Bring Down My A1C

Hello Sammas and welcome to the Diabetes Forum. Although weight may have an effect on the A1c, it's not the main factor. The A1c is an average of your blood sugar over about 90 days. What affects your blood sugar is what you eat. (If you're type 1, insulin use is also involved.)

What have your morning fasting and post-prandial (after eating) readings been? Can you write what you normally eat for your meals?

Oh, so you don't have a blood sugar meter? Ok, then can you write what you normally eat during the day? In order to bring down the A1c, you will need to cut down the amount of carbohydrates that you eat: potatoes, bread, anything made with flour and sugar.

Well, as I wrote, weight is a factor but not the main reason for an elevated A1c. Since the A1c is a measure of blood sugar, we are concerned with family heredity, diet, our individual health and our life style.

High blood sugar over a period of time can lead to many health complications and this is why our doctors want our blood sugar to be 'normal'. If you have member in your family with diabetes, if you are overweight, if your blood sugar is high, then you may also be diabetic at some point if you're not pro-active now.

So, since carbs make blood sugar rise, it's best to cut down on food that has it. A non-diabetic can eat carbs but his blood sugar will come down to normal within an hour or two. In others, their blood sugar remains high for too long and so their A1c is higher than normal.

Here is a website that explains a lot about blood sugar and there is a search box on the right where you can look for more information about the A1c: www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Sammas, I don't know of any herbs that can lower blood sugar. If they existed and worked and were safe , then you can be sure they would be well-known and marketed by mainstream companies and not on questionable websites or on the back pages of some magazines.

I have read about several herbs and berries and products that claim they help reduce blood sugar but, again, if they really worked and were safe, you could be sure that major pharmaceutical companies would start producing them in pills. The problems with these claims are that they are not tested and can possibly be dangerous to us if taken over time.

But you don't test your own blood sugar, so how can you know what your levels are in the morning and after meals? I would think if your doctor felt it necessary to use the A1c, then he would also prescribe a simple blood sugar meter so you could know just what your levels are. You might ask him about this.

In any case, I will say that cutting down on carbs and regular, sustained exercise can control blood sugar in people who are not type 1 and who may have elevated blood sugar, that is, people whose blood sugar is not critically high. (Regular, sustained exercise would be walking, swimming, biking, dancing, running for about 20 or more minutes a day. This helps the body use up the blood glucose running in our system. It also helps our heart, blood pressure, circulation and mood! )

thank you again, lanie.

Lynn! What???? You do NOT have to fast for the A1c. If the lab told you that, they are mistaken. The A1c is an average over about 90 days, so fasting has nothing to do with the results! That test can be done any time.

However, if the lab was also doing a "fasting" blood test, then obviously they couldn't get accurate results for that one but they certainly could have done the A1c while you were there!

It makes me mad when people don't do their jobs right... You spent an hour driving back and forth for nothing!