Glucose tolerance test

[Caz141]

Hi all,
I’ve reads on the net and on here about testing your insulin tolerance. Looking for some more info on this.
I know that you can take it through the doctors (if your lucky!) or buy the kit on line for a tenner.
I have read one post that he/she has done it with 75g of carbs through shreddies and 6 months later performed the same test to compare results. This is the one i was thinking of doing. There is also another one where they drank a bottle of coke and measured a before after and further alone the time line to see where it came down in range. I’ve not found an article that gave the average reading of how long it would take an individual in figures/time to recover from this through to gage where as a non diabetic and diabetic would be on this scale. I can see in the here and now that my change of diet to low carb has made an immense difference to my sugar reading but now at the stage that i want something to reflect back on in time to come to see if my tolerance has improved any. A kind of base point i guess. Trying to gage how diabetic i am if there is such a figure? How much my insulin is working or not through the months of eating healthy. I know figures change through a multitude of reasons from the simplest of things of the wind blowing too cold!
Any idea’s on the time frame of the recovery process of a high carb one off meal?

 

[catinahat]

This explains the test and the results
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/oral-glucose-tolerance-test.html
I have seen people report that it is advisable to increase your intake of carbs a few days prior to taking the test.
The idea being that you are giving your pancreas chance to ramp up insulin production, otherwise a large amount of carbs in one go will take it by surprise, causing a poor result.

 

[Caz141]

This explains the test and the results
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/oral-glucose-tolerance-test.html
I have seen people report that it is advisable to increase your intake of carbs a few days prior to taking the test.
The idea being that you are giving your pancreas chance to ramp up insulin production, otherwise a large amount of carbs in one go will take it by surprise, causing a poor result.

Thanks cat in the hat, makes logical sense on starting the day before on the ramping up carbs. I will have a look at the article you sent x

 

[Ronancastled]

I have read one post that he/she has done it with 75g of carbs through shreddies and 6 months later performed the same test to compare results.

I was the member that used the Shreddies, mistakenly thinking that 75gs of carbs = 75gs of pure glucose.
But, it's still worth doing to see if you've any chance in passing the main event.
As @catinahat says above, you need to carb up for at least 3 days beforehand to prime the pancreas so to speak.
Let us know how you get on.

 

[pumas]

I've only seen the before and after ranges for the official test, which I failed(for several reasons).
But the difference was only 0.8, not seen any mention of differences.

 

[Caz141]

I was the member that used the Shreddies, mistakenly thinking that 75gs of carbs = 75gs of pure glucose.
But, it's still worth doing to see if you've any chance in passing the main event.
As @catinahat says above, you need to carb up for at least 3 days beforehand to prime the pancreas so to speak.
Let us know how you get on.

Thanks Ronan for idea of Shreddies though I thought it was an interesting idea. I have a HbAc1 test at beginning of may so I was going to give it a go after this because I didn’t want to mess up the good figures that I have had for the last 2 months. Will keep here posted when I do it though. So working that 75g of carbs is not the same as the pure glucose would it be better buying the original recipe or just enjoy the Shreddies just for once . Guess as you did it still later on gives a good reflection.

 

[Caz141]

I was the member that used the Shreddies, mistakenly thinking that 75gs of carbs = 75gs of pure glucose.
But, it's still worth doing to see if you've any chance in passing the main event.
As @catinahat says above, you need to carb up for at least 3 days beforehand to prime the pancreas so to speak.
Let us know how you get on.

The Shreddies is a kind of symbolic test to me also because this is where I started my journey 6 months ago thinking this was a good snack late at night lol cringe. (So do not)How I’ve educated myself since through here and you guys

 

[Caz141]

I've only seen the before and after ranges for the official test, which I failed(for several reasons).
But the difference was only 0.8, not seen any mention of differences.

It’s like a driving test for life, what with priming the engine of carbs before hand. Can I ask is the o.8 the difference you were 2 hrs after the test and this is what you failed by. Still learning this new language and understanding the figures that come back!!

 

[pumas]

The failure was the start of 7.3 and finish of 8.1.
My Hba1c at the time were 26 & 24.
I wasn't given any info about preparation for the test, went for a 2 hr walk, also have White coat syndrome.

 

[Ronancastled]

Thanks Ronan for idea of Shreddies though I thought it was an interesting idea. I have a HbAc1 test at beginning of may so I was going to give it a go after this because I didn’t want to mess up the good figures that I have had for the last 2 months. Will keep here posted when I do it though. So working that 75g of carbs is not the same as the pure glucose would it be better buying the original recipe or just enjoy the Shreddies just for once . Guess as you did it still later on gives a good reflection.

So I did the Shreddies first off to give myself a repeatable baseline.
So 5 months post diagnosis I hit 13.3 @ 1 hour, 10 months post diagnosis I hit 6.1 @ 1 hour
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/fbg-4-1-hba1c-33-and-passed-ogtt.175834/#post-2301412

This allowed me buy into the Taylor theory of reawakening dormant beta cells & the process taking 12 months of remission.

