Generally, screening for blood sugar imbalances is overly-simplified by modern medicine into two categories, Diabetic and Non-Diabetic. In fact, there exists a spectrum of irregularities in blood sugar balance, which results in a multitude of symptoms including fatigue, "brain fog," shakiness, mood changes, sweating, anxiety, palpitations, disturbed sleep, weight gain, and increased inflammation.
GIGTT: Blood Sugar Testing the Right Way
Elevated blood sugar is routinely tested using a marker known as Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which is a three-month snapshot showing the quantity of sugar which attaches to your red blood cells over the course of this 90 days. HbA1c is simply a mean of the actual blood sugar, and while this is a decent preliminary screening test for diabetes, it fails to capture subtle fluctuations in blood sugar, and also neglects your body's responses to these changes. As it turns out, many people with blood sugar imbalances will show "normal" HbA1c. The best method to assess fluctuations in blood sugar, is using a fasting insulin, and glucagon, the two pancreatic hormones involved in blood sugar regulation. These two markers, in addition to blood sugars and HbA1c, are combined into one complete 3 hour metabolic stress test (Glucose/Insulin/Glucagon/Tolerance Test: GIGTT). Testing in this fashion will discover subtle fluctuations in hormones and blood markers which better facilitate diagnosis and therefore treatment of your sugar-related symptoms.
Elevated blood sugar is routinely tested using a marker known as Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which is a three-month snapshot showing the quantity of sugar which attaches to your red blood cells over the course of this 90 days. HbA1c is simply a mean of the actual blood sugar, and while this is a decent preliminary screening test for diabetes, it fails to capture subtle fluctuations in blood sugar, and also neglects your body's responses to these changes. As it turns out, many people with blood sugar imbalances will show "normal" HbA1c. The best method to assess fluctuations in blood sugar, is using a fasting insulin, and glucagon, the two pancreatic hormones involved in blood sugar regulation. These two markers, in addition to blood sugars and HbA1c, are combined into one complete 3 hour metabolic stress test (Glucose/Insulin/Glucagon/Tolerance Test: GIGTT). Testing in this fashion will discover subtle fluctuations in hormones and blood markers which better facilitate diagnosis and therefore treatment of your sugar-related symptoms.
Am I Insulin Resistant?
Many are familiar with the sugar-lowering effects of Insulin, and it's association with Type I and Type II Diabetes. However, most are not familiar with the epidemic of overproduction and under-utilizaton of insulin as a response to dietary sugar intake, that is, Insulin Resistance / Metabolic Syndrome. When we take in carbohydrate ie sugar, beta cells in the pancreas release insulin to move sugar out of the bloodstream and into the cells to make energy. In cases of Insulin Resistance, insulin binds to receptors on the cell surface, but does not "open the door" allowing sugar to enter the cells. This inactivity causes not only elevated sugar, but also elevated insulin in the bloodstream resulting in inflammation and low energy production by the cells.
Often this tidal wave builds and builds until the proverbial dam breaks and sugar floods into the cells leaving us reactively hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) in the blood stream. At this point Glucagon, the sister hormone to Insulin, starts to rise, thereby elevating blood sugar via the liver. But Glucagon can become overly exuberant resulting in once again, "elevated" blood sugar. That is, when blood sugar drops, (due to the "dam breaking") glucagon rises in a compensatory mechanism to maintain balance, but with insulin resistance, we find ourselves back at square one with newly elevated blood sugar and the same resistance to insulin, and round and round we go.....Insulin Resistance leads to Metabolic Syndrome.
Often this tidal wave builds and builds until the proverbial dam breaks and sugar floods into the cells leaving us reactively hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) in the blood stream. At this point Glucagon, the sister hormone to Insulin, starts to rise, thereby elevating blood sugar via the liver. But Glucagon can become overly exuberant resulting in once again, "elevated" blood sugar. That is, when blood sugar drops, (due to the "dam breaking") glucagon rises in a compensatory mechanism to maintain balance, but with insulin resistance, we find ourselves back at square one with newly elevated blood sugar and the same resistance to insulin, and round and round we go.....Insulin Resistance leads to Metabolic Syndrome.
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Get Off the Merry-Go-Round!
So what does this Merry-Go-Round feel like? The most common complaint is, erratic energy. You feel great one minute, then exhausted the next. Often we know to eat at this point, but the brain is screaming for sugar even though this is the worst thing we can give the body with insulin resistance. But, if we choose a sugary snack, or often even if we don't, there is a momentary bolstering of energy, followed by yet another lull. Are you someone who gets more tired after eating? There are some issues with gut health which can cause this symptom, but often it is due to "Caloric Misallocation." Calories from carbohydrates are not being burned for cellular energy and are therefore stored as fat. We see, elevated blood sugar, belly fat, fatigue, "foggy brain" and a general predilection for nearly all pro-inflammatory degenerative diseases...... As you can imagine, these issues result in further negative downstream effects and disease.
At Monterey Bay Wellness, we test for the most common blood sugar disorders, as well as the more elusive conditions which are grossly under-diagnosed and therefore under-treated in the United States. Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X, and Insulin Insensitivity, to name a few, are glycemic disorders which we commonly test for. If our preliminary screening markers are found to be out of our optimized ranges, we can also order a more comprehensive 3-Hour Glucose-Insulin-Glucagon Tolerance Test. This test will further elucidate the exact mechanism of your sugar imbalance, making our treatments both more focused and more effective.
