The data comes from a really interesting online diabetes organization, T1DExchange.org, which offers a clinic registry where everyone can share their medical records so that they become available to researchers (without personal identification). I think it is a great place to share your data!
It appears that teens and young adults are less worried about their health than anyone else! And also less likely to follow recommendations!
[/sarcastic font]
Just kidding.
But seriously, that is exactly how you would predict it. Teens and young adults feel invincible. No surprise there!
And of course the older you get, the more compliant you are with targets. And that makes sense too. People who have lived longer with diabetes are the ones who had good control. Those who did not have good control do not live as long, so they do not appear on the graph as long as the rest of us…
Eric, I had no idea there WAS a [sarcastic font] on Discourse!
I am sure that is some of it – but I also know from our present experience how much harder it is for teens to control BG than it is for children a bit younger than them, because of hormonal peaks.
I am not sure how long these peaks last, though – until 17-18, or 23-25? Not sure. @drpepper68, what do you think?
I promise you, the crazy youth mind is the bigger factor! I’m lucky to have survived those years, and it wasn’t the disease. I hitchhiked 100+ miles from Alabama to Georgia at 2am one time. Why? Because I was a young adult, and that’s the kind of stuff we did. You think A1C was on my mind as I walked down the interstate with my thumb in the air?
Wow! (I am speechless and clearly emoticon challenged- I cannot find the appropriate emoticon for wow. this is the closest I can imagine. :- o
The only time that I hitchhiked was when I was with my husband and we were in our mid 20’s and actually ran out of gas on our way to a gas station. The gentleman was very helpful and gave us a ride to the nearest gas station and drove us back to our car. My husband miscalculated and pushed the limit too much before deciding to look for fuel. All was well. I never hitchhiked again;. I also never ran out of fuel again.
I received my most recent a1c 6.0; 3 months ago it was also 6.0.
I would like to lower it to 5.8; but am unsure how much more effort I would need to put into diabetes management to achieve my a1c target. Presently, I am comfortable with what I eat and the frequency of testing (moderate carbs mostly 60 g daily; 120 - 150 g about twice a week when I splurge; test about 6 to 8x daily, more as needed). Any recommendations for lowering my A1C?
@Michel- it would be a great idea for us to keep track of our numbers, perhaps A1C and fasting!
That graph makes me feel a little better about my future prospects (just a little) as I followed it exactly I think from diagnosis at 13 in 1983 until the last couple of years when I have got my a1c to 6.5 or below - currently it’s heeding towards 6 where I intend to keep it going forward
In my teens early 20s like Eric it wasn’t the most important thing on my mind and I was often 8-9 when I bothered to get my a1c done at all
But also a lot of it was bad information provided by doctors then - when I was diagnosed I was told to eat 60 gms of carbs at every meal and 3 snacks of 20g - so I started eating more carbs vs less then - I even used to have a mini mars bar for my snacks that were allowed by the doctor - that just must have created crazy spikes
The effect of the liver and it producing sugar was never discussed until I got to the us in 2000 I think (U.K. previously) so i lived for 17yrs believing that the insulin I took matched what I ate so I ate pretty much the same foods and took the insulin - the lack of testing also didn’t help back then but a blood test took 5 mins up until 1995
at least one helpful doctor put me on a daily dose of Stettin and atavastin 15 yrs ago which was a good idea that I have kep to and I have low blood pressure and good cholesterol but I fear those teens and twenties have fried all my blood vessels - unfortunately looks like that’s the case for a lot of 35yr type 1s
100% doc ! i know that once i found a sensitive caring community willing to share endless knowledge with one another, i felt safe to push myself beyond the limits i thought i was bound by.
