Understanding A1C. A1C The A1C test measures your average blood sugar for the past two to three months. Diabetes is diagnosed at an A1C of greater than or equal to 6. Symptoms There are no clear symptoms of prediabetes, so you may have it and not know it. If you have prediabetes, you should be checked for type 2 diabetes every one to two years. Results indicating prediabetes are: An A1C of 5. Explore Understanding A1C Diagnosis.
Thiazolidinediones make the body's tissues more sensitive to insulin. Examples include rosiglitazone Avandia and pioglitazone Actos. DPP-4 inhibitors help reduce blood sugar levels but tend to have a very modest effect. Examples include sitagliptin Januvia , saxagliptin Onglyza and linagliptin Tradjenta. GLP-1 receptor agonists are injectable medications that slow digestion and help lower blood sugar levels.
Their use is often associated with weight loss, and some may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. SGLT2 inhibitors affect the blood-filtering functions in your kidneys by inhibiting the return of glucose to the bloodstream. As a result, glucose is excreted in the urine.
These drugs may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in people with a high risk of those conditions. Examples include canagliflozin Invokana , dapagliflozin Farxiga and empagliflozin Jardiance. Other medications your doctor might prescribe in addition to diabetes medications include blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medications, as well as low-dose aspirin, to help prevent heart and blood vessel disease.
Some people who have type 2 diabetes need insulin therapy. In the past, insulin therapy was used as a last resort, but today it may be prescribed sooner if blood sugar targets aren't met with lifestyle changes and other medications.
Different types of insulin vary on how quickly they begin to work and how long they have an effect. Long-acting insulin, for example, is designed to work overnight or throughout the day to keep blood sugar levels stable. Short-acting insulin might be used at mealtime. Your doctor will determine what type of insulin is appropriate for you and when you should take it.
Your insulin type, dosage and schedule may change depending on how stable your blood sugar levels are. Most types of insulin are taken by injection. Side effects of insulin include the risk of low blood sugar hypoglycemia , diabetic ketoacidosis and high triglycerides. Weight-loss surgery changes the shape and function of your digestive system. This surgery may help you lose weight and manage type 2 diabetes and other conditions related to obesity.
There are various surgical procedures, but all of them help you lose weight by limiting how much food you can eat. Some procedures also limit the amount of nutrients you can absorb. Weight-loss surgery is only one part of an overall treatment plan. Your treatment will also include diet and nutritional supplement guidelines, exercise and mental health care. Generally, weight-loss surgery may be an option for adults living with type 2 diabetes who have a body mass index BMI of 35 or higher.
BMI is a formula that uses weight and height to estimate body fat. Depending on the severity of diabetes or comorbid conditions, surgery may be an option for someone with a BMI lower than Weight-loss surgery requires a lifelong commitment to lifestyle changes. Long-term side effects include nutritional deficiencies and osteoporosis.
Women with type 2 diabetes will likely need to change their treatment plans and adhere to diets that carefully controls carbohydrate intake. Many women will need insulin therapy during pregnancy and may need to discontinue other treatments, such as blood pressure medications.
There is an increased risk during pregnancy of developing diabetic retinopathy or a worsening of the condition. If you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, visit an ophthalmologist during each trimester of your pregnancy, one year postpartum or as advised. Regularly monitoring your blood sugar levels is important to avoid severe complications. Also, be aware of signs and symptoms that may suggest irregular blood sugar levels and the need for immediate care:. High blood sugar hyperglycemia.
Eating certain foods or too much food, being sick, or not taking medications at the right time can cause high blood sugar. Signs and symptoms include:. Hyperglycemic hyperosmolar nonketotic syndrome HHNS. HHNS may be more likely if you have an infection, are not taking medicines as prescribed, or take certain steroids or drugs that cause frequent urination. With Type 2 diabetes, the liver, fat, and muscle cells stop properly using insulin.
This causes the body to need to make more insulin in order to break down the glucose. Although the pancreas does this at first, over time the pancreas loses its ability to produce enough insulin for meals. This causes the build-up of glucose in the blood.
