Hi, Joanne. I saw your question. The answer: A1c hemoglobin is a bloodtest that we pre-diabetics usually get a few times a year. It measures AVERAGE blood sugar in your bloodstream over the last three months or so. We generally like it to be less than 6. If it's more than 6.5, we're probably already diabetic, but it needs to be confirmed with another A1c 3-6 months later.
The reason it's called A1c hemoglobin is that, when we don't get enough exercise or move around enough generally, the sugar (glucose) that SHOULD be in our muscle cells, making us feel energetic, instead gets stuck onto the hemoglobin protein in our red blood cells in the bloodstream. It also tends to make the blood sticky or sludgy instead of nice and slippery.
What you WANT hemoglobin to be doing is moving oxygen and other nutrients all around your body so that every cell feels happy, healthy, and efficient. If the hemoglobin has sugar stuck all over it, it can't do that and you'll feel lousy.
The good news is that in the early stages of "pre-diabetes", most people can literally "walk away" from developing diabetes. Walking burns off that sludgy sugar and liberates your hemoglobin to do its job nicely. Good luck!
- 10/16/2013 3:18:25 PM