Last year, I asked my doctor to test my HbA1C. Neither of my parents had Type II Diabetes, although my brother is diabetic.
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What is HbA1C?
HbA1C or the A1C test for short is glycated hemoglobin. This test does not need to be done in a fasted state. According to the Mayo Clinic, “It indicates your average blood sugar level for the past 2-3 months by measuring the percentage of blood sugar attached to hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying protein in red blood cells. The higher your blood sugar levels, the more hemoglobin you’ll have with sugar attached. An A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher on two separate tests indicates that you have diabetes. An A1C between 5.7 and 6.4 percent indicates prediabetes. Below 5.7 is considered normal.”
Pre-diabetic?
I was unpleasantly surprised to find that mine was slightly elevated, which meant I was in the pre-diabetic range. In November, I went home to India for 3 weeks, during which time, of course I indulged in a lot of favorite Indian foods. Then there was Christmas. So, when I had my A1C checked in February, 2020, it had gone up again. I really freaked out.
Meanwhile, I had heard from a couple of friends that they were doing Intermittent Fasting/IF (16 hour fast, and eating during an 8 hour window), and one of them was doing it to lower her A1C. We are not into fad diets, but I started researching IF. I read that it was scientifically proven to lower A1C, cholesterol, etc. So, in early February, my husband and I started doing IF most days of the week although we weren’t always consistent with the 16/8 pattern.
Retesting HbA1C
In early June I was retested and my A1C had gone down by 0.1. I was hoping for a more dramatic drop. My husband’s A1C had also dropped by 0.1. Both of our cholesterol levels had gone down as well. In fact my triglycerides were down from 143 to 91!
Other plans
For a long time, my doctor has recommended doing the Mediterranean diet. She herself follows it. It is not a fad diet, and is recommended by doctors and the American Heart Association. We’ve lived in the U.S. for 27 years and have mainly eaten low fat, healthy home cooked Indian meals. But, somehow, something hasn’t been right as evident by these numbers. I’m really motivated to lower my A1C and cholesterol, and even my weight. With weight loss, lowering of cholesterol and A1C should follow. So, we gave in to doing a Mediterranean diet. I’m still learning about it. The main changes we made were to increase our servings of vegetables and fruits, and eating dessert only occasionally. I do miss having dessert regularly, but my health is more important. We are also looking at the Glycemic Index of foods we consume.
I’m hoping all these efforts will pay off with a lower A1C and cholesterol.
Let me know if you are on a similar journey. What have you done? What has worked or not worked? Comment below.
Check out my post about Intermittent Fasting that has helped us.
Good luck with getting your Hb A1C and cholesterol down. I’ve heard others have managed with IF and a Mediterranean diet. Your blog is great BTW and I love that photo of you both.
Thanks Julie! We’re on our way, right?