Meta Study: Long-term Glycemic Variability and Risk of Adverse Outcomes

15 posts were split to a new topic: Should diabetes treatment optimize glycemic variability?

I’d say this is a YDMV statement, very respectfully.

Even WITH doing most of those things mentioned everyday religiously for years, I haven’t been able to crack sub-6. I’m just thrilled under 7.0 right now. But you all know my stance on the difference between T1D for women compared to T1D for men, and the comparatively infinitesimal amount of scientific knowledge we have about insulin sensitivity variability on a daily basis for women. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Samson for your point, but results don’t always reflect effort.

My Safety Rating, if there were such a thing…I guess SD is close to that idea, is much much better than it was when I actually was sub-6.

Being Unlimited looks different for me today than when I was in early diagnosis. I’m okay with that. Weighing it all out, acute safety is my top goal, followed by quality of life, then long-term outcomes. And the third one is a big unknown so we’ll see what happens.

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Thanks. I was going to say exactly this.

Whether the goal is an A1c of sub-6.0, or a standard deviation of 25, or spending >75% in target range, or not having daily lows, these targets still elude me.

I’m not sure whether there’s still something I’m missing that other people are doing, or whether I should just settle on my current level of control as “good enough” and wait for a closed-loop system to come along.

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Sub 6 - is elusive for most people, I wouldn’t beat yourself up to much about that. Of course the closed-loops systems offer some promise, but I would think a sub-6 closed loop is still a ways off for most. It should increase your time in range however.

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Yeah, I think just because sub-6 is doable for some folks without extreme measures, doesn’t mean it is for others. @Eric, some of what goes into your control for example, like high levels of regular exercise, is simply not possible for other people (for example, due to my connective tissue disorder, most exercise is off limits to me, and what I can do, I have to do extremely carefully and often with breaks to manage subluxations and/or injuries). Also, I think it’s notable that the majority of people I’ve seen on the forums with super tight control who do NOT engage in very low carb diets etc are either adult men or post-menopausal women with few or no co-morbid health conditions. When you have multiple other conditions and/or cycling hormones in play, you’re really dealing with a different disease in many respects than someone who doesn’t, and the same rules often just don’t apply.

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Okay, all of that may be true, but I was saying that A1C number to the mom of a young boy, who will be a man one day. And I said, “Maybe not at this young age, but at some point…

20 years from now, with improvements in insulin and technology, and once he is older, I do not doubt Samson will be able to hit those numbers.

They didn’t have A1C’s when I was 5 years old, so I don’t have a reference point for it. But I do know that control got much easier when I got older. So that is why I made that statement.

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Maybe he will, I certainly hope so! I’m just saying, it probably depends on what his health and other life factors look like at that point, and it’s hard to know what that will be for anyone, which is why YDMV is always applicable and even probably relevant within the same person over time. I also do hope and believe that with improvements with insulin/tech it will become easier for everyone, regardless, though to what extent is unclear.

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I agree with all you said. But want to emphasize that for parents, it’s important to realize that what you see at age 4 or 5 does not necessarily mean that’s what you will see later in life.

The most important element of control is mostly missing at that young age - the person’s self awareness of their D.

Managing someone else’s D is much harder than doing it yourself.

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Agreed!

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Yes, that’s what I hope for! Samson already wants to look at his numbers and he’s starting to be able to read the numbers correctly; if he sees 157 he’ll say “one-fifty-seven” in the right order. So I can see a glimmer of that independent future on the horizon!!!

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I’ve been closing and moving all day so I’m just now catching up.

@Eric, totally get what you are saying. I understand your points and encouragement.

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20 years from now, with improvements in insulin and technology, and once he is older, I do not doubt Samson will be able to hit those numbers.

Well 20 years from now, we’ll have had a cure for 15, right? :wink:

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Definitely very true. I also think it’s a different disease when you have additional chronic health conditions, not only because those other conditions can directly interfere with healthy diabetes-related activities and/or BG stability, but because diabetes is now just one of numerous health management tasks rather than the top number one task to deal with.

Before I had all these other (auto)immune conditions, I was able to devote all my health attention to diabetes. I might have had temporary distractions during some stressful periods, but overall I could make diabetes my top health priority if I really decided to. These days diabetes is just not top priority anymore. It’s just one of numerous health issues I have to manage every day.

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8 posts were merged into an existing topic: How Glucose Variability impacts HbA1c measure

9 posts were split to a new topic: Is a lower HbA1c always better?

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: How Glucose Variability impacts HbA1c

Also, I don’t know how to split off the threads but I’m sort of wondering if some of these comments need their own thread? @Michel maybe?

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So sorry, @TiaG, should definitely have done it:( Will do now.

[EDIT] Done. It was a dififcult split, and I did my best to make the children threads coherent. I did have to paste fragments of posts across. I hope that everyone will be comfortable with how the contents were split. Let me know if I made a mistake somewhere :slight_smile:

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Same with Liam. Because he can now recognize highs from lows (numbers wise) and because he can read the numbers, we play the “beat the dexcom” regularly and I try to have him check HIS OWN BG once per day. Yes I still have to oversee things but he gets the supplies out, knows what they are called, and can set everything up…I have to help him with those things that require fine motor skills… Like getting the black dot on the test strip to touch the blood drop.

My goal for Liam is to make him self aware and self sufficient as soon as possible. I want him to understand why it’s important and why he is the best person for the job. I do NOT trust other people… That’s my biggest fear with public school… He may be “just a number.”

All works in progress and it’s slow at times, and we go backwards at times, but our boys are young still. Lots of time to get them prepared for life as adults in the world of diabetes. You’re doing great with Samson!

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I really sympathize with you and everyone that has had a toddler diagnosed. As much as I fear for the first year of college, I think it is scarier to let a child go to school when he/she cannot take care of themselves without outside help. I suspect that your son will be able to do it with a little supervision quite early. Perhaps do what the sports obsessed parents do and don’t enroll him until he is 6, that way he can be a beast on the sports field and perhaps take care of himself by then.

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