HbA1c of 6.4% Is NOT "Almost Normal" A 45-year-old woman…

HbA1c of 6.4% Is NOT "Almost Normal" A 45-year-old woman with HbA1c 6.4% and another with HbA1c 5.4% may both be told, "You don't have diabetes." But their long-term metabolic and cardiovascular risk is not the same. HbA1c 5.7 to 6.4% is considered prediabetes. At 6.4%, a person is at the very upper end of the prediabetes range, just below the diagnostic threshold for diabetes, which is 6.5% or higher. And importantly, cardiovascular risk begins to rise before diabetes even develops. Prediabetes is not harmless. A large meta-analysis involving more than 10 million people found that prediabetes was associated with approximately 16% higher risk of coronary heart disease, 14% higher risk of stroke, and 15% higher risk of cardiovascular disease overall. These are population level associations, not predictions for any single individual. HbA1c is not a switch. It moves gradually, 5.4,