Blood Sugar Important Even In Non-Diabetics
Written By: Diabetes Study
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Published - Jul 1, 2008
Blood Sugar Important Even In Non-Diabetics
Elevated blood sugar in people without a diagnosis of diabetes raises the risk of premature death. A recent study involving close to 50,000 people with an average age of 38 was conducted to determine the association between blood sugar and subsequent risk of death.
Hemoglobin A1C testing is a standard way to measure blood sugar. It is a better indicator than simply testing blood sugar alone. Hemoglobin A1C testing shows more as a “report card” for how well controlled a person’s blood sugar has been in the previous three months. Hemoglobin A1C is considered normal if it’s less than seven.
According to this study, researchers found that the higher the hemoglobin A1C, the more elevated risk of premature death. One concern was that typically, diabetes is not diagnosed until hemoglobin A1C is above seven. This study indicated that the risk of death increased steadily as hemoglobin A1C was above four.
This confirms the previous findings that hemoglobin A1C is strongly associated with death in both men and women who have not been diagnosed with diabetes.