1. Measure Your HbA1c Quarterly
Glycosylated hemoglobin, also known as hemoglobin A1c or HbA1c, is a measurement of the amount of sugar attached to the hemoglobin in your red blood cells. It is a measurement taken in patients with diabetes on a quarterly basis. Even though most people with diabetes check their blood sugar four times a day, the HbA1c test gives the patient and his physician a better idea of how well blood sugar is being controlled all day, not just at the times when the patient is checking.
2. 6 Percent Is Your Target
The result of the HbA1c test is a percentage, with 6 percent indicating that the patient is under excellent control. A higher percentage indicates that the patient is less controlled. (A person who does not have diabetes has a HbA1c between 3 percent and 6.5 percent--an average of about 5 percent). Even though this is a good test, it's only part of the story. A person who has a lot of high and low blood sugars--neither of which are good-- could conceivably have a good HbA1c because it is an average. Therefore, it is one of the tools used to tell if blood sugar is under control, but it is not a substitute for daily testing before meals.
3. Look at the Big Picture
Hemoglobin A1c offers a snapshot of how good diabetes has been controlled over the past two to three months. However, it is more heavily weighted to 30 days before the test. The American Diabetes Association compares the HbA1c to a baseball player's batting average for a season. In other words, it's the big picture--not the results from a single "game" or day.
4. Feel Better Now and Later
If you have diabetes, the purpose of keeping track of your HbA1c is to help you to feel better. Another reason to control this number is because people who stay around 6 percent have fewer complications like nerve, blood vessel, eye and kidney damage than people with higher percentages.
5. Red Blood Cells Remember
You might wonder how the A1c test can look back at blood sugar numbers. When blood sugar is high, the extra glucose glycates (hooks up) to hemoglobin. Therefore, even though blood sugar levels return to normal, that blood sugar is still there. The record will change when these old red blood cells die and new ones replace them. Since red blood cells last about 120 days, that's the time period that the test measures.
