got new blood work-->fasting blood sugar and blood insulin levels.

A

animal-inside

Well-known member
Trusted Member
I've struggled with higher blood sugar for about 5 years now. Im sure if you recognize my name, you have read my many threads/posts about experimenting with diet, supplements etc..

My fasting bloood sugar was around 5-5.5 for a few years (5 years ago approx) and it's slowly creeping up.. It's now consistently 5.8-6.5.. I test it often..

I'm on a near full ketp diet for 4 years now.. It helped initially, but it wasn't a miracle... I had a low thyroid 5 years ago at the same time and my dr was convinced if he treated the low thyroid and I changed my diet, my blood sugar would sort itself out.. It didn't.. IT helped, but not much...

I also lowered my protien intake to about 200grams a day

i'm 250-255lbs after a full keto diet for almost 4 years. I lost lots of fat, but man it was tough lol.. In the summer I had some ab outline showing at the top and oblique at 250lbs..

For blood sugar I take:
300mg ahpa lipioc acid 2x a day
500mg berberine 2x a day.
I just started cinammon at 2400mg x2 a day about 3 weeks ago.. I have been watching and my blood sugar haven't biudged..


All that said, about a month ago I was reviewing blood work with a private health care place and the lady was like "your blood insulin levels are great" and I told her "umm.. I have never had my blood insulin tested"... She then realized she had the wrong file.. so I asked if I could have them tested since I had no idea you could blood test your insulin levels.. So she agreed..

I got those results back and after a 12 hour fast my blood sugar was 6.3 and my insulin levels were 37 pmol/L.. The range according to alberta health for insulin was anythign under 160pmol/L is accetpable..

My brain was thinking "if I had high blood sugar at 6.3... then shouldn't I have high insulin to show my body is trying to get that 6.3 blood sugar down?? But my blood insulin looked low compared to what alberta health #'s... Made me think something isn't right because I was repeatiddly told by 4 or 5 doctors I had insulin resistance.. basically my pancrease makes insulin, but my insulin recpeptors aren't working well so I struggle to get blood sugars to normal level therefore my body makes even more insulin to try to combat the constant high blood sugar... That made no sense based on 6.3 and inslihn of 37..

So I googled a bit and found "Fasting insulin assessment - In a healthy person who has fasted for 6 to 8 hours (usually overnight), the insulin level is approximately 60 pmol/L. A level higher than this is considered indicative of insulin resistance."...

This would seem like I do not have insulin resistance at all since I'm well below 60..

More googling
"Hypoglycemia is a condition in which your blood sugar (glucose) level is lower than the standard range. Glucose is your body's main energy source.

Hypoglycemia is often related to diabetes treatment. But other drugs and a variety of conditions — many rare — can cause low blood sugar in people who don't have diabetes.


Hypoglycemia needs immediate treatment. For many people, a fasting blood sugar of 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 3.9 millimoles per liter (mmol/L), or below should serve as an alert for hypoglycemia. But your numbers might be different. Ask your health care provider.

Treatment involves quickly getting your blood sugar back to within the standard range either with a high-sugar food or drink or with medication. Long-term treatment requires identifying and treating the cause of hypoglycemia."


I posted a thread the other day about type 1.5 diabetes.. I'm wondering if this is my case..

Might be worth noting I had a dr 2 summers ago put me on ozpemic.. I made a thread about it, but it deffinitely dropped my blood sugar on the initial dose, but after few weeks on inititial dose my blood sugars returned to the higher level again.. I was scheduled to ramp it up, and I did.. and my blood sugars dropped again, but I was getting pretty bad low blood sugar levels when I lifted weights.. so I stopped..
 
animal-inside said:
I posted a thread the other day about type 1.5 diabetes.. I'm wondering if this is my case..
Click to expand...
Yes. This sounds like sound reasoning. If your sugars are high, and your insulin is low, then yes, it stands to reason that your pancreas isn't making enough insulin.

Also, fasting blood sugars high while on keto, that's very unusual.

I would bug my Dr. every five days until they gave me a referral to an endocrinologist, because adult onset type one is too rare and too newly discovered to be handled by your run of the mill family doc unless they're REALLY on the ball.

Also, if you are right, you're going to need insulin within five years or less (I read the article you posted).

Also, I would get on this tout-suite. Only one in 20 diabetics are type one, but the majority of sudden deaths are too, from either ketoacidosis, or a mistake with insulin. Those aren't issues for you by next Tuesday, but depending on where you live, it might take months to get a full workup with an endocrinologist. Hell, it might take several months just to get the intake appointment.
 
What is your A1C?
What is your TRT dosage per week?:unsure:
TRT is known to regulate blood sugar levels to a certain degree. But if you have a family history of hypoglycemia, then that would be a different case.
 
It could be LADA but you would need testing to try to determine that. My father has adult onset t1d which is pretty rare but it does happen also. What is your a1c?
 
BobTbay said:
Yes. This sounds like sound reasoning. If your sugars are high, and your insulin is low, then yes, it stands to reason that your pancreas isn't making enough insulin.

Also, fasting blood sugars high while on keto, that's very unusual.

I would bug my Dr. every five days until they gave me a referral to an endocrinologist, because adult onset type one is too rare and too newly discovered to be handled by your run of the mill family doc unless they're REALLY on the ball.

Also, if you are right, you're going to need insulin within five years or less (I read the article you posted).

Also, I would get on this tout-suite. Only one in 20 diabetics are type one, but the majority of sudden deaths are too, from either ketoacidosis, or a mistake with insulin. Those aren't issues for you by next Tuesday, but depending on where you live, it might take months to get a full workup with an endocrinologist. Hell, it might take several months just to get the intake appointment.
Click to expand...

