If you have visited the doctors lately and been warned that your Diabetes HbA1C Test came back high, the culprit could be the mouthwash or breath freshening strips you used before your appointment. We recently learned about this issue when a friend mentioned his HbA1C results were 8+ causing the doctor to diagnose him as diabetic and prescribing him with medication.
Thus began his journey of self awareness in all things diabetes. His wife ordered him a Contour Next One Glucose Meter and they began to chart his mg/dl glucose readings using the free forDiabetes App.
As he charted his daily glucose blood levels in the morning and 2 hours after every meal, it became apparent that something was off. One thing they noticed was that while most of his numbers were in the normal range, the fasting morning numbers were high.
Knowing that he was not eating before his early morning mg/dl blood check, it was a mystery why the numbers were spiking higher. After several days of discussion, they realized that he was using a few listerine strips to freshen his breath in the morning when he 1st got up. While it was not counted as food per se, this seemed to be the culprit.
Doing a little research online showed an interesting article referencing a study that said that people who used mouthwash twice a day had a 55% higher risk of developing prediabetes or diabetes over a 3 year time frame. If this is true, how many patients are potentially being diagnosed with diabetes due to their mouthwash or breath strip use?
Knowing now that our friend was using breath strips before his doctor visit for his HbA1C Test raises the question of whether he was mis-diagnosed and not diabetic at all. Since his next appointment is a few weeks away, he has decided to stop taking the medication for now and will keep using the Contour Glucose Meter to show the doctor his results.
Our 1st hope is that the next HbA1C test number goes down. The 2nd concern is that if his previous regular use of mouthwash and breath strips actually caused him to get diabetes, his body will heal itself and reverse any damage that was done to his health.
As a side note, we would only add that this is our friends story and not meant to say that any mouthwash brand is bad specifically. Our only suggestion is that if you are getting high HbA1C glucose readings at the doctors office, you may want to stop using mouthwash and breath strips for a few weeks before your next appointment. If your numbers go down, it could mean you were having the same issue as our friend and help persuade the doctor to reduce your medications and get you on the road to better health.
For more information about this study, visit this link:
