• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Fasting Insulin Test take 2

bulkbiker

BANNED
Messages
19,569
Location
Worthing
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Trotted along to the surgery this morning for blood draw for Cholesterol test and HbA1c and asked the only phlebotomist to ever successfully stab me first time to fill up the vial for Medichecks. She was fine filling it up and even filled in the details on the vial for me. She was also quite interested in why i was having it done. However she seemed to have never heard of the test which was a little disappointing. Will post off today and should get the results in a couple of days.
 
Just looked at their website, which test have you chosen to have done?
 
Fingers crossed for you, though I suspect you don't need it.
 
Rachox said:
I thought that’d be it! I hope they explain the result or that you already understand the significance of the numbers, as I wouldn’t have a clue what’s normal!
Click to expand...

As the test is not done much, no one has a clue what's normal over a large number of people. But we do know from reseach studies the range that people without diabets get. I expect it is most useful to track chanes over time.
 
Well yes.. Its meant to be ok at between 2 and 6 micro units per millilitre (mIU/ml) last one was 3.41 so fingers crossed we'll get a repeat of something like that. Some people say under 5 is better. 0 would be an untreated Type 1 (ie no insulin whatsoever) so lower is not always better for this test.
 
bulkbiker said:
0 would be an untreated Type 1 (ie no insulin whatsoever) so lower is not always better for this test.
Click to expand...

Thats way it needs to be combined with the BG from the same sample of blood to be truely useful. We also need to remember that a lot of the insulin our body makes nevers gets past the liver, so is not detected with this test - hence this may be a very good test to tell if fat is starting to build up in the liver.
 
Rachox said:
I thought that’d be it! I hope they explain the result or that you already understand the significance of the numbers, as I wouldn’t have a clue what’s normal!
Click to expand...
In my opinion,
Put simply - the " normal " range shown on the testing sheet will be something like 2-25 iUI/ml. Normal is basically an average of however many people are considered to be statistically significant in setting the test
Unfortunately , practically everyone today is affected by eating heavily processed foods and high Omega 6 oils, thus the " normal" range is actually quite high.

The sweet spot is considered to be 2-5.
Studies have shown that 80% of people with a fasting insulin of over 8 are at the very least prediabetic.
Other studies have shown that one can be metabolically healthy but very fat ( ie fasting insulin around 5 , BMI 44)
and conversely that one can be thin but with high fasting insulin - eg both overweight and underweight babies tend to have high fasting insulin whilst normal weight babies will be in the sweet spot.

Fully metabolically healthy people will have a result under 5. Fasting insulin also increases with time obese, so the longer you were overweight before diagnosis of diabetes the higher its likely to be . The figures then come down as you lose weight and switch to a healthier diet .It will take longer to normalise insulin than it does to normalise blood sugar .

In my own case my fasting insulin came down from 20 at the 6 months in stage to 8 at 12 months ( I don't know the starting point as I didn't know there was such a test. )
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Good luck with the Fast insulin , HbA1c and cholesterol @bulkbiker
Did you also ask for the plasma BG to be tested as well as the HbA1c?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid I only get what the "computer" says.. so probably won't.. I did my own FBG of course this morning as usual about 10 minutes before the blood draw for the tests.. 5.0... so I'll happily use that for the ratio.

I just hope I get the full lipid panel I asked for last time.. was in a bit of a tizz this morning as I forgot to take the Medichecks vial with me so had to send hubby and the dog home to get it.. I walked into the surgery with it just as the phlebotomist walked out the door and called my name.. talk about cutting it fine..
 
I am also wondering what effect a liver dump might have in some people that experience this after getting up and throughout the morning, taking account of having to get washed and dressed, rush about, get to the surgery and possibly stress over having the blood drawn. We all know how these things affect fasting tests in some people.
 
Good question.. until we get home insulin meters I guess we won't know...
 
I just e-mailed a guy in the Netherlands who is meant to be developing a home insulin meter. He has invited me to a phone call.. will let you lot know what happens.
 
Monitoring insulin would give us so much better targets to aim for.
 
Interesting results...good old medichecks just sent through second set of results.

This time fasting insulin was 7.85 mIU/L higher than the last time... does this mean that fasting insulin wizzes around in a similar way to blood glucose and cholesterol? Hmm

Also got results from recent cholesterol test Total 7.3
HDL 1.6
Trigs 1.3

So Trig/HDL raio ok but not as good as last time...

Looks like they forgot the HbA1c typical!.. Would have been an interesting set to have all at once...
 
Interesting @bulkbiker

I would like to bet that Fasting insulin does fluctuate, like FBGs do. One theory perhaps takes us back to the good old liver dump. On very low carb, overnight the glucose levels will be low, which triggers the liver to dump, that triggers the pancreas to secrete insulin to keep the liver dump in check.. If this all happens before the test, insulin levels will be higher than if there had been no significant liver dump. Does that sound sensible?

They may have done the HbA1c but the doctor may not have seen it yet. Sometimes on-line results arrive randomly, or they do in my case.
 

Interesting results @bulkbiker. Fasting insulin is pulsatile like both glucose and cholesterol, though on average it will revolve round similar places ( also like glucose and cholesterol). Is your diet as strict now as it was the last time you did this? the trigs number suggests a higher carb intake?
 
When I went to see a consultant (don't shoot the messenger here he really annoyed me to) he batted back everything I asked for. But we did have the best part of 40mins together and even though he didn't do what I wanted he was a professor so he wasn't stupid. He said testing insulin was not very helpful. He said it would not change my course of treatment. He said it fluctuates all of the time far more than BG and not so easy to attribute. It is used when fat needs storing, when BG is high and for other reasons (which he didn't go in to). His view was HBA1C and FBG much better descriptors.

I put it to him that surely high insulin suggested IR and low insulin suggested broken Beta cells and again after telling me it wouldn't change the basic advice to lose a bit of weight and look at your diet and eventually take pills then injections (cheery soul). He said you could draw very little conclusions from an insulin test unless they were at the far ends of the scales.

He did concede but was not prepared to entertain one for me, that the clamp test (is that it?) was a good test. Where ever you can be in charge of the variables he said it was a good test. But too expensive, too time consuming and actually to disruptive to the patient. And he said - what are you going to do differently?

Now I personally do not prescribe to any of that above - I like to be armed with knowledge and data but that is what he said.

Please don't bomb me these are not the opinions of the poster I am simply sharing what cost the best part of 600ukp.
 
and much appreciated it is too Fleegle..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…