If have a slowly decreasing pancreas funciton causing less insulin being released than needed, its not too bad yet lol.. I only every feel low blood sugar on hard work out days, and I always attribute it to keto diet.. Doesnt' affect my workouts like it did when I was on ozpempic.

I still don't know if this is whats happening to me though
 
Tom Simons said:
What is your A1C?
What is your TRT dosage per week?:unsure:
TRT is known to regulate blood sugar levels to a certain degree. But if you have a family history of hypoglycemia, then that would be a different case.
Click to expand...

A1c is 5.6- 5.7%.. unfortunately I never had A1c testing done until last spring..so I can't see any trends..

I had it done last march and again last oct.

TRT is 100mg, but I go up to 125-150mg in summers usually.

My understanding is teststerone causes higher blood sugar, not regulate it.. to me regulate means to control. maybve I'm confused.

My fathers side of the fmaily has rampant diabetes. In fact all my uncles, aunts, great uncles and aunts had type 2 diabtes.. The only one on that side who never got it was my grandfather who lived to 88 smoking 2 packs a day and an alcohoilc lol.. It should be considered that these diabetics might have had this type 1.5 and not actually type 2.. who knows.. I know they all got diagnosed around 40 years old and the ones I got info about all went from metaformin to insulin injections within a year or 2 of being diagnosed.. I had a great aunt that went into a diabetic coma a few times and pulled through, but the last time it happened it killed her..
 
Negan said:
It could be LADA but you would need testing to try to determine that. My father has adult onset t1d which is pretty rare but it does happen also. What is your a1c?
Click to expand...

Oh for sure no one will make conclusions based on 1 blood test.. I'm going to see what the private clinic says about it and if they don't to some more testing then I'll go to an actual dr.. my priviate clinic is basically just a place you pay for trt scripts..
 
If I were you, I would get a device called the 'Dexcom G7' or the 'Freestyle Libre 2' (version 3 just apparently became available). Both are really good devices. They monitor your blood sugar level. They give readings every 5 minutes. Tells you if your blood sugar is low or high. They even tell you your A1C level😀. Look them up on youtube and google. Really is a fascinating device:).
 
BobTbay said:
when you "feel" low blood sugar do you test? If so what's the number?
Click to expand...

I only recall testing for it when I was taking ozempic.. I don't remmeber taking it when I felt low after a lift oterhwise..

But it's 7:30 am right now.. I tested when I woke up at 7:15 at 6.7 and again 6.5... I had less than 50 grams of carbs yesterday... Infact, I had breakfast at 9am and didn't eat again until 5pm (we were travelling all day).. Then I ate a protien/fat meal at 8pm.. thats it.

I am having my coffee and headed to the gym gor chest/shoulders/tri's... It will be a fasted worked out.. I'll test when I get back
 
Tom Simons said:
If I were you, I would get a device called the 'Dexcom G7' or the 'Freestyle Libre 2' (version 3 just apparently became available). Both are really good devices. They monitor your blood sugar level. They give readings every 5 minutes. Tells you if your blood sugar is low or high. They even tell you your A1C level😀. Look them up on youtube and google. Really is a fascinating device:).
Click to expand...

I took a quick check on google for both.. interesting..

I had this one pop up as well.. https://koalarhealth.com/en-ca/prod...sync&utm_source=google&variant=47214282080563
 
wife just woke up and changed my plans lol.. I can't work out until about 9am.. So I'll have 1 table spoon MCT oil and wait to go to gym
 
animal-inside said:
I only recall testing for it when I was taking ozempic.. I don't remmeber taking it when I felt low after a lift oterhwise..
Click to expand...
I would try testing it then. Feelings are extremely unreliable with blood sugar.

Also during exercise your blood sugar normally goes up, because exercise inhibits insulin production, and also exercise like sprints or weightlifting stimulates adrenaline release and the adrenaline causes your liver to release glucose. High blood sugar can actually become a problem for endurance athletes.

So, your feelings could be the adrenaline, could actually be high blood sugar...
 
Did my typical back/biceps work out (I thought it was chest/shoulders/tri's but I had my days messed up)...

Walked for 20 mins on the indoor track

Did full back/biceps work out taking each set to total failure.. Did some super sets as well...

Came home just now and checked blood sugar 2 times... 6.4 and 6.2..

I feel like I always do when I come home from a work out.. drained, hungry, low energy etc.. but I always attribute this to keto diet and just having a really good work out..
 
I don't know if you seen this or if it means anything to you but here's some interesting facts

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Emerging Role of Branched-Chain Amino Acids in Insulin Resistance and Metabolism

Insulin is required for maintenance of glucose homeostasis. Despite the importance of insulin sensitivity to metabolic health, the mechanisms that induce insulin resistance remain unclear. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) belong to the essential amino ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Bigbear said:
I don't know if you seen this or if it means anything to you but here's some interesting facts

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Emerging Role of Branched-Chain Amino Acids in Insulin Resistance and Metabolism

Insulin is required for maintenance of glucose homeostasis. Despite the importance of insulin sensitivity to metabolic health, the mechanisms that induce insulin resistance remain unclear. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) belong to the essential amino ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Click to expand...

Didn't a post similar to that one turn into a twelve page argument about broccoli in a different thread?
 
Does taking growth hormone increase insulin production?

Curious because my muscles are always flat unless I have a pump in the gym.. but last summer when I Was on 2iu's gh, I was full 24/7...
 
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