Over 90 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes have Type 2. Prediabetes is the early stage of Type 2 diabetes. Prediabetes can often be reversed with treatments through diet, exercise, and sometimes medication.
The primary risk factor for Type 2 is being overweight or obese. This is true for children as well, as the number of childhood or adolescent diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes increases. Other risk factors include sedentary lifestyles, family history, race, and age, especially ages 45 and older. Identify the symptoms.
Type 2 symptoms do not show up as early as Type 1. It often isn't diagnosed until they do. The symptoms of Type 2 include those associated with Type 1. These symptoms are excessive thirst, frequent urination, increased fatigue, extreme hunger, unusual and rapid weight loss, and blurry vision. The symptoms unique to Type 2 are dry mouth, headaches, cuts or sores that are slow to heal, itchy skin, yeast infections, unexplained weight gain, and numbness or tingling in the hands and feet.
This test is also used to determine Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. Blood is taken from a patient and sent away for testing. The lab measures the blood sugar percentage attached to the patient's hemoglobin in the blood. This illustrates the patient's blood sugar levels over the past few months. If there is 5. Since this test calculates the blood sugar levels over a long period of time, this test is not redone.
If you have these or other blood issues, your doctor may have to use an alternate test. This test is given over a two-hour period at the doctor's office. The patient's blood is drawn before the test. Next, the patient drinks a special sweet drink and waits two hours. Blood is then drawn over the course of the two hours and the levels are calculated. If anything other than a normal amount is measured, the test will be redone to make sure that the results are true. Method 3. Understand gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is only diagnosed in pregnant women. During pregnancy, a woman's body increases the production of certain hormones and nutrients that can cause resistance to insulin. This causes the pancreas to increase its insulin production. Most of the time, the pancreas is able to deal with making more insulin and the mother will have slightly elevated blood sugar levels, but it will remain manageable. If the body starts building up too much insulin, then the mother will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes.
If you are pregnant, you should get tested between weeks 24 and 28 to see if you have it. There are no symptoms, which makes it hard to diagnose otherwise. If it goes undiagnosed, it can cause problems with the pregnancy.
This type of diabetes goes away after the baby is born. A rare type of diabetes that can occur in babies, called monogenic diabetes , can also be mistaken for type 1 diabetes. Treatment depends on the type of diabetes, so knowing which type you have is important.
To find out if your diabetes is type 1, your health care professional may look for certain autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are antibodies that mistakenly attack your healthy tissues and cells. The presence of one or more of several types of autoantibodies specific to diabetes is common in type 1 diabetes, but not in type 2 or monogenic diabetes.
A health care professional will have to draw your blood for this test. If you had diabetes while you were pregnant, you should get tested no later than 12 weeks after your baby is born to see if you have type 2 diabetes. The NIDDK translates and disseminates research findings to increase knowledge and understanding about health and disease among patients, health professionals, and the public.
Diabetes Overview What is Diabetes? Type 1 diabetes Type 2 diabetes Gestational diabetes What tests are used to diagnose diabetes and prediabetes? What tests are used to diagnose gestational diabetes? What test numbers tell me if I have diabetes or prediabetes? Which tests help my health care professional know what kind of diabetes I have? Who should be tested for diabetes? Blood tests help health care professionals diagnose diabetes and prediabetes.
Type 1 diabetes Most often, testing for type 1 diabetes occurs in people with diabetes symptoms. Type 2 diabetes Experts recommend routine testing for type 2 diabetes if you are age 45 or older are between the ages of 19 and 44, are overweight or obese , and have one or more other diabetes risk factors are a woman who had gestational diabetes 1 Medicare covers the cost of diabetes tests for people with certain risk factors for diabetes.
A1C test The A1C test is a blood test that provides your average levels of blood glucose over the past 3 months. Random plasma glucose RPG test Sometimes health care professionals use the RPG test to diagnose diabetes when diabetes symptoms are present and they do not want to wait until you have fasted.
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