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FAST, EASY, ACCURATE
Are you controlling
your diabetes?
Diabetes in the United States is a major health problem affecting almost 20 million people. There are over 1 million adults in the US
diagnosed with diabetes every year. Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires lifestyle changes, especially in the areas of nutrition and exercise, and often medication is needed as well. If left untreated or uncontrolled, the complications can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputations.
Control
Keeping your diabetes under control is key to keeping healthy. You probably self-monitor your blood sugar as part of your diabetes management plan in order to find out what your blood sugar level is at a particular time, which is very helpful. However, that alone does not give you the complete
picture.
A1C
There is another test that can tell you your
average blood sugar for the past 2-3 months. This is called an A1C test. You may hear a few different ways to describe the test, including:
• HbA1C
• Glycohemoglobin
• A1C
What is A1C?
Hemoglobin is a protein inside your red blood cells. It is the part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Hemoglobin also carries sugar, because sugars can stick to all kinds of protein in your body. Once sugar sticks to hemoglobin it is stuck there for the life of the red blood cell, about 3-4 months. The more sugar there is in your blood, the more will end up stuck to the hemoglobin, which increases the A1C level.A1C is a measure of how much sugar is stuck to your hemoglobin. Your A1C reading tells you and your healthcare team what your average blood sugar level has been for the past 2 to 3 months. If you have lots of sugar in your blood and your average blood sugar has been high for the past few months, then your A1C will be high. The A1C test allows you to see overall how good your control has been.
An A1C higher than 7% is a warning sign that your diabetes is out of control and may increase your risk of developing complications1. If your A1C is high, your healthcare team may change your diabetes plan to help control your blood sugar better. Changes in your plan are expected from time to time and will help bring your A1C closer to normal. When your A1C is closer to normal (4-6%) you know that you are doing all you can to stay healthy. Research shows that good blood sugar control does lower your risk of developing major related health problems including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye disease, nerve damage, amputations
and circulation problems as mentioned earlier. By keeping your blood sugar close to normal, you can stop or delay the damage high blood sugar does to blood vessels and nerves.
• Immediate, face-to-face counseling about A1C results may help motivate patients to follow through with physician recommendations.
• Patients who get immediate feedback may lower their A1C by up to 1%. 2,3
• Lowering A1C levels reduces the risks of long term complications.
• For every 1% reduction in A1C, the risk of developing eye, kidney and nerve disease is reduced by 40%.4
If
you would like more information about
using A1CNow+®
in your practice, please
contact us |
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“THE A1C TEST ALLOWS YOU TO SEE OVERALL HOW GOOD YOUR
DIABETES CONTROL HAS BEEN”