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Effect of spikes on HBA1C

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Leonora

Leonora

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello there. Haven't logged in for a while but have still been reading posts for support and inspiration. I'd like to also thank many of you for responding to my last post. The comments gave me real good laugh when I needed it.

Anyway I have a question. Before food my BS was 5.2. 1 hour later it was 8.4. Another hour later it was down to 6.3. Does anyone know how that spike affects your HBA1C? BTW I ate an egg sandwich, shop bought because I was in a rush.

Many thanks
 
mikeyB said:
Call that a spike? It’s not far from normal, so you don’t need to worry at all🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks Mike. I've never tested at 1 hour before and so I was starting to worry. I'm still worried about my next HBA1C test because over Christmas and New Year I ate everything I could get my hands on. HAHAHA!!!
 
I agree with @mikeyB , a spike is the 21 I had the other day at bedtime, because I forgot my novorapid before tea.
 
Hi Carlos, I've spiked to 21 before. Not fun. Which is why I now test to within an inch of my life. (Not at Christmas, though. I was too scared!) The moral of the story here is, Don't forget your teatime Novorapid!!! Easily done though. I've missed my metformin lots of times, but I appreciate it doesn't have the same affect of missing your Novorapid. Keep well - Leonora
 
We’ve all forgotten it once, it’s horrible!

But that’s why we test x
 
Leonora said:
Hello there. Haven't logged in for a while but have still been reading posts for support and inspiration. I'd like to also thank many of you for responding to my last post. The comments gave me real good laugh when I needed it.

Anyway I have a question. Before food my BS was 5.2. 1 hour later it was 8.4. Another hour later it was down to 6.3. Does anyone know how that spike affects your HBA1C? BTW I ate an egg sandwich, shop bought because I was in a rush.

Many thanks
Click to expand...

That's completely normal - a non-diabetic might easily "spike" to 9+ or even higher.
 
Leonora said:
Hi Carlos, I've spiked to 21 before. Not fun. Which is why I now test to within an inch of my life. (Not at Christmas, though. I was too scared!) The moral of the story here is, Don't forget your teatime Novorapid!!! Easily done though. I've missed my metformin lots of times, but I appreciate it doesn't have the same affect of missing your Novorapid. Keep well - Leonora
Click to expand...

It is one of those things, busy with the children and totally forgot to inject, first time in 24 years, so not too bad

Anyhow, the thread was about your spikes. As others have pointed out those are very minor, and wouldn't really have a great deal of effect unless you were to constantly have those levels.
 
Leonora said:
Hello there. Haven't logged in for a while but have still been reading posts for support and inspiration. I'd like to also thank many of you for responding to my last post. The comments gave me real good laugh when I needed it.

Anyway I have a question. Before food my BS was 5.2. 1 hour later it was 8.4. Another hour later it was down to 6.3. Does anyone know how that spike affects your HBA1C? BTW I ate an egg sandwich, shop bought because I was in a rush.

Many thanks
Click to expand...
Wow, I would love to have spikes as low as yours. I would say your body reacted as a non diabetics would and handled that sarnie very Well, your levels came down pretty fast which is what happens with non diabetics
 
I think there's increasing evidence that spikes affect health, so perhaps their effect on HbA1c isn't what we need to focus on?

Achieving an A1c of 'x' may statistically reduce the risk of long term complications at a population level, but they don't guarantee anything for the individual. Two people with identical HbA1c's may have very different experiences of diabetes-related complications. Also the same HbA1c can be achieved with wild swings from hypo to high and back again, or with beautifully moderate swings like yours @Leonora

Personally I don't think its helpful to aim for an A1c of 'x' if that means a person is hypo half the time and rebounding the other half. I think it's much better to try to focus on reducing glucose variability and glucose instability and then to gradually try to reduce median glucose (in which case the A1c will come down on its own).
 
Thank you all for your informative replies. And Everdayupsanddowns that was the best explanation I've ever received about how A1c works. As I've mentioned in previous posts my diabetes was induced by high dose oral steroids. And I kept blaming myself when my sugar was high when in fact my doc should have given me a higher dose of meds because of the steroids. All he said was 'Take 1 of these twice a day,' (Metformin) and left me to it. At the advice from this site I eat more fat now so I haven't turned into a skeleton and my sugars are far more stable than they used to be. Again, many thanks for responding. I will stop panicking now.
 
Hi
Since going a Trial with the Libre sensor and it's reader, my spikes have reduced dramatically.
From the downloadable data (15 pages) from the reader, I can now monitor all of my two insulins,and Carbs. to a degree never possible before with the old finger prick blood test.
The old system had one reacting, with the Libre Reader and it's blood glucose trend arrows, one can react to real time events. Of course there are no more finger pricks.
My Time In Target has improved from 60% to over 78%, the predicted HBA1C has indicated
a significant reduction. I've lost a couple of Kgs and two notches on my belt.
I can not recommend the Libre to highly.
 
As Hba1c is a sort of average, one higher than average reading should not show up at all - but the average of 1 and 99 is 50 just as the average of 51 and 49 is also 50, so over time, if you are constantly getting high numbers, it will show up as an elevated Hba1c unless you are also getting significantly lower ones too, and as our bodies are really good at hanging onto carbs then releasing them into the bloodstream when we just might need them there is a tendency for upness built into us, even before any other factor is thrown into the mix.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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