Surprising HbA1c

[StuartR]

At the end of September, my HbA1c was 63 and then 58 a few days later, confirming to the GP that I was type 2. They started me on Meformin, steadily building up the dose. I had a blood test a couple of days ago and the reading has dropped dramatically to 28.

In that time I have lost some weight (I've always had a healthy BMI) and restructured my diet. In the past, I ate well but not necessarily diabetes-friendly. In the past three months, I've kept away from potatoes, pasta, rice and had a slice of sourdough toast a day.

But that drop in HbA1c... it seems too much! I can't get an appointment until January to speak to the GP, so wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this or has any interesting ideas.

And a merry Christmas to everyone on here!

 

[JoKalsbeek]

At the end of September, my HbA1c was 63 and then 58 a few days later, confirming to the GP that I was type 2. They started me on Meformin, steadily building up the dose. I had a blood test a couple of days ago and the reading has dropped dramatically to 28.

In that time I have lost some weight (I've always had a healthy BMI) and restructured my diet. In the past, I ate well but necessarily diabetes-friendly. In the past three months, I've kept away from potatoes, pasta, rice and had a slice of sourdough toast a day.

But that drop in HbA1c... it seems too much! I can't get an appointment until January to speak to the GP, so wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this or has any interesting ideas.

And a merry Christmas to everyone on here!

I've never dropped down to 28 myself, but I'm thinking it might be time to discuss coming off metformin. If this is a diet you can keep up, you don't seem to need it. Merry Christmas, and congratulations on the improvement! (I think it bottoms out at 20, so... You're still good. )

 

[Antje77]

But that drop in HbA1c... it seems too much! I can't get an appointment until January to speak to the GP, so wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this or has any interesting ideas.

My interesting idea is that you got your diabetes in remission very quickly!

Hba1c tells you something about your BG over the past 3 months but weighed more heavily towards the en of this period. You changed your diet 3 months ago so I think it's most likely the hba1c is correct.
Most of our members don't drop below 30, although @AndBreathe did for a while. But we have many members who had a similarly quick drop into the 30's.
Tagging @Paul_ who from memory pulled a similar trick earlier this year.

And if you want to read more success stories, have a look in this part of the forum: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/success-stories-and-testimonials.43/

edit: Do you use a glucose meter? If you do, you can do some testing to see if your numbers fit in with that hba1c.

 

[KennyA]

At the end of September, my HbA1c was 63 and then 58 a few days later, confirming to the GP that I was type 2. They started me on Meformin, steadily building up the dose. I had a blood test a couple of days ago and the reading has dropped dramatically to 28.

In that time I have lost some weight (I've always had a healthy BMI) and restructured my diet. In the past, I ate well but not necessarily diabetes-friendly. In the past three months, I've kept away from potatoes, pasta, rice and had a slice of sourdough toast a day.

But that drop in HbA1c... it seems too much! I can't get an appointment until January to speak to the GP, so wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this or has any interesting ideas.

And a merry Christmas to everyone on here!

I went from 50 to 36 in under four months, doing much the same (no metformin). The DN nearly fell off her chair. Others have seen similar or larger drops - there are a few accounts in the "Success Stories" section.

And - very well done!

28 is really low in terms of the non-diabetic population distribution (see graph). Even if you stopped the metformin you probably wouldn't see much of a rise, as metformin only stops your liver topping up blood glucose - it has no impact on dietary carb.

 

[Resurgam]

I wonder if your pancreas has been overdoing it a bit, getting a bit hysterical after having to try to cope with too many carbs so it might need a little bit of time to calm down and react normally.
Have you had any feelings of being hypo? I went from HbA1c of 91 to 47 and had a few occasions of feeling a little wobbly as my blood glucose levels dropped from the high teens down to 8 or less in under three months.

 

[StuartR]

I wonder if your pancreas has been overdoing it a bit, getting a bit hysterical after having to try to cope with too many carbs so it might need a little bit of time to calm down and react normally.
Have you had any feelings of being hypo? I went from HbA1c of 91 to 47 and had a few occasions of feeling a little wobbly as my blood glucose levels dropped from the high teens down to 8 or less in under three months.

Will keep an eye on this. Thanks.