The truth about A1c's. Is this true?

[Gathoni Kamau]

So I was at an awareness and screening programme with our local diabetes institute and a few things that were said to me kinda puzzled me and I really need to know if the following statements are true..am also too lazy to google...lol

Anyway I met a fellow PWD and he is a T1 and he told me that his A1c was at 5%. I thought that he must be an amazing dude to get into that range. Then he told me that he was told by some doctor that 'normal' people (non diabetics) don't have an A1c score, i.e they score a 0% so he therefore would like to get to that 0%. I was both puzzled and scared and trully schocked. Can someone help me? Is this true? He also had like 3 low blood sugars during the whole time that I was with him (an afternoon) So is it really worth trying to get a 0% A1c if that is at all possible or is my friend just working on bad info. Can someone help me answer this question?

[Lindsey]

Definitely a great thing to wonder about! There's been so much differing press out on A1c results lately that it's getting hard to judge who's right.

I'm positive on this though...nondiabetics do not score an A1c of 0%. The A1c results are the average of blood sugars in mmol...therefore their blood sugars would have to be 0.0 all the time...which would mean they would be seizing all the time! Just because you're a nondiabetic doesn't mean you don't have glucose in your blood. It means that your A1c should be somewhere around 3-4% with exceptions rising a little higher.

I for one aim for an A1c below 7%. My ideal would be 6.5%. Anything below that usually means you're running low way too often as a type 1. My dad (type 1) has an A1c of 6.3% and has lows maybe once a week though. So everyone is different at where they can find balance!

Just judge for yourself how often and how severe your lows are and you'll be okay. For me, I have severe lows very often at a 7% A1c, so I don't want to run too low in general.

[Gathoni Kamau]

Thanks my dear. I kinda thought that the story of a 0% A1c is b.s. I kinda like mine to be at 7% but I guess when it comes time for me to be a mum I will have to lower it maybe. I don't get so many lows but my highs are seriously spectacular! Like yesterday after working out it went all the way up to 15.6. I started working out on a 8.2. I read your thing on working out on the dLife wall. For me everytime I work out it shoots way up then it levels out after a couple of hours...never been able to figure out why!

I also heard another crazy thing and was wondering if it were true..again from that awareness programme thingy I went to. They were telling people that normal range is from 3.5 (even 3) to 5. I kinda thought that was strange! Then some endo told me that one day I might ween myself off insulin...talk about a Halle Berry moment! I wanted to strangle her and punch her in the throat...a whole ENDO doctor who went to school to learn about this stuff....I was beyond angry...I think that my friend is taking advice from her and harming himself trying to get to an A1c of 0%!

[Lindsey]

If you're doing anaerobic exercise (like weight lifting or any kind of resistance training), then your body pushes the glucose out from your muscles as they work meaning that your blood sugar then rockets. What I do to combat that is put my weight training in the middle of my cardio. So when I go for a jog, I do a mile then 15 minutes of weights then another mile or so. It usually means I end up right on target. You might give that a try :)

If you're truly type 1, you cannot get off insulin!!! Ugh, these doctors!!! I swear, where do they learn that stuff? Normal range for a nondiabetic is around 3 to 5...but normal AIM for diabetics is supposed to be under 7% and even under 6% according to some. I definitely agree that your friend is harming himself trying to get his A1c so low, especially if he had three lows that day!!! It's frustrating to watch friends do that....but I guess if they don't listen, then you've done your best.

[Gathoni Kamau]

Yeah will do. I had some knee surgery and things haven't been quite the same. I love the gym but it is just so tough and boring on the old joints....I do prefer to do some kind of sport instead...I play tennis and I just love it and I was playing field hockey but my ortho doctor told me to try some thing less stressful on the joints. So I haven't found something that I can stick to. The last time I was on a tennis court it hurt so much am kinda freaked out to go back so I haven't been working out as I should be. But decided to just go to the gym instead. Will let you know what happens tommorow. Imagine today after my work out I'm just doing cardio 45 mins eliptical machine, and some light weight training, my sugar went all the way up to 20.8!!!! I didn't even feel it! When I checked I was like WHOA HORSEY!!!! I started on 8.5....kinda frustrating this thing!

Thanks for the super fab advice by the way.

[Lindsey]

That's crazy! I can't imagine why that's happening....you're not eating anything before you work out or drinking anything but water? Maybe the elliptical machine is more resistance than it is cardio, I'm not a fan of it so I don't know what it does to my sugars. But I know the treadmill with minor incline doesn't do much.

How did today go?

You might try water sports for your joints...like a water aerobics class at the gym. Or sometimes they have other classes geared towards low impact on joints, maybe ask one of the trainers there or something?

Always happy to offer advice :) We all need to share our tips/experiences, it'd make everything so much easier!

[Gathoni Kamau]

Too true..you don't know how helpful this is. I have tried swimming but I hate it. Also with my african hair swimming kinda messes up with the hair. Also brings back crazy memories of high school swim team...waking up at some ungodly hour to do laps in the freezing cold then running back to dorms to shower and make it in time for breakfast. Then we had to do cross country atleast 3 times a week...then if you were in detention (which I was without fail through out high school) you run over the weekend as well when other people were enjoying free time...you see I was in a boarding school from the age of 8. I guess in their defence they had to entertain our little gremlin asses or it would be crazy kids running around raising hell! Am sure I'll fiigure it out. Wasn't able to work out 2day and my sugars were beautiful. No I don't eat a single bite b4 I work out. Just another diabetic quirk I guess! Good news though I managed to convince my friend to keep from trying to reach for a 0% A1c...he was shocked that his doc had misinformed him! Now he thinks am really clever...so thanks for that...

