What happens when a health-conscious professional, like myself, receives an unexpected A1C result? That's exactly what I faced when my A1C measured at 5.6, the highest it could be without being in the pre-diabetic range. This reality check sparked a significant lifestyle overhaul. I started being more regular with my meals, stopped snacking between meals, and made other lifestyle and supplement tweaks.
Listen in as I expose my personal journey and share how simple yet effective changes can help you manage your blood sugar levels and overall health.
Let's not stop there! We transition from my personal health journey to discuss the importance of maintaining healthy blood sugar levels and how to achieve this. We delve into the significance of A1C levels, practical tips to bring them down, and the incredible impact lifestyle changes can have on our health.
To further guide you, I provide a link to an informative blog post packed with additional resources and information here:
https://blog.dirobi.com/understanding-hemoglobin-a1c/
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
What happens when a health-conscious professional, like myself, receives an unexpected A1C result? That's exactly what I faced when my A1C measured at 5.6, the highest it could be without being in the pre-diabetic range. This reality check sparked a significant lifestyle overhaul. I started being more regular with my meals, stopped snacking between meals, and made other lifestyle and supplement tweaks.
Listen in as I expose my personal journey and share how simple yet effective changes can help you manage your blood sugar levels and overall health.
Let's not stop there! We transition from my personal health journey to discuss the importance of maintaining healthy blood sugar levels and how to achieve this. We delve into the significance of A1C levels, practical tips to bring them down, and the incredible impact lifestyle changes can have on our health.
To further guide you, I provide a link to an informative blog post packed with additional resources and information here:
https://blog.dirobi.com/understanding-hemoglobin-a1c/
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hello and welcome to the Diroby Health Show. I am excited today to do an episode on hemoglobin A1C. And this one started off out of personal interest because in my last doctor's visit and had blood work done, I learned that my A1C level was 5.6. Now I'm a health guy, I'm in the health world, I own a supplement company, I exercise every day and I eat pretty darn good, and so this is a little bit disappointing. I'm not going to lie. I thought 5.6. Now that's in the normal range, don't get me wrong, but it's the very, very tippy top of the normal range. 5.7 to 6.5 is pre-diabetic. And as I say that it doesn't sound quite right, let me pull up the actual stats here. Yeah, so 4.8 to 5.6 is considered the normal range and, as I mentioned, I was at 5.6. The very highest you can get without going into the pre-diabetic mode. Then 5.7 to 6.5 is pre-diabetic and 6.6 and higher is considered diabetic. And, by the way, if you're over the age of 45, it's highly recommended that you have your A1C tested at least every three years just to make sure that you're not getting outside of the range. And, of course, if you're pre-diabetic or diabetic, you'll need to be more aware of this more tested, and you should generally be under the care of your physician to be watching over this situation, and so this is a bit alarming for me, thinking, geez, I work pretty hard on my health. Why am I at the top of the range? Now, I'm not a perfect eater and don't have a perfect lifestyle. I'm a health-conscious person. But that was the first epiphany I thought. You know I probably feel like I'm doing better than I am. It was a wake-up call. It was a. Maybe I'm justifying too many treats, maybe I'm eating a little too sporadically. It made me make a few changes, which I'll talk about here in a minute and that you might need to do as well. As a matter of fact, if you haven't had your A1C tested in a little while, it'd probably be smart to go see your doctor and get that tested.
Speaker 1:This is a number we should all know about. What it indicates is your average blood sugar level over about the last 90 days, and it is a key marker in our health to determine whether we are in a healthy range of how we manage our blood sugar, or pre-diabetic or, worst case, of course, diabetic. So something that we ought to have tested. It's a generally part of a physical. When you get a regular physical which I hope, dear listener, that you are doing on a regular basis it's one of the numbers that is On the test that you get and you know, along with your triglycerides and and the variety of other things that you typically get, this is considered one of the foundational test. So we all should know that number.
Speaker 1:But I'm embarrassed to say that, being a health professional, I've never paid enough attention to this until recently, because of my own number being kind of high, and so I thought, you know I'm probably not the only one out there. It could be that you also, if you're tested, we'll find that how you think you're doing your health may be slightly, you know, not not quite as good as you think now. Of course, some of this is genetic. There are certain elements of our genes that some people would would have a higher number Than others and probably do better in certain ranges than others. You know, like everything in health, it's it's not necessarily black and white, but these skills should be taken seriously. In other words, it could be that, no matter how healthy I am or how hard I work on it, that my natural A1C will just be on the high end of the normal scale that could be. But you know what? I'm still going to make some lifestyle changes and work on it, and I'd like to talk to you to you about those here really quickly, because some of these might apply to you as well.
Speaker 1:The first one that I did is I got more regular with my eating. I've been doing a lot of personal experimentation with my intermittent fasting, testing eating at earlier times, testing dirty intermittent fasting, or sometimes I ate, but just like my supplements and a drink, or like a fiber drink, a greens powder, something like that. Before I had a real first meal at At nine o'clock or 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock, and then in the evening I was somewhat inconsistent, sometimes having dinner at five o'clock, sometimes having dinner at six or seven o'clock. And from all my research and from doing a show, one of the things I've come to believe Is that eating at regular times is important for a variety of reasons, and not just For this particular reason of managing blood sugar levels, but also for our general circadian rhythm and for hormone management. And so One of the things I did is I got more strict.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to eat my first meal right around 10 o'clock in the morning and trying to be eat. My last one is close to six o'clock. As I can, every single day, I also cut out snacking in between meals. I'm trying the best I can to eat till I'm satisfied. Three meals a day Breakfast at 10, lunch at two or three. I do get you know I that kind of depends on my have meetings, whatever. I can't get that one is accurate, as I Seemed to be able to get my breakfast or dinner, so it fluctuates a little bit, and then dinner at six.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, if I am really hungry, I'm trying to keep my snacks very healthy. One of the things I'm doing is trying to eat an apple a day, whether it's with a meal or as a snack. So I'm going to have a snack, is usually an apple and some almonds or something like that. So a healthy snack, not a sugary snack. So those are a couple things I've done. I've standardized the times that I eat and that's probably something you ought to think about as well and, as I've mentioned many times on the show, got a little more strict on what I eat after dinner, even your parties on the weekend, whatever. I'm not a black and white thinker, I don't like the idea of never going to a party and having a treat at eight or nine o'clock. I think our bodies are perfectly capable of handling that, but if I'm not careful I get a little bit out of control, where two or three times week I find I'm breaking my fast after dinner if I'm not really careful. So I'm being more strict, trying to make sure that's no more than once a week or less, which I just think is a fantastic health habit.
