Posts Tagged ‘Hemoglobin A1c’

Know Your ABC’s

Comments: 0September 4th, 2011 by admin



Last month I discussed the purpose of evaluating your hemoglobin A1C. I decided to devote a whole blog on this topic because working in a diabetes clinic I am amazed how many of my clients are unaware of this lab. Many of these people have been diagnosed with diabetes for numerous years. However, your A1C is one piece in preventing the complications of diabetes. When controlling your diabetes you need go back to basics and learn the ABC’s. Your ABC’s are:

A = A1C

This lab measures your long term blood glucose control. You should have this lab at least three times a year. The recommended value from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) is less than 7%. The American Academy of Endocrinologists (AACE) recommends an A1C of less than 6.5%.

B = Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a sign of hypertension. You need to have your blood pressure measured every time you visit your doctor. Hypertension increases your risk for stroke (CVA), retinopathy (blindness), nephropathy (kidney disease) and neuropathy (nerve damage). The goal is less than 120/80.

C = Cholesterol

High cholesterol increases your chance for a heart attack or stroke because it clogs your arteries. You should test your cholesterol at least once a year. Your goal should be to get your LDL cholesterol (lousy) cholesterol to less than 100mg/dl and your HDL cholesterol (healthy) cholesterol to greater than 50mg/dl. Also, your triglycerides (TG) should be less than 150mg/dl.

How do you improve your ABCs’? I wrote last month frequent monitoring of your blood glucose along with counting carbohydrates and taking your diabetic medications properly should improve your A1C. If you lose weight, stop smoking, exercise, reduce stress in your life and eat less salt and fat, you should improve your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In addition, some people will need medications to improve their blood pressure and cholesterol. People with diabetes have a higher chance of having a heart attack or stroke than the rest of the population so improving your blood pressure and cholesterol is important.

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Diabetes and Dementia

Comments: 0July 23rd, 2011 by admin



Can Elderly Men and Women Diabetics Help Their Uncertainty Of Dementia? And Can Changing The Diabetes Diet Help Reduce the Causes and Symptoms of Dementia?

Diabetes can affect the cognitive function in older men and women. In a recent issue from the Journal of Nutrition, Health And Aging (Volume 10, No. 4, 2006), researchers did reveal that postmenopausal women with markers for blood sugar that were 7% or higher, (meaning poorly controlled diabetes) had a fourfold greater peril of having mild cognitive impairment or dementia over four years compared to women with lower levels of all those markers.

Diabetics should keep their blood sugars less than 6% with the Hemoglobin A1C in order to help save conceptual dysfunction.

A possible justification for this kind of Proliferated Danger for dementia may be inflammation. People with diabetes and excessive abdominal fat may have more compounds that can cause an inflammatory response in the body.

Persons with dementia also show signs of inflammation in their brains. While it may be too soon to say that cutting inflammation will take from the Probability of dementia, you do want to consider the diet as an important part of diabetes. Cutting down on carbohydrates may lower this inflammatory response.

Diabetes and cognitive decline are well thought-out major health issues among the Older even in diabetic subjects without dementia, in cognitive domains, such as memory, attention and frontal lobe function (diabetic conceptual dysfunction).

Recent epidemiological: studies seem to suggest that diabetes heightens the exposure of vascular dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease.

There appears to be building up evidence that indicate biological links between brain glucose metabolism and cognitive decline. Once elderly diabetics had severe conceptual dysfunction, reversing it may be much extra tricky. Therefore, diabetic cognitive decline should be well thought-out in the long-term management of hyperglycemia.

Some diabetic patients that I have come in contact with that are older patients that have decreased cognitive ability usually have a direct correlation to not having their blood sugars under control.

Diabetic patients I do see that already have conceptual dysfunction are usually put on dementia medications Namenda and/or Aricept. New drugs are always being developed to help patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s whether related to diabetes or heart problems.

