103 glucose level , do i have diabetes?

[Roberto123]

103 is my last level, im 41 and i start having fatigue since may with out other symptom. Fatigue is ocasional and is almost always with kind of arhytmia. My pulse is 110/70 as avg

I have a circulatory blood problem since almost 15 years in my legs that cause fatigue too specially if i stay stand up for long periods and it gets worst when weather is hot.

Can this fatigue be related to diabetes or is related to other problems like my circulatory desease?

Thanks in advance

[shahbaz_m]

dear sir, my fasting blood sugar: 103.3mg/dl and HBAIC: 6.7%  Sir this alright?

have your testosterone level checked it could be low and this will cause you to be tired all the time

[Super_sally888]

Hello,
the test showing the 7.5 is Hba1c.  It is an average of 3 months blood sugars. However, that is the past 3 months and the situation now that he knows is different.

Since your husband is now home, has lost weight and is watching his diet it appears he has made some really big improvements in his blood sugar levels.   If he continues this way, in 3 months, his next hba1c should be much lower.  Maybe in the 5s and nearly normal.

I would recommend that your husband continues home monitoring, writing down his blood sugar for fasting and 2 hours after eating (including what he eats).  He should then take this to his doctor and request that he be allowed to continue monitoring and if he can maintain his blood sugar in the current range of 80 - 120, which is essentially normal, he should not be taking meds.

Of course he may now need to keep monitoring and be vigilent about his diet to maintain his progress and stop his sugars rising again.

Do not take the diabetic medicine while his blood sugars are still 'normal'.  If he takes this medicine he may end up having low blood sugar, which is also not a good option.

[stacydunn49]

Diabetics can be very confusing....I have some questions ..June 14 2014.  My husband went hospital for fluids in his body, with very high blood pressure is 250/134......!!!! Scary! 9½ liters of fluids out of body and staying in ICU for 48 hours  did some damaged in his heart and his kidney was not acting normal.  Finding out he is diabetic.  He is home now recovery very well , lost some weights, checking blood pressure and checking his sugar level.. Here the part I m confuse....doctor told us that he caught early that we can maintain his sugar level.....as he been home his sugar level this week been 85, 106, 94, 116, 113 been very good.... No medicine yet....two days ago we went his regular doctor and did some blood work saying that for last three months ....It's 7.5  wanted to give him strong diabetic medicine and want to get down below 80 which he have been low so far so good without the medicine. He is planning to call his doctor to talk to her think it's too strong of medicine along with 5 different  medicine for other problems.   He nervous about taking this strong medicine for his diabetic since he sugar level been below 120 and his doctor said no it's 100 or above is considered diabetics which it's surprise me    help me give some good information about this and what do you think of my husband s conditions .....

[Zoelula]

Good question! My endo in Guatemala actually did tell me she wished all her patients were willing to educate themselves about their conditions like I was and asked for the name of a book I recommended. She admitted she didn't know about LADA (my slow onset version of type 1), but just considered me type 1. Most American doctors would be too arrogant to admit they didn't know something.

[allmymarbles]

And here is another dumb story. I had one of those five or six hour glucose tests. My fasting blood sugar was normal to start. After drinking that horrible stuff my blood sugar started to fall and kept falling. It went below 50 and did not start to recover (very slightly) by the time I left. My doctor ( a different genius) said I didn't have diabetes. Big surprise, right? He did not address the hypoglycemia issue considering it unimportant, or nonexistent. So I bought a book by Carton Fredericks and took care  of it myself. Why do I pay for health insurance?

[Zoelula]

Where diabetes is concerned? Probably no time soon. I'm on another website with 15,000 members and many of us have similar experiences. We know a lot more about the day to day mangement of our diabetes than most doctors. I just see my doctor to get prescriptions written. When I lived out of the country, I didn't even have to do that.

[allmymarbles]

It didn't bother me that I was misdiagnosed. I knew enough about the subject to know he was way off base. In fact I told him I was hypoglycemic and he said not according to my blood test. I had to explain to him that I had reactive hypoglycemia. When will they get it in their heads that being a patient is not synonymous with being ignorant.

