Even More Confused....

[Cat1988]

My HBA1C was 50 at the end of May 2021 and a few other things were raised. I went to see an alternative endocrinologist in London as he also specialises in chronic fatigue. He recommended that I do a fasting insulin blood test to confirm that it's up the shoot.

Anyhow I now have the results which have come back normal..... so I am even more confused now as he doesn't know what's causing the weight gain.

Has anyone else had this or any ideas what to do or where to go from here?

 

[LaoDan]

Not sure what a fasting insulin blood test is, if it’s a fasting glucose test, then those can vary widely, at least they do with me. A1c gives a better understanding of your glucose levels over a longer period of time.

you could be spiking during the day and normalizing overnight. So you could be catching this early, before developing insulin resistance.

 

[Cat1988]

Not sure what a fasting insulin blood test is, if it’s a fasting glucose test, then those can vary widely, at least they do with me. A1c gives a better understanding of your glucose levels over a longer period of time.

you could be spiking during the day and normalizing overnight. So you could be catching this early, before developing insulin resistance.

My overnight blood sugar levels are higher than at any other point in the day and they are within the normal range during the day (although I do take metformin).

The test was to see if I have insulin resistance (which he was completely expecting- except mine came back normal).

My oral glucose test came back as impaired in January 2021.

 

[LaoDan]

Do you have a meter? You could consider testing your normal diet so you can make adjustments. I bought a couple libre sensors to troubleshoot me. I found my work stress was making me spike as much as a candy bar.

I don’t test or wear a libre sensor all the time, just when something in my life changes. Great tools to use though

 

[Resurgam]

Decades before diagnosis I could see that carbs caused me to gain weight, I repeated this many times to various HCPs and was told it was nonsense - until I came across Dr Atkins my observations had been met with derision, so you can imagine how I felt when I found a copy of 'New Diet Revolution' which confirmed everything I thought.

 

[bulkbiker]

My HBA1C was 50 at the end of May 2021 and a few other things were raised. I went to see an alternative endocrinologist in London as he also specialises in chronic fatigue. He recommended that I do a fasting insulin blood test to confirm that it's up the shoot.

Anyhow I now have the results which have come back normal..... so I am even more confused now as he doesn't know what's causing the weight gain.

Has anyone else had this or any ideas what to do or where to go from here?

Would you care to share the exact result.."normal" can be relatively meaningless. If you are at the higher end of "normal" with your HbA1c being "just" into the T2 range then that could explain it. Alternatively if your fasting insulin was at the lower end of normal it could be indicative of something else entirely.
You are the first person I have come across who had an NHS fasting insulin test so well done!

 

[ert]

My overnight blood sugar levels are higher than at any other point in the day and they are within the normal range during the day (although I do take metformin).

The test was to see if I have insulin resistance (which he was completely expecting- except mine came back normal).

My oral glucose test came back as impaired in January 2021.

A specialist should be using the HOMA formula to calculate insulin resistance rather than your fasting insulin on its own. Is that what he used?

 

[Cat1988]

Would you care to share the exact result.."normal" can be relatively meaningless. If you are at the higher end of "normal" with your HbA1c being "just" into the T2 range then that could explain it. Alternatively if your fasting insulin was at the lower end of normal it could be indicative of something else entirely.
You are the first person I have come across who had an NHS fasting insulin test so well done!

Insulin 112.2
Range for Normal 17.8 - 173 pmol/L

It wasn't NHS I had to have it done privately

 

[ert]

Insulin 112.2
Range for Normal 17.8 - 173 pmol/L

It wasn't NHS I had to have it done privately

You need to use the HOMA formula. Just this value fasting insulin value on its own doesn't measure insulin resistance. You need your fasting glucose and fasting insulin (and convert the units.)
https://www.mdcalc.com/homa-ir-homeostatic-model-assessment-insulin-resistance