LoKarb Kay
Wed, Apr-09-08, 09:36
A question and a "yippee!" -- I'm probably evaluating this too much. :)
I was diagnosed with PCOS about 12 years ago. When my periods stopped and my fasting blood sugar crept into the borderline range, my endocrinologist put me on Metformin. I hated Metformin from the first week and weaned myself off of it in January, just after I started eating LC. My menstrual cycles came back and normalized on their own, but I did have a lingering anxiety about my blood sugar. To be honest, I'm afraid of becoming diabetic.
Yesterday my new doctor did a hemoglobin A1c test during my appointment... and my level was normal! 5.3. I'll get a fasting blood glucose test later this week, so my joy might be premature, but I was so relieved. Yippee!
But here's the question: If I'm eating low carb, why isn't my number even lower? 5.3 is just dandy and I should probably stop questioning it... but if that's my test result when I'm restricting carbs, is that an indication that my body continues to be overly sensitive to sugar?
From what I can find about the A1c test, the range considered normal is 4-5.9, and this is a reflection of average blood glucose levels for the past 2-4 weeks or up to 120 days (depending on which expert is cited). In the past month, I've averaged 36 net grams of carb per day; for the two months before that, I averaged about 45.
In the world at large, 36 net carbs per day is ridiculously low. Many people must be eating a lot more than that and still testing in the same range. I would have expected that I'd be near the bottom of the range, just because there haven't been that many carbohydrates entering my body.
Am I overthinking? 5.3 seems to be a healthy level and I don't know of any reason why I would try to get it lower. I'm simply surprised that it's not.
Anyway... yippee! And, any insight? :)
I was diagnosed with PCOS about 12 years ago. When my periods stopped and my fasting blood sugar crept into the borderline range, my endocrinologist put me on Metformin. I hated Metformin from the first week and weaned myself off of it in January, just after I started eating LC. My menstrual cycles came back and normalized on their own, but I did have a lingering anxiety about my blood sugar. To be honest, I'm afraid of becoming diabetic.
Yesterday my new doctor did a hemoglobin A1c test during my appointment... and my level was normal! 5.3. I'll get a fasting blood glucose test later this week, so my joy might be premature, but I was so relieved. Yippee!
But here's the question: If I'm eating low carb, why isn't my number even lower? 5.3 is just dandy and I should probably stop questioning it... but if that's my test result when I'm restricting carbs, is that an indication that my body continues to be overly sensitive to sugar?
From what I can find about the A1c test, the range considered normal is 4-5.9, and this is a reflection of average blood glucose levels for the past 2-4 weeks or up to 120 days (depending on which expert is cited). In the past month, I've averaged 36 net grams of carb per day; for the two months before that, I averaged about 45.
In the world at large, 36 net carbs per day is ridiculously low. Many people must be eating a lot more than that and still testing in the same range. I would have expected that I'd be near the bottom of the range, just because there haven't been that many carbohydrates entering my body.
Am I overthinking? 5.3 seems to be a healthy level and I don't know of any reason why I would try to get it lower. I'm simply surprised that it's not.
Anyway... yippee! And, any insight? :)