[Zoelula]

Sorry you got misdiagnosed. I had that experience as well, being misdiagnosed type 2 due to my age when I am in fact type 1. You're right we just assume doctors and tests are right, when in fact there are lots of exceptions to the rules. I think it's a good thing they are switching from using fasting to using A1C to make initial diagnosis, though even that has its flaws as well.  I think numbers are always pretty arbitrary cutoffs. Like 99 not being pre-diabetes and 100 is, or 5.6 A1C is fine, but 5.7 isn't. But I also feel that the more people get diagnosed as pre-diabetes the better because they then have an opportunity to slow or even prevent the advancement of the condition, instead of waiting until they already have symptoms and complications have already started to develop.

[allmymarbles]

You are absolutely correct. Fasting blood sugar can vary from day to day. If my fasting blood sugar came up at 103 on a single test I wouldn't pay any attention to it. I am hypoglycemic (reactive). My blood sugar after fasting is as high as it gets. After I eat, it drops. But a superficial look at my blood test results might have a doctor warn me about diabetes. In fact this has happened to me. One doesn't question the validity of a test, or its fallibility.

[Zoelula]

A1C is a test that measures the average blood sugar for a period of 2-3 months. It's considered a lot more meaningful than just a test of blood sugar at one moment in time. You could have it tested at a lab, or you could purchase a home A1C test kit which is available at drugstores.

[Roberto123]

What is  HA1C? Can be tested that value at home/work? I use to test my glucose levels at work.

What kind of tester is recoomended? Or should be tested at lab only?

[Roberto123]

Sorry but what is AH1C? I was in the idea that only level to meassure was the glucose, i use to meassure my glucose at work, the nurse has an electronic equipment to measure but never told me about the AH1C.

The AH1C can be only measured at laboratory or can be tested at home? What kind of tester is required?

this is a very power information and i really want to thank all of you on helping me and my family.

Thank

[Zoelula]

The closer to normal a person can keep their blood sugar the better. There are people even with Type 1 diabetes who maintain blood sugars in the 5.0's. If you are asking about a person without diabetes, anything below 5.7 is considered normal. Not at risk? It is hard to say who will go on to develop either type of diabetes, with genetics and insulin resistance as factors. The best anyone can do is improve lifestyle factors such as healthy eating, exercise, and healthy weight level. This helps a lot with development of Type 2.

[Super_sally888]

Totally normal HA1C is actually about 4.7 or 4.8.  
Totally normal blood sugars should rarely exceed 100!
So you see there is a huge gap between what is 'ideal' and the level at which someone is diagnosed as diabetic.

[Roberto123]

Wow! What im understanding is that lowering numbers will force people to take more conciense about this desease, in your experience which will be the appropiate level to consider that a person is healthy and not at risk?

[Zoelula]

The cutoffs are cut and dry, and if a doctor says a person with 103 fasting or with 5.7 A1C is not pre-diabetic, they are incorrect. Some doctors hesitate to "diagnose" pre-diabetes for various reasons (insurance criteria, belief that patients will be "non-compliant" ), but the diagnosis is based on the numbers. You would be amazed how little doctors know about diabetes. The American Diabetes Association lowered the criteria for fasting bg to diagnose pre-diabetes from 110 to 100 in 1998. (prior to that 110-139 was considered pre-diabetic and 140 and over diabetic.) Many more people are now diagnosed with pre-diabetes and given the opportunity to slow or prevent progression to diabetes. There are some people who believe the cutoffs should be lowered again.

[allmymarbles]

Some doctors would not agree about 103 indicating a pre-diabetic.

[Zoelula]

A fasting level of 100 to 125 is considered prediabetes. Over 126 is diabetes. An average doesn't mean that much. Diagnostics are done by fasting or more accurately A1C.

As for symptoms, everyone is different. Most prediabetics don't experience symptoms at all. Some Type 2 diabetics experience symptoms such as fatigue, thirst and increased urination, some don't. To have frequent symptoms usually it is necessary to have had pretty high blood sugars for awhile. I would check other possible explanations for your fatigue.

[allmymarbles]

Your glucose level does not indicate diabetes.

[Roberto123]

Thank you so much.  Having avg of 100 or 98 is cosider pre diabetes too? That was my avg in the last 2 months

At what levels fatigue start ? Diabetes sympomts start all at once or fatigue is the first one?

Thank you.

[Zoelula]

I'm assuming that 103 is a fasting blood sugar and if so it is considered pre-diabetes. It might help to have your doctor do an A1C which is an average of blood sugars for a couple months to correctly diagnose you. Unless you are spiking high after your meals, that 103 probably wouldn't account for the fatigue.