Insulin resistance

Hi @Flair ,

Welcome to the forum.
Those five minute duration tests? It only looks like a .5 change/variation in reading, which is normal with meter readings done so close together. Even if using seperate fingers to draw blood?

Tagging in @daisy1 with an info pack.

I'm no expert. (So will apologise to the guys in advance ) tagging in @Lamont D & @Brunneria

@Flair

Try avoiding all added sugar and anything with wheat in it (therefore cook all your own food), eat at least 5 colours of veg each day, no juices, limited fruit, and build up muscle mass. (Read Living Low Carb by Jonny Bowden to understand way.)

Look at Dr Rangan Chatterjee (Doctor in the house) blog and Facebook page reading all his posts.

Basically controlled curbs (say under 100g a day) rather than low curbs with lots of different veg and salads (no readymade dressings!) etc, eating lot of good fats (oily fish, olives, etc) and not caring too much about other fats unless they are easy to avoid. (So cut the fat of bacon but don’t let the remaining fat stop you eating bacon 2 or 3 times a week, but try to limit red meat to a few days of the week.)

The above is very likely to make you much healthier and reduce any insulin resistance you may have regardless of GM readings etc. (I expect that your insulin level is responding to a high blood sugar, and then overshooting leading to a low blood sugar, but so what we don't need to put a label on you before you can improve your health.)

Hi and welcome, @Flair

I agree with @Jaylee that those readings you are getting are within the normal range.
Home blood glucose readings vary quite significantly because the meters are not really all that accurate, and the same drop of blood, tested by the same meter can show significant variations. I am afraid the technology simply isn't very precise. This is reflected in the fact that the meters are allowed to function with a +/- 15% accuracy.

So if your blood glucose was actually 5mmol/l the meter could give a result of 4.25-5.75mmol/l and be considered accurate enough according to the industry standard.

Whether your reading of 9.4 is too high is debatable, mainly because it depends on what you had eaten. It is not unusual for people to have readings that high if they have eaten a lot of carbohydrate. Those of us with carbohydrate intolerance often choose to reduce the carb portions in order to avoid the higher readings.

To answer your questions about insulin resistance.
Yes, it is possible to have insulin resistance and normal blood glucose levels, and be a normal weight. There seem to be a lot of people who experience this, since it is present in quite a lot of the population.

If you want to tackle insulin resistance, even out blood glucose swings, and hopefully avoid developing any other glucose intolerance issues, then a lot of us have found that exercise, cutting down on carb intake, and eating a varied unprocessed diet will help a great deal.

You mentioned a blood glucose reading of 3.6mmol/l
That is considered a hypo for people who are on glucose lowering drugs like insulin or gliclazide. It isn't usually considered a hypo for other people. Non diabetics often experience blood glucose in the 3s with no ill effects, and it isn't harmful to them unless they go much lower.

If I were you, I would keep testing, and when you experience a blood glucose level in the 3s, make a note of what you ate beforehand (to see if it was caused by too many carbs, and your body over compensating for the high). But also make a note of how you feel. Many, many of us can have blood glucose levels in the 3s with no ill effects, so it isn't always a bad thing.

I am afraid that I cannot answer your question about which test for insulin resistance is best. These tests are rarely done in the UK, so I am unfamiliar with the names of them.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the explanation. I see what you mean now.

There are a number of wayts to reduce insulin resistance, weight loss is one, exercise has a big effect, but it is fairly short term, so you need to do the exercise daily, and increase the exercise as you get fitter, to have the same effect on insulin resistance. The other two ways of reducing insulin resistance are low carbing and fasting.

So if you have tried several of those, without success, then maybe try doing some intermittent fasting.

I agree that Metformin has a reputation for reducing insulin resistance, and it is a drug I would happily take myself, for that reason.

For some of us, insulin resistance responds best if we used several insulin resistance reducing methods at once.

Here is a link to Jason Fung's Blog called Intensive Dietary Management
There is a lot of information on insulin, and resistance, and how fasting can help.
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/?s=insulin+resistance

@Flair

Hello Flair and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope it will help you. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to answer you.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

Flair said:

Hello

I am New here hope somebody can help.
My hbac1 is normal 37 or 33 range 20-42. In the morning it is 5.1 or 5.2 or 4.6. I can t loose weight and sometimes I am thirsty. I think I could have insulin resistance.

