Tina chick
Active Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
My last hb1ac was 10.1. Does any one have any tips to help reduce it
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Tips to reduce hb1ac
- Thread starter Tina chick
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Redkite
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Parent of person with diabetes
Hi Tina,
What type of insulin regimen are you on? Assuming you're on MDI or a pump, the following could all help you:
* Increase the amount of BG tests you do each day - it helps build up a picture of how your levels fluctuate and when you need more or less insulin (suggest doing one on waking, before each meal, 2-3 hours after each meal, bedtime, and occasionally one around 3am)
* Carb count all your meals and snacks if you don't already. If you do, check your accuracy from time to time when you're at home by weighing food and calculating the carbs exactly.
* Correct high BGs promptly with rapid acting insulin. (A rule of thumb for a correction factor would be 100 divided by your total daily insulin dose - ie. if you take 20 units of lantus and 30 units of novorapid in a typical day, that's a TDD of 50 units, so you could try a correction factor of 2, which means 1 unit of insulin for every 2 mmol you want to drop by).
* If you are finding your levels spike up high 2-3 hours after a meal and you are sure you carb-counted correctly, it shows you need more insulin per gram of carb for that meal at that time of day. And vice versa - if hypo 2-3 hours post meal, you needed less insulin per gram of carb.
* Consider basal testing from time to time - skip a meal and test your BG level every hour until time for the next meal of the day (or every 2 hours if doing an overnight basal test). Stop the test if you have a hypo, otherwise if your levels move more than 2mmol up or down it shows a need to adjust the basal insulin down or up.
Good luck 🙂
What type of insulin regimen are you on? Assuming you're on MDI or a pump, the following could all help you:
* Increase the amount of BG tests you do each day - it helps build up a picture of how your levels fluctuate and when you need more or less insulin (suggest doing one on waking, before each meal, 2-3 hours after each meal, bedtime, and occasionally one around 3am)
* Carb count all your meals and snacks if you don't already. If you do, check your accuracy from time to time when you're at home by weighing food and calculating the carbs exactly.
* Correct high BGs promptly with rapid acting insulin. (A rule of thumb for a correction factor would be 100 divided by your total daily insulin dose - ie. if you take 20 units of lantus and 30 units of novorapid in a typical day, that's a TDD of 50 units, so you could try a correction factor of 2, which means 1 unit of insulin for every 2 mmol you want to drop by).
* If you are finding your levels spike up high 2-3 hours after a meal and you are sure you carb-counted correctly, it shows you need more insulin per gram of carb for that meal at that time of day. And vice versa - if hypo 2-3 hours post meal, you needed less insulin per gram of carb.
* Consider basal testing from time to time - skip a meal and test your BG level every hour until time for the next meal of the day (or every 2 hours if doing an overnight basal test). Stop the test if you have a hypo, otherwise if your levels move more than 2mmol up or down it shows a need to adjust the basal insulin down or up.
Good luck 🙂
pgcity
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Do you keep records of your bg, food, activity etc? This helped me spot patterns so I felt I could start adjusting my insulin.also why not post you fasting morning bg on the waking levels thread? This helped me have good think about how to improve it.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Great list from Redkite, do those. And as pgcity says, posting results/conundrums here can help get other perspectives on day to day challenges.
Try to identify one area where you want to improve (a time of day, or number of hypos for example) and focus on that - don't try to do everything all at once. But more tests and logging your results are a brilliant way of spotting patterns etc.
Try to identify one area where you want to improve (a time of day, or number of hypos for example) and focus on that - don't try to do everything all at once. But more tests and logging your results are a brilliant way of spotting patterns etc.
Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
In addition to the above, it can be helpful to make sure you have regular meals - maybe even be a bit boring too and stick to meals and snacks that are more predictable for you. Once you have got things under better control you can start experimenting a bit more, but it's worth trying to be a bit more regimented as you assess what your problem areas might be 🙂
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