what is "normal " Hba1c in non diabetic populations

ringi said:

Firstly this is not true, as most traditional diets contained lots of hunted meats until we invaded them and introduced the concept of land ownership etc.

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I'm.. not convinced that's true, but depends on where in the world, agricultural level etc. It's the carrying capacity challenge of supporting a population and feeding it, without eliminating wild game. Land ownership of course messed up nomadic hunter/gatherers, but also allowed settled populations to grow more food or harvest more meat from domesticated livestock.

Also, these carbs are much less processed then ours, even a traditional "bread" is much lower GI then a bread made with any floor you can buy from a UK supermarket. (Consider the difference between sweet potatoes, that have very high fibre, and our potatoes that have been bred to be as "white" as possible.)

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That I agree with, plus lifestyle changes. The variety of food has increased, but not necessarily the quality, so like you say, highly processed white flour/bread vs nice, crusty stoneground wholewheat. ****, I'm missing bread..

(on which point, rye bread.. good or bad? I need my fix!)

When I was misdiagnosed for first prediabetes, then T2, my hba1c levels were always above 42. That was because of the diets recommended by the NHS. They were unaware what this diet was doing to my health!

Since being told that I didn't have diabetes and that my blood glucose levels have become normal, since going very low carb, my hba1c levels have now been in non diabetic range for four years now.

So my hba1c levels were skewed because of what I was eating, nothing else.

I live in normal levels. My readings are always in normal levels because of my balanced diet. Without carbs as much as possible. If I remember correctly, my last one in October was 37.

The problem I had was hyperinsulinaemia, which caused my blood glucose levels to become averaging over the the diabetic range because my insulin resistance was awful because of the high glucose levels.
I was in a cycle of high glucose levels and hypoglycaemic episodes because of high circulating insulin.

It has been discussed quite a few times on here that too much insulin in your blood will cause more symptoms and be present far earlier than a hba1c test will ever suggest that you have prediabetes or T2.
It has been suggested that testing for insulin earlier could be the first warning that something is not right. If they had tested for insulin twenty years ago when I was just not right, my Hypoglycaemia could have been prevented. Or slowed or controlled earlier!
But they didn't have a clue!
Nor did I!

I was going to post as well that I have averaged my food diary readings and rounded them up to one decimal point. Since diagnosis.
Pre meal........4.3mmols
One hour........5.8mmols
Two hours.....4.5mmols

I have a few (lots) half hour readings but that is obsessive!

Even though I have normal readings, I am far from normal because of my Hypoglycaemia!

Best wishes

Lamont D said:

It has been discussed quite a few times on here that too much insulin in your blood will cause more symptoms and be present far earlier than a hba1c test will ever suggest that you have prediabetes or T2.
It has been suggested that testing for insulin earlier could be the first warning that something is not right. If they had tested for insulin twenty years ago when I was just not right, my Hypoglycaemia could have been prevented. Or slowed or controlled earlier!

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Completely agree. Most T2 and pre-T2 diagnoses could be prevented if they did an insulin test as a matter of routine when doing a general health check.

But only if they also truly believed in low carb diets, otherwise all the test results would do is put someone on an "at risk" list.

ringi said:

But only if they also truly believed in low carb diets, otherwise all the test results would do is put someone on an "at risk" list.

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The reason why I believe that an insulin test is more reliable and even more important than a hba1c test is because hyperinsulinaemia develops years earlier and is usually a precursor to T2 diabetes.
It is preventable medicine and if caught early and the advice to stop the circulating insulin is the reason why, so the treatment is a change of diet, usually a lowering of carb intake and an increase in exercise, which would result in lowering the cost to the NHS!

Lamont D said:

The reason why I believe that an insulin test is more reliable and even more important than a hba1c test is because hyperinsulinaemia develops years earlier and is usually a precursor to T2 diabetes.
It is preventable medicine and if caught early and the advice to stop the circulating insulin is the reason why, so the treatment is a change of diet, usually a lowering of carb intake and an increase in exercise, which would result in lowering the cost to the NHS!

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I absolutely agree. Believe I have suffered from reactive hypoglycemia at least ten years before before being diagnosed with T2D. I remember standing at McDonald's being so incredibly hungry that I was close to tears and not being able decide what to eat (probably due to high insulin and very low blood sugars) -- however back then I didn't understand what was happening and that this was not normal.

An interesting question is: Do all T2Ds experience a period of reactive hypoglycemia before developing diabetes?

Edited for clarity.

ziggy_w said:

I absolutely agree. Believe I have suffered from reactive hypoglycemia at least ten years before before being diagnosed with T2D. I remember standing at McDonald's being so incredibly hungry that I was close to tears and not being able decide what to eat (probably due to high insulin and very low blood sugars) -- however back then I didn't understand what was happening and that this was not normal.

An interesting question is: Do all T2Ds experience a period of reactive hypoglycemia before developing diabetes?

Edited for clarity.

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No, I don't believe that, but they have very similar symptoms!
Most of the more harmful symptoms come from the highs and lows from the fluctuating blood glucose levels due to quick hyper then this sudden drops because of the excess insulin created by the overshoot.

T2s are mostly too high and don't get the sudden drops unless they are on meds or have a pancreatic condition with the diabetes. There will be others. But, usually, being careful now, T2s don't get hypos (under 3.5) on diet only!
I have discovered that gestational diabetes has typical Reactive Hypoglycaemia symptoms.
Again there maybe more!

But who knows?

I had never heard of any type of hypoglycaemia, until diagnosis.
I didn't have a clue, nor did my succession of GPs! (And one endocrinologist!)

Good question though!

Mr_Pot said:

Glucose does not normally appear in urine until the level in blood exceeds 10 mmol/L so a urine test is not a good test for diabetes.

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I think I heard somewhere that this value changes depending on the person - young healthy people were supposed to **** out sugar around 9 or so, whereas older people were a little higher, and those with kidney problems may not until their blood sugar got to 14 or so. If anyone knows a source with more info on sugar in your urine I would love to see.