I did have 1 time a 9.4 after 2 hours eaten. And 1 time 6.3 in the morning. But if I check 5 minuten later it is already 5.7. THis Was Also With Food It Was 9.4 ...5 MINTUES Later 8.9? Is this something normal?

But my question is wich test is good to test insulin resitance. My dockter says I dont have it because morning glucose is okay. Is this True? I think I need a different test.

And I have sometimes low blood sugar like 3.6 and feel dizzy. This I why my hbac1 can be good?

Can you have insulin resistance and hypoglycemia and the same time? And is pre diabetis the same as insulin resistance?

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@Brunneria has given you some brilliant information about insulin resistance.
I had insulin resistance and hypoglycaemia, but your glucose levels are in my opinion normal. A mid range 3 would be considered normal for most people.
You might have hyperinsulinaemia if your not losing weight, that is an excess amount of insulin in your blood. You will be lucky to get a test from your GP for that.

You have been given examples of how to decrease insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia is no different except you might want to lower your carbs as much as possible to help with your weight loss. Intermittent fasting is really good for keeping your blood glucose, insulin resistance and excess insulin.

Do you keep a food diary?
It will help you in the future when you see your GP and it will also help you discover which foods your body can't tolerate or what foods spike you.

For me, a carb is a carb regardless of GI rating!
I'm intolerant to a lot of food which I avoid!

When I was insulin resistant and had hyperinsulinaemia, I was nearly seventeen stone, I'm now twelve stone!

No diet worked for me, except a very low carb diet.

Best wishes.

@Flair

You say you have been eating low curb but is this high fat or high protein or a mix of the two?

ringi said:

@Flair

You say you have been eating low curb but is this high fat or high protein or a mix of the two?

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That is not as easy and straightforward as some on here can make it sound.
Because of my intolerance to many foods my protein, fats, carbs balance is what I have to discover for myself.
It easy to say do this, do that, but only you can decide how low carb, how high fat and how much protein you eat.
Through my experience since diagnosis, having tested relentlessly for four years, what is important is the ratio and balance of what food we have to avoid, or how much in portion size is allowed not to spike you. For me a carb is a carb, so I avoid the carbs as much as possible. Whereas you may be able to tolerate some grains or vegetables that I cannot!
The low carb diet is so individual and of course personnel tastes and preferences come into it. There is an alternative to the foods that spike you.

It is all about eating to your meter!

Low carb works but you must decide which mix or balance is best for you!

Flair said:

Yes I do keep a food dairy .

I am confused now hyperinsulemie? I That was insulin resistance. Is this not the same?

You say you have to treat it the same way. Low carb but I already did. My diet was 20 carbs a day That is low.

Can you explain what you mean number must be 3 mid range That is good?

If this Hyperinsulemie is different what is the test? Only I read it is all one thing metabole syndroom hyperinsulinemie and insulin resistance.

But any way I did start intermitting fasting hope I can get trough those low blood sugar.

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Hyperinsulinaemia is high insulin levels in your blood.
What is known as a c-peptide test and in T1s a GAD test is used to see how much insulin your pancreas is producing.
Yes I very low carb and that doesn't give my pancreas the excuse to overproduce insulin.
Under mid threes I would term a hypo. Over that level is normal. But some can be higher or lower to feel the effects of a hypo.
Insulin resistance can be different because you don't have to have hyperinsulinaemia.
Though both combined can be a precursor to T2 diabetes. And of course you can have either and have no insulin problems and still have diabetes.

A very low carb diet will should sort it out.

Flair said:

@Lamont D

Now That you have a normal weight is your hyperinsulemie gone? Or your insulin resistance? Do you still eat low carb or how do you live your live after you did reverse it. If even possible?

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Yes, I don't have hyperinsulinaemia, nor, any other organ or endocrine problems unless I started eating all those bad carbs again.
Reactive Hypoglycaemia cannot be cured, but can be controlled. As I do!
I have been in ketosis for over three years and intend to continue as long as I can.
Thanks for the questions.

Best wishes.