What happens if you have diabetes and eat before a blood test?
Posted on Feb 03, 2010 under diabetes | 7 CommentsDiabetes runs in my family and I’m probably going to get it any time now. My job gives annual physicals and if I’m found to have diabetes, I’ll be fired. Would eating before a blood test stabilize my sugar level if I get it, or just mess everything up?
Eating before the blood test will cause your blood sugar to go higher. So for many people they’ll eat breakfast and have honey, sugar in the coffee, etc and test borderline for diabetes – then have to go back and re-do it as a fasting blood sugar to get a better reading.
So if I were you would not eat before it at all — or if you have to have very low carbs, sugar, etc.
Also, if you WERE to have diabetes, it is against the law to fire you for this. You would be covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). So try not to worry about that.
Good luck!
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February 4th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Eating before the blood test will cause your blood sugar to go higher. So for many people they’ll eat breakfast and have honey, sugar in the coffee, etc and test borderline for diabetes – then have to go back and re-do it as a fasting blood sugar to get a better reading.
So if I were you would not eat before it at all — or if you have to have very low carbs, sugar, etc.
Also, if you WERE to have diabetes, it is against the law to fire you for this. You would be covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). So try not to worry about that.
Good luck!
References :
Mom of Type 1 Diabetic Son
February 4th, 2010 at 5:12 am
It will not affect the HbA1c testing at all. It does affect some of the other things they want to know like cholesterol levels, thyroid levels, and a few other things. But not the glucose levels.
They will undoubtedly do a complete annual physical including blood panel testings for all the common things.
But why would they fire you for getting something that you have no control at all over? That doesn’t make sense! Even truck drivers can keep on truckin as long as they maintain tight control, and that has to be tighter than anyone else. Would they fire you for getting cancer? Diabetes is the same thing.
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February 4th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Just because you have a strong family history of Diabetes Mellitus does not mean that you will absolutely get this disease. Of course you are at an increased risk, but there alot of things you can do to prevent this from occurring. Having DM is not the end of the world and is completely treatable
If you live in the US and you are already an employee it would be discriminatory to discontinue your employment due to an illness, as long as you are able to function according to your job description.
Eatting prior to a blood draw, depending apon what is being check could give inaccurate results, making it appear as though there could be a health problems is not really occurring. If you are instructed to not eat prior to the blood being taken, then this would be the way to obtain the most accurate results. It would be nice to know what blood tests are being done, what exactly is being checked.
It would be nice for you to speak with your family physician regarding your strong family history of DM. It is possible to live a normal life with DM, either way it would be wise to develope good healthly eatting habits, and learn to exercise on a routine basis. If you did develope DM, you would be way ahead of the game, and this would help prevent complications resulting from DM.
There are far worse things than have Diabetes Mellitus.
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nurse 22 years, total pancreatectomy with autologous islet cell transplant, Diabetes mellitus
February 4th, 2010 at 6:06 am
eating will raise your sugar level so your glucose will read higher. but eating before an A1C (average sugar level over the past 2-3 months) will have no effect on that level
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February 4th, 2010 at 6:11 am
Eating before the blood test only makes the blood sugar reading goes up. So please do not eat for at least 2 hours before the test.
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February 4th, 2010 at 6:26 am
Eating before a blood test would only bring up your blood sugar. But whether you eat or not before your blood test won’t change the results of the test. An HbA1C test measures your blood glucose over the past 90 days. You can’t really cheat your way out of your employer finding out you have diabetes and it would be harmful to your health if you ignore it. But isn’t there like an act or something that protects people with diseases like diabetes, I wouldn’t think this could be the cause of you to get fired. That isn’t fair.
References :
I’m a diabetic.
February 4th, 2010 at 6:43 am
when you eat excess carbohydrate food when your blood glucose level is high in diabetes .it leads to further increase of blood glucose level and it leads to sudden death.
References :
http://www.westerndiabetic.com/