(Glucose, fasting) Varying Reference Ranges

[dfadfa23232df]

Dear Expert and fellow members,

I just received my health report. The diabetes screening caught my attention.
My glucose fasting result is 5.4mmol/L while the normal range is indicated as 3.9 to 5.5 mmol/L.
I will consider it as borderline pre-diabetes with the above range. But I also found that there are many different ranges from different sources. Other say the normal range is 4.0 to 5.9 mmol/l while some other's is 3.9 to 6.1mmol/L.
My question is that can the other normal ranges be applied in my case? Meaning that I can have 5.4mmol/L while the normal range is 4.0 to 5.9mmol/L. Because in this case, I can safely assume that I am not that close to pre-diabetes.

Also, my blood sample was collected after 12 hours of fasting instead of the 8 hours of fasting. Will it affect the value much?

Lastly, I had been very nervous about that all morning before drawing blood. Can it make the value higher?

I know there are lot of questions but I really do appreciate if you could answer cause it will certainly calm my mind.

thank you so much

[Cathleen Zoretic, RN]

Thanks for using the forum.

The "normal" range values for blood glucose have been lowered over the past several years. What was once "normal" is not considered borderline high/high. Your value is within the current "normal" range. This does not make you pre diabetic. However, it is good that you are aware of the value and can work at making good food and lifestyle choices to help reduce your chances of developing a problem in the future.

It is possible for stress to slightly raise the blood glucose level. My recommendation would be to keep track of the level each time it is drawn. If you start to see it rise, talk with your doctor about what would be suggested at that point.

Hope this helps

Cathy

[diabetes86]

BG numbers are numbers, the medical community has decided that 5.6 is OK and 5.7 is not. just a line drawn in the sand.  recently "they" have lowered the BG numbers for diabetic threshold. Depending on when the reference numbers you see where decided on could be the difference between 5.5 and the 6.1  

as I understand it (I am not an MD) nervous can raise BG FOR people with glucose problems. IE pre diabetic  the high fasting too

OR  you could be a person that makes up the high normal BG, if normal is 3.9 to 5.5  SOMEBODY normal needs to be 5.5

A better test is GTT (glucose tolerance test)