A1C too low?

[iketchum]

My A1C was around 10 and my neph. said to get it down. I have tried hard and my last A1C was 5.2. Now he is saying it is too low. What should it be?

[Wallyz]

Tell you neph to quit his worrying, because you are on dialysis and a 5.2 on dialysis  doesn't mean 5.2 in a normal person.


A1C measures how much of your blood had been "candy coated" by blood glucose.  Because you are on dialysis and get EPO or Aranesp, your blood cells have a much shorter life cycle.  So, fewer of them live long enough to get candy coated.

My neph puts it this way:
A high A1C mean your blood sugars are high.  A low A1C does not mean your sugars are low.

[Chris]

My A1C this month was 5.6 and I had a kidney and pancreas transplant. If it's 10 and considered low then the doc is  but Wallzy has a point about how the blood cells work and what the A1C results may mean in a renal patient. I'll have to see if I can find mine when I was on hemo, but even at 10 I would not say low.