Vol. 4 Issue 1 Part B

The term HbA1c refers to glycated haemoglobin. It develops when haemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body, joins with glucose in the blood, becoming ‘glycated’. By measuring glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), clinicians are able to get an overall picture of what our average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks/months. For people with diabetes this is important as the higher the HbA1c, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications. When the body processes sugar, glucose in the bloodstream naturally attaches to haemoglobin. The amount of glucose that combines with this protein is directly proportional to the total amount of sugar that is in your system at that time.