Good controlled blood sugar parameters are 80-120 mg/dl for FBS and 140-160 mg/dl for a Random Blood Sugar. But always consult your doctor as to what parameters he or she may suggest. Recognize it is carbohydrate foods, juice and junk foods that raise the blood sugars.

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Can Cinnamon Lower Blood Sugar Levels?

Comments: 0July 2nd, 2010 by admin



First let’s know what Cinnamon is. The cinnamon is obtained from an evergreen tree which is harvested in the rainy season. The actual cinnamon is produced by drying inner howl of such trees. The cinnamomum zelyanicum tree produces the high quality cinnamon. The cassia cinnamon is another type of cinnamon which is slightly different form the zelyanicum cinnamon. The original and true cinnamon can be found in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. The cinnamon is mostly used in baking and also in cooking. Due to its mind blowing aroma and unusual flavor it is very popular all around the world.

The ‘insulin’ in the human body controls and reduces the blood sugar level. The blood sugar problem occurs when the insulin works irregularly. According to some people the cinnamon helps insulin to perform its duty.

Can cinnamon lower blood sugar? It is a controversial question. Some people say that the cinnamon does not help to lower the blood sugar. Some people say that the cinnamon can be effective with type-2 diabetes. According to a group of researchers, a little amount of cinnamon can help the type-2 diabetic patients. These researchers performed the cinnamon test on type-2 diabetic patients. The researchers supplied 1 gram of cinnamon for 90 days. These patients continued their regular care while using cinnamon. Hemoglobin A1c is the type of blood cell which is measured to recognize the blood glucose levels. The researchers found 0.83% of hemoglobin A1c decrease in these patients. The researchers concluded that the cinnamon can effect doubly than regular blood sugar treatment. This study makes some people to believe that the cinnamon can be used for blood sugar control.

According to another study which was done in Pakistan in 2003, researchers found that the cinnamon can help to maintain the blood sugar level. They performed cinnamon test on 60 people having type-2 diabetes for 40 days. They found the effect of cinnamon even after 20 days. For this study they used the true cinnamon. They also used the cassia cinnamon for their study. The researchers divided 60 peoples in two groups. They supplied cinnamon capsules 3 times a day for one group and placebo (dummy medication) capsules for another group. The results from both the group made researchers to believe that the 1 gram of daily cinnamon can help to lower the blood sugar with type-2 diabetes patients.

Due to lack of enough evidences and some previous studies the use of cinnamon against diabetes makes it disputable.

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Are Glucosamine and Chondroitin Safe For Type 2 Diabetics?

Comments: 0December 17th, 2009 by admin



Glucosamine is a substance that occurs naturally in the human body. It provides strength, flexibility, and elasticity to cartilage and connective tissue by stimulating the production of glycosaminoglycans, molecules that hold joint tissue together. Glucosamine also decreases inflammation that can lead to the joint destruction of arthritis.

Because of some studies done several years ago involving high dose glucosamine injected into participants, there has been some concern that glucosamine might lead to insulin resistance or even diabetes and might make diabetes worse.

A study published in the July 14, 2003 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine tested whether or not taking oral glucosamine and chondroitin supplements, a popular type of treatment for osteoarthritis pain, is safe for type 2 diabetics.

In the 90-day study, 34 mostly elderly patients received either a placebo or 1500 mg of glucosamine hydrochloride and 1200 mg of chondroitin sulfate. Most of the patients were already taking drugs for glycemic control, and four participants withdrew from the study.

The dose tested is what is routinely recommended by doctors for arthritis treatment.

The researchers found that the supplements did not alter hemoglobin A1c concentrations.

Hemoglobin A1c is a measure of the amount of glucose clinging to red blood cells in the blood. It is good indicator of overall blood glucose control over a period of 3 months. The fact that the glucosamine and chondroitin taken did not have any effect whatsoever on these levels ii an excellent indicator that these supplements did not altering blood sugar control.

