What Is An A1c Test
The hemoglobin A1c test tells you your average level of blood sugar over the past 2 to 3 months. It’s also called HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin test, and glycohemoglobin. Itâs a lot like a baseball player’s season batting average. A single game doesn’t tell you how a player is performing in their career. And 1 day’s test results don’t give you the complete picture of how your treatment is working.
People who have diabetes need this test regularly to see if their levels are staying within range. It can tell if you need to adjust your diabetes medicines. The A1c test is also used to diagnose diabetes.
How Is The A1c Test Used To Diagnose Type 2 Diabetes And Prediabetes
Health care professionals can use the A1C test alone or in combination with other diabetes tests to diagnose type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. You dont have to fast before having your blood drawn for an A1C test, which means that blood can be drawn for the test at any time of the day.
If you dont have symptoms but the A1C test shows you have diabetes or prediabetes, you should have a repeat test on a different day using the A1C test or one of the other diabetes tests to confirm the diagnosis.2
Maintain A Healthy Weight
Eating a balanced diet and exercising can help you lose or maintain weight. Ask your doctor what a healthy weight is for you.
Work with them to determine how many calories you should be eating. If you need to lose weight, ask them how much weight you should be losing per week to stay healthy.
Crash diets and extreme workout plans may make for entertaining television, but they arent realistic for long-term maintenance. Theyre often unhealthy as well.
Read Also: What Is The Normal Sugar Level In Fasting
Also Check: What To Drink When Fasting To Lose Weight
Managing Diabetes After Diagnosis: The Next Step
Diagnosing diabetes gives patients and their health experts the leverage to treat the condition before it leads to serious complications. Namely, patients and their health specialists can achieve normal blood glucose levels by implementing some blood glucose control tips with the right diagnoses. These tips help prevent mild to severe diabetes complications that put patients lives at risk, reinforcing the need for proper and early diagnosis.
There are several ways people diagnosed with diabetes can prevent the condition from getting worse and even help them get better. Body weight plays a major role in increasing diabetes and high blood sugar. So, patients need to adopt proactive management tips that control blood sugar levels and obesity.
Below are some steps that patients can take:
What Can Affect Your A1c Results
![Providing Better Quality of Care to Diabetes Patients through Fast, Ea Providing Better Quality of Care to Diabetes Patients through Fast, Ea](https://www.fastingtalk.net/wp-content/uploads/providing-better-quality-of-care-to-diabetes-patients-through-fast-ea.jpeg)
Anyone whos had diabetes for any length of time knows that A1C tests havent been reliable until recently. In the past, many different types of A1C tests gave different results depending on the lab that analyzed them. But the National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program has helped improve the accuracy of these tests.
Manufacturers of A1C tests now have to prove that their tests are consistent with those used in a major diabetes study. Accurate home test kits are also now available for purchase.
But accuracy is relative when it comes to A1C or even blood glucose tests. The A1C test result can be up to half a percent higher or lower than the actual percentage. That means if your A1C is 6, it might indicate a range from 5.5 to 6.5.
Some people may have a blood glucose test that indicates diabetes but their A1C is normal, or vice versa. Before confirming a diagnosis of diabetes, your doctor should repeat the test that was abnormal on a different day. This isnt necessary in the presence of unequivocal symptoms of diabetes and a random sugar over 200 mg/dl.
Some people may get false results if they have kidney failure, liver disease, or severe anemia. Ethnicity can also influence the test. People of African, Mediterranean, or Southeast Asian descent may have a
changes in lifestyle can make a big difference and even put your diabetes in remission. Starting an exercise program can help. Type 1 diabetes needs insulin treatment as soon as its diagnosed.
Also Check: Fasting In The Bible Verses
How Can I Get My Number Down Quickly
- Exercise helps to lower your blood glucose levels by allowing your body to use its own insulin more effectively. This will, in turn, help lower A1C levels. Exercise also tones and builds muscle which is more metabolically active than fat. Ask your health care professional for advice on how to start a safe exercise program.
