Living Light Metabolic CoachLiving Light Metabolic Coach

The best test for knowing your average blood sugars for the last 120 days - HbA1C

28 May 2022 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:55

A short video by Deepa of Living Proof Institute explaining HbA1c: what it measures (average blood glucose over ~3 months), clinical thresholds (normal <5.7%, suggested optimal <5.5%), and practical advice to lower elevated HbA1c through nutrition and lifestyle changes, especially reducing refined carbohydrates and eating whole foods (leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, healthy proteins, nuts and seeds).

Questions this video answers

Approximately the last three months (about 120 days).

Less than 5.7%.

Anything less than 5.5%.

Chapters

Hi everyone, this is Deepa from the Living Proof Institute. And today I wanted to talk to you about a very important bloodwork marker that you can request from your doctor. It's usually tested on annual blood work, but in case it's not, you can request your doctor to order this for you. And that is a blood work marker called HBA1C. What is HBA1C? So HBA1C is a measure of your average blood sugar for the last three months. So what does that tell us? Well, if it's elevated, it's going to tell us that either you are diabetic or that you're pre diabetic and at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. So what do we look for? Well, normal HbA1c is anything less than 5.7, but of course we want to know what's optimal. So optimal HbA1c is aiming for anything less than 5.5. And so if this number does come back elevated on your annual blood work, what are some things that you can do? Well, of course, we always want to resort to nutrition and lifestyle, right? So there's various different ways of decreasing blood sugar. And one of the main things is going to avoid excess carbohydrates, refined carbohydrates, processed foods and sugars from your diet and really try to eat a more whole food plant, strong diet, right? Lots of leafy greens, lots of fruits, lots of vegetables, healthy proteins, nuts and seeds, which is really going to help you bring those blood sugars down. So those are some easy switches that you can make to your diet to bring down your blood Sugars if your HBA1C is elevated. Thanks and have a wonderful day. Bye for now.