Prediabetes?

[Tommy123]

Hi,

I was wondering about your opinion. I tried to mimic the OGTT at home with a capillary glucose meter where I drank 75g of dextrose in the morning and measured BG each 30 minutes. These are measurements from 3 different occasions:

	mmol/l
0min	4.6	4.6	5.1
30min	8.3	9.2	9.9
1h	9.9	7.7	10.4
1h30	10.7	8.1	10.1
2h	9.5	8.5	9.8

I am not sure how reliable this home test is, so in an attempt to have a comparison I had a (healthy?) friend to do the same test and we got these results for them:

	mmol/l
0min	5.8
30min	8.8
1h	7.6
1h30	5.7
2h	3.8

Their BG seems a bit high when fasting, but then the response seems good. My BG seems to stay rather high for the next 2 hours? I stop the interval measurements after 2 hours, however, I know that it does go down pretty significantly after about 3 hours because after 1 of the tests above I got a "sugar crash" where it dropped to 2.6 mmol/l (I get these sugar crashes sometimes) Should I be worried?

Thanks

 

[Leadinglights]

There clearly is a difference between you and your friend as to how the body has coped with the onslaught of 75g glucose but although this used to be used as an indicator of diabetes, these day the test used used for diagnosis is the HbA1C which looks at your average glucose level over the previous 3 months as it tests the glucose attached to your red blood cells which have a like of 2-3 months.
I see you are using mg/dl so I assume you are not in the UK. Looking at your results I would say it would be worth asking for the test to be done by your GP.
You could also test before and 2 hours after a 'normal' meal to see if your level has only a modest increase. Here we would say no more than 2-3 mmol/l or no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
To convert mmol/l to mg/dl multiply by 18 or visa versa.

 

[Tommy123]

Adapted it to mmol/l 🙂

Thanks for your reply!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Tommy123

I’m not sure you (or anyone really) can draw any firm conclusions.

Home BG meters aren’t rated for diagnostic purposes, so while they are useful for diabetes management, they aren’t really intended for diagnostic measurement.

If you are concerned about your response to carbohydrates, you might want to ask your Dr for an HbA1c, which has taken over from OGTT as the primary diagnostic indication as it measures glucose excursions over 3-4 months.

 

[Docb]

Hi @Tommy123 and welcome from me. Do you have a diagnosis of diabetes?

I see you are posting from Belgium. No problem, diabetes is diabetes no matter where you live. I only mention it because protocols for diagnosis and treatment vary from country to contry and sometimes needs to be taken into account.

As to your numbers, I am type 2 controlled by diet and would not be surprised to see the blood glucose profile you got if I ate a commercial pizza for my tea. Never tried a big slug of dextrose, and never likely to. The thought of it is not pleasant and thank goodness it is rarely used as a diagnostic test in the UK.

 

[Tommy123]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, the recommended test may vary by country, not sure what it's in Belgium actually. I was reading about it and understood that there are 3 tests which each could indicate an issue: fasting glucose (normal for me), HbA1c (don't have that), and OGTT, which I tried to emulate at home and seems to indicate impaired glucose tolerance if I compare my results with the thresholds.

I wanted to get your opinion on whether it would be worth going to a physician with my results, or that maybe I should not worry about it. I gather I shouldn't worry too much then, but I could still bring it up.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, the recommended test may vary by country, not sure what it's in Belgium actually. I was reading about it and understood that there are 3 tests which each could indicate an issue: fasting glucose (normal for me), HbA1c (don't have that), and OGTT, which I tried to emulate at home and seems to indicate impaired glucose tolerance if I compare my results with the thresholds.

I wanted to get your opinion on whether it would be worth going to a physician with my results, or that maybe I should not worry about it. I gather I shouldn't worry too much then, but I could still bring it up.

The only way to be sure is to ask for the HbA1C test as that is a much better diagnostic tool then either a fasting glucose or the OGTT.
The way your system handled the glucose solution was very different to your mate so may and I emphasise may indicate a problem and it is better to find out so you can make adjustments to your diet sooner rather than later.