The researchers concluded that this dosage does not significantly alter glucose metabolism in diabetes patients.

This is good news for people with both diabetes and arthritis. 1500 mg of glucosamine hydrochloride and 1200 mg of chondroitin sulfate in pill form are still one of the safest and most effective arthritis treatments available, even for type 2 diabetics.

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What is a Normal Blood Sugar Level? Tips For Diabetics

Comments: 0September 28th, 2009 by admin



Glucose is a simple sugar that our body produces from fat, protein, and carbohydrates from the food that we eat. It is carried to the bloodstream to produce energy to the cells. Glucose cannot be used by the cell without the help of insulin. Ingested glucose when absorbed from the intestine into the blood resulted in the increase in blood glucose or simply known as blood sugar.

Blood glucose level is the amount of glucose (sugar) present in the body. Normal blood glucose levels in humans are about 90 mg/dL to 130mg/dL throughout the day. Blood glucose is usually lower in the morning but higher every after meals. Keeping the blood sugar level stable significantly reduces the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar level) and complications such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and heart disease, retinopathy (eye disease), neuropathy (nerve disease), and nephropathy (kidney disease).

Check your sugar level at home with a testing kit. It has a measuring device and a strip. To check your sugar level, put a small amount of blood on the strip, place the strip into the device and wait for 30 seconds and it will display the blood glucose level.

The ideal blood sugar values are

Upon waking up (before breakfast) – 80 mg/dl to 120 mg/dL Before every meals – 80 mg/dL to 120 mg/dL 2 hours after meals – 160 mg/dL or less At bedtime – 100 mg/dL to 140 mg/dL

Sugar level in blood should be checked over a period of time by a test called HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c). High blood sugar causes HbA1c to rise.

HbA1c of about 6.5% or less is good HbA1c of about 7.5% shows fairly control of diabetes HbA1c above 8.5% shows poor control of diabetes.

A person with type 2 diabetes shows that in every 1% rise in HbA1c is more likely to develop late-stage complications arising from damage to the small blood vessels.

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Evaluate Your A1C

Comments: 0January 2nd, 2009 by admin



You have been diagnosed with diabetes, you take your medications and you check your blood sugar (sometimes). You are doing a good job, or so you think. You go to your doctor’s appointment and he informs you that your hemoglobin A1C is too high and your diabetes medications need to be adjusted. You leave the doctor’s office thinking, “What is a hemoglobin A1C?” In this blog I will explain what a hemoglobin A1C lab is, why it is important and how to improve it.

1. What is a hemoglobin A1C?

Hemoglobin is a protein in your blood. A percentage of sugar attaches itself to this protein. The more sugar you have in your blood, the greater the percentage of your A1C. People without diabetes have less than 6% of sugar attached to their hemoglobin. People with diabetes typically have more.

2. Why is it important?

The hemoglobin A1C is important because this lab measures your average blood glucose. For example, if someone has an A1C of 10%, this person has an average blood sugar of 275mg/dl. This value is above the recommended range. The American Diabetes Association recommends you maintain an A1C of less than 7% or 170mg/dl. However, just decreasing your A1C by 1% will significantly reduce your chance of suffering side effects of diabetes (i.e. kidney disease, amputation, blindness).

3. How do I improve my A1C?

You need to monitor your blood sugar more frequently. Many people with diabetes only check their blood sugar in the morning. Your fasting blood glucose does not give you the big picture. You need to check your blood sugar before you eat a meal (pre-prandial) and two hours after a meal (postprandial). These values will tell you if you are eating too many carbohydrates or if your diabetic medications are working. If your insurance only gives you one or two test strips a day, pick your biggest meal of the day to check your blood sugar. You can also ask your doctor for more test strips. Many doctors are willing to provide you extra test strips if the result is better blood glucose control.

If you have any questions regarding this topic or any of my blogs, email me at askard@stablebloodsugar.com. Allison

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