At Home A1C Test Kit by CVS Health via Amazon.com
Channel: Aaron Schwarz
Date: 2022-01-10

I purchases this test kit with 2 tests to perform A1C blood diagnostics testing at home at my leisure. Here is a video showing you how I do it & with detailed instructions provided by the manufacturer & distributor. 

This is not a blood glucose meter or blood glucose test! 

The last time I posted a video like this a bunch of people erroneously or mistakenly commented about how their blood glucose test meter *not A1C meter) takes seconds, not 5 minutes or more to produce a test result. 

If you cannot make sense of the description or title of the video, the please try harder & be aware that this is not a blood glucose test, this is not a finger prick test for blood sugar levels, this is an A1C test. 

Here, a brief version of the wikipedia entry on A1C science 

Glycated hemoglobin (glycohemoglobin, hemoglobin A1c, HbA1c, less commonly HbA1c, HgbA1c, Hb1c, etc., also A1C is a form of hemoglobin (Hb) that is chemically linked to a sugar. Most monosaccharides, including glucose, galactose & fructose, spontaneously (non-enzymatically) bond with hemoglobin, when present in the bloodstream of humans. However, glucose is less likely to do so than galactose and fructose (13% that of fructose and 21% that of galactose), which may explain why glucose is used as the primary metabolic fuel in humans.

The formation of the sugar-hemoglobin linkage indicates the presence of excessive sugar in the bloodstream, often indicative of diabetes. A1C is of particular interest because it is easy to detect. The process by which sugars attach to hemoglobin is called glycation. HbA1c is a measure of the beta-N-1-deoxy fructosyl component of hemoglobin. 

A1c is measured primarily to determine the three-month average blood sugar level and can be used as a diagnostic test for diabetes mellitus and as an assessment test for glycemic control in people with diabetes.

The test is limited to a three-month average because the average lifespan of a red blood cell is four months. Since individual red blood cells have varying lifespans, the test is used as a limited measure of three months. 

Normal levels of glucose produce a normal amount of glycated hemoglobin. As the average amount of plasma glucose increases, the fraction of glycated hemoglobin increases in a predictable way. In diabetes, higher amounts of glycated hemoglobin, indicating poorer control of blood glucose levels, have been associated with cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy.

The table below shows the % number displayed on the machine. My result of 4.5 low & indicates my metformin working well to lower my average blood glucose levels. 

HbA1c Test Results Range in Different SI units #chemistry #medicine 
% mmol/mol   mmol/L         mg/dL
5 31 5.4        (4.2–6.7)         97 (76–120)
6 42 7.0        (5.5–8.5)        126 (100–152)
7 53 8.6        (6.8–10.3) 154 (123–185)
8 64 10.2      (8.1–12.1) 183 (147–217)
9 75 11.8      (9.4–13.9) 212 (170–249)
10 86 13.4      (10.7–15.7) 240 (193–282)
11 97 14.9 (12.0–17.5) 269 (217–314)
12 108 16.5 (13.3–19.3) 298 (240–347)
13 119 18.1 (15–21) 326 (260–380)
14 130 19.7 (16–23) 355 (290–410)
15 140 21.3 (17–25) 384 (310–440)
16 151 22.9 (19–26) 413 (330–480)
17 162 24.5 (20–28) 441 (460–510)
18 173 26.1 (21–30) 470 (380–540)
19 184 27.7 (23–32) 499 (410–570)