A1C, LGI, and Other Capital Letters

Once upon the beginning of this blog, I said I'd talk about some big 'ol medical words and abbreviations at some point 'later' in the blog. Well, it's later...so off we go! Everyday blood sugar readings are measured by pricking a digit with one of those unpleasant pointy pokey sticks (lancets-which is just a fancy way of saying needle mounted on little plastic thingamajig), (after two months I don't like them anymore than I did on day one-and I still jump every time I do it!), then squeezing out a nice perfectly round drop 'o the red stuff, which is kind of magically sucked up by a second absorbent stick thingy (test strip) that you've inserted into the little machine (glucose monitor), prior to the whole unpleasant poking moment. You wait 5 seconds (can't ya just hear the Jeopardy music playing in the background?!) and it tells you how sweet you are (or aren't-if you are crazy enough to poke yourself to check when you aren't diabetic! Ha!) Actually, it tells you the sugar (glucose) level in your body at that very precise and pinpointed moment in time. This is great, but it doesn't tell the whole picture. Look how many cool words we got in, just in one paragraph!

See, your sugar level varies throughout the day and as I'm learning, gets more and more complicated. There's that failing (but still loved-we don't want to shun our pancreas...it could do wayyyy worse things!) pancreas that keeps on keeping on to try and make some insulin, there's your heroic liver, trying valiantly to take up the slack for your vacationing pancreas, there's those crazy kids we call the hormones running amok all up in the mix, then there is that invisible, but very real, wall that your body is erecting to get between your cells and the blood, where that sugar is swimming along like so much sludge, to prevent the cells from sucking the sugar out, to go burn it off as we work and play...la, la, la. Still with me??? Okay. So, this is all going on and then we throw in food we eat, the medicine we're taking, and all the external factors that come into play including stress, lack of sleep, sickness, and on and on. As a side note, so we understand that it all plays a part...yeah, we'll get back to the main point, I swear!...I was sick two weeks ago and even after eating oh so well the day before, after one night of congestion and little sleep, my blood sugar was the worst it has been, the next morning when I checked it. All of this means that those individual readings, while handy at the time, need a way to get grouped, or put together, to mean something over a longer period of time.

I check my blood sugar once a day, but what is it at other times of the day? I don't know. Ah, but my body is keeping track of it. And there's a handy little test to gather that stored information and tell doctors what my sugar is doing on average, over time. How cool is that!? The test is called an A1C. By taking a much larger sample of your blood (not nearly as much fun as the pokey thing you do to yourself, but the nurses mean well!), the doctor can tell what your blood sugar average has been over 2-3 months.  It has to do with hemoglobin protein linking up with sugar in a way that leaves a trail (just think of it as NCIS for diabetics but without that cute Mark Harmon-just another part of the major suckage of this disease). I cannot possibly do the explanation justice, so check out this article on the ADA website at http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/blood-glucose-control/a1c/.  This number is what really matters and is the number used to determine if you are diabetic or just 'glucose intolerant'. Isn't that a hoot?! A kinder gentler way of saying my body sucks at getting rid of sugar! When I had my inital A1C it was right at an 8...eh, not so good. After two months, I'm down to just below a 7...which is much better. Not where I want it to be, and maybe never where I want it to be, but it's a start. The number assigned (called an Estimated Glucose Average) has to do with your blood sugar average level, which takes us back to our daily readings that usually fall in a three digit range...like 145 or 168. For example, someone with an 8 is running an average level over 2-3 months of 183.  The information about this scale and where the averages fall can be found here, http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/blood-glucose-control/estimated-average-glucose.html, so check that out. To have 'normal' blood sugar you have to run below 100 which puts your A1C at a 5. I miss being a 5...

A big part of diabetes control is all about the mouth, and what you put in it. Seeing as I'm a food loving human, I have spent a lot of time learning how to make typical foods I eat, fit into the new lifestyle I must now lead. That lead me to reading all about foods with LGI's! Turns out all carbohydrates are not created equal. Nothing is ever easy...as they say, whoever 'they' are. All carbohydrates have a glycemic index, which measures how a food containing carbs, raises blood sugar levels.  A HGI (high glycemic index) food raises the blood sugar more than a LGI (low glycemic index) food. Arming yourself with knowledge about which carbs raise your sugar less, goes a long way toward balancing your overall eating throughout the day.  And for me, it really helped focus some eating choices very early on.  Some low GI foods include:  dried beans, most fruit, and many whole grain breads and cereals.  I have found switching over to some lower GI foods a pretty easy thing to do, to make a meal still seem about like it was before all this started.  For example, sweet potatoes have a lower GI than regular potatoes, so I try to make that change to keep my potato in my meal.  There are some factors that affect the GI level of foods and you can read all about that in this article:  http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/glycemic-index-and-diabetes.html Suffice to say, our good friend FIBER, is a key component to lower GI levels. I'm loving me some fiber these days!

There are about a million other little words we could discuss but then this would be a dictionary and not a blog. Dictionary=boringggggggg...blog=fun with a wee bit of learning. At least that's the plan! So gather up your alphabet, all these new fun geeky words, and go take care of yourself. You only get one shot at that...don't forget it.