Your primary care physician can perform 2 different tests to check your blood glucose test. Normally, a fasting blood test is used to check for diabetes, but a urine test can also be performed.  Normal blood glucose levels are between 70 and 100. If you're borderline diabetic ("pre-diabetic"), your levels will be between 100 and 125. If your levels are above 126, you're considered diabetic. This is a newer test that is being used by some doctors for diabetes. It looks at the hemoglobin (a protein) in your red blood cells and measures how much sugar is attached. The higher the value, the more sugar is attached, which directly correlates to your risk of having diabetes. (After all, diabetes is the heightened prevalence of sugar in the bloodstream.)  To explain the normal correlation between HbA1c and average blood sugar levels is as follows. An HbA1c of 6 equates to a blood glucose level of 135. An HbA1c of 7 = 170, an HbA1c of 8 = 205, an HbA1c of 9 = 240, an HbA1c of 10 = 275, an HbA1c of 11 = 301, and an HbA1c of 12 = 345. In most labs, the normal range for HbA1c is between 4.0-5.9%. In poorly controlled diabetes, it is 8.0% or above, and in well controlled patients it is less than 7.0%. The benefit of measuring HbA1c is that it gives a more reasonable view of what's happening over the course of time. It reflects your average sugar levels over the past 3 months, rather than a simple glucose test which is a one-time measurement of your sugar levels. To treat diabetes, you may need to take insulin injections or pills daily, and you will be asked to watch your diet and to exercise.  Sometimes, in more mild cases of Type 2 diabetes, the only thing needed is diet and exercise. Sufficient lifestyle changes can actually reverse diabetes and put you back into the "normal" range for your blood sugars. Talk about some great motivation to make changes! You will be asked to cut back on sugars and carbohydrates, and to exercise for about 30 minutes a day. If you follow through with these changes, you will likely see a noticeable reduction in your blood sugar levels. Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, will always require insulin injections because it is an autoimmune disease where the body fails to produce insulin. It is extremely important to properly treat diabetes. Note that, if left untreated, the elevated blood sugars from diabetes can lead to more serious health issues, such as nerve damage (neuropathy), kidney damage or failure, blindness, and severe circulation problems resulting in difficult-to-treat infections that can progress into gangrene necessitating amputation (particularly in the lower extremities). It is important to get repeat blood tests every 3 months or so for people who fall into the "pre-diabetic" or "diabetic" range. The reason for this is to monitor either improvement of the condition (for those who make positive lifestyle changes), or worsening of the condition.  Repeat blood tests also help your physician to make decisions about insulin doses and medication doses. Your doctor will be trying to "target" your blood sugars to be within a particular range, so having the numerical values from repeat blood tests is key. It can also provide motivation for you to exercise more, and to make positive changes to your diet, knowing that you may very well see tangible results on your next blood test!
اذهب لطبيب بغرض الفحص. الجأ لفحص معدلات الHbA1c (هيموجلوبين A1c) في دمك. عالج المرض. احرص على عمل فحوصات للمتابعة.