Video: Diagnosing Diabetes

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There are two primary ways to diagnose diabetes. Learn how doctors use fasting blood sugar and glucose tolerance test to diagnose diabetes in this free video from a nutritionist specializing in diabetic diets.

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Video Transcript

Okay, there are several ways that we diagnose diabetes, but the primary way that we diagnose diabetes is we look at the fasting blood sugar and what that is, is that's the blood sugar that the doctor may take before you've eaten anything early in the morning. And when the fasting blood sugar is one twenty six or more, that is usually considered diabetes if it has been found to be that high on two occasions. Now, there are some other ways to diagnose diabetes. Another way is to look at the results of a glucose tolerance test. That's when they've given you a sugar solution; about a hundred grams of sugar and they have you drink that solution and check your sugar every hour for two to three hours. If your sugar is over two hundred in the second hour of that test, that can be considered diabetes even if the blood sugar was under one twenty six fasting and the reason is because it's telling us that you cannot handle that kind of sugar challenge. The third way we diagnose diabetes is looking at a number called the hemoglobin A1C. The hemoglobin A1C is an indication of how much sugar has been attached to the hemoglobin in your bloodstream. Everyone has some sugar attaches; that attaches to hemoglobin and the normal is considered four to five point five percent. Five point five percent to six is considered slightly elevated and over six is classified as diabetes.

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Diagnosing Diabetes

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