We all strive for a low A1C of 6.5 or less as recommended by the authorities, however below 6.0 can be difficult. For those of you who do have an A1C of 6.0, is this fate or a conscious control- a daily effort of Diet and Exercise along with prescribed medications. Few are able to reach this figure by Diet and Exercise alone.
What are your thoughts and how do you reach this A1C? We all know that tight control in many cases will delay complications and in some cases they can be eliminated depending on an individuals make up.
My latest A1C was 5.5 and daily exercise is the main change I have made, along with changes in diet. I have not lost any weight but markedly changed body shape over the last 6 months.
I dropped from 7.1 to 5.6 in about three months through serious diet changes, as well as adding the supplement Gymnema Sylvestre. I haven’t made any real effort to exercise, even though I know I should, because I’m crazy busy. Walking around campus is about all I get.
I’m type 2 on metformin and glucotrol. I don’t know that gymnema will work for type 1, but I see about a 30 point average drop in my bgs when I take it regularly.
My first post-diagnosis A1c was 5.4, down from 13.8. While I’m sure the insulin I was taking had a part of play in that, I also made the effort to get into the habit of working out regularly and watching my diet.
When I made the switch for insulin shots to Metformin, I cut back on carbs pretty drastically and upped the exercise quota. While I can’t exercise daily because I spend so much time on campus, I stay active by doing things like walking home from the MRT (you call it subway) station instead of taking a bus and walking to places in uni. My last A1c, taken just yesterday, is 5.3.
I have managed to maintain decent blood sugar control by eating low-carb and working out. I have to stick to a sort-of regiment, meaning I take regular meals with a snack either in the morning or afternoon, depending on my schedule for the day and that takes work and some planning especially when I want to go out and hang around with friends, like I do on weekends. A lot of hard work goes into maintaining good blood sugars and I am darn proud that I’ve managed to do this within 6 months of diagnosis.
I have kept my A1c below 6% for most of the last 9 years, with a couple excursions up to 6.2%.
I did it first by eating an extremely low carb diet (60 grams a day or less) and now I do it by using insuliin with my meals and earing no more than about 110 grams of carbs a day.
It takes a lot of effort, but it’s worth it to me because of the increased cardiac risk that goes with elevated A1cs. It is cold comfort to die of a heart attack at 60 with perfect retinas.
The 6.5% A1c is recommended to avoid classic microvascular complications like retinopathy and kidney failure. But neuropathy and cardiac complications occur at lower levels.
Plus, for me, I feel like such crap when my blood sugar is high that once I learned I could bring it down, there was no way I wasn’t going to do it.
My first post-diagnosis A1C was 5.5%. It was all insulin. But I was also having lots of lows because of my unpredictable schedule. I started the pump the day I had that A1C done, so we’ll see what the difference is. I suspect I will be quite a bit higher because now I don’t have any of those lows, but I still spike. My average on my meter has already gone up about 10 points. Now I need to start studying my absorption rates, peaks for different food combos, maybe different basal rates or IC ratios during the day. Plus I’m trying to change the diet and now that it’s finally cooling off in my part of the world, I can return to my jogging routine.
My A1C at diagnosis was 7.3. I wasn’t given insulin at first. (My first endo told me there was nothing wrong with me-not even prediabetes- and that there was no insulin fast enough to cover post prandial spikes which weren’t a problem anyway because I was “only” going up to 180.) I did extremely low carb for several months and my A1C went down to 5.8. When I was tested for antibodies and diagnosed with LADA, I started insulin and added some higher carb foods back into my diet, such as fruit, yogurt, corn and carrots. I still limit my carbs to about 20 per meal and exercise for 45 minutes after breakfast. I test after an hour and usually manage to keep my BG under 110, even after eating. My last A1C was 5.6. So it is a combination of diet (low carb, no simple carbs), insulin and exercise. It is very hard work but I feel so much better now, after years of fatigue, that I have a huge incentive in the present to keep this tight control, as well as knowing that my chances of complications in the future are greatly reduced.
My daughter, age 12, has a 5.6% A1C. For us it is NOT fate - not even partially fate. It’s completely conscious control - we work hard at it. It is well worth the effort – and slowly, but surely, somehow, the effort becomes effortless.
I had an A1C of 13.5 on diagnosis (Type 1 in early july). Since then, i’ve switched to a low carb diet, insulin and exercise. My A1C on October 10th was 4.8. It is hard work, but i’m not complaining. I started on the pump on october 3rd. It will be interesting to see if I can maintain that A1C with the pump.
Combination of both for me. A lot of it is my willingness to test many times a day and bolus whenever necessary to cover even moderate spikes, but I also think I’ve been blessed with uncommonly controllable D. We’ll see how long that lasts.
It’s completely conscious control - we work hard at it. It is well worth the effort – and slowly, but surely, somehow, the effort becomes effortless.