Whenever possible, our clinical staff at PrimaNora Medical Centre are always ready with meaningful information for our patients that can help them better their quality of life. As Diabetes Awareness comes around again this month, we hope that our patients will understand why we take special care to provide every piece of information we can to bring the significant concern to light. Diabetes is a condition that can change everything from the way you experience time with your family, holiday meals and whether or not you’re in and out of the hospital throughout your life.
What is the diabetes condition and why is it serious?
Diabetes is a condition that comes from your pancreas’ inability to regulate sugars in your blood. When the sugar in your system is too high or low, the body will change it by degrading what’s not needed or storing what it can for the future. How does the body do this with glucose (your natural sugars and those that come from foods)? This process of lowering and increasing glucose production is done through insulin. With diabetes, the body is not able to produce insulin the right way. If we leave this condition undiagnosed it can cause a cascade of issues such as cell death and heart conditions.
When a patient is considered to have or be predisposed to diabetes because of signs and symptoms, a set of tests are administered that will help us diagnose or move on to other possibilities. These tests we’ve listed below are a few of the most common and some you should be aware of so you know what they do. Your physician will help you prepare for these tests if you should need to fast.
HBA1C Test
There are a few types of blood cells and this HBA1C is one form of red blood cell that we test the blood for, to make sure it’s at a reasonable level. Red blood cells carry oxygen, but HBA1C is a form of these blood cells that specifically attach to sugar molecules. An increase in this form of red blood cell indicates the body has higher levels of glucose in the blood. Physicians like to test for this particular attribute of the blood since these levels remain active over a period of several weeks. If you have under six percent of HBA1C levels, this is considered normal and not a cause for your concern.
Fasting Blood Sugar
Before this type of diabetes test, you’ll need to fast the night before. Your physician or lab tech will tell you how long you are expected to refrain from consuming food and sugary beverages before going in for your test. After some hours fasting, this blood sugar test will reveal how much sugar remains in your blood without consuming any nutrition. If your blood glucose levels prove to be between 100 and 126 ml/dL, then you either have preliminary diabetes or are considered diabetic.
Glucose Tolerance Test
During the form of diabetes test, which tests the body for Type II diabetes, each patient will be given a solution that contains at least 75 grams of sugar molecules. This solution is most likely concentrated sugars in the form of a syrup. Once the patient consumes this sugary substance, your physician or lab technician will take samples of the blood to find out how this sugar was regulated.
It’s important that we all understand that anyone can be affected by diabetes from poor diet, the lack of exercise and through heredity. During your next treatment, ask our staff about diabetes awareness information and let’s talk about a referral by calling PrimaNora Medical Centre on 03 7728 2886.