What's better to diagnose diabetes? The A1C, Fasting, or 3 hour test?

The medical profession relies on the FBG as the primary diagnostic tool. Problem is that fasting BG stays normal until T2 diabetes has become well entrenched. The FBG test doesn't show how your body reacts to glucose loads. Nor does the Aic, which is just an average. The Glucose Tolerance test gives a far more reliable indication of the extent to which your BG spikes after a meal and how long it takes time to return to normal.

Cheers,

Mark

Mindylee,
The answer to this depends on whether you're talking about T1 diabetes or T2 diabetes. The information that Mark gave is accurate for T2.

In T1, the body's immune system actually destroys the beta cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. There are two blood tests that can determine if one is a T1. One of them is the C-peptide test, and the other is the GAB antibody test. If the level of C-peptide (a substance that binds to insulin) is low enough, it means you're a T1. If the GAB is positive, it means you're a T1.

I'm a firm believer that one of these tests should be done whenever diabetes is suspected, as I've known too many people who were misdiagnosed as T2's when, in fact, they were T1's.

Ruth

What are other possible Diseases, reasons, factors & causes that can give reading of High Blood Sugur, While there can be No Diabetes ?

This one, can really clear many myths & confusions and bring Hopes to many, Who may have accepted the Diabetes, just because of Meter Showing High Blood Glucose, While the reason could be something else needing care & treatment.
Is it possible that A person may show high Blood Sugur on Glucometers, but may be victim of some other ailments & Not Diabetes ?

Please tell & Share the facts as experienced to favor so many like me.
"Takecare"

If I had to choose only one (I don't have to, of course), then it would be the A1c: This is the only one of the 3 tests which measures actual tissue damaged by high glucose levels.

The fact that blood is a "liquid" tissue makes it easy for labs to do this test. But the glucose-created damage to your blood cells is definitely in proportion to the glucose-created damage which happens elsewhere in your body (your arteries, your eyeballs, your kidneys, your liver...).

The only difference is, all of your blood cells are replaced every 3 months or so by new blood cells. So even A1c doesn't exactly correspond to the damage which permanent, one-of-a-kind body organs have had. But it is by far the closest of the 3 tests.

If you've got an a1c above the "normal range" (for most labs that tops out around 5.5, maybe 5.8), then you've got diabetes-- and the degree of seriousness corresponds to how high above "normal" your readings are.