My A1c History

Type 1 and LADA
1

A1c’s were first available in 1976. My doctor started having mine done in 1980. As part of my preparation for my taking part in the Joslin Medalist Study I was supposed to have a listing of all my A1c’s that had ever been done. My doctor was very cooperative but there were several gaps in the list. The years 1990-1994 were not available.

Below are the A1c’s that my doc was able to retrieve from his files. I have updated for 2010.

1980…10.6, 9.6, 9.0
1981…11.8
1983…9.2
1984…9.2, 9.7, 8.9
1986…11.1
1987…8.0, 9.8, 10.3
1988…10.5, 7.7, 7.7
1989…7.3

1995…6.8
1997…6.0, 5.4
1998…6.5
1999…6.8, 6.7, 6.5
2000…6.3, 6.1, 5.5
2001…5.8, 6.0, 5.6, 6.0
2002…6.0, 6.4, 6.2, 6.0
2003…5.6, 5.4, 5.9
2004…5.9, 5.7, 5.8, 5.6
2005…5.6, 5.8
2006…5.6, 5.7
2007…5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 6.1
2008…5.7, 5.9, 5.7, 5.6
2009…5.6, 5.8, 5.8
2010…5.7, 5.6, 5.6, 5.4

Note the improvement in 1988. That is the year that I discovered I should follow a low carb diet. I read about it in a magazine. I had been eating hundreds of carbs every day before that time. No doctor ever told me I should limit my carbs. I have always wondered why?

2

Wow!! That’s neat Richard! One flaw of my slacktacular not writing anything down strategy is that I don’t have that sort of history of myself.

3

nice richard! thanks for sharing.
i note with interest the early years. its a shame we dont have a full history from dx on up.
i may have asked you before if you had any recollection of what they may have been. you would be perfect for some kind of before and after ad.
do you think that we were never really informed about carbs because of the fears of us going low? some how by us being in the day to day control?

4

That’s Fantastic having a record like that Richard. I had many Endos through the years and plenty a year that I didn’t care to go to a Specialist. So my A1c’s are all over the place. Very Lucky that you found out about carbs back in 1988.

5

Dean, we couldn’t even test our blood at home until the mid 1980s. My doctor started testing my blood at his office twice per year, starting in 1945, and it was always very high. He never showed any concern. I think that was because he expected it to be that way. Probably all diabetics were running high back then. I am fortunate to be one of the lucky survivors from that era.

6

I know my doctor did A1cs when I was diagnosed in 1984, but I never asked numbers back then. I wish I had to know what they were compared to now!

7

Terrie, I am sorry to hear that. My impression of you is that you are healthy, without complications. That is more important than the numbers. They told me at Joslin that some of the Medalists had not taken good care of themselves, and their A1c’s were not very good, but they had no serious complications after 50+ years of type 1. I hope you are like that, but don’t take that for granted. Please!

8

Wow what a night and day difference without and with carb restriction. Wonder if you sent this to the ADA would they look at it or just pronounce it a fluke.

9

Oh Goodness Richard, of course I’m healthy Diabetes-wise. I’ve seen the result of not looking after myself in the past. Not Good!! I’ve come through a few complications successfully by working hard to learn what I needed to do. So my numbers, tests results and Good health have been stable for many years now.



So my A1c’s are all over the place.



By this sentence, I meant that with all the Drs. that I’ve had, it would be a tough job gathering all my A1c records on one list like you did. I got my first meter in 1988.



Don’t worry about me Richard, I’m Fine. :slight_smile:

10

Anthony, sometimes the so called experts are blind to the truth. I think we experienced diabetics are the real experts. How about you?

11

Ahhh! Thanks for the reply Terrie. I can sleep soundly tonight. Whew!

12

I always find it funny when my labs are “flagged” for being only a couple of points out of range (my lab uses 70-100)… because I don’t personally feel it’s any sort of failure on my part to walk into the lab with a 69 or a 103 as my fasting, but they do!

My doctors never mention it though… I would hope that they would if it was VERY high :wink:

13

Richard,

I have a similar data set going back to 1983, but when I looked at them closely I saw that the early results are NOT comparable, so I don’t think you can make any conclusion about whether carb restriction or anything else made any difference simply by looking at these numbers.

The problem is that the A1c test has gone through many changes since the 1980s. Please look at your tests and see whether they include the normal range? I found that on my tests, the normal (non-diabetic) range changed from 5.4-7.4 for Glycohemoglobin, to 4.0-6.0 for Glycohemoglobin A1c. That happened at different times depending on where your blood was tested. At Joslin in Boston, they made that switch in 1995, but at my previous doctor they made that switch in 1989. So when I look at my numbers from the 1980’s and 1990’s I need to consider that they are certainly not directly comparable. Furthermore, the earliest tests I have from 1983 and 1984 report a normal range of 5.5-8.5, so these results look even worse when compared without considering the variance from normal range.

If your 9.2 in 1983 had a normal range up to 8.5 like mine did, then that isn’t really very different from a later test of 6.5 where the normal range is up to 6.0 - Right? And it is not unlikely that the dramatic jump in 1988 that you saw was because they changed their testing method in that year and that it was not related to control.

So in other words, anyone who has numbers from the 1980’s will look like they have improved dramatically, even if their control remained exactly the same. And it will look like the control improved in quantum leaps anytime the testing lab made this change.

14

HaHa! Sorry that my incorrect wording scared you. You know me Better than that Hon. Sleep Well! :slight_smile:

15

That is very, very interesting. that might part of the reason, however, my suddenly going from eating hundreds of carbs pe day, to following a much lower carb diet, had to be a significant part of the picture.

Thanks for your reply!

16

OMG, I remember the change in A1C too! I went from like a 4 to a 6 something (college, freshman year…) and was like “OMG, I’m going to die! I’d better be in strobelight-fueled new wave bands and go out in style!”

17

Sarah, in January my A1c was 5.7 and it was labeled as “high”. A 5.6 would have been OK. Lol!

18

That could well be, but there isn’t really evidence of that here without knowing the normal ranges being reported. Next time you talk to your doctor, you could see if he has that data too.

On the other hand, it looks to me like you had a nice change in the years 2000-2003 where your A1c became much steadier and less apt to bounce around from test to test. Do you remember making any changes in those years?

And out of curiousity, how many carbs a day are you calling low carb? Bernstein-low (max 30g per day), or something else?

19

Jag, I think it was 2001 that I first used a basal/bolus control with two different vials of insulin. I used a mix for the previous few years. That was a definite improvement.

I needed to lose some weight at the turn of the century and reduced my daily carb intake to 130g. I know that is not low carb to many diabetics, but I had been eating more than that. It was sufficient to enable me to lose 34 pounds in one year. I am now able to eat 150 carbs per day without gaining weight. I call it “low” carb because i am still thinking of the several hundred carbs per day I ate back in the 1980s, before learning I should restrict my carb intake. It was a major adjustment changing from 300+ (?) carbs to something much lower in 1988, and then to 130-150 in the early part of this century. It sure seemed low carb to me. Lol!

20

You can definately see a pattern in your a1cs. When did you go on a pump?