autonomic

Can Autonomic neuropathy hide what your blood glucose is? Even with meds for Adult Type II Diabetes my Accu-CHEK monitoring never seems to be right. It runs from 135, 145,200 and even up to 300 once. My a1c is always good, 5.5, 6.0 even before I started meds for Adult Type II Diabetes and even after starting meds it stays the same.
    I just found out I had Autonomic neuropathy in 2002 but another Doctor fond in my military medical records that I was diagnosed in 1977 with Autonomic neuropathy in the Army but the Army never said a word or started me on meds to help me! I was in the Marines first and went to Vietnam and I know I was exposed to Agent Orange in NAM.
    I read, Diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN) is among the least recognized and understood complications of diabetes despite its significant negative impact on survival and quality of life in people with diabetes.
    Does this mean I  could have had Adult Type II Diabetes back in 1977 and not even know it?

Thanks Don USMC/US ARMY SEMPER-FI TO ALL MARINES OUT THERE!... ***@****
Please help!

[Anita Ramsetty, MD]

Hello,
The only way to know if you had diabetes  in the 1970's would be to review your blood sugar findings then to see if any are compatible with diabetes. We now know that even pre-diabetes can be associated with nerve damage, so it is just as likely that you had pre-diabetes and developed nerve damage early.

Autonomic neuropathy does not affect the glucose readings however.  If you routinely have elevated glucose numbers but your A1C is normal or even low, your doctor should look into reasons for a possibly falsely low A1C(for example anemias, some medications etc).
Take care