GTT - What normal looks like

Since doing a couple of glucose tolerance tests, I always wondered what a normal healthy response looked like.
Well, today I found out when my 29yo pregnant cousin told me her results.
Fasting, 1h and 2h... all in the 4s.
Huh? 1h after drinking that sugary stuff you didn't spike out of the 4s?
Apparently not.
Even her doctor was surprised by how well her body manages glucose.

But how?

Well, thanks to gluten intolence apparently. She has been eating gluten free since she was about 22yo. And she was pretty sensible with her eating in general. She said she only has a naughty treat about once a week.

Her husband is fructose intolerant (didn't know that was a thing) so for the past few years since they've been together, she has also shared many meals with him which further reduced her exposure to carbs. They don't cook with onions for example.
They eat meat, dairy and tons of vegetables, for him, fruits which have an equal ratio of sucrose to fructose are tolerable with his condition (go figure) so they eat those. Pastas are gluten free, made of rice or corn. And they eat rice (wholemeal I think) and corn. She regularly makes a banana cake but uses almond meal instead of flour.
Anyway, it's good to know what a healthy response to carbs looks like and how to have it. But we all knew that already, didn't we?

Bluetit1802 said:

I wonder if she really is normal ---- what were her readings prior to the 2 hours ------------- I suggest she had a huge insulin spike to bring her levels down to the 4s by 2 hours ------- is this normal? I have my doubts. It would be interesting to see what her levels were after the 2 hour mark as well ----- bordering on hypo levels possibly before either she caved in and ate, or her liver helped her out.

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I guess there's no way of knowing unless she does another test and has her insulin response read at the same time. If her readings look possibly pathological, it makes me wonder why they use only the GTT on its own. Maybe they only care about the baby not being in a high sugar environment... High insulin wouldn’t be great either though, would it?

Lamont D said:

Is it a normal response though?
I was shown a glucose response chart that my endocrinologist thought would be closest to someone considered in normal levels after 75g of glucose, and it showed that there is a spike of around 4 to 6mmols, at the sixty minutes mark, then a gentle curve back to normal levels.
This natural curve distinguished the differential in my glucose tolerance test, because of my overshoot of insulin.

I have seen posts about having an almost level reading after glucose, this the poster called 'flat line hypoglycaemia'!
I have also heard about 'glucose dumping'. This is usually within the first hour, I have a similar response to glucose, the body usually responds by an insulin response to correct the dumping, if a reading wasn't used, you wouldn't know this was happening.

My own personal experience, I have the glucose, from normal levels range, my spike is in double figures between 30-60 minutes, then my overshoot happens.
There are many conditions this happens.
What happens is my normal, your normal is different to mine!
That is why it is essential to find the right dietary balance for you.
That healthy balance of foods you have described would put me into hypo hell.
A healthy diet for you or someone else, is not healthy for me or someone else!

Best wishes

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I think since most averages of "normal" are based on average people eating the average Western diet, you'd expect some level of response to the glucose at the one hour. And it could well be that her response is pathological having a greater insulin response than normal, or her response is much healthier than average because she hasn't spent a life time consuming the average number of carbs. I would hope it's the latter.

Lamont D said:

Too much insulin is really not good for you!
The insulin tests could be done along with the glucose tolerance test. There is no reason why not!
Readings should be at least tested every thirty minutes after the glucose.
Mine were!

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I had my insulin done but it's not routine here for pregnant women and I even had to twist my doctor's arm to have it in the postpartum follow up. I don't think my cousin is worried about hers though. Time will tell I guess.