Rate of Hbac1 increase

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Shaun1971

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Apologies if this seems a daft question, but just wondered what people thought about going from not even being in the prediabetic zone one year, to being over the threshold at 50 mmol a year later. Does that sound a short space of time?

I had a reading of 47 in Oct '23 and then 50 (three weeks later) +3 points in 3 weeks sounds like a lot to me .Can't see why it was repeated so soon anyway.

I have another test on the 07/02 and I have been following a low carb approach, so hoping it may go down

Thanks a lot.
 
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The HbA1C is usually done only after three months unless it is a confirmatory of a borderline result. As the HbA1C is a basically an average over the previous three months tough it is weighted towards the most recent weeks.
Given there is always a small degree of inaccuracy in the test there may not quite as much as 3mmol/mol difference.
When did you start your low carb regime?
 
Leadinglights said:
The HbA1C is usually done only after three months unless it is a confirmatory of a borderline result. As the HbA1C is a basically an average over the previous three months tough it is weighted towards the most recent weeks.
Given there is always a small degree of inaccuracy in the test there may not quite as much as 3mmol/mol difference.
When did you start your low carb regime?
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Thanks Leading lights, I started the low carb regime a few days after the 07 November result, about 9 weeks ago.
 
Shaun1971 said:
Thanks Leading lights, I started the low carb regime a few days after the 07 November result.
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So you will have had 3 months of low carb before your next test so it should then be a good reflection of whether that is working for you.
I reduced my HbA1C from 50mmol/mol to 42 by following a low carb regime in 3 months. Though I did go as low as 70g carbs per day, in hindsight I reduced my carbs too quickly as I had some issues with my eyes which took a while to settle. I did not realise that could happen until I read on here.
How many carbs per day are you aiming at?
 
Leadinglights said:
So you will have had 3 months of low carb before your next test so it should then be a good reflection of whether that is working for you.
I reduced my HbA1C from 50mmol/mol to 42 by following a low carb regime in 3 months. Though I did go as low as 70g carbs per day, in hindsight I reduced my carbs too quickly as I had some issues with my eyes which took a while to settle. I did not realise that could happen until I read on here.
How many carbs per day are you aiming at?
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Thanks, I don't really count either calories or the carbs, but there can't be many carbs, as I have cut out completely pasta, pizzas, biscuits, bread, rice etc.
Diet now is mostly Greek Yougurt, berries, eggs, lean meat, fish, stir-fry veg /peppers. and salads. Brandy instead of beer.
 
Shaun1971 said:
Thanks, I don't really count either calories or the carbs, but there can't be many carbs, as I have cut out completely pasta, pizzas, biscuits, bread, rice etc.
Diet now is mostly Greek Yougurt, berries, eggs, lean meat, fish, stir-fry veg /peppers. and salads. Brandy instead of beer.
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It sounds like you have made big changes to your diet, and that should be reflected in your next result. Let us know how you get on.
 
SB2015 said:
It sounds like you have made big changes to your diet, and that should be reflected in your next result. Let us know how you get on.
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Thank you SB2015 and I will.
 
There must be a standard level of accuracy deviation in the test, i.e. a result of 42 vs say 44 would essentially be the same? Wonder what the repeatability accuracy is, anybody know?
 
Dave_Z1a said:
There must be a standard level of accuracy deviation in the test, i.e. a result of 42 vs say 44 would essentially be the same? Wonder what the repeatability accuracy is, anybody know?
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Good question. I'd like to know that too. If mine is say 48 at next reading (hopefully lower than that) they'll I'll be diagnosed with DB.
 
There's this meta analysis which suggests the coefficient of variation is rather small: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37531355/

On the other hand there are a few things that are known to vary HbA1c (anaemia being a common one) so it's hard to imagine that small variations can't occur without meaning very much. (It can vary between individuals too: a proportion of people read higher or lower than they should based on BG.)
 
Bruce Stephens said:
There's this meta analysis which suggests the coefficient of variation is rather small: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37531355/

On the other hand there are a few things that are known to vary HbA1c (anaemia being a common one) so it's hard to imagine that small variations can't occur without meaning very much. (It can vary between individuals too: a proportion of people read higher or lower than they should based on BG.)
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Interesting, lower than I thought. Thank you Bruce.
 
Thanks for that, extremely small then, interesting.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
It might be that they use different lab tests during trials. I'm guessing not, though. I think it looks like variation due to illness (doing something temporarily to blood cell lifetimes) would likely have a bigger effect.
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I believe the NICE guidance requires HbA1c tests to be carried out on equipment that meets specific standards.

From the T1 guidance: Measure HbA1c using methods calibrated according to International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) standardisation. [2015]

Well done on the significant changes you have made @Shaun1971

Hope you see them reflected in your follow-up HbA1c, and are encouraged to continue with them 🙂
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I believe the NICE guidance requires HbA1c tests to be carried out on equipment that meets specific standards.

From the T1 guidance: Measure HbA1c using methods calibrated according to International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) standardisation. [2015]

Well done on the significant changes you have made @Shaun1971

Hope you see them reflected in your follow-up HbA1c, and are encouraged to continue with them 🙂
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Thank you, much appreciated. Found out today that I've lost 17lbs since the last test 11 weeks ago so here's hoping!
 
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