during the course of tests? I don't think it would be ENORMOUS in cost terms, and surely cheap in the subsequent test/retest process[es]! Dumb, and dumber! Pennywise, cost foolish! When Is anyone out there gonna get the light bulbs screwed in?

So, IF Im getting this at all Glenn, this all means, first off, establishing NORMALS? and if one is not blatently diabetic per se...how does one go about this all? Either it's merely ME missing something from this overall picture or too many medical folks are? What's keeping it from being done? Paperwork? The other potential variables....well, this should be one easily yessed or no-ed variable? Why is it all not standard protocol? Anyone?

Pain free moments! - j

I believe that insulin blood levels cost much more than simple glucose.

Today the movement is to look heavily at post prandial sugars. Much of the data, and treatment procotols involve this one time period in the test.

I think it is less fashionable to do the complex testing Glenn gets. His experience is not the norm.

Fasting insulin shows alot.. if it is high, then other measurements will be higher after administered glucose.

Here is a good site that explains alot.
http://www.pathguy.com/lectures/glucose.htm

for the asking or WHY or Why NOT? many thanks! - j

--my experience is not most people's. But 1) I have good insurance coverage (and pay plenty for it), and 2) I work with doctors who I trust and who trust me--or at least know better than to argue with me without a whole lot of citations at their fingertips.

Generally and monetarily (insurance) speaking, unless there is suspicion of impaired glucose tolerance, the baseline fasting blood glucose is a sufficient starting point. But, if there is any suspicion at all--and my suspicious category would be quite broad: anybody over 40, anybody with notable fat deposits around their abdomen or butt (a whole lot of us in the modern world, with our sedentary lifestyle and diet), people with signs of lethargy or immune dysfunction--I would immediately think a savy doc should get a hemoglobin A1C and fasting insulin level. The results here may indicate a need to go on to a glucose tolerance test--but often, these will be enough to show insulin resistance/impaired tolerance. The GTT is for more ambiguous cases; there are people with "normal" fssting blood sugar levels who were diagnosed diabetic due to wild swings during a tolerance test. I started doing them due to weird nature of my acute-onset body-wide bruning idiopathic neuropathy. There would be other unusual indications as well.

I now get them to track hwo I'm doing with my diet/exercise/supplement attempts at keeping my insulin resistance from going any further. I do have diabetes in the family, and I'm approaching 47, and the excess gut is recalcitrant, so I'm being very careful.