I remember then graduating onto jelly beans as I'd read they had been used in Canada for gestational OGTTs where the mother couldn't stomach the drink.
I reached 6.6 @ 1 hour which I classed as a success.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/jelly-babies-instead-of-rapilose-for-home-ogtt.175741/

Armed with this new confidence I decided to buy the real thing, the 300ml pouch of Rapilose, 75gs of pure glucose.
I documented it here.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/rapilose-for-home-75g-ogtt.178418/

I hit 9.9 @ 1 hour then went hypo @ 2 hours & back to fasting @ 3 hours, this was different gravy to any of my previous high carb tests.
Few things, I had been eating carbs prior but probably only half of what a normal non-diabetic would consume, home meters reliability, capillary vs venous draws or perhaps nerves on my part played a part, I don't know.

All I can say for sure is a 75g bolus of pure glucose hitting your gut in mins is a total shock to any system, especially one that hasn't seen anything like that for over a year. There's plenty of documentation online of non-diabetic keto followers failing 75g OGTTs without carbing up beforehand. Perhaps if I'd ulta carbed the days before I might have dealt with it better. Either way I was happy enough.

My advice is to take it slowly & not to attempt the main event until 12 months post remission, prepare for it & pass a few smaller challenges first.
Good luck.

 

[Caz141]

So I did the Shreddies first off to give myself a repeatable baseline.
So 5 months post diagnosis I hit 13.3 @ 1 hour, 10 months post diagnosis I hit 6.1 @ 1 hour
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/fbg-4-1-hba1c-33-and-passed-ogtt.175834/#post-2301412

This allowed me buy into the Taylor theory of reawakening dormant beta cells & the process taking 12 months of remission.

I remember then graduating onto jelly beans as I'd read they had been used in Canada for gestational OGTTs where the mother couldn't stomach the drink.
I reached 6.6 @ 1 hour which I classed as a success.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/jelly-babies-instead-of-rapilose-for-home-ogtt.175741/

Armed with this new confidence I decided to buy the real thing, the 300ml pouch of Rapilose, 75gs of pure glucose.
I documented it here.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/rapilose-for-home-75g-ogtt.178418/

I hit 9.9 @ 1 hour then went hypo @ 2 hours & back to fasting @ 3 hours, this was different gravy to any of my previous high carb tests.
Few things, I had been eating carbs prior but probably only half of what a normal non-diabetic would consume, home meters reliability, capillary vs venous draws or perhaps nerves on my part played a part, I don't know.

All I can say for sure is a 75g bolus of pure glucose hitting your gut in mins is a total shock to any system, especially one that hasn't seen anything like that for over a year. There's plenty of documentation online of non-diabetic keto followers failing 75g OGTTs without carbing up beforehand. Perhaps if I'd ulta carbed the days before I might have dealt with it better. Either way I was happy enough.

My advice is to take it slowly & not to attempt the main event until 12 months post remission, prepare for it & pass a few smaller challenges first.
Good luck.

Thank you for this interesting reading. Did you stay on really low carb until you was in remission for 12 months. At what stage did you start to up your carbs. I’m currently on 90% of the time 30g carbs, still awaiting the non diabetic, early days on the time line of your experimenting i gather. Never seen a 4 on a FP test though or a HbA1c reading less than 5.5. Usually running between 5-6 on a FP test, 6 months on which is loads better than the 10-15 mark that i was reading. I’ll go back to the interesting reading and researching for the time being. Thanks again…just another thought from reading on the web could i put 100g of sugar into 250ml of water to be the equivalent of the glucose drink. When I’m at that level of remission of course.

 

[Oldvatr]

Sugar is 50% glucose, 50% fructose so not quite the OGTT dose even at 100g. It should really be glucose in vs glucose out Any other carbs will change the GI value. Pure glucose takes 10 minutes to peak in the bloodstream after hitting the stomach. most other simple carbs take at least 20 minutes to enter the blood. If the delay is too long, then a slow rise in blood sugar will not trigger the first phase insulin response.

 

[Ronancastled]

Thank you for this interesting reading. Did you stay on really low carb until you was in remission for 12 months. At what stage did you start to up your carbs.

I followed the old adage of eating to my meter.
I started experimenting at about 5 months, then retreating, then experimenting again.
I remember eating a McDonalds burger & fries, out with the kids & no choices, getting a 6 point something @ 2 hours with no exercise, think then I knew I'd developed a higher tolerance, this was somewhere around the 10 month mark.

A word of caution however:
(1) My experience is not typical & did take a dramatic weight loss & lifestyle change. Some of us have to manage on Keto <30gs of carb forever.
(2) Carb creep is an ongoing danger, just because I can get away with the carbs on the meter I still need to be vigilant. I know where that road leads back to.