- Medications can play a very important role in lowering A1C. Be sure to follow your health care providers advice regarding diabetes medicines. For those who are newly diagnosed with diabetes, it can be very helpful to keep a diary of foods eaten, medications taken and timing. This information can be very useful to your physician.
Reasons Your A1c Might Be High When Youre Not Diabetic
As we explained in our guide to understanding A1C, HbA1C, or A1C, is a measurement used to determine your average blood sugar levels over the last three months.
While high blood sugar may be a risk factor for diabetes mellitus, high A1C is not exclusively seen in those with the health condition. In fact, people can have a high A1C even if they donât have a history of diabetes.
Are you wondering what other factors can lead to high A1C? Letâs explore what the A1C test measures, what lifestyle factors can lead to elevated levels, and what you can do if your A1C is high.
Recommended Reading: What Is The Best Intermittent Fasting Book
How Is A1c Calculated
A1C testing relies on hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen throughout your body. When you have glucose in your blood, it sticks to hemoglobin. This is called glycation. The more glucose is in your blood, the more it sticks. And it can stay there for around three months about how long the average red blood cell lives.
The A1C test measures the average amount of glucose thats been attached to hemoglobin over time. Because the A1C test measures glucose levels over a period of time, it provides more information about blood sugar than a single blood sugar test.
Setting Goals For A1c Levels
The target A1c level for people with diabetes is usually less than 7%. The higher the hemoglobin A1c, the higher your risk of having complications related to diabetes. Someone who has had untreated diabetes for a long time might have a level above 8%.
If you have diabetes and your level is above your target, your doctor may change your treatment plan to get your level down.
A combination of diet, exercise, and medication can bring your levels down.
People with diabetes should have an A1c test every 3 months to make sure their blood sugar is in their target range. If your diabetes is under good control, you may be able to wait longer between the blood tests. But experts recommend checking at least two times a year.
People with diseases affecting hemoglobin, such as anemia, may get misleading results with this test. Other things that can affect the results of the hemoglobin A1c include supplements such as vitamins C and E and high cholesterol levels. Kidney disease and liver disease may also affect the test.
Also Check: How To Know If Fasting Is Working
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test
The OGTT is a two-hour test that checks your blood glucose levels before and two hours after you drink a special sweet drink. It tells the doctor how your body processes sugar.
- Diabetes is diagnosed at two-hour blood glucose of greater than or equal to 200 mg/dl
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test |
Normal |
200 mg/dl or higher |
Glycosylated Hemoglobin Or Hemoglobin A1c
Reflects average blood sugar levels over the preceding 90-day period. Elevated levels are associated with prediabetes and diabetes. Individuals with diabetes have an increased risk of a cardiac event. A person with diabetes has the same risk for heart attack as a person without diabetes, who has experienced one heart attack, having a second heart attack. Aggressive global preventive risk reduction efforts, such as lower LDL targets, diet, exercise and blood pressure control, are recommended.
Goal values :
- A range of 5.7-6.4 percent indicates an increased risk for development of diabetes , and lifestyle interventions may be beneficial.
- A value equal or greater than 6.5 percent is considered diabetes.
Preparation
This test may be measured any time of the day without fasting.
Glycosylated hemoglobin is blood glucose attached to hemoglobin . This test is often called the diabetes report card. It reflects the average blood sugar for the two to three month period before the test.
To calculate the average blood glucose level from the HbA1C:
HbA1C level x 33.3 86 = average blood glucose level for the past 90 days. HbA1C can be helpful to track diabetes control over time.
You May Like: Water Fasting For 3 Days
Can A1c Replace Oral Glucose Tolerance Test In The Evaluation Of Patients With Impaired Fasting Glucose
Murilo Veloso Lages,1
Verify Captcha
Regret for the inconvenience: we are taking measures to prevent fraudulent form submissions by extractors and page crawlers. Please type the correct Captcha word to see email ID.
