Sadly she has defiantly worried me as I'm sure you can tell 🙂 my Dad had type one Diabetes which he got in mid 40s after catching life threatening Sepsis and my Grandad (dads side) had it mid 40s but he smoked 40 plus a day so there is a family history there and i exercise 2/5 times a week just need to work on my diet as don't drink or smoke but have a very sweet tooth so either way maybe a wake up call.
-
Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
-
Learn more about joining the Diabetes UK Support Forum team here: https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/volunteering-opportunities-why-dont-you-join-us.112862/
Understanding blood sugar
- Thread starter Dave2014
- Start date
- Status
How often should you test H1BAC just out of interest once you hit 40, as i mentioned my last test in June was 35 and had gone down from 36 which i had back in 2020.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The Well Man checks are every few years, I think @Dave2014 but you could look at the information from your surgery. Your HbA1C is normal so I doubt they’d repeat it again soon.
I’d suggest you put the worry to the back of your mind. As long as you keep an eye on things like you do for other health things, then don’t over-focus on it. Here’s your previous thread when you were worried about what were normal blood sugars:
Despite your worries, your HBA1C was fine. Just go along, thinking about your general health and staying well, and enjoy not being diabetic. Eat well, exercise - all the recommended things. To put your mind at rest about Type 1, my blood sugar was approaching 30 (yes, 30) when I was diagnosed. Your numbers are normal.
The nurse was probably just speaking without thinking. Quite often they say “keep an eye” on something as a kind of “it doesn’t matter” or “it’s ok”.
I’d suggest you put the worry to the back of your mind. As long as you keep an eye on things like you do for other health things, then don’t over-focus on it. Here’s your previous thread when you were worried about what were normal blood sugars:
Despite your worries, your HBA1C was fine. Just go along, thinking about your general health and staying well, and enjoy not being diabetic. Eat well, exercise - all the recommended things. To put your mind at rest about Type 1, my blood sugar was approaching 30 (yes, 30) when I was diagnosed. Your numbers are normal.
The nurse was probably just speaking without thinking. Quite often they say “keep an eye” on something as a kind of “it doesn’t matter” or “it’s ok”.
Type 1 diabetes is not caused by diet.
It is not clear what causes it but as it is an auto-immune condition, it is not something you can prevent through lifestyle.
However, there is no harm in reviewing your diet to help reduce risk of other conditions.
The traditional diagnostic tests for Type 2 Diabetes are symptoms ( like peeing a lot) plus ....
- Two fasting tests over 7 or
- A random test at 11.1 and over or
- 11.1+ at the two hour mark of an OGTT ( Oral Glucose Tolerance Test - the 'gold standard' of T2 diagnosis).
HbA1cs were allowed in as diagnostic tests for T2 only about 12 years ago. It's cheap and cheerful.
I guess what gave me confidence prior to that test was the week leading my bloods without eating were all 4.9/5.6 where as today and yesterday morning 6.2 and today 6.3 yet during the day i did see 5.3 and and before dinner 4.9 so i guess my parting question as you understand it a lot better is if you had Pre/Diabetes surely you would regulate at 4.9 after food if that makes sense?
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
20 years ago I happened to see my not diabetic, specialist nurse at the hospital diabetes clinic, so before I went in to see the consultant that day, straight after lunch and we had a good chat about such things - she'd not long eaten a sandwich, a bag of crisps and an apple and we both did a fingerprick test. A good hour and a half after I'd eaten my own lunch of just a sandwich. Mine was lower than hers - hers was 7.8, mine 7.3.
I did a little experiment today, one finger it was 6.1 the other 5.4 at the same time….. crazy people use these things for guidance and they’re so inaccurate
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
No, I wouldn’t expect to be 4.9 after food.I’ve tested lots of my non-diabetic friends and they’re often in the 6s and 7s two hours after food. I’ve also tested randomly and they’ll be in the 5s.
The blood glucose meters have a margin of error of 15%. The best test is the HbA1C which you’ve had done and which is normal. If I were you, I’d just get this repeated maybe after a year or two.
There are so many things that can affect our blood sugars when we have diabetes that we soon learn that accuracy is overrated. An accurate number is never needed.
For example, when dosing insulin, we have to carb count which is an approximation - the apple we are eating may be riper than the "average", the mashed potato may have more butter, the published carb content is an approximation. If we had that accurate then we know our insulin to carb ratio is a guess - it can change at different times of the day/month/year. On top of that our blood sugars are affected by stress, exercise, alcohol, illness, potential illness, ...
So, we take the number on the meter - it is close enough - otherwise we would we be carrying around a science lab all the time.
Docb
Moderator
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Some time ago I tested all 10 digits one after the other. Since then I have only quoted single readings to the nearest whole number and would only consider a difference of greater than two to be significant. So, all the numbers you quote are statistically the same and no conclusions can be drawn from the differences you have seen.
See what I mean!
