The numbers game

If you have an average blood glucose, you A1c should be 5.0. This means thatyour blood glucose averages 101 over time. So we are going to start with that for the purpose of this example.

Let's say your A1c is 5.0. Does that mean you are always at 101? Of course not. It's just an average.

If you test over a day something like this:

8: am 170
11 am 120
2 pm 40
5 pm 70
8 pm 100

That totals 500. Divide that by 5 tests, your average for that day is 100.

Your A1c would come in at 5.0.

But that 120 and the 170 could be doing damage.

Let's expand that over a 24 hour period.

Let's say that at midnight, you are at 300
at 4 am, you are at 50
at 8 am, you are at 90
at 11 am, you are at 60
at 2 pm, you are at 90
at 5pm, you are at 90
at 8 pm, you are at 90

The total here is 770. Divide that by 7 and your score is 110. Still probably a good A1c of 5.0
But that 300 is bound to uspet something.

And if you do this every single day.....go high and then go low....yet have a good A1c, how would you ever know if you are not testing 24 hours a day.

Because my husband has lows during the day and always had a good A1c - it was my indication that he had to be going high at night. Yet he would never test. And....the doctors never asked a question. Because his A1c was always good.

That 300 that he must have been hitting at last once a day.....is exactly what got him to this point. Where he now needs to have 5 bypasses. High sugar in the blood will eat the arteries right up.

With a good A1c, a diabetic like my husband will tell you there is no reason to test. Why should he? There is nothing wrong. Blood sugars are under control. A1c is averate.

So learn from his experience. It's just a numbers game. Unless you do your own person A1c, test every single day, get up at midnight ant test, get up at 4 am and test.......get and average and then compare that to you A1c, you will never have a clue about what might be going on inside of your body.

The numbers game. It could be "your" number if you don't test multiple times a day.

DW