I am going to get my bloods tested next week but the nurse advised me to fast, I have never done this before is it necessary for a type 1??
You should do what your doc asks. Fasting is needed depending on what all is tested in the blood draw.
I try to but it's hard. More because I'm a space cadet and a procrastinator so I usually do the blood work at the last minute. I think you get a lot better results if you can pull off the fast with a minimum of inputs but, if my BG is crashing, I'll have something to nudge it up and not worry about it.
A fasting blood sugar only means you are having it done in the morning brfore you have eaten anything yet for the day. Go to the lab for your blood work first thing in the morning before you have breakfast. Many labs start taking patients at 7 a.m. I dont think the nurse meant you need to go without eating for any length of time.
how many hours do I have to suffer without food then, as soon as I know I can't eat I will want too. I am guessing 8 hrs does that sound about right?
Do you suffer from lack of food while you are sleeping? Go after a regular overnight. Get out the door early and hit the lab to have blood drawn. Then get breakfast on your way to work. A fasting blood sugar shouldn’t be a big deal and certainly not a situation in which you should endure any measure of suffering.
I think I will cope cinderfella, as long as I don't go low I will manage the fast. :)
Some tests, like the cholesterol test and the fasting blood sugar test require you to actually be fasting. If you eat before the test, the test gives meaningless results. It may be that you were given improper orders to fast, but without being able to survey the actual tests being ordered, it would be better to be safe and fast. If you arrive having eaten and you actually need a fasting number, you may well be told to go away and make another appointment.
This whole fasting thing is why I always make appointments for draws in the morning.
The fasting glucose is meaningless anyway because you are diabetic it can be anything and it wont mean a thing to your dr. unless it is very high or very low.
The tests that matter are Cholesterol, hdl, ldl and triglycerides.
Your a1c is very much dependent on your glucose at the time of the test. Try to get it to be normal when You get drawn.
Some labs want 12 hour fasting. I generally do 8. Just tell the person who draws your bllod how long it has been and it will be noted and taken into consideration.
In my experience the glucose level at drawing time is irrelevant. How should it be relevant? The A1c measures the glycenated red blood cells. The glycenation will not increase or decrease significantly just because the current number is higher than usual. If this would be the case the drawing protocol would have been changed and we all would be adviced to come to the tests with good numbers only.
I did parallel testing on this. I wrote a thread detailing it a while back on here.
I run medical lab. I did testing where one group had normal sugars averaging 100 mg/ dl and the other around 200.
I included myself in the tests, by drawing a sample when I was in the 90s and then again just an hour later in the 200s.
I found a large variance in two groups. the ones that had high fasting sugars had higher a1cs as much as .8%
The trouble is that when the blood sits in a tube for a long time, at a high glucose. the red cells become glycated as if it were 200 for the entire day, on top of the fact that the cells become glycated faster in a tube than in your body because they are not working to move oxygen, and nutrients are not moving in and out of the blood plasma.
Doctors will tell you it does not matter if you are fasting, because it does not matter, it only matters that your sugar is in normal range.
That in quite often misinterpreted.
I can not tell you what your doctor asks for, I can only tell you that the studies I have run, show a large difference.
I think they usually ask you to fast if you’re having cholesterol or lipid tests. If you’re on shots you may want to reduce your morning long acting shot. If you’re on a pump, it’s a good time to check your basal rate.
I hope your results are excellent. And if not, remember these are just numbers. Use them as information, not to punish yourself.
I had no idea that the hbA can be affected by the bg level at time it is drawn.
you bet it does. been there done that.
get it done when your bg is at its lowest otherwise instant - blood now data is added to the part stored in blood overwhelming the long term portion.