I visited my physican assistant last week and in looking over my records she told me i was close or borderline diabetic whereas i told her 2 years the doc told me i was she said your are prediabetic or borderline my highest a1c was 6.0 she said fromwhat she looked at in her notes anyhow i told doc restricted my diet said eat nothing with more than 3 grams sugar per serving amd throw out your sugar bowel white sugar is posion his suggestions helped i lost 25 pounds and my lab tests were better but fasting a little elavated like 119 bit had been 124 and he didnt like that so i will be getting retested after 2 years since i lost my health insurance i had only recently tested through a pennstate program and everything was good but will have tests done in a lab to be sure because of how i feel sometimes so the padt 2 mornings i check with my meter once was 122 another today 124 and the other day went from 124 at 6am to 130 at 900am cause went back to sleep and didnt eat so my understanding is the fasting bs is most important and what really defines what may be going on as compared to 2 hr bs test after eating does any one have any additional input for me that help me understand this better?
The A1C is actually the current standard by which diabetes is diagnosed. 6.0 is considered pre-diabetic. All people have different patterns; some people have problems with their fasting numbers first, other with their post-prandials (2 hours after meals). So if you have test strips I would suggest testing different times a day. One day fasting, another 2 hours after breakfast, 2 hours after dinner, 2 hours after lunch. I don’t understand the sequence of events you are talking about, but if your doctor isn’t taking you seriously, you might consider a different doctor.
Cutting sugar is important, but so is cutting all carbs, such as bread, pasta, rice, etc. If you are overweight you will see an improvement in your blood sugars if you lose the weight. Exercise is important too, especially for type 2’s which it sounds like you are. This is a great site to get your questions answered. If you are just seeing a PCP, chances are people on here know more about diabetes. You also might want to check out Blood Sugar 101 by Jennie Ruhl. You can access it online or buy the book.
I personally believe that the damage is done by spikes over 140 after eating. For a T2, this means if you spike over 140 your ability to produce insulin will be gradually be degraded. According to this way of thinking, then, fasting is a less important number.
Having said that, your fasting numbers are those of a diabetic. According to the standard protocol your Dr. may add metformin which may well bring your fasting numbers down. Keeping your post meal spikes below 140 gives you the best chance of slowing, and perhaps stopping, the progression of the disease. T2 is a very complicated disease and in the end there are no guarantees, the best you can do is to tilt the odds in your favor.
Good point about the spikes over 140, BadMoon. Technically when they focused more on fasting, the cut-off between pre-diabetic and diabetic was 126, but now the A1C is used more for diagnosis, so she is smack in the pre-D range.
I stand corrected, the cut of for full blown diabetes is indeed 126. So by either standard Tess is still considered pre diabetic. Some would argue that pre diabetic is really just early stage diabetes but that is just really a question of semantics. The utility of calling it early stage would be that perhaps people would take it a bit more seriously.