June 2011: A1C was 6.5One Week Later: A1C was 5.2
September 2011: A1C was 6.3
They were all done at the same lab. My blood sugars have never been high. The highest recorded was 131 one hour after a meal. Any ideas? My endocrinologist (for thyroid) is not ready to diagnose diabetes. My PCP is. I would appreciate any insight.
TheOrange Evil - The A1c gets touted as a three-month average of blood sugar. I say that, too. In reality, the A1c can be substantially lowered or raised in well under three months. I dropped my A1c over three percentage points in two or two and a half weeks. The A1c seems to be weighted toward your most recent blood sugar.
ReplyDeleteThat COULD be an explanation. Did you see the high A1c in June and respond by dieting?
Another possibility is that one or more of the A1cs is wrong. Also, an A1c is not a perfect correlation to blood sugar. It's an approximation. Some people have higher A1cs than their blood sugar would otherwise indicate, whereas others have lower A1cs. Finally, the fact that you haven't recorded high blood sugar doesn't mean that you haven't had high blood sugar. Unless your doctor has hooked you up to a continuous glucose monitoring system, you just can't know what your blood sugar has been doing all day, every day.
I'm not a doctor and I'm not qualified to diagnose anyone, but as I am sure you know, the 6.5% suggests diabetes, the 6.3% suggests pre-diabetes, and the 5.2% is in normal range. Do you know what your fasting levels have been?
I hope your endocrinologist or PCP orders another A1c. Perhaps even an oral glucose tolerance test is in order.
syl c. - I would definitely go with your endo. Your levels are somewhat high but not consistently high and you should test 2 hours after a meal for a good reading. Sugar levels are unbalanced perhaps due to your diet. If you change your diet you should get good readings. Try eating five or six small meals, low carb, add more protein, try not to skip meals, exercise (even walking 3 times a week for 30 min) should help.
ReplyDeleteAgain, go with your endo as you wouldn't want to take any diabetic meds that would affect your pancreas. I think you should just change your diet, exercise and you should be perfectly fine and then test again. You could also check your own glucose levels by buying a glucometer at a local pharmacy. This should give you an idea of how your glucose is being affected by what you eat.
Check with your endo as this person specializes in this field, not that your doctor isn't good, don't get me wrong, but you're endo is the person to go to with this type of concern.
Hope this helps.