[Lindsey]

Those sound like good reasons not to swim! I hate swimming as well. Maybe your joints will get better with time and increased activity.

I'm glad to hear your friend isn't trying for that anymore! Good thing he listened to you!

[Gathoni Kamau]

I know how nice that he listened! Anyway its the weekend and have just got home want to shower then go out dancing..for sure that will be a great form of cardio! I decided that I'll count dancing as part of my work out. So that means if I work out mon-fri plus dancing that is some good exercise!

So you are in college? I'm thinking of going back and maybe getting a nursing degree or something...am feeling like I might just be the oldest person in class. Have started applying..its weird writing down 27 as my age and I want to be a freshman! I really want to keep on this diabetes work that I have started here at home. At the moment am doing a documentary about type 1 diabetes and I am so shocked at the level of bad info that is being given! Like I met this kid she's a type 1 and she asked me what type of diabetes I had. I assumed she meant type 1 or 2. But no she meant whether I had the type that my sugar goes up or is it the type that sugar goes low. She believed that they were different coz she was told that her's was the type that was hyperglycemic....not type 1 but hyperglycemic and one day she will beat it and be healed....I didn't know whether to hug her and tell her that it will never go away..or go punch her doctor in the throat! I think I need to go for some anger management therapy before we finish shooting this documentary coz for sure I will hurt someone! LOL (Don't worry am a lover not a fighter) But when its done will send you a copy. It will really highlight some of the issues we face here in Kenya as diabetics. Its crazy the many differet people I've met and I've decided that I'm going to call them my little sweet warriors!

[Lindsey]

Dancing is definitely exercise! That's a lot of working out, you should be fit in no time! I do 2-4 days a week, depending on how busy I am. I wish I had more time to do a run every morning.

Yea, I'm in college. I'm a senior, but have no idea what I'm going to do afterward. I really want Echoes to take off and become something I could do full time, but we've had trouble getting international interest in the way we need to. I know plenty of older people in some of my classes, so don't stress about that! Go back if you can and want to!

The documentary sounds fabulous! When you get it done, I'd love to help promote it here on Echoes. What do you plan to do with it after? It's great that you're enlightening people along the way too!

[Gathoni Kamau]

Hey linds, so what are you studying? Well if you want we could do something together. You see part of the reason why I want to go back to school is that I really want to do something with my diabetes and I want to work with it. To me it only makes sense. As for my documentary I just want to raise awareness and let people know that we are not aliens or weird people but we are just like everyone else. Thanks for that I hope that with the help of echoes we can get it to go global...I really want people to see the real side of this disease. You see I think it is the same everywhere, the problems we face, access to insulin, good sound medical advice, emotional crap, ignorance. So I would also like you guys on that side to know that we are all together in this fight.

I really danced on Saturday night! Was getting home in the wee hours of the morning, exhausted but wildly exhillarated! Not to mention that I had a low soon after I got home...maybe I should do dance as a form of excersice since my sugar doesn't shoot up! Although I am a trully bad dancer...when God was giving out rythmn he skipped me....2 left feet!

[Lindsey]

I'm studying sociology with an emphasis in both health and women's/gender issues. I definitely understand wanting to do something with your diabetes...I've looked into almost every type of diabetes career. Finally, I landed on blogging and Echoes. I love doing this, I just wish that I could do more. Eventually, I really want to have global conferences that provide information, supplies, and support to diabetics worldwide.

I'd love to team up! Do you have any ideas? We could host the documentary here on Echoes. Or we could sell it through the site if you wanted to make DVDs. Or I can just advertise for whatever avenue you want to use (YouTube, personal site, etc). I'd love to do more in that part of the world since we have very few members from there.

I'd definitely count dancing as exercise if you like to do it! You don't have to be good at it :) That's great that you didn't shoot up, but hopefully the low wasn't that bad and you can prepare for next time.

[Gathoni Kamau]

Yeah that would be awesome if we could do something together with the documentary. So I will think about how we could get it as much traction as possible! Dude this is fun chatting with you!
So today I went to get my A1c done..getting the results tomorrow....yikes! Am nervous!

Yeah am also looking at what I can do in the diabetes field..I kinda got accepted into med school (I was so shocked I still havent told my family) its both exciting and weird coz 10 years ago as I was finishing high school I would have NEVER EVER thought that this is the path I would have followed! I did law...it sucked major ass...I would rather chew my elbow than practice...BIG disappointment to my folks...I come from a long line of lawyers...But I realised since starting to do this documentary that I have been running away from my diabetes for far too long and its really emotinal doing the documentary because there is like 9 years worth of stuff that is just coming to the surface and for the first time am not running away and I really want to do something practical to help. My new mantra is 'I no longer want to be part of the problem but I want to be part of the solution'....I'm in marketing at the moment so these one liners keep popping up...

Your course sounds interesting...by the way what part of the states are you from?