Understanding HbA1c

As soon as you have diabetes, you need to understand HbA1C.

The glucose in your blood "sticks" to haemoglobin. The higher the glucose concentration, the more that sticks. It is called glycosylation.

Your body recycles haemoglobin because it needs to reuse the components such as iron to make new blood. A single blood cell lives for only 60 to 120 days before it is destroyed. When new ones are made, they do not have glucose stuck to them. So the level of glycosylation in the blood gives a good indication of what glucose control has been like over the past few months (90 days on average). This measure is called HbA1c for historical reasons.

A "normal" person may have an HbA1c of 4-5. A person with diabetes is advised to keep their measure between 6.5 to 7.5. The risk factors start to increase after 6.3 , and then dramatically increase above 7.5. My HbA1c started out at 10.2 - and I'd been on tablets for 3 months! You can guess my diabetes was pretty serious.

People often want to know what the HbA1c means relative to their day-to-day blood glucose. I've only ever found one table. It is in the book "Protein Power" by Mike & Dan Eades. The book itself explains a great deal about diabetes and some of the other "diseases of modern civilisation". It's worth getting if you have diabetes.

To keep you HbA1C out of the risk range, you need to make sure that (Serum Blood Glucose) SBG never goes much above 10 mmol/l (180 mg/dL in the USA). Ideally you start the day with a SBG of 7 mmol/l (120 mg/dl), but this is not always possible. If you SBG regularly exceeds these levels, you need professional help. People often do not understand the damage they do to themselves and the risks of ill-health they subject themselves to by exceeding these numbers.... but I'll be explaining that, and some of the things you can do about it ...