It appears much more education of people with diabetes needs to be done.

The HBA1C blood test, also known as the Hemoglobin (Hgb) A1c test, is much more effective in evaluating your blood glucose control since the results give you an average of your blood glucose level over a two to three months period. These HBA1C readings do not fluctuate as wildly as routine blood tests through the course of an average day.

The advantages of using this test in a more or less routine matter are significant. Sometimes an individual can fool himself or herself into a sense of false security because they think they are making sufficient changes in their diets and exercise routines sufficient to prevent damage from elevated glucose.

Unfortunately testing blood glucose levels at home only once or twice a day is wildly dangerous. If you only test your glucose in the morning upon rising it can be perfectly normal and not reflect the bowl of ice cream that you had the night before after which your glucose level went to 250 and beyond. That 250 level, even for a short time, does immediate and long-term damage to your body and blood vessels. This is damage that would even be hidden from your physician for too long of a time without access to the use of the HBA1C blood test.

Busy physicians often do not think to run this test on their patients unless there are extremely obvious reasons for doing so. As a result, it occasionally happens that an individual can go years of being a diabetic before serious side effects bring the problem to the attention of the physician. Unfortunately, the years of being undiagnosed as a diabetic will actually shortened not only one’s life span but also ones quality of life further down the road. This blood test should be a routine matter for all adults.