Blood Glucose Explained
Blood glucose is a type of sugar produced by the body when it digests food. It is the major ‘fuel’ used by our bodies to give us energy for daily life.
To turn blood glucose into energy, our bodies use a hormone called insulin, which is produced by the pancreas. However, if we have diabetes and our body is unable to produce insulin, or can’t use it properly, our blood glucose levels become abnormally high and we start to experience a number of health problems.
Blood Glucose Testing
If you live with type 1 diabetes, your goal is to keep your blood glucose levels within a normal range as often as possible. This not only helps you avoid the short-term health problems of hyperglycaemia (high blood glucose) and hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose), but also helps prevent long-term complications, such as vascular disease.
To work out how well you’re going keeping your blood glucose stable, you need to test it several times a day. These tests will not only alert you to highs and lows that require immediate action, but will also help you identify how certain foods and activities affect your levels throughout the day.
The HbA1c Test – The Bigger Picture
When you monitor your blood glucose with a fingerstick test, you measure it at the moment you perform the test. To get an even better picture of how well you’re managing your diabetes, it is important to look at your average blood glucose over a few months.
The test used to work this out is the haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test. HbA1c is a kind of chemical ‘footprint’ that shows how much glucose has been in your blood stream over the past 60 to 90 days (the average lifespan of a red blood cell). Research shows that, for people living with diabetes, an HbA1c level of ≤ 7 greatly reduces the risk of long-term complications.¹,² In fact, any reduction in HbA1c is good news.
Whether you use an insulin pump or take injections, it’s important to have your HbA1c levels tested at least every three months by your doctor, endocrinologist or diabetes educator. That way you can get a clearer picture of how well you’re doing and make the necessary treatment and lifestyle adjustments to do even better.
1The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) Research Group. The effect of intensive treatment of diabetes on the development and progression of long-term complications in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. NEJM. 1993;329(14):977-986.
2The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Study Research Group. Intensive diabetes treatment and cardiovascular disease in patients with type 1 diabetes. NEJM. 2005;353(25):2643-2653.