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DIY oral glucose tolerance test?

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NatJS

Well-Known Member
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71
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
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Diabetes
Does anyone have any suggestions as to doing an OGTT at home with a finger prick meter? I'd quite like to see what effect my low carbing and medication is having on my glucose tolerance, to see if my insulin sensitivity is improving, and I thought I could maybe try making a graph of my response over a year or two of monthly tests. Anyone else done something like this?
 
The OGTT is for people who are eating a 'normal' diet, so you would need to - in effect - negate any progress you have made by eating a high carb diet for some days before the test.
It would be - perhaps - a better test in your circumstances, to lower your carbs down to whatever you think will make an impact, eat the same meals for each test, then see how much weight you lose in - say 48 hours.
That would be testing the lowering of insulin levels, which should allow stores of fat and glycogen to flow out of cells - which is perhaps more significant as 'progress' in restoring normal metabolism.
Just because many others are eating a diet high in carbohydrates and apparently coping with it, is no reason to try to copy them.
There are racing car drivers, sky divers and people on talent shows - but we don't have to test ourselves as they do.
 
I agree that in order to have an accurate result from an OGTT you have to eat normal carbs for a few days beforehand, otherwise it will not be accurate. This is because when we are low carb we produce less insulin. Our pancreas gets used to producing less insulin and so will not produce enough to cover a sudden intake of all that glucose. You will fail the test spectacularly. You have to give your pancreas time to adjust to extra glucose from carbs in order for it to produce more insulin.

I'm not sure the weighing after 48 hours would show anything at all but am willing to be proved wrong. I think that depends on your weight, how easily you lose weight, how much water you lose, whether you are constipated or the opposite, and many other factors.
 
Last January, after low carbing for 3 to 4 years I had a c-peptide test and an insulin resistance test.

C-pep showed normal range for insulin production and an insulin resistance number of 2.5, 1 being normal. This doesn't seem to agree with previous post but it might just be me.
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Last January, after low carbing for 3 to 4 years I had a c-peptide test and an insulin resistance test.

C-pep showed normal range for insulin production and an insulin resistance number of 2.5, 1 being normal. This doesn't seem to agree with previous post but it might just be me.
Click to expand...

The OGGT is different from the c-peptide test in that you have to drink a certain amount of pure glucose and are then tested at hourly intervals. It is this sudden intake of glucose that surprises the pancreas if it isn't used to it. I don't know what an insulin resistance test comprises of.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
I don't know what an insulin resistance test comprises of.
Click to expand...

I only discovered it by accident when I was having some other blood tests done privately and just required another phial of blood. I mentioned it to my GP and she wasn't aware that it could be tested. It might be interesting to repeat it after my attempts at Newcastle dieting.
 
What is the SD of the C-pep test?
What value are 75% of the people below?
 
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