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Hello. I'm new!

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petrometro

petrometro

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have had my blood tests back and having looked at all my figures I wonder whether I have T2 at all! My diabetes count is 53 (although I don't know what that translates into on a Blood Glucose machine. It tells me I have a score of 8.2
BP and ECG figures are 121/78. No sign of itches or swelling between the toes. Diabetes eye disease test reveals no evidence. Sensitivity when feet are tapped is normal.
I think my doctor is having a laugh.... But I will cooperate.
 
petrometro said:
I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have had my blood tests back and having looked at all my figures I wonder whether I have T2 at all! My diabetes count is 53 (although I don't know what that translates into on a Blood Glucose machine. It tells me I have a score of 8.2
BP and ECG figures are 121/78. No sign of itches or swelling between the toes. Diabetes eye disease test reveals no evidence. Sensitivity when feet are tapped is normal.
I think my doctor is having a laugh.... But I will cooperate.
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Both 53 and 8.2 are diabetic numbers. No dispute there. 48 is the level sufficient for a dx of Type 2 Diabetes. When was the 8.2 scored. ? Regular testing times are Fasting, two hours after a meal and before bed. What are you doing with the diabetes, what are you eating ? Nobody is 'having a laugh', you have to educate yourself about it, take control and manage it for the rest of your life.
 
Hi @petrometro If you in the UK then the diagnosis level is 2 x HbA1C tests with readings of 48 or above - so 53 would make you diabetic, but at the lower end of the range (I also had an HbA1C of 53 when diagnosed).

If you have only had one HbA1C blood test, then it's possible that it was an unusually high reading and so you are only pre-diabetic rather than diabetic.

Believe me you don't want the symptoms of diabetes because they tend to signify actual physical damage (much of which may not be reversible).

Don't just cooperate with your doctor - read in hear to find out what works, then adopt that. The majority of NHS doctors in the UK are still pushing the sort of diet that makes both diabetes and heart disease worse rather than better!
 
Welcome to the forum @petrometro

It’s not particularly unusual for people to get a diagnosis with T2 before they are aware of any symptoms. in fact some Diabetes UK research suggests there may be over 800,000 people in the UK living with diabetes that is yet to be diagnosed.

There isn’t a direct conversion between average capillary blood glucose levels and HbA1c results, though there is a correlation between the two.

Fingerstick meters measure the glucose concentration in capillary blood at that moment in time.

While the HbA1c measures how many of your red blood cells have been glycated (changed by exposure to glucose in the blood). The higher the concentration of glucose the more red blood cells are affected. Since red blood cells last for approx 120 days before gradually being reabsorbed and recreated, by measuring the HbA1c you get a proxy indication of average blood glucose concentrations over the preceding 3-4 months.

There are various tables online that give an indication of the likely average capillary blood glucose levels associated with a particular HbA1c, but these are more of a ‘best fit’ comparison from pairs of data rather than a numerical conversion.

🙂
 
Thank you for your replies. Since the test I have taken quite an interest in what the term diabetes T" means. I now know the difference between GL and GI and Collins published a handbook indicating red/amber/green for foods with L/M/H GI. Patrick Holford; although I am not a real fan of his published his diet which an incredibly heavy tome, but it says much the same thing. I have also read up Uni of Newcastle research and some videos from a Doctor in the USA that was passed on to me. I have lost quite a bit of weight since this time last year. About 30lbs but our friendly BMI still thinks I need to be at a weight not seen since 1983. So Cooperation was perhaps not the right word! I think you are right in saying that the Hba1c could have been a false reading. I would have been absolutely sure had the test been done by Randox. I have always suffered from Renal Glyceria so that might explain the levels in a Urine test. I'm still learning and hopefully the diagnosis will be reversed at some stage. I always thought that Pre-diabetes went up to 41 not 48. It must have changed.
 
Welcome to the forum @petrometro

With an HbA1c of 58 your body over the previous three months is not managing to process the glucose in your system. It is great that this has been picked up at this stage, before the high glucose levels have done any damage, so the eye and toe ticking outcomes are good. This gives you the chance to make changes and bring the levels down. So many don’t get this chance until it is too late.

There is plenty of advice and experience to tap into on here.
 
SB2015 said:
Welcome to the forum @petrometro

With an HbA1c of 58 your body over the previous three months is not managing to process the glucose in your system. It is great that this has been picked up at this stage, before the high glucose levels have done any damage, so the eye and toe ticking outcomes are good. This gives you the chance to make changes and bring the levels down. So many don’t get this chance until it is too late.

There is plenty of advice and experience to tap into on here.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for this. The glucose count is 53 not 58 so maybe I am closer to reversing it than I had thought!
 
Hi and welcome from me too.

Don't put total faith in Low GI. It very much depends on your metabolism and gut biome. My body can extract the glucose from minimally processed Jumbo oats made into porridge with water and get it to my finger tip within 20mins of putting it in my mouth which is only 10 mins slower than pure glucose. Using a BG meter to test how your body responds to particular foods is by far the best way to tailor your diet to your body's individual diabetes, and there can be quite a lot of variation. So what works for one person, may not work for another.
 
Burylancs said:
LOL, don't believe this stuff about being 'just a bit pregnant', with an HbA1c of 53 you're as diabetic as any diabetic.
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Sorry @Burylancs but don't agree with that sentiment. The 48 is chosen to indicate the point on the scale that active intervention is advisable to reduce the risk of long term problems from elevated blood glucose levels. The higher the HbA1c, the more urgent the need and more intensive the intervention needed. Yes anybody with an HbA1c over 48 gets the label but the implications of having an HbA1c of 53 are very, very different to those of having an HbA1c of 150+.

@petrometro - At 53 you are just over the diagnosis limit and although it is advisable to get it down, there is no need to panic. Chances are that it can be done with a few tweaks in your lifestyle, so keep on reading around the forum and work out what is best for you.
 
Docb said:
Sorry @Burylancs but don't agree with that sentiment. The 48 is chosen to indicate the point on the scale that active intervention is advisable to reduce the risk of long term problems from elevated blood glucose levels. The higher the HbA1c, the more urgent the need and more intensive the intervention needed. Yes anybody with an HbA1c over 48 gets the label but the implications of having an HbA1c of 53 are very, very different to those of having an HbA1c of 150+.

@petrometro - At 53 you are just over the diagnosis limit and although it is advisable to get it down, there is no need to panic. Chances are that it can be done with a few tweaks in your lifestyle, so keep on reading around the forum and work out what is best for you.
Click to expand...
Docb said:
Sorry @Burylancs but don't agree with that sentiment. The 48 is chosen to indicate the point on the scale that active intervention is advisable to reduce the risk of long term problems from elevated blood glucose levels. The higher the HbA1c, the more urgent the need and more intensive the intervention needed. Yes anybody with an HbA1c over 48 gets the label but the implications of having an HbA1c of 53 are very, very different to those of having an HbA1c of 150+.

@petrometro - At 53 you are just over the diagnosis limit and although it is advisable to get it down, there is no need to panic. Chances are that it can be done with a few tweaks in your lifestyle, so keep on reading around the forum and work out what is best for you.
Click to expand...
That's the response you used to get in the old days - telling somebody that they're ' just a bit diabetic' is the same as telling a woman she's 'just a bit pregnant'. Wherever the cut-off points are, they are definitive. 48 just happens to equate to the pre 2012 measure of 6.5%. Please don't encourage any people who have been dxed with T2 to believe that they are 'just a bit diabetic'.
____________________
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
 
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