The finger prick tester is an incredible piece of kit and it is amazing something that simple can get anywhere near a blood glucose reading. They are sufficiently reproducible (not accurate, that is something else entirely) for T1's to use the readings to adjust insulin dosage and that is good enough for me. If you want to get subtle in interpretation of the numbers then you need loads of data so you can test for reproducibility. A facility for number analysis, bit of background in statistical methods helps, but even then the whole thing can be a bit of a mystery.
Nayshiftin
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I may have this all wrong but in type 2 our liver dumps glucose our own insulin works when it wants as well so never stable.
in Type one surely hormones and exercise will burn glucose too so blood sugars will randomly
change night and day . Hence why so many have continuous monitors or test very often
I'm struggling post lunch its 10.2 so not a happy person at moment.
New nurse not like my old one. So will see if i can improve by June
in Type one surely hormones and exercise will burn glucose too so blood sugars will randomly
change night and day . Hence why so many have continuous monitors or test very often
I'm struggling post lunch its 10.2 so not a happy person at moment.
New nurse not like my old one. So will see if i can improve by June
harbottle
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Everyone's liver dumps glucose when blood sugar is low or in times of stress, driven by hormones... so do the kidneys as well, I believe, but a far smaller amount than the liver.
T2s problem is that the liver tends to fail to stop producing glucose when it should and insulin doesn't work as well or there isn't enough to handle the rise.
T2s problem is that the liver tends to fail to stop producing glucose when it should and insulin doesn't work as well or there isn't enough to handle the rise.
So I may have a reason why my results have been so crazy. An example today, 5.9 one finger, 5.2 another, same finger and blood 6.4. My test strips were opened 8/9 months ago and it does say discard after 4 months with True Metrix Glucose strips strips…. Teaches me a lesson maybe
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I have compared out of date strips with new ones and they haven't been too far out, pretty well the same in reality.
All those reading are essentially the same.
What even the 5.2 compared to 6.4?! To the untrained as in me one would indicate pre diabetes and one healthy blood sugar
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The diagnostic tool is the HbA1C not home glucose meter tests. The meters are not for diagnostic purposes.
Proud to be erratic
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 3c
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@Dave2014, just to reinforce what @Inka said: a finger prick test result from a glucose meter (at home or in a GP's Surgery) is nothing more nor less than a spot reading at that moment in time. Any one reading is of very limited value. But a series of readings have the potential to start to reveal a trend WHEN those series of readings are seen in context.
For example a fortnight's worth of readings first thing in the morning (ie after overnight fasting) would allow some conclusions to be drawn, but those readings might need the odd rogue reading (ie unusual in relation to the rest) to be discarded. Or, readings taken in pairs just before the first mouthful and then 2 hrs later should reveal meals that your body has managed reasonably well with only a modest increase in BG after 2 hrs OR reveal meals that your body has struggled with; in that latter case that meal has more carbs than your metabolism can manage.
However the finger prick tests are subject to limited overall accuracy. Others have already referred to this aspect in earlier replies. Within the affordability of home testing for many, "gently leaning" on fp results (rather than totally relying) is not crazy - rather its just pragmatic. FP results provide trends, not incontrovertible evidence and fps are still way more accurate than home test results from previous years.
Neither your 5.2 nor 6.4 readings mean anything in isolation. Both values are close enough in terms of meter accuracies to be thought of as the same. Both are terrific for most of us, indicating no significant problem with blood glucose levels at that moment of testing. I've spent over 6 hrs today in the 13s (touching 15) for reasons I can't fully explain and been unable to reduce; then pretty suddenly this evening something "clicked" and normal service was resumed with a rush towards a hypo! 13s can be a concern, 5s and 6s are not - for any of us, regardless of Type.
I hope this helps provide some perspective. I can't help feeling that a Nurse who made some remark about a 5.7 reading in late December(?) was seriously remiss and clearly had no idea both how normal such a reading might be and how disconcerting the outspoken observation could be.
Docb
Moderator
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Have another look at my comment above. You can very easily get that range when taking single tests. It is one of the reasons why Hba1c is used for diagnosis.
So the good news is my Hba1c came back at 37 although it has increased by 2 in the last 9 months which isn’t ideal.
Looking over the last 10 years it has gone from 32 to 37, I’m wondering if now being 41 years old it’s harder to stem the increase as your body gets older?!
Is it simply a case of cutting sugar out completely to get it lower?! I do exercise maybe 3/5 times a week and have put on maybe 5/6 pounds over last 6 months which I’m sure wouldn’t help although maybe lost 4 of these last week.
Looking over the last 10 years it has gone from 32 to 37, I’m wondering if now being 41 years old it’s harder to stem the increase as your body gets older?!
Is it simply a case of cutting sugar out completely to get it lower?! I do exercise maybe 3/5 times a week and have put on maybe 5/6 pounds over last 6 months which I’m sure wouldn’t help although maybe lost 4 of these last week.
- Status