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The Hb A1c test

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Finzels78

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Hello,
My doctor is sending me for a Hb A1c test. My illness is currently not diagnosed so I don't know what's wrong with me yet.

I'm wondering if someone can kindly tell me please - is this just purely just a test for diabetes alone? Or does it also generally show if my blood sugar levels were high or low (so it might not be diabetes related)

Many thank for your help :)
 
It is simply an average of blood sugar over 2-3 months and is used for diabetes screening and management.

It serves no other purpose than to diagnose or rule out. In those already diagnosed it indicates level of control and whether medication is working.
 
Thank you very much for your quick useful replies with this.

What I'm a bit confused about is there are a number of diseases that can affect the blood sugar level, so when I get the HBA1C test how would it know it's definately diabetes if the level comes back abnormal?

If I didn't have diabetes but say really low blood sugar would this test pick it up?

Many thanks for your help.
 
You are quite right in thinking that the HbA1c test will not show the answer to EVERYTHING and for this reason you will most probably given them several samples of blood when your sample was first taken, each of which will then be subjected to specific tests on their own.
A defect for instant in the THYROID gland can result in raised B/G levels as can an INFECTION so that's why several test will be requested at the same time on the your blood samples, so that a clearer overall picture of your health can eventually be assessed..
From all the returned test results, it's then up to a medical expert (Doctor) to say if you have Diabetes or not or if you have raised or lowered HbA1c reading what might then be the outlined cause.

Hope this clarifies thing a little - Best Regards - Lazybones
 
Last edited:
Finzels78 said:
Thank you very much for your quick useful replies with this.

What I'm a bit confused about is there are a number of diseases that can affect the blood sugar level, so when I get the HBA1C test how would it know it's definately diabetes if the level comes back abnormal?

If I didn't have diabetes but say really low blood sugar would this test pick it up?

Many thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

There's a range of normal,results. If yours was out of that range, other tests would hopefully show why.

Yes, other conditions can affect blood sugar, but diabetes is probably the most common cause of a high HbA1C.

I'd also add that HbA1Cs are often done as part of a general health screen so more to rule out diabetes than because the doctor thinks a person has it @Finzels78
 
Hi. Yes, you are right that the HBa1C just shows a 3-month average blood sugar and if outside the normal range could be caused by more than diabetes. When on steroids you can have quite high average blood sugar. That would be called steroid-induced diabetes which would go away once the steroids are stopped.
 
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