Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Day 5

Well got my baseline labs yesterday.  Not good news at all:
A1C: 11.5 (very poor and out of control I need to cut it in half)
FBS: 306 (fasting blood sugar FBS)
Weight: 272
Waist: 43 (Down 1")
Neck: 19.5

Some have asked me what is an A1C Hemoglobin. The HbA1C is a measure of the percentage of the hemoglobin in the blood that has been glycated (has had a sugar molecule added to it); the higher your blood glucose, the more glycation occurs. The HbA1C result is an indicator of blood glucose levels over the previous three months. So that would include for me Nov and Dec Holiday period food.  So the longer I am fasting the better the AIC will become.  Currently mine is extremely poor at 11.5. After three months on the bean-enriched or grain-enriched diets, this measure of long-term glycemic control can be improved but a greater improvement was seen in the bean folks when tested in two groups.
Although it may seem small, a 0.5% decrease in HbA1C is actually quite large, considering that a “healthy” (nondiabetic) A1C is below 6.0%, and a poorly controlled diabetic level is 8.0% or higher and that is me. A1C reductions in the range of 0.5-1% translate into significant risk reductions for complications such as kidney damage. A small improvement in HbA1C (like the half-point improvement) is very significant, as it could represent years of lifespan gained or lost. Beans as the major starch source in the diet have the potential to make a huge positive impact on the long-term health of diabetics. These improvements in health are cumulative with other dietary changes that improve HbA1C. So a small improvement from more beans and squashes, comes with a small improvement from berries and greens, and an small improvements. Additionally, using nuts and seeds, and a small improvement from not snacking and so on all these small improvements which at first may seem like just a few tenths in HbA1C cumulatively result in massive benefits and for most, the end of diabetes.  So here we are day 5.  I juiced all day but ate some carrots, salad and hummus in the evening.  It seems that I am able to get further in the day without any solid vegetables.  My goal is to eliminate any solid food but not quite there yet.  My next blood draw is Monday so we will see what that brings.  I am a very discouraged with my AIC but I understand that it will go down because I am being consistent with this fast. The good news is I dropped one inch off my waist line so I am seeing some improvement.

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