What is the trick to setting an A1C goal for diabetes treatment?
DEAR DR. ROACH: My elderly sister, 73, has Type 2 diabetes, and is taking 500 mg of metformin twice a day.
After two years on metformin, her fasting glucose level is only 125 mg/dl and A1C only 6.8 percent. If she continues taking medication, will her fasting glucose level ever get to around 85 mg/dl and her A1C get to 5 percent? She wants to be in the normal ranges.
In your opinion, is the goal of drug therapy, like metformin, only the control of diabetes? If so, then how can she reach her goals of 85 mg/dl and A1C of 5 percent? — R.I.
ANSWER: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a common disorder of unknown exact cause, but which generally is caused by resistance to the action of insulin and by a gradual decrease in the amount of insulin the pancreas is able to put out.