the other still treating himself occasionally and eating carbs, albeit far less. Both on medication, and both happy to stay on it.

Neither of our parents were or are diabetic but some aunts, uncles are and if I said my siblings lived a “healthy” lifestyle I’d be lying. One hugely overweight all through out 40’s and 50’s, little to no exercise and carb heavy diet, the other not so heavy but indulged in several energy drinks daily and demolished 500g choc bars on the regular also for years. Genetics at play but seemingly lifestyle brought it to life for both of them. This is what I’m trying to avoid, though I do expect it will catch up with me eventually. Not the end of the world but I’d rather be a bit older at diagnosis and not currently at 32!! The less time it has to mess with me, the better.

their diagnosis was a huge wake up call as I was a carb fiend beforehand. Every meal was pasta, potatoes etc and always a sweet dessert. I cannot even imagine eating like that these days though I do miss my gnocchi and supermarket sugar-loaded jarred pasta bake sauces! :D oh, and the waffles... the waffles!
 
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