Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
The connection between anemia and sugar problems, arises because of the way sugar problems are typically tracked. The test your doctor will be doing to spot blood glucose problems, is the HbA1c test. The principle of the test is that it uses red blood cell exposure to glucose, as a proxy for “vulnerable” cell exposure to glucose. And this is it’s Achilles heel. If there is something not quite right with the red blood cell contingent, the test can give misleading results.
In this video I explain the biology behind the fail, using two relatively common scenarios. The first being iron deficiency anemia and the second being what is termed a haemolytic anemia – these are anemias where the red blood cells are prone to lyse (break), they’re typically caused by “bad” genes.
The connection between anemia and sugar problems, arises because of the way sugar problems are typically tracked. The test your doctor will be doing to spot blood glucose problems, is the HbA1c test. The principle of the test is that it uses red blood cell exposure to glucose, as a proxy for “vulnerable” cell exposure to glucose. And this is it’s Achilles heel. If there is something not quite right with the red blood cell contingent, the test can give misleading results.
In this video I explain the biology behind the fail, using two relatively common scenarios. The first being iron deficiency anemia and the second being what is termed a haemolytic anemia – these are anemias where the red blood cells are prone to lyse (break), they’re typically caused by “bad” genes.
