Especially after a prolonged fast?
Like, will insulin start to rise above 0 if BG is 85 or 90 (after a long fast)? Or does it tend to rise way more when BG hits 100/110?
At what blood glucose level does insulin start to rise (and possibly impair ketosis)?
FrankoBear
#2
It is better to measure ketones along with blood glucose as a proxy biomarker for insulin.
If you have blood ketones, even a trace, it can indicate circulating insulin is low, and your body has access to the energy in your stored body fat.
If your blood ketones are zero that is a clue that your body may have switched to circulating blood glucose for energy.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#3
You insulin level is not determined by your observed glucose level, but by the amount of insulin required to keep serum glucose under control. The late Dr. Joseph Kraft identified patients with Type II diabetes, twenty years in advance of an official diagnosis, by observing the pattern of their insulin response to a given glucose load. He maintained that the disease existed in these people long before their glucose levels were observed to get out of control, which is the point at which an official diagnosis is made.
Insulin is never 0, because it is essential to life (a certain amount of serum glucose is also essential). That is why Type I diabetics inevitably die from their disease, unless treated with insulin.
For the rest of us, the question is whether insulin is below or above the threshold that switches the body between primarily metabolising fat and primarily metabolising glucose. That threshold has been shown to be just under 25 μU/mL, and whether a given dietary glucose load will put someone over that threshold depends on how insulin-resistant or insulin-sensitive that person is.
As Dr. Kraft demonstrated, the problem with relying on the serum glucose level as the diagnostic for Type II diabetes is that as insulin-resistance develops, the rising insulin level is capable of keeping serum glucose under control for many years, so there does not appear to be a problem. Fortunately, recent work has shown that avoiding a high dietary load of carbohydrate is sufficient to allow the body to eventually reverse insulin-resistance.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#4
I’d love to have a pin-prick insulin meter, because I wonder if it’s possible for the body to “overreact” to a fast? Perhaps by putting out more insulin than necessary?
If you find a study on fasting, you don’t see what happens say several days to a week after a fast. I know that eating causes higher insulin (even “fasting” insulin, after an overnight fast), but how much and to what extent, and is it possible that there’s a rebound effect where the pancreas overreacts?