What A1c is
A1c is a blood test that shows the average blood sugar over the last 3 months. One number tells the whole season's story — not just one day.
A1c is the 3-month average blood sugar. Crack the clues below and you can help the person you love keep it on target.
Detectives don't guess — they gather clues. Every game on this site ends with one clue to carry home and share at the dinner table.
A1c is a blood test that shows the average blood sugar over the last 3 months. One number tells the whole season's story — not just one day.
Half the plate vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter grains or starchy foods. What's on the plate today shows up in the A1c in 3 months.
Walking and playing help the body use sugar for energy. Even a walk after dinner pulls blood sugar down.
Too little sleep makes blood sugar harder to control the next day. Good sleep is a real diabetes clue.
Diabetes medicines only work on the days they are taken. Every day, same routine — that's how the average comes down.
A1c, LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure travel together. Knowing all three protects the heart as well as the sugar.
These are personal targets — check with your own doctor, because the right target can be different for each person.
Targets quoted from the American College of Endocrinology / American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (ACE/AACE) Comprehensive Type 2 Diabetes Management Algorithm.
The A1c Card goes home with diabetes prescriptions. Print it, write in your own numbers, and put it on the fridge — where a good detective's evidence board belongs.
To print the card: use your browser's Print command — the printout contains the A1c Card only.
Tap a food, then tap where it belongs on the plate: half vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter grains. Fill the whole plate to crack the case.
Six clues that move the A1c are hidden in this busy day. Tap each magnifying glass to find them all.
Medicines work when they are taken every day, in the same order. Tap the steps of the day in the right order.
A glucose reading appears — fasting (before breakfast, target under 110 mg/dL) or 2 hours after a meal (target under 140 mg/dL). Decide: on target, or above target? Eight rounds.
Five questions. Answer them all to earn your detective badge.
A1c (hemoglobin A1c) is a blood test that shows the average blood sugar over roughly the last 3 months. Sugar sticks to the hemoglobin in red blood cells, and red blood cells live about 3 months — so one A1c result summarizes a whole season of blood sugars, not a single good or bad day. It is the number that best predicts whether diabetes is on course, and it is the number every clue on this site is trying to move.
Four levers move the A1c: the plate (half vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter grains or starchy foods, and fewer sugary drinks), daily activity (a walk after meals measurably lowers glucose), sleep (short or broken sleep raises next-day glucose), and taking diabetes medicines every day as prescribed. Because A1c is a 3-month average, changes take weeks to show — steady daily habits beat short bursts of effort.
Quoted from the American College of Endocrinology / American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (ACE/AACE) Comprehensive Type 2 Diabetes Management Algorithm: A1c of 6.5% or under; fasting glucose under 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L — divide mg/dL by 18 to get mmol/L); and glucose under 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) two hours after a meal. Treat each as a personal target and check with your own doctor — age, other conditions, and hypoglycemia risk can change the right target for an individual.
Diabetes rarely travels alone. A1c, LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure multiply each other's risk to the heart and brain, so the detective checks all three numbers at every visit — and asks about each one by name.
Many people with diabetes also take a statin (cholesterol pill), because diabetes and cholesterol together drive heart attacks and strokes. If your doctor has prescribed one, don't stop it on your own — stopping raises risk, and the increase is measurable:
Measured data: a study of 120,173 people in France turning 75 (Giral and colleagues) found that among people with diabetes who stopped their statin, 10.0% had a cardiovascular event within 3 years versus 7.6% of those who stayed on it — about 32% higher in relative terms, and about 1 extra event for every 42 people who stopped. Years beyond 3 on the slider are projections from that measured point, not measured data.
If your A1c is in the prediabetes range, lifestyle changes — and treatment, when your doctor advises it — can delay the formal diagnosis of diabetes, sometimes by years. Diabetes is a progressive condition; the honest word is delay, and every year of delay is a year won. Weight lost, activity, and sleep are the tools that buy that time.
If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning a pregnancy — or you become pregnant while taking this pill — tell your doctor right away. The pill is usually paused during pregnancy, and the plan is revisited after the baby comes.
Front: the rule and the targets, with room to write in your own numbers. Back: a note to family — for adult children (18+) — on how to be their person's detective.
To print the card: use your browser's Print command — the printout contains the A1c Card only.
A1c = your average blood sugar over the last 3 months.
Targets (ACE/AACE) — personal targets; check with your doctor:
• A1c ≤ 6.5%
• Fasting glucose (before breakfast) under 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L)
• Glucose 2 hours after a meal under 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)
What moves it: the plate · moving every day · sleep · medicines every day
My numbers:
A1c: Fasting:
Next check:
Someone you love lives with diabetes. You can help: ask them their A1c. Walk with them after dinner. Notice the plate, the sleep, and whether the medicines happened today. Small clues, gathered with love, move the big number.