Blood Test For Diabetes

[jkelly24]

Should you fast for a certain period of time before having a blood test to check for diabetes?

[paddywak]

My doctor likes to take the sample after a 12 hour test.

[LazyGun]

Sort of depends. A straightforward blood glucose test is best done after a fast period to establish a baseline, rather than get a result heavily influenced by what you might have recently consumed. It provides a snapshot of your current blood sugar level, effectively.

The HbA1C test is a different type of test and monitors your sugar level over a long time period, so fasting is not required. This monitors the trend in your sugar levels.

[puternut]

Sorry LazyGun but from what has happened to me my GP does not agree that the HbA1c test can be done without fasting.

I have been type 2 for over 20 years and with 3 different GP surgeries due to house moves and all wanted a fasting test with times of 10-14 hours!!

[LazyGun]

@puternut "Sorry LazyGun but from what has happened to me my GP does not agree that the HbA1c test can be done without fasting."

Ermm, Hmm. ;) If you are only having an HbA1C test, then fasting is definitively unnecessary, and you have been misinformed by your Doctor.

If, however, your GP is requesting a serum cholesterol level or a blood glucose test at the same time as doing the HbA1C, then fasting would be necessary for those tests.

[hc4361]

Yes, I have to fast for the glucose test but not for the HbA1C.
I fast for 12 hours.

[Sqad]

I agree with the post of LazyGun......in theory......In practice a GP usually requests a barrage of blood tests rather than a single Hb1Ac and these do involve fasting.

[NoMercy]

Fasting is certainly not necessary prior to having an Hba1c.

[berniecuddles]

had mine done last week, as usual fast for 12 hours, been like that since day 1 15 yrs ago

[puternut]

Thank you for the back-up Sqad :)

[LazyGun]

"Thank you for the back-up Sqad :)"

What backup? If your GP has told you that the HbA1C test requires fasting in advance, they would be factually incorrect, as Sqad confirmed.

If, on the other hand, you are having that test along with other tests - like blood glucose level, or cholesterol, for instance - that do require fasting, then obviously you will need to fast in advance.

I had thought Sqad was agreeing with me, actually ;)

[nazia08]

The diagnosis of diabetes can only be given by a health care professional. Insulin in made in the pancreas by a small cell called islets of Langerhans. We are born with all of the islet cells we will ever have, we will never make more.