Diabetes

A reality that cannot be sugar coated

I realized that a father and daughter share an eternal bond, the day a little angel entered my life! While holding her in my hands, I promised to give her the best in the world. As she started growing, I realized her tastes were similar to mine, including her sweet cravings. So, every year on her birthday, I was entitled to fondly receive a generous helping of her cake!

To keep up the promise I made to myself, I began putting in more efforts in office. Long work hours and erratic eating habits clubbed with no physical activity left me leading a life commonly termed unhealthy. However, barring a few symptoms such as frequent urination and excessive thirst, I faced no problems. And none of them ever got me worried. A regular yearly health check-up, indicated a fasting blood sugar level of > 126 mg/ dL categorizing me as a diabetic! That’s when everything started falling in place. All signs that I kept ignoring were actually symptoms of this lifestyle disease. It came as a surprise- I thought I was fit as a fiddle at 35! I met my doctor, who explained me about diabetes and why I needed to take care. The first thing he asked me to do was to lead a disciplined lifestyle which included a diet modification plan. Being a diabetic, I was prone to developing other complications such as heart diseases, foot infections, nerve damages, etc. A person with a sweet tooth, I found it challenging to wean off my post-meal indulgences!

“So does that mean Papa won’t eat my birthday cake?” popped up the innocent question from my daughter as we tried to explain her, my condition. That’s when I thought, I am not going to allow diabetes to change my life.I tried to understand more about diabetes, its detection and treatment.

I realized how important it is to keep a tab on my diet, because it’s the carbohydrates from the food that we eat, that is broken down into sugar (glucose). Our pancreas secretes a hormone-insulin that allows the body cells to absorb glucose for energy. Being a diabetic, my body wasn’t using insulin properly and so the sugar wasn’t getting absorbed by the cells, resulting in high levels in my blood.

When blood glucose levels are high, it attaches to the hemoglobin in our red blood cell (RBC) to form glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c).Higher the blood glucose, higher will be the HbA1c value.The lifespan of RBC’s is 90-120 days, so monitoring of HbA1c gives the average blood sugar levels over a period of 3-4 months. I was advised to undergo blood tests to check my HbA1c levels. I learnt its imperative to use an HPLC method for accurate diagnostics to differentiate between the many types of hemoglobin in the blood that can cause interferences in tests.

I underwent a complete lifestyle modification including a change in my diet plan, exercising, regular monitoring of HbA1c every three months and medication. It’s been a year today, and it’s my daughter’s fifth birthday. And like always, I will share her birthday cake!

Nothing in my life has changed…I am still a diabetic, but with regular monitoring and control, I continue to be a proud father sharing an eternal bond with my daughter

- James Fernandes
              IT professional


 

Cation-exchange High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is recognized as the ‘Gold Standard’ method for testing of diabetes and hemoglobinopathies. It aids in separating out individual fractions of hemoglobin like HbA1ab, HbA1c, HbF, HbA, HbA2 and other hemoglobin variants like HbS, HbC, HbD & HbE from lysed human blood. Interferences such as bilirubin and lipemia are also eliminated resulting in accurate quantification of HbA1c.

HPLC method is approved by FDA, CE, NGSP and traceable to Diabetes Control and Complication Trial (DCCT) reference method and IFCC. It’s various advantages, make it the preferred method of choice compared to others such as immunoassay and boronate affinity.

Erba’s Hb-Vario uses our decades of experience in HPLC alongwith our patented CLE technology for labile glycohemoglobin elimination to give you accurate HbA1c results.