Measurements

[Jah59]

What does 73 mean? What is the normal blood glucose level?
73 what?
Does it convert to 8.8
Can someone advise please

 

[Drummer]

The 73 is probably your Hba1c result, and normal is 41 or under.
It doesn't convert to an actual glucose level and it is more an indication of an average level.

 

[Leadinglights]

What does 73 mean? What is the normal blood glucose level?
73 what?
Does it convert to 8.8
Can someone advise please

73 mmol/mol will be your HbA1C result and is an average of your blood glucose level in the previous 3 months. Yes it does convert to 8.8% which is the old units of expressing the HbA1C result.
As anything 48mmol/mol and over is a diagnosis of diabetes so yours at 73mmol/mol is high enough to need to take seriously and commit to making some lifestyle changes, the most important will be changes to your diet in reducing your carbohydrate intake.

 

[Jah59]

73 mmol/mol will be your HbA1C result and is an average of your blood glucose level in the previous 3 months. Yes it does convert to 8.8% which is the old units of expressing the HbA1C result.
As anything 48mmol/mol and over is a diagnosis of diabetes so yours at 73mmol/mol is high enough to need to take seriously and commit to making some lifestyle changes, the most important will be changes to your diet in reducing your carbohydrate intake.

Thank you only I have never taken my condition seriously. My GP is recommending increasing my metformin intake from one 500mg pill to two then three.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you only I have never taken my condition seriously. My GP is recommending increasing my metformin intake from one 500mg pill to two then three.

I think that is usual to start slowly and increase the dose over a few weeks, it helps to minimise stomach issues which some people can get. Taking mid meal also helps with those side effects if there is a problem.

 

[Jah59]

Is it best to avoid alcohol and all confectionery and what about tea and coffee?

 

[Leadinglights]

Is it best to avoid alcohol and all confectionery and what about tea and coffee?

There are some alcoholic drinks which are high carb like beer, cider and liqueurs so are best avoided but dry wines and spirits with low sugar/diet mixers people have in moderation.
Tea and coffee without sugar obviously is usually Ok for most people.
But cakes, biscuits, pastries, sweets should really be off the menu but dark chocolate as a treat rather than the norm is usually OK.
Many people do get confused about what they can and can't eat, but essentially it is ALL carbohydrates which convert to glucose not just sugar so watching how much high carb foods you have is important. The big hitters are the obvious cakes, biscuits and sugary drinks including fruit juice but also potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, pastry, bread and tropical fruits, prepared sauces and ready meals can be high carb as well.
There is plenty you can eat, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, full fat dairy, vegetables, salads and fruit like berries. There will be other things which some people are fine with but others aren't which is how a blood glucose monitor at home can help you see what meals are tolerated with out pushing up blood glucose more than the suggested 2-3mmol/l from before eating to 2 hours afterwards.

 

[Jah59]

How does a blood test monitor work?

 

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

How does a blood test monitor work?

Welcome to the forum @Jah59

There’s a brief overview of home glucose monitors here which may help?

Test strips and monitors

Test strips and blood glucose monitors are the traditional way of checking your blood sugar levels. You use test strips to give you an on-the-spot reading of your blood sugar and help you manage your range. Depending on how you treat your diabetes then you might need to use a monitor and test...

www.diabetes.org.uk

You use a lancing device to take a small sample of capillary blood, usually from the side of a fingertip. The lancets are very sharp, and can be adjusted for depth to make the sampling virutually pain-free.

You then apply the drop of blood to an absorbent area on the test strip, and after a few seconds a reading is provided whuch is calibrated to represent your plasma glucose value at that moment in time.

It’s a momentary snapshot of what your levels are doing at that moment, so it can be a great way to see exactly how your body is responding to foods or meals - particularly if you take a pair of values one just before eating, and another 2hrs later. You can then adjust the total carbohydrate content of the meal to aim for a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L.

Once you can start keeping your ‘meal rises’ down to fairly modest levels you should find that your overall blood glucose levels come back into a range of approx 4-7mmol/L before meals and no more than 8.5mmol/L by 2hrs after meals.

