Hi. I'm new to this forum. Last October my levels were high and I was put onto the Diabetes Prevention Programme. It was useful but I'll be honest I don't think I took it as seriously as I should have. Then in November I was taken into hospital with acute myocarditis, likely as a side effect from the covid vaccine. I'm still healing from this but just had another Hba1c test and my level came up as 58. Now I'm really worried and really determined to make the right choices to improve my health as I'm only 35. I'm having another test in 2 weeks. I'm obviously looking at my diet and going to make a fair few changes and will try to exercise more. I currently swim twice a week. If anyone has any more advice on easy changes I can make that would be great. Thank you
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Nervous about Hba1c test result
- Thread starter Samzie87
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Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I suggest making a list of all the things on your last couple of shopping receipts and then looking for the carb content of each item, and how many portions each purchase represents.
Items which are quite high in carbs can still be useful if they are used in small amounts.
Start a new list of substitutions - I use swede instead of potato, for instance, and cream rather than milk in coffee or flavoured teas which I drink hot or cold but with no additives.
I used to have three different shopping lists at one time, as it can be easy to become bored with foods. I rarely buy mushrooms and tomatoes in the same week even now.
If you need inspiration for low carb meals Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution from 2003 is still a good source of information and recipes and it used to be obtainable for pennies second hand.
Pumper_Sue
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hello and welcome to the forum,
you say you are prediabetic? With an HbA1c of 58 you are well and truly diabetic.
Hi and welcome to the forum @Samzie87 I was diagnosed as type 2 about 10 weeks ago with a HbA1c of 50 it was a surprise as I'd only gone for routine bloods. There is lots of information on this site look at the Learning Zone to start with, there are also many people on here with masses of experience and knowledge who are very supportive.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This link may also give you some ideas for modifying your diet and there are some sensible do's and don'ts as well as some meal suggestions. It is a low carb approach which works for many people. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
I understand why you are nervous about your blood test but I always ultimately decide I would rather know. I can't change something I don't know about.
It sounds as if you are making changes regardless what label you have - having type 2 diabetes or being pre-diabetic you know you need to make changes and motivated to do so. Labels are not what motivate me - numbers do.
Fingers crossed you see some improvement. I am rooting for you.
It sounds as if you are making changes regardless what label you have - having type 2 diabetes or being pre-diabetic you know you need to make changes and motivated to do so. Labels are not what motivate me - numbers do.
Fingers crossed you see some improvement. I am rooting for you.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Good to hear that you are making positive changes @Samzie87
Do bear in mind that the changes you are making will most likely take some time to be reflected in your blood results.
In particular, your HbA1c is measuring how red blood cells have been affected over the past 3-4 months by the levels of circulating glucose in your bloodstream. The life of a red blood cell is approx 120 days, so with the best will in the world, in a fortnight you will still have a proportion of red blood cells in circulation that predate the changes you’ve been making.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, but just wanting to set your expectations if the results you see in a fortnight haven’t changed as much as you would have liked.
Having said that, HbA1c results do tend to be weighted slightly towards the recent weeks, so hopefully you will see some positive progress from your efforts.
Keep going! It’s a marathon not a sprint, this game 🙂
Do bear in mind that the changes you are making will most likely take some time to be reflected in your blood results.
In particular, your HbA1c is measuring how red blood cells have been affected over the past 3-4 months by the levels of circulating glucose in your bloodstream. The life of a red blood cell is approx 120 days, so with the best will in the world, in a fortnight you will still have a proportion of red blood cells in circulation that predate the changes you’ve been making.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, but just wanting to set your expectations if the results you see in a fortnight haven’t changed as much as you would have liked.
Having said that, HbA1c results do tend to be weighted slightly towards the recent weeks, so hopefully you will see some positive progress from your efforts.
Keep going! It’s a marathon not a sprint, this game 🙂
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