By Dan Garner

Estimated Average Glucose (eAG) represents your average daily blood glucose over the past 2-3 months and is something that can be easily calculated by having only one biomarker done: Hemoglobin-A1c (HbA1c).

Low eAG readings suggest hypoglycemic tendencies and elevated eAG increases complications associated with diabetes such as cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, kidney damage, and eye damage.

Although HbA1c is a marker for blood sugar management across the past 2-3 months by itself, I like using eAG as a support marker because:

1. Fasting glucose is measured in mg/dL, whereas HbA1c is measured as a percentage. eAG readings use the intelligence of HbA1c but convert it into an mg/dL reading so that my clients see/understand it better.

2. Due to the conversion into mg/dL, we are able to detect smaller positive (or negative) changes taking place as the variations are often +/- 10-20mg whereas HbA1c variations are typically 0.1-0.3.

3. Bigger variation numbers mean it's easier to detect change, but also easier to maintain positive motivation on your plan because you're seeing internal change take place and systemic health improve because of it.

The normal range for eAG is 82-154mg/dL. However, I very much consider the optimal range to be 82-103mg/dL due to the data pool NHANES released in 2015 demonstrating pre-diabetics had an eAG value of 123mg/dL and healthy populations maintained a value of 103mg/dL.

Use the free calculator below from MD CALC and become a healthier you.

https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/1299/estimated-average-glucose-eag-hba1c

‍