My 2 hr gtt results...don't make sense
 

Hi all

I just got my 2 hr gtt results over the phone. can't find much about what would cause these numbers.

fasting: 102

2 hr. : 75

Shouldn't the fasting be lower and the 2 hr be higher?? I must be missing something somewhere. Please explain for me.

thank you
Mary
:o

What you have is a dip in glucose at 2 hrs.... this may mean you are insulin resistant or becoming so.

Fasting glucoses can go up quite a bit, as insulin resistance continues. The glucose comes from the liver which senses low levels in the blood during the fast and converts amino acids to glucose.

This link illustrates various GTT curves that are impaired in some way:
Yours looks like #7. Reactive hypoglycemia. This happens when too much insulin is put out in response to the glucose challenge. A brief time of low sugar results until the liver kicks in to make more for you.

These graphs were copied over from another site, from years ago, that was medical. That old site is now gone. I cannot vouch therefore for the author of this new site, and what he recommends. I only post this for the data on this GTT subject.

Many people develop variants of impaired glucose tolerance long before they become diabetic. But most doctors only intervene when blood sugars become high, as that is what they basically look for. A specialist may interpret things more carefully, especially when symptoms are present.

Having a fasting INSULIN level drawn will show if elevated if you are making too much insulin and that can help pin down, if you are insulin resistant.

[Interesting. I'll look up insulin resistance and see what I can find. What his nurse told me is that I'm not diabetic yet, but he wants to retest in 3 months. It almost sounds like he expects me to become diabetic. He found that I was Vit D lacking. He said they worry when it is under either 20 or 30, but mine was 9. I need to stop seeing him, he keeps finding things wrong. lol. It does sound as if I don't need to worry about the results at this time tho. I'm gonna check the link you sent me and see what it says. I do have one other question, if I may.
when I drank the mixture, my body was give a lot of sugar, so did the liver stop making it as I had so much in my system? then as 2 hrs passed, the stuff I drank was out of my system, but the liver hadn't kicked in yet. Do I have that right? Oh by the way, i couldn't find the link you mentioned.

thank you
mary

Oh, I am sorry:

http://www.rajeun.net/gtt.html

Yes, in essence... if you clear the glucose too fast, that means you have too much insulin. The liver only provides glucose when serum levels get really low. That is one of its jobs.

Your Vit D is very very low. I hope you read the Vit D info we have here... explaining how RX Vit D2 given by doctors doesn't really work. You'll need at least 5,000 IU Vit D3 daily instead, which is OTC.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread92116.html

My glucose/insulin profile--
 

--is very similar. (As Mrs. D says, that kind of result is not all that uncommon, and usually indicates some degree of insulin resistance.)

My normal fasting glucose is around 90; but my fasting insulin is somewhat elevated. When I get a glucose tolerance tests--and I ask the scrip to be written for a 5-hour test, with blood draws for insulin and glucose at .5 hours intervals after the baseline draw--generally my glucose rises steadily for an hour to an hour and a half (though I've never had a rise to diabetic levels), followed soon after by a massive insulin spike, which drives my glucose level down into the 60's around two to two and a half hours. My insulin then normalizes, followed by a slow normalization in glucose as hour four to five comes around.

The interpretation is that in my case, it takes higher levels of insulin to keep my glucose within normal limits, but my system also "overreacts" to glucose challenge, and so drives my blood sugar down a bit further than it should. My tissues are apparently somewhat resistant to insulin effect (though I try to moderate this by building muscle and eating a Zone-type diet, among other things--and my situation regarding this has been stable for a decade plus.) Fortunately, I've never had appreciable hypoglycemic symptoms during this, though I wonder what would happen if I were active during this (one is supposed to have minimal physical activity during an glucose test).