the A1C Game
Hello Chris,
<I think we would be amiss to mention though, that we should NOT be
following our A1C as our guideline.<snip> A1C could represent a person
with swings from 50-220 and still show a good A1C for the Dr.>
I concede your point…
I’ve confounded the ~white coats~ for years for the very reason you suggest.
(daily numbers never match the average). However, the averages are close
enough to "perfect" protocol ranges to confuse them to no end <ggg>.
Something is being done ~correctly enough~…
Now you raise another excellent question. Ok, if our numbers go above XYZ,
take the number you suggest of 140… all/most of us have been beaten
senseless with the "YOU MUST KEEP THE NUMBERS LOWER THAN THAT…" speech or
face dire, life threatening long term consequences!!! Never for a number
that foolishly low on the potential high scale available but, we’ve all
heard the speech. Yawn…
Ok, at what point precisely do the numbers cause tangible problems? At what
point can they prove and show causal damage. Hypothetical example 200 means.
. eye damage instantly… this type of thing…
How long do the numbers have to be at a given range EXACTLY before it can be
predicted with certainly we WILL have damage requiring intervention…
Ours is a ~game~ requiring a fine line of attention of the numbers somewhere
between obsession and total obliviousness
Anybody….
August 4th, 2005 at 4:18 am
Hi Jeff and Chris.
I present an odd data point in your charts and schemes. Perhaps it is
a hopeful one for those of us unable to consistantly rodeo-ride our
blood sugars into the small corral of ‘acceptable’ limits. I am type
1, which may be significant in my good fortune as I have no insulin
resistance issues.
But the truth is, I’ve been on a pretty major roller coaster, blood-
sugar-wise, for most of my 35 diabetic years (I am 51 now). The best
A1c I’ve managed, outside my 2 pregnancies (I gave more attention to
blood sugar then and managed 7.4 as I recall) has been 8.1. That was
just recently when I switched to Lantus insulin for my long-acting.
The rest of the time, throughout my life I’ve been between 10 and 13
A1C, and this is with swings whose average bottom was maybe 120, top
in the 400’s, and average in the high 200’s or low 300’s. Ghastly,
yes!? Until I got Graves Disease 13 years ago, I was healthier than
most normal people -Built railroad tie and 2X6 fences by myself, for
my herd of Spanish Mustang horses, raised many kids (my own plus
several others) and generally ran a farm, haying (throwing up the
bales to the truck, driving tractor, training foals etc. I guess I
preferred to give my attention to my joys and passions rather than
spend it endlessly focused on my own bod. I didn’t go to doctors at
all, for decades, to avoid the thing you so eleoquently note below -
"all/most of us have been beaten
> senseless with the "YOU MUST KEEP THE NUMBERS LOWER THAN THAT…"
speech or
> face dire, life threatening long term consequences!!!
I decided early on that since fear is creative, and having "YOU WILL
GET THE COMPLICATIONS!!" drilled into me by doctor-gods was surely
scary (I am quite suggestable)…- I would just do the best I could
and live my life, die when I die. The MD’s could intimidate someone
else! Free from profesional advice my diet evolved into vegetarian,
mostly, with some eggs and cultured dairy products, natural
sweeteners like honey or applesauce for baking. I always spend the
extra $ for organic, grow most of my own veggies in summer, also keep
my own happy chickens…I take vit. E, Cal-Mag-Zinc (Magnesium is
important to stop complications), vit.C, selenium, thyroid meds (no
thyroid left, which has made blood sugar control harder). I no longer
farm, and have lost a lot of ground health-wise since the Graves
Disease, but I do not have kidney trouble, my feet and hands get cold
more easily but they are pink, sentient and functional, there is a
little macular degeneration in my right eye but the left is perfect,
my heart is great, and other parameters check out fine (did just have
to get dentures - terrible teeth!)…I now see ad doc from time to
time for tests, plus a naturopath. Exercise, never an issue in the
past, is hard now and I need to do more of it! But I don’t fit on
your chart. I had great health and NO complications for the first 30
years of unruly sugars, and only light damage now. Maybe genetics,
spirituality, exercise, joy for life, are factors not noted on that
chart. I’m sure low A1C’s are best, and I am working harder at it now
than I ever have. But to scare people with unequivocal statements of
doom UNLESS….might be counterproductive, not to mention untrue. I
think we should all surely do the best we can, given who we are, and
forgive ourselves the rest. Thank the Great Spirit for slack and
whatever joy we can find in this life! -Just one woman’s experience
and view. -Linda R
August 4th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
I had to buy a new computer and so lost some of the emails, kind of read a
few about the glucose spikes, Graves disease and anemia. I’m Type 2 and was
diagnosed a few years ago with hypothyroidism. I’ve read a book that says a
lot of these things, including Type 2, are caused by low thyroid, and as a
result low thyroid is very common in diabetics. Just curious, how many of you
with Type 2 also have low thyroid that you know of? It many times goes
undiagnosed for years when it is just slightly low, just as diabetes sometimes
goes for
years undiagnosed.
Kady
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