When you have
diabetes, the key to long-term health is keeping your blood
glucose levels in the near normal range. In addition to day-to-day glucose monitoring, most diabetes specialists also use a quarterly measure of blood glucose called haemoglobin A1c, or "HbA1c", to track the long-term trend in your blood glucose levels.
In fact, a HbA1c test provides an estimate of 2 to 3 month average measurement of your blood glucose levels. If monitored at regular intervals, HbA1c will provide a good summary of how your glycaemic control has been throughout the year.
However, it is important to remember that HbA1c gives the measure of an average of your blood glucose levels. You can actually get a good HbA1c reading even though you were running high and low blood glucose values in between the times you actually monitor. That is why both tests (blood glucose and HbA1c tests) are important. Daily monitoring gives you the short term day-to-day picture and the HbA1c measure gives you the long-term picture and how well you are doing with your diabetes.
Recent studies have shown that lowering your blood glucose reduces your chances of long-term complications.
