I had an HbA1c about 5 weeks ago it came back as 48, I've just had a repeat one come back and its now 45 which the GP said is borderline. I am seeing the diabetes nurse tomorrow. The doctor didn't quite commit to it being full diabetes yet and said there was a possibility if i lost a substantial amount of weight I might go back to "normal". So now I'm left up in the air I would rather it would either definitely be diabetes or definitely not. I'm just hoping the nurse tomorrow will be a good one so she can advise me what to do diet wise do I lose weight conventionally or do I go with low/no carbs and no sugar lifestyle. Ah well will just have to be patient until tomorrow. Sorry for the moan I'm just frustrated.
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- Thread starter Francine
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Annette
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
hi Francine, moan away! Hopefully you will have a helpful nurse (unfortunately, some people don't, but fingers crossed you will be lucky), but all I wanted to say was, whatever they say, they best diet for you is the one you can keep to. Everyone is different, some find a club (Slimming World and the like) works for them, others find a low carb diet works for them, others like to count calories, or do 5:2, whatever suits you so that you will keep to it - as long as you manage to lose the weight, to be honest, does it matter how you do it ? (As long as its healthily)🙂
stephknits
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Good luck with the nurse tomorrow. I can understand it is frustrating not having a firm diagnosis, however I should think the nurse's recommendations would be the same either way. If you did have a diagnosis, then you would need to manage it with diet and exercise and if you are borderline, then you should try to reduce the risk of diabetes with, wait for it.... diet and exercise. I think it unlikely that you will get any firm advice as to how to go about that. As Annette says, you need to find a diet that suits you. Even with a diagnosis of diabetes, most healthcare professionals wouldn't recommend a low carb diet. However, as you have probably seen on this forum, lots of people here watch their carbs. I think this is one of the frustrating things when you start out, there are no definitive answers and it is very much, find the solution that suits you. Best of luck 🙂
Amigo
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
To be honest Francine I'd go with both because whilst you've had results under the 48 (which my GP told me was the figure at which he considers it to be diabetes), it looks like you've got impaired glucose tolerance and it's not going to take much to push it back up. I've had one HbA1c result over 48 and two subsequent ones well under but I'm still officially diabetic. I've lost weight and remain on a lower carb diet (possibly not as low as it would be if I had much higher levels) but even at 48 or 45, I'd be thinking my body was desperately trying to tell me something. And I'm also persuaded by the argument that damage can still be done whilst people are pre-diabetic so I'm going to be guided by that and try to get it as low as possible. I also wonder just how totally accurate the HbA1c can be if I'm honest. Others may disagree with my views on this however.
Good luck!
Good luck!
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Amigo it's accurate for the weeks that it covers - depending on whether your red blood cells replace themselves at 'normal' intervals - if you take anything that affects that or have a transfusion or donate blood during the preceding 12 weeks - all of them will affect it.
But my non-diabetic husband, who is not on any drugs and in fact only has one thing we know about wrong with him - being over 65 gets a yearly health MOT, always seems to have an A1c of 5.5. (That's 37) So - that leads me to believe that what they say about a 'normal' A1c being 'around 5' is actually true! His mother had T2 by the way and his dad had already died of pancreatic cancer - so we quite like him to get the test anyway but they'd never wanted to do it before the NHS generally said so! LOL
I'm sure there must be other non-diabetics in people's families who have the test - so what do their ones come out at?
But my non-diabetic husband, who is not on any drugs and in fact only has one thing we know about wrong with him - being over 65 gets a yearly health MOT, always seems to have an A1c of 5.5. (That's 37) So - that leads me to believe that what they say about a 'normal' A1c being 'around 5' is actually true! His mother had T2 by the way and his dad had already died of pancreatic cancer - so we quite like him to get the test anyway but they'd never wanted to do it before the NHS generally said so! LOL
I'm sure there must be other non-diabetics in people's families who have the test - so what do their ones come out at?
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