The ‘new’ HbA1c.

15 January 2010
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A comment on this post led me to have another look at the ‘new’ international standard which has come in to eventually replace the HbA1c results which our doctors benchmark our diabetes control on.

I say ‘new’, because the new ‘molar’ system has actually been available in our lab reports since August last year. Apparently our blood glucose control will be reported both as an HbA1c and in mmol/mol for two years, after which time we’ll switch to solely mmol/mol. The reason for this is to foster international measurement of blood glucose control, as instigated by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC).

To give you a better idea of how these numbers…

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By Nic on 15 January 2010 at 6.16 pm
Posted in Medical Services
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So long, 2009 – and the decade of the noughties.

31 December 2009
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…. so what do we call this decade? If last one was the noughties, and the following one is the 20s, what is this one coming up? The teens?

It’s been a great year for BeingDiabetic. Visitor numbers have quadrupled, the community is growing and getting stronger, and we’ve had several face-to-face meetings (albeit only in Auckland and Nelson so far but it’s a start!). Keep up the awesome work everyone, and thanks again for being a great, interactive audience willing to help each other out.

On a personal note it’s been a pretty full-on year too and one I’m really proud of from a diabetes point of view. Only you lot (and maybe our partners to a degree) know…

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By Nic on 31 December 2009 at 9.43 am
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My latest HbA1c – 45.2%…

16 December 2008
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…well that’s what it will be if I keep up the hullabaloo of this week so far. After hitting a cool 19.9 yesterday from a pump/cannula failure, this morning I got up to 18.0.

I went to bed at midnight, with a steady 5.3. Got up to go to the gym at 5:20am – yaaaay it had gone up to 13.5 without any explanation! I was up and not keen to flag the gym so downed 3 units of insulin and headed to RPM starting at 6am. By 6:20am (about three tracks into the class) I’d gone up to 15.1. I tried one more track in the hope that it had peaked and was on its way down – not…

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By Nic on 16 December 2008 at 7.02 am
Posted in Hypos & Hypers
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Guest blog: The all powerful HbA1c – Part Two

6 November 2008
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Hi guys,

You may or may not remember a post back in September which I wrote called ‘The all powerful HbA1c’ in which I talked about HbA1c a little and how despite it being an important tool for gauaging how our BGs are overall, it isn’t necessarily a definitive tool. Specifically, this is because it is possible to ignore fluctuations in glycemic control because the figure is an average and therefore, can hide large variability.

Anyway, I made mention in that post of some articles that I was hoping to get some references for because some research had come out indicating that fluctuations in glycemic control may be just as harmful as consistently evelated BG. It has taken…

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By Aaron on 6 November 2008 at 8.43 am
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Caught red handed.

30 July 2008
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Well, thanks to my trusty Dexcom, I’ve caught those naughty overnight blood sugars in their tracks. I now have three nights’ worth of data which shows the little blighters partying it up while I’m asleep, much like we as teenagers would when our parents went away for the weekend. What I plan to do about this I’m not too sure at this stage – being less than three weeks from hooking up to a pump (see previous post) I’m almost reluctant to be changing regimes at this point even though this will continue to hinder my HbA1c (and ability to sleep).

This makes for two street busts in the last few days…. We have been aware…

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By Nic on 30 July 2008 at 1.22 pm
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