High Hemoglobin A1C Levels Symptoms

If all diabetics measured their blood sugar levels four or five times a day, every morning, and after every meal and snack, and then did what they needed to do go get their blood glucose levels back to normal, symptoms of high hemoglobin A1C levels would not be a very big concern.

But the reality is that diabetics usually don't like to prick their fingers to take their blood sugar levels, and even if they don't mind the test, it can be hard to pay for the test strips. Unfortunately, your body can let your know your hemoglobin A1C levels have been high with some disturbing symptoms. 

Let's examine what they are, so you can recognize your body's signs of hemoglobin A1C levels. 

What is the hemoglobin A1C test?

The hemoglobin A1C test is a powerful test that tells you not what your blood sugar levels are like at any given time, but what their average was over the past two to three months. The test is used to determine how well a diabetic or prediabetic is managing their blood sugar levels. Anything over 7% is a concern for patients who have diabetes.

Intimate problems in diabetics with high hemoglobin A1C levels

Men who have high HbA1C tend to develop erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction is one of the most common of all symptoms of high hemoglobin A1C levels in diabetic men. The longer a man has had diabetes, the more they weigh, and the higher their HbA1C, the worse the problem tends to be. [1] Men who let their diabetes run unchecked also tend to have problems with premature ejaculation [2].

Women who have high HbA1C often develop a variety of problems with sexual intercourse. Even if they have are not going through menopause, they often have to deal with vaginal dryness and inadequate lubrication as well as lower sexual desire, weaker orgasms, and pain during sex. [3]

Vision problems as a result of high hemoglobin A1C levels in people with diabetes

In diabetics with high HbA1C diabetic retinopathy can develop suddenly [4]. You can literally go blind as you are walking down the street, although the disease process will have been going on for years already if that happens. About 50 percent of all diabetics already have the beginning stages of retinopathy [5].

You might notice a little bit of a blur in your vision for a few weeks, or maybe a few months. If you just achieve lower hemoglobin A1C, however, you might get a reprieve from that visual complication of diabetes and high hemoglobin A1C levels as lower blood sugars make more oxygen available to your retina [6].

Your vision might better for a while, and then worse for a while until suddenly it gets much worse. You notice you are going blind, but not in both eyes, and not across your entire field of vision. You might see so-called "floaters", which are tiny blood clots that move as you blink your eyes. That's a sign that a blood vessel that has been weakened by years of stress has burst.

Laser surgery often can repair the damage done to your retina, and doctors often can save your sight, but if you wait too long after the symptoms become obvious, laser surgery is impossible. At that point, maybe the doctor will be able to save your sight by monthly injections of a drug to stop blood vessel growth injected into your eye [7]. But every 1 percent reduction in HbA1C reduces your risk of blindness by about 30 percent [8]. Keep HbA1C at 7 percent or lower and you will probably keep your sight.

Diabetic foot ulcers and high hemoglobin A1C levels

In diabetics who have high HbA1C, athlete's foot can develop into foot ulcers [9]. Horrible ulcers can develop very quickly. The writer of this article has seen a case in which a diabetic patient went to bed with intact skin on the foot and woke up four hours later with an infection that had already eaten to bone.

In non-diabetics, fungal infections of the feet can be annoying. In diabetics with poor glycemic control, on the other hand, the tiny cracks in the skin caused by athlete's foot can invite the bacteria that cause cellulitis, ulceration, and even sepsis and septic shock.

Usually the first sign that a diabetic foot infection has gone horribly wrong is a foul odor that you just can't wash away [10]. You can beat a diabetic foot infection, but you will need medical care not for a few days or a few weeks or a few months, but usually for about two years.

Your best efforts to lower  hemoglobin A1C naturally as well as with medication will help even at this point, but once you get a diabetic foot infection, simply managing your blood sugar levels won't be enough. In fact, even amputation isn't always enough to stop the disease. Just don't let your diabetes get so far out of control.

A final word

If you fail to monitor your blood sugar levels so your diabetes runs out of control, you may not have any symptoms of high hemoglobin A1C levels for a very long time. When your body gives you a wake up call about your high hemoglobin A1C, you may have to get complex, expensive, and painful medical care immediately and keep getting it for a long time. It's better just to check, check, and check some more. If you don't know what to do to keep your blood sugar levels healthy, ask. Make the changes in your lifestyle for lowering blood sugar levels that will spare you the painful experience of diabetic complications.