What Is More Important

[Schlep]

I am curious as to which figure is more important your morning numbers or your A1C's.

What if you had a great A1C but poor morning numbers?

[xMenace]

High blood sugars do damage. They are both important.

[notme]

A1c won't be good if your morning numbers are consistantly off. You will be playing the game "chase the number" all day long if your morning numbers are bad.

[Kim_in_TN]

I've wondered the same type thing. Before my last check-up, I knew that I had not been very "good" with my eating. I was wondering if my A1c was still good, if it really mattered. My doc told me that it is still very important to test regularly and keep them in range. Darn ... I thought I had found a loophole! ;)

[princesslinda]

I think daily numbers are more important overall than A1C. If you have a high morning number but lower rest of the day numbers, your A1C can still be "within normal limits," but its not truly reflecting your control.

A example: I have a co-worker who routinely has fasting levels at near 250-300....she's on metformin, glyburide and Byetta, and after she takes her meds, she'll drop to into the 70's and 80's quite often. Her doctor doesn't think there's a problem, as her A1C isn't too bad...BUT, she's having daily super-high fasting readings that she doesn't share with her doc as she wants to avoid insulin.

[mg_2204]

A very good A1C would tell me I am on the right track and doing something that works in my case. Having high fasting numbers would tell me my lifestyle and diet/exercise regimen need a bit more tweaking though. That's how I would see it!

[Wolf]

I am curious as to which figure is more important your morning numbers or your A1C's.

What if you had a great A1C but poor morning numbers?

According to Dr. Gabe Mirkin (he has a radio show) your numbers after a meal are more important than fasting numbers.
FASTING BLOOD SUGAR TEST REPLACED (http://www.drmirkin.com/diabetes/8106.htm)

A1c measures how much glucose is sticking to your cell membranes over an approx. 3 month period. Too much glucose sticking to your cell membranes is what causes damage. Since morning numbers are just a snapshot of that one specific moment, A1c would be considered more important. Of course if your morning numbers are consistently high, you can bet your A1c will be high.

[Schlep]

Years ago Dr. Gabe Mirkin kept saying that an ulcer was an infection and most Dr's said he was nuts and continued treating the stomach ulcer with dairy products to coat the stomach.

In the last few years it has been found that ulcers are infections and that is the way they are now cured with great success. So I have a lot of respect for what he says.

The question is if our day numbers, and AC1's are great but our morning numbers are slightly high does that mean we should not worry?

[Jan B]

Keep working on those morning numbers! The A1c can be "tricked", since it's an average. If I have a lot of lows and highs, my A1c might be good, but I won't be!

[moorejames]

I think daily numbers are more important overall than A1C. If you have a high morning number but lower rest of the day numbers, your A1C can still be "within normal limits," but its not truly reflecting your control.

I'd agree with the one caveat that if all your daily numbers look in line, but your A1c isn't, then you're obviously missing some part of the day when you are running high.

I think they're a good check and balance to each other.

Don't want to rely on A1c completely, because you might be the person with one foot in boiling water and one foot in ice water who "on average" feels pretty comfortable :)

[Lloyd]

A1c, glucose average, and Standard Deviation. All three have importance!

The A1c gives you a long term average.

The Standard Deviation quantifies how big your peaks and valleys are. It is important, in and of itself, because highly variable glucose causes damage.

Testing multiple times a day can help you define problems with some foods, or problems that happen at certain times of day.

Fasting glucose is a large part of your A1c measurement, until you get your A1c below 7.3. Then, improving your highs from meal spikes will be the largest contribution to a lower A1c.

[davef]

I'm new to this, but my approach for the moment is to tackle this on a daily basis to keep my morning (and other numbers down) and then I hope to rewarded with a good A1c result. So for me it's the daily numbers that drive me, kinda looking after the cents and the dollars will take care of themselves.