| "A reading of 224 is pretty much what any person, diabetic or not, would have just after eating."--DeusXM, that is just not accurate. Either are many of the other "factual" statements you have made, and I feel that there has been much confusion over these numbers and what they mean.
"A1C for 'normal' people should be 7.0 or less"--Absolutely not the case. The ADA used to say the target a1c FOR A DIABETIC should be under 7. Now they have recently lowered that to under 6.5, and "normal" levels, depending on the "Lab Normal" of the lab doing the test, is anywhere between 4.2 and 6.2. OVER 7 is considered "requiring medical intervention".
"It's usually very dangerous for people with diabetes to have an AIC less than 6.4 because it means that they will almost always be having a lot of medium to severe hypos." False--I've been type 1 for 38 years, and although I nearly always keep my a1c right around 6.4, I have been as low as 6.2, with absolutely no lows or significant hypoglycemic events. It's not easy, but with VERY careful and strict control and utmost discipline, such levels are safely possible.
"Maybe it's different for me because I have Type 1, but I've been told by every doctor who's ever worked with me that anything between 72 and 144 is fantastic, and that 180 is the maximum that should be encountered just after a meal." Mostly accurate. "Normal range" is generally set by American doctors at 80-120, which, as a Type 1 since 1965, I recognize as an impossibly narrow range to realistically maintain. My personal goal is 65-165, and 85% of my tests fall within that range. Yes, 65 IS a tad low, and 165 a tad high, but both within a fairly safe zone for me, and a range of 100 is way more possible than a range of 40!
Hope that clears some things up,
Michael  | 