Speaker 1:Another one that I worked on and improved personally is my supplement strategy. I take Mimi's Miracle Multi, of course, which has direct blood sugar management products in it, chromium GTF being the main one, and what I did? I added on a dose of pounds and inches drops in the evening because that gives me 500 MCG's more of Chromium GTF, plus other weight loss Ingredients included in the pounds and inches drops that help to manage blood sugar as well, and so I've added that into my routine, even though I'm not really on a diet I don't really need to lose weight. I am currently at my ideal body weight and my body fat percentage is in a range I'm happy with, but I'm taking the pounds and inches drops directly to lower my AC one from the high end of the normal range, and so that's another thing that I have done. And then, of course, when I'm eating, I'm trying to keep any like blood sugar spiking foods to a minimum, eating according to the rules of the undiet a balance of healthy carbs, fats and protein with each meal. And, again, to keep me from snacking, I'm trying to keep that protein really high with each meal, and that, to me, is the ultimate thing I can do to control my own cravings. So those are some of the things I'm working on and, by the way, on our blog we've posted a whole piece about hemoglobin A1C that I'd recommend, and that piece is at blogdirobicom slash understanding hemoglobin A1C.
Speaker 1:Chances are you won't remember all that, and that's fine. I'll put a link in the show notes so that you can get more detail that I'm covering here in the podcast. However, if you're like me, I just hope that this is something I'm bringing to your attention the same way it was brought to my attention when my number started to move up to the high side. I'm 57 years old, and so for the first time in my life, I'm on the high side of that scale. As far as I can remember, it's never been brought by me. Doctor did mention hey, your A1C is okay, but you are right at the number, and so this is a bit of a wake up call. That could be the same for you too. I don't know something like. I say this is a critical number in the health community to know. It's important as many other numbers that get tracked, but has not been to me because it's never been a concern. And so now it is, and maybe that's true for you too. So a few more tips here on managing A1C.
Speaker 1:Cut down on highly processed foods and sugary treats. Of course those directly affect your blood sugar more than proteins, high quality carbs or fats will. As I mentioned. As far as dirobyte supplements, both our pounds and inches drops and our Mimis miracle multi are specifically designed for weight management and blood sugar management. There's clinical studies on chromium GTF showing that it helps regulate blood sugar and so for some of you, if you're done with our pounds and inches drops as far as achieved your weight loss goals, I would highly recommend you now add in the Mimis miracle multi as your ongoing maintenance management tool Because of that it's not like any other multi. If you're not familiar with it. Make sure and look at the ingredients at dirobicom to see what I mean. Lifestyle again, eating at regular times. It makes a big difference.
Speaker 1:Next, what you drink cutting back on soda, cutting down on sugary drinks, creamers, all that type of stuff, and drinking mostly water, of course, a great health habit. And if you get sick of water, back to back to some dirobi solutions we have focus up. You can add in the afternoon which I think tastes delicious. To be honest, I didn't think it tasted delicious the first time I tried it. It had to grow on me, but now I love it. It's a fantastic substitute for coffee in the morning or a pick me up in the afternoon and adds a little bit of flavor. We also have a neuro boost, which is a fantastic natural energy drink. That's also also has a nice orange flavor, so you can add that to your water and get a bunch of additional wealth, some some a little caffeine for a boost, as well as a lot of health. It's a it's a healthy natural energy drink both. Both neuro boost and focus up our natural energy drinks.
Speaker 1:The other thing that we have to offer that can really improve your water drinking habit is our Greens and Reds superfood, and I have a drink of that every single day. Another thing if you have any digestive issues, if you have our Greens and Reds superfood and that is not giving you all the fiber that you need, or you have digestive or issues in your regularity or whatever Another little thing you could do is add a little bit of psyllium husk, a very inexpensive powder you can buy off of Amazon and your local health food store. So these are just a few ideas you can add to your water habit to make it more functional, to taste better and to add a lot of phytonutrients and general health boosting things into your water. And those are three items that we sell at dirobycom, and so I hope this has been interesting to you. I again.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm 57 years old. This has never really been on my radar because I've never really had a challenge with it in the past, but it is something that if you're not aware of, next time you get your yearly physical done, I highly recommend that you pay attention to that, ask your physician how you're doing and and then take these natural steps. Anyway, like everything I've mentioned in this podcast, is a healthy habit that all of us should be doing, like, whether it's eating at a regular time, eliminating sugary drinks, cutting down processed foods or adding blood sugar management supplements into our diet. These are all healthy things we ought to be doing anyway, and if we do, hopefully we'll avoid any problems with our A1C. But to be sure, you ought to have the test and then, if you're on the high side, as I was, I'm hoping next time I get tested I've brought it down through being more strict with my diet.
Speaker 1:As I've mentioned Again, we have a whole post on this at blogdirobicom. I'll put a link in the show notes. And until next time, this is Dave Sherwin, wishing you health and success. You.