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Insulin resistance
Hello to everyone in the community.I am attaching my blood work done in February which shoes Insulin Resistance. I have it since the last 3 years. Not been on any medications because wanted to improve it with diet. It hasn’t increased but also not seeing a major regression. The doctor only gave me Vitamin D3 5000 iu and Magnesium L-Threonate for supplements and advised to change lifestyle i.e, to follow a low carb diet and exercise. Is there something else that need to be optimised to boost the reverse of Insulin resistance. He also advised acupuncture but I am not sure how that will help. Also my t3 levels are dropping down since a couple of years. What can be done for that.
I saw in the blood sugar regulation course that some supplements like metaboliX and berberine and blends like chromium, biotin and cinnamon can help? Any recommendations please
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4 Replies
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Hey ,
Welcome to the community! My name is Daniel and I help Bernadette on the platform. If you are looking for help with reversing insulin resistance, you have landed in the right spot!
Thank you for uploading your labs, this will help give advice much easier and since you have watched the sugar balance course you already have a deeper insight into how it works.
Before discussing your labs, I love you have tested your fasting insulin levels. The more traditional way to test insulin resistance is by measuring HbA1c and fasting glucose. Your labs are an example of how insulin resistance is not translating in elevations of these to numbers and would have stayed hidden if you didn’t measure other markers!
Pearls from your labs
I think your doctor made some great recommendations. Working out can increase insulin sensitivity and a low-carb diet helps reduce insulin production. Insulin resistance and hypothyroidism can play into each other. Lowering of thyroid hormone production can cause insulin resistance and sluggish energy production caused by insulin resistance can cause the body to react in an attempt to match the ability of the body to use energy.It is hard to tell which one is at play.
To rule out you aren’t having a slow thyroid because of nutrients missing, you can as an extra make sure you get those nutrients. In your report T3 is low, but in my opinion, the production of T4 is also suboptimal. To me, this can be a sign of not having enough Iodine or protein in the diet. Do you know if you are consuming these nutrients enough?
Other nutrients that are important for an optimal thyroid hormone balance are selenium, iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamins A, C & D and the amino acid tyrosine. This handout is all about thyroid nutrients and will provide you with tips on where to find them.
Red Blood Cells
What stands out to me is that the average size of your red blood cells (the MCV) is on the low end of the range. Often this is caused by not enough haemoglobin, which your labs confirm. This can lead to complaints of fatigue, memory problems and experiencing cold hands and feet. A lot of overlap in the symptoms we usually see with hypothyroidism.The cause is usually not enough iron to build hemoglobin. Since your iron markers aren’t that low, I would like to know if you have recently (the last few months) started to take iron supplements to correct for this.
If you are using a vitamin B12 supplement, I would switch it perhaps to a B complex since your folate is low as well. I like Thorne’s Basic B product which you can find here. This B complex has all the B vitamins in the bioavailable form.
Liver Support
If you suspect you have fatty liver then you can make more targeted food choices as well. This handout provides you with some liver-supporting options. Milk thistle is also a herb that is liver protective.Supplements
I would recommend one of the blends recommended in the course above. The benefit of OptiMetabolix is that it already has a little bit of B vitamins in it. If you are using a zinc supplement, I would recommend you to lower the amount of zinc with 15 mg.The Metabolic Synergy from Designs for Health has more folate in it. It is also a source of Iodine, selenium, vitamins A & C which are nutrients needed for thyroid metabolism. Perhaps this choice is more bang for your buck in your case!
I hope these tips can help you on your way!
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Thanks a lot for your detailed response.
I do consume enough protein but I think Iodine is missing in my diet.
I took this Iron supplement 5-6 months ago, that might be the reason my Iron levels are ok. Do you think I should continue with this or switch to the one you recommended? [66022_1.jpg]
Also, I am based in UAE and the Metabolic Synergy by Designs for health is not available here or on iherb (where I order most of my supplements from)
Can you suggest an alternative which will be locally available?Thanks a lot!
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Hey ,
Did you notice that some symptoms started to improve (even when your thyroid markers were slowly going down)? And what were the reasons why you started to supplement with iron in the first place? Other important questions to help you answer your questions are: how long were you using this iron supplement and how long ago did you stop taking them?
The when and how long are especially important since this supplement also has a good amount of folate in them. If you were only stopping recently with this supplement, having low serum folate levels might mean you have an increased need for folate or aren’t absorbing folate well.
I think your storage form of iron (ferritin) levels looks ok. Serum levels of iron also look fine. Just your hemoglobin is low and the average size of your red blood cells looks a bit low as well. The most common cause of having low hemoglobin is iron deficiency. Other causes could be genetics.
Another possible scenario could be that while you were supplementing with iron you had an infection. With infections, the body can sequester iron away from the blood into ferritin in an attempt to fight pathogens since pathogens use iron as well.
Since your labs show elevations in a special type of white blood cells called eosinophils, there can be such a scenario at play. Eosinophils are mostly present in the gut. If you are experiencing GI problems like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, cramps or other symptoms addressing this problem first would be a good approach.
If you like to rule out a genetic component you could look at earlier measurements of iron and hemoglobin. If earlier levels showed higher values for haemoglobin, genetic issues aren’t the problem.
This product from biotics research misses the iodine unfortunately, but it contains the other thyroid nutrients as well and has a good amount of folate in it.
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Hi Daniel!
I took it last year in august for a course of a month maybe and then I stopped it because it made me feel constipated. Is there any way to make it digest more easily?
My hemoglobin levels has been around the same since 2018. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the levels before that.
I recently found out I have a root canal infection, maybe that is why the high WBC? I don’t have any GI symptoms usually.
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