A1C is a measure of the average amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood over the past three months.

You can lower your A1C by

• eating less carbohydrate and especially less refined sugar. Obviously, this is the healthiest method: Eat well and carefully.

• taking Metformin (for type 2 diabetes in the early stages, and even for pre-diabetics). For that matter, Metformin activates AMPK, which is a boon for health in several ways, and the drug is cheap and without serious side-effects, unlike many other diabetes drugs. One study found that diabetics on Metformin OUTLIVED non-diabetics NOT taking the drug, and for that and other reasons, Metformin is currently being studied as a life extension therapy.

• Taking more insulin (or begin taking it, which "advanced" type 2 diabetics often do). Insulin clears the blood of excess glucose, much of which in turn is basically turned into fat. You likely WILL gain weight on insulin, and it won't be the good-looking muscular kind. Injecting insulin has other downsides as well.

In my experience, almost ANY other approach is -- at best -- far less effective. Just as supplements claiming to slim you down are less effective than they sound, those that claim to lower your blood sugar are, in my experience and in the experience of others I know, at most a very minor help.

Seriously: if you want to lower your A1C, eat better.

On the other hand, to reduce organ damage and other symptoms from high blood sugar, there are several supplements that CAN be helpful.

• Benfotiamine (a form of vitamin B1)
• Carnosine
• Pyridoxal 5'-Phosphate (a form of B6)

and other supplements have been shown to protect kidneys and other organs from diabetic damage, and/or to prevent or reduce symptoms of diabetic neuropathy. Taken regularly in appropriate amounts, the right supplements can dramatically slow the organ damage that diabetes otherwise inflicts, although they don't have a similarly large effect on one's A1C.

More information:

https://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/metabolic-health/diabetes-and-glucose-control

https://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/neurological/neuropathy#

A1C is a measure of the average amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood over the past three months

You can lower your A1C by

• eating less carbohydrate and especially less refined sugar. Obviously, this is the healthiest method: Eat well and carefully.

• taking Metformin (for type 2 diabetes in the early stages, and even for pre-diabetics). For that matter, Metformin activates AMPK, which is a boon for health in several ways, and the drug is cheap and without serious side-effects, unlike many other diabetes drugs. One study found that diabetics on Metformin OUTLIVED non-diabetics NOT taking the drug, and for that and other reasons, Metformin is currently being studied as a life extension therapy.

• Taking more insulin (or begin taking it, which "advanced" type 2 diabetics often do). Insulin clears the blood of excess glucose, much of which in turn is basically turned into fat. You likely WILL gain weight on insulin, and it won't be the good-looking muscular kind. Injecting insulin has other downsides as well.

In my experience, almost ANY other approach is -- at best -- far less effective. Just as supplements claiming to slim you down are less effective than they sound, those that claim to lower your blood sugar are, in my experience and in the experience of others I know, at most a very minor help.

Seriously: if you want to lower your A1C, eat better.

On the other hand, to reduce organ damage and other symptoms from high blood sugar, there are several supplements that CAN be helpful.

• Benfotiamine (a form of vitamin B1)
• Carnosine
• Pyridoxal 5'-Phosphate (a form of B6)

and other supplements have been shown to protect kidneys and other organs from diabetic damage, and/or to prevent or reduce symptoms of diabetic neuropathy. Taken regularly in appropriate amounts, the right supplements can dramatically slow the organ damage that diabetes otherwise inflicts, although they don't have a similarly large effect on one's A1C.

More information:

https://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/metabolic-health/diabetes-and-glucose-control

https://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/neurological/neuropathy#