 

[helli]

How does a blood test monitor work?

That is quite a broad question and could be interpreted a few ways
- What you/we do with a blood test monitor. It is a small device which we slip a test strip into, apply a drop of blood from our finger and it gives us a number which is our blood glucose level. There are many YouTube videos demonstrating this.
- What the blood test monitor does with that blood to give a number. My understanding is that it applies a current across the test strip and measures the resistance. The resistance varies according to what is in the blood. An algorithm is applied to convert from resistance to blood glucose.

 

[Jah59]

Is it more dangerous to have low blood glucose then high blood glucose?
Is it safe to drive taking metformin?
Only my line manager thinks she has to take me off the road until she has spoken to occupational health. My understanding is that the only side effect of metformin is a looser bowel movement and that it’s a perfectly safe drug to take. Surely it’s safer to be on the correct dosage which will help correct my high blood glucose which according to my GP is 73 or 8.8

 

[Lucyr]

low blood glucose can kill you quickly whereas high blood glucose can kill you slowly. You're unlikely to go low on metformin and there are no requirements to test before driving and no driving restrictions.

An hba1c of 73 does not mean your blood glucose is 8.8. The scale of %s people have posted above isn't comparable to fingerprick tests, it's on a different scale. The hba1c only gives an average indication, not a number that tells you what your blood glucose level is now.

 

[Jah59]

Don’t understand?
My doctor told me my blood glucose was 73 which converts to 8.8 he told me it’s very high, high enough to be treated with insulin which clearly I don’t want to be on.
If taking 4 metformin a day is safe and does not affect my ability to drive then I will follow doctors orders.

 

[Lucyr]

What don't you understand, maybe we can explain differently. Your hba1c is 73 / 8.8%. This isn't equivalent to an average glucose level of 8.8 as they are different scales.

 

[Leadinglights]

Don’t understand?
My doctor told me my blood glucose was 73 which converts to 8.8 he told me it’s very high, high enough to be treated with insulin which clearly I don’t want to be on.
If taking 4 metformin a day is safe and does not affect my ability to drive then I will follow doctors orders.

You seem to be getting confused by the two numbers, 73 is mmol/mol and is your HbA1C result in the new units adopted several years ago but that is equivalent to 8.8% which was the old units.
Results that you get from a finger prick test are in mmol/l and would be in the range 4mmol/l upwards and tell you your blood glucose level at that moment in time.
Metformin is usually introduced at a low dose and increased over a few weeks to help minimise stomach issues but dietary changes are also important.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yes the 78mmol/mol and 8.8% are two expressions of the same thing - your HbA1c.

A bit like knowing your height in either feet and inches or metres.

To extend the metaphor… you could have your height in ft and in, and convert it to metres, but you couldn’t convert it to your weight - because although there is a relationship between the two (taller people are usually heavier) they aren’t measuring the same thing.

Similarly while there is a connection/relationship between HbA1c and spot fingerprick glucose levels, they are measuring different (interconnected) things and there is no way to directly convert one to the other.

Fingerpricks tell you your glucose level at one particular moment in time - right now.

HbA1c tells you how much glucose in the bloodstream has ‘stuck’ to your red blood cells over the past 120 days or so.

Hope that hasn’t confused things further!

 

[goodybags]

Don’t understand?
My doctor told me my blood glucose was 73 which converts to 8.8 he told me it’s very high, high enough to be treated with insulin which clearly I don’t want to be on.
If taking 4 metformin a day is safe and does not affect my ability to drive then I will follow doctors orders.

Hi @Jah59

perfectly safe driving on Metformin (although some people do have stomach related problems on Metformin) I’ve been on Metformin for ages and never had such side effects.

if your healthcare team feel you need to go on insulin, or even some other tablets
at that point you would need to notify DVLA

and depending what you drive it could effect you as you then I believe go on a 3 yr medical restricted licence.

there are other medications including some non insulin injections
that don’t effect your ability to drive or need to notify DVLA.

so don’t worry to much,
good luck on your journey of lowering your Hba1c (managing your diabetes)