a1c

Hi Carl,

More Type 2s are using insulin when Metformin & other meds don’t work. Hope you’ll discuss this option with your endo. Insulin will get your BG under better control & preserve your beta cells.

Understand being scared, but please, please don’t ignore it.

I second Gerry. the longer you wait before the insulin the more damage to your pancreas and the harder the diabetes will be to control. It will become your worst nightmare is the pancreas dies completely.

As I posted previously, my goal is to remain <6 and my last A1c was 5.4. For those who say there’s “no way” to accomplish that without insulin, I say, why not? If I had known “then” what I know now, I would have started insulin much sooner. In my opinion, it is much safer - and more “natural” - than a lot of the oral meds T2s take and I’m pretty convinced that my beta cells burned out sooner because of these meds. In any event, control is control - whether you can do it with diet, exercise, meds, insulin - the important thing is to control it in order to avoid long term complications.

I’m a T1 diabetic, diagnosed in 1984. Up until about three years ago my A1c ran in the 6% range. In the last three years my A1c moved higher. It first moved to the low 7% area then moved up to as high as 8.5%.

I could not offer a reasonable cause of this upward A1c move so I worked with my doctors to rule out infections and heart disease, two main suspects. Once these two principal causes were eliminated I began to closely monitor my eating, blood sugar numbers, and exercise. It appears that I just needed to return to the basics and match my carb intake with appropriate insulin as well as get out for a vigorous walk most days of the week.

Doing that, combined with starting on a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, my A1c dropped to 7.2% then to 6.5% at the last test. I believe my next A1c result (based on my 24/7 Dexcom numbers) will come in at closer to 6%.

I am studying and considering a low carb diet to drive my A1c down to 5.5% (that’s an average BG of about 111 mg/dl). That is my ultimate goal.