1Endocrinology, Felicio Rocho Hospital, Belo Horizonte, Brazil2Professor of Internal Medicine at Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil3Professor of Internal Medicine at Universidade, Brazil
Correspondence: Murilo Veloso Lages, Endocrinology, Felicio Rocho Hospital, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Received: May 08, 2017 | Published: May 24, 2017
Citation: Lages MV, Lauria MW, Gonçalves DA, et al. Can A1C replace oral glucose tolerance test in the evaluation of patients with impaired fasting glucose? Endocrinol Metab Int J. 2017 4:133-139. DOI: 10.15406/emij.2017.04.00103
Recommended Reading: What Should Fasting Sugar Be
Johns Hopkins Study Suggests Consistent Fasting Blood Glucose May Be As Important As A1c
![A1c Chart A1c Chart](https://www.fastingtalk.net/wp-content/uploads/a1c-chart-flawed-yet-functional.jpeg)
People whose blood sugar varies widely over time, whether they have diabetes or not, may be at increased risk for serious health problems.
Johns Hopkins endocrinologist Justin Echouffo Tcheugui and his research colleagues studied health data from nearly 5,000 people age 55 and older. The study, published online before appearing in the March 2019 issue of the journal Diabetes Care, mined data from patients who were followed through two years of doctor visits where their blood sugar was tested, then five more years after those tests.
We saw an association between fluctuating blood glucose numbers and overall mortality, says Echouffo Tcheugui. Even among people whose blood glucose wasnt in the diabetic range, we saw that people whose levels were inconsistent from visit to visit were at greater risk of health troubles.
The researchers studied data from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial , which was designed to learn more about the roles hypertension and high cholesterol play in heart disease. For their study, Echouffo Tcheugui and his colleagues reviewed secondary data that ALLHAT yielded.
They looked at study records from 4,982 patients who had their fasting blood glucose tested three times once during an initial visit and again 24 and 48 months later.
Echouffo Tcheugui adds that the higher risk of death among those without diabetes suggests that FBG may also be an important health predictor in the general population.
FOUND IN
Also Check: 18 Hour Fasting Diet Plan
Can Other Blood Glucose Tests Be Used To Diagnose Type 2 Diabetes And Prediabetes
Yes. Health care professionals also use the fasting plasma glucose test and the OGTT to diagnose type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. For these blood glucose tests used to diagnose diabetes, you must fast at least 8 hours before you have your blood drawn. If you have symptoms of diabetes, your doctor may use the random plasma glucose test, which doesnt require fasting. In some cases, health care professionals use the A1C test to help confirm the results of another blood glucose test.
Who Should Get An A1c Test And When
Testing for diabetes or prediabetes:Get a baseline A1C test if youre an adult over age 45or if youre under 45, are overweight, and have one or more risk factors for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes:
- If your result is normal but youre over 45, have risk factors, or have ever had gestational diabetes, repeat the A1C test every 3 years.
- If your result shows you have prediabetes, talk to your doctor about taking steps now to improve your health and lower your risk for type 2 diabetes. Repeat the A1C test as often as your doctor recommends, usually every 1 to 2 years.
- If you dont have symptoms but your result shows you have prediabetes or diabetes, get a second test on a different day to confirm the result.
- If your test shows you have diabetes, ask your doctor to refer you to diabetes self-management education and support services so you can have the best start in managing your diabetes.
Managing diabetes:If you have diabetes, get an A1C test at least twice a year, more often if your medicine changes or if you have other health conditions. Talk to your doctor about how often is right for you.
Read Also: What Can I Eat And Drink While Fasting
Fasting Affects Blood Sugar Management And Insulin Resistance
What does fasting have to do with insulin? Insulin is the primary hormone our bodies use to regulate blood sugar levels. Maintaining stable blood sugar levels is an important goal for people with diabetes and is often measured by Time in Range, A1C, and fasting glucose levels.
