Any diabetics here?

[yarrow]

My naturopath did some tests and it turns out I'm producing very, very little insulin. She told me to buy a monitor & check after meals as well as fasting. My fasting numbers are fine but my 1 hour post-meal numbers have been 167 & 175. Everything I see online suggests that I'm a diabetic. And since the other test I did said I wasn't producing enough insulin,...

 

So, tell me, is it as bad as I'm fearing. Will insulin make me gain lots of weight? I'm fairly upset by all this.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Lawana]

I'm not diabetic, but my dd is. She has Type 1 diabetes, and produces no insulin at all. If she were to go 3 days or so without injected insulin, she would die. I'm kind of confused by your description of not producing much insulin. That would be more like Type 1, while for Type 2, insulin resistance is usually the problem. The pancreas has to produce much more insulin to try to keep blood sugar regulated.

I hope you get some medical help to figure out exactly what the problem is.

Oh and if you are in fact not producing much insulin, injecting insulin will not make you gain weight. If you are already producing lots of insulin, as with Type 2, weight gain may be an issue.

ETA: nothing against your naturopath, but a c-peptide test would indicate if you are actually producing very low levels of insulin

Edited February 18, 2010 by Lawana
adding

[kalanamak]

My naturopath did some tests and it turns out I'm producing very, very little insulin. She told me to buy a monitor & check after meals as well as fasting. My fasting numbers are fine but my 1 hour post-meal numbers have been 167 & 175. Everything I see online suggests that I'm a diabetic. And since the other test I did said I wasn't producing enough insulin,...

 

So, tell me, is it as bad as I'm fearing. Will insulin make me gain lots of weight? I'm fairly upset by all this.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

What test was used to check insulin production? Most type II produce a LOT but have insulin resistance at the target cell. By the time a type II is producing little, they are usually years into the disease. A type I, which can be seen in grownups de novo, is a VERY serious disease, and insulin production can crash quickly and kill you if not caught soon enough.

I'll be blunt here and guess the insulin test you got is not a very "standard" one. DM is nothing to mess with. Get this confirmed or excluded.

 

The scuttlebutt coming down the pike is that the less expensive HbA1C can be used to diagnose diabetes rather than having to do a glucose tolerance test.

 

http://www.usnews.com/health/diet-fitness/diabetes/articles/2009/06/05/experts-urge-one-test-to-diagnose-diabetes.html

[Perry]

Here is some information about diabetes. While it's possible you have type 1 diabetes (where the pancreas doesn't make enough insulin) it isn't very likely, and it's much more likely your naturopath doesn't understand diabetes.

 

Those post prandial glucoses are a little high but they aren't that abnormal. You really need more tests, done by someone with experience in diagnosing and managing diabetes.

[yarrow]

fasting blood test & then she had me eat two gf muffins since she was worried that the glucola would cause a migraine. After 2 hours, my blood glucose was fine but my insulin was virtually nil. She thought it was curious and told me to watch the blood glucose at home. I've noticed that my blood glucose is fine fasting and after breakfast but after lunch & dinner it goes high and stays there for 3-4 hours.

 

Type 1 is precisely what concerns me since some type 2 can be controlled by diet/exercise and I already eat a good diet & exercise.

 

I called my regular doc & told her my post-meal numbers were at 175 & she said if they were under 200, it was no concern but that's not what I'm seeing online.

[Perry]

fasting blood test & then she had me eat two gf muffins since she was worried that the glucola would cause a migraine. After 2 hours, my blood glucose was fine but my insulin was virtually nil. She thought it was curious and told me to watch the blood glucose at home. I've noticed that my blood glucose is fine fasting and after breakfast but after lunch & dinner it goes high and stays there for 3-4 hours.

 

Type 1 is precisely what concerns me since some type 2 can be controlled by diet/exercise and I already eat a good diet & exercise.

 

I called my regular doc & told her my post-meal numbers were at 175 & she said if they were under 200, it was no concern but that's not what I'm seeing online.

 

There are better ways to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes than measuring insulin.

ADA 2009: Expert Committee Recommends Use of Hemoglobin A1C for Diagnosis of Diabetes

 

Martha Kerr

June 7, 2009 (New Orleans, Louisiana) — The American Diabetes Association (ADA), the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) have joined forces to recommend the use of the hemoglobin A1C assay for the diagnosis of diabetes.

The international expert committee's recommendations were announced here on Friday during the opening hours of the ADA's 69th Scientific Sessions and released simultaneously online in the July issue of Diabetes Care.

"This is the first major departure in 30 years in diabetes diagnosis," committee chairman David M. Nathan, MD, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, declared in presenting the committee's findings.

"A1C values vary less than FPG [fasting plasma glucose] values and the assay for A1C has technical advantages compared with the glucose assay," Dr. Nathan said. A1C gives a picture of the average blood glucose level over the preceding 2 to 3 months, he added.

"A1C has numerous advantages over plasma glucose measurement," Dr. Nathan continued. "It's a more stable chemical moiety.... It's more convenient. The patient doesn't need to fast, and measuring A1C is more convenient and easier for patients who will no longer be required to perform a fasting or oral glucose tolerance test.... And it is correlated tightly with the risk of developing retinopathy."

A disadvantage is the cost. "It is more expensive," Dr. Nathan acknowledged. However, cost analyses have not been done, "...and costs are not the same as charges [to the patient]."

The committee has determined that an A1C value of 6.5% or greater should be used for the diagnosis of diabetes.

This cut-point, Dr. Nathan said, "is where risk of retinopathy really starts to go up."

He cautioned that there is no hard line between diabetes and normoglycemia, however, "...an A1C level of 6.5% is sufficiently sensitive and specific to identify people who have diabetes."

Here are ADA guidelines:

How are insulin resistance and pre-diabetes diagnosed?

 

Health care providers use blood tests to determine whether a person has pre-diabetes but do not usually test for insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can be assessed by measuring the level of insulin in the blood. However, the test that most accurately measures insulin resistance, called the euglycemic clamp, is too costly and complicated to be used in most doctors’ offices. The clamp is a research tool used by scientists to learn more about glucose metabolism. If tests indicate pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance most likely is present.

Diabetes and pre-diabetes can be detected with one of the following tests:

 

• Fasting glucose test. This test measures blood glucose in people who have not eaten anything for at least 8 hours. This test is most reliable when done in the morning. Fasting glucose levels of 100 to 125 mg/dL are above normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. This condition is called pre-diabetes or IFG. People with IFG often have had insulin resistance for some time. They are much more likely to develop diabetes than people with normal blood glucose levels.
  
• Glucose tolerance test. This test measures blood glucose after people fast for at least 8 hours and 2 hours after they drink a sweet liquid provided by a doctor or laboratory. A blood glucose level between 140 and 199 mg/dL means glucose tolerance is not normal but is not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. This form of pre-diabetes is called IGT and, like IFG, it points toward a history of insulin resistance and a risk for developing diabetes.
  

People whose test results indicate they have pre-diabetes should have their blood glucose levels checked again in 1 to 2 years.

If your fasting blood sugars are normal it would be really REALLY unlikely that you have type 1 diabetes.

[Perry]

. nm

Edited February 18, 2010 by Perry