Recently, clinical researchers looked at how IF and TRF affect things like blood sugar management and insulin resistance and found promising results.
-
In a 2021 literature review, eight studies showed that individuals who practiced intermittent fasting had significant reductions in fasting glucose levels . Other important findings included a reduction in A1C levels, weight loss, and an increase in adiponectin .
-
A study of men with prediabetes found that early morning TRF decreased insulin levels , reduced fluctuations in insulin levels, and decreased insulin resistance. This translates to an improvement in insulin levels and insulin sensitivity.
-
A research team from the University of South Australia conducted a pilot study and a larger study to look at the 5:2 IF method in people with type 2 diabetes. Both studies found significant reductions in A1C levels and body weight after 12 weeks.
What Are Dangerous Blood Sugar Levels
Blood sugar can be dangerously highor dangerously low. Your healthcare provider will give you individual target ranges and tell you when to take action on dangerously high or low blood sugar levels. These numbers, especially high numbers, differ by individual. Hypoglycemia is generally defined as a blood sugar less than 70 mg/dl, but it can vary depending on the individual. Severe hypoglycemia may occur if your blood sugar drops to a level where you need help recoveringyour healthcare provider may prescribe glucagon that a family member or caregiver can use in a low blood sugar emergency.
Also Check: Scripture For Fasting And Praying
A1c Results And What The Numbers Mean
*Any test used to diagnose diabetes requires confirmation with a second measurement, unless there are clear symptoms of diabetes.Diagnosis* | |
---|---|
Diabetes | 6.5 percent or above |
When using the A1C test for diagnosis, your doctor will send your blood sample taken from a vein to a lab that uses an NGSP-certified method. The NGSP, formerly called the National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program, certifies that makers of A1C tests provide results that are consistent and comparable with those used in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial.
Blood samples analyzed in a doctors office or clinic, known as point-of-care tests, should not be used for diagnosis.
The A1C test should not be used to diagnose type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes, or cystic fibrosis-related diabetes. The A1C test may give false results in people with certain conditions.
Having prediabetes is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. Within the prediabetes A1C range of 5.7 to 6.4 percent, the higher the A1C, the greater the risk of diabetes.
When And Why Should You Monitor Your Blood Sugar
Your healthcare provider will tell you how often to monitor your blood sugar. People with diabetes, especially those who use insulin, will need to monitor blood sugar much more frequently than those with prediabetes or normal blood sugar. People with normal blood sugar may only require periodic testing, for example, once yearly, at their physical examination. Maintaining blood sugar in the target range is important in preventing long-term complications.
Recommended Reading: How Many Meals Should You Eat While Intermittent Fasting
How To Lower Your A1c Level
When you have diabetes, you probably know you should check your blood sugar regularly. Your doctor will also recommend that you take an A1c blood test a few times a year, with a goal of lowering the results to help protect your health. And thereâs a lot you can do to move toward meeting that goal.
Unlike a regular blood sugar test, the A1c test measures the amount of sugar that clings to a protein, called hemoglobin, in your red blood cells. The test shows your average blood sugar levels over the past few months, so you know how well your diabetes is under control.In general, the goal for your A1c is to be lower than 7%. Exactly how much lower will depend on your individual treatment plan. When you take steps to get your A1c in a healthy range, you lower your risk of complications such as nerve damage, eye problems, and heart disease.
Your doctor will let you know the best target for your A1c. How do you get there? Here are a few tactics to try, in addition to taking any medications your doctor prescribes.
Get some new kitchen gear. Youâll want to get a set of measuring cups and a kitchen scale if you donât already have them. These will help you with your portion sizes. Your blood sugar will go up if you eat more food than your body needs. Keeping servings in check is a good way to reduce your A1c level.
Show Sources
SOURCES:
Mayo Clinic: âA1C Test,â âHyperglycemia in Diabetes,â âDiabetes Diet: Create Your Healthy Eating Plan.â