If you see your doctor for annual physicals, you likely have lab tests done as well. I’m wondering how often your doctor looks at your lab report and says, “you’re fine.”

But there may be some things that your doctor isn’t seeing. There’s an important blood marker that is often overlooked.

According to experts, over 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy and at risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease as they age. The typical labs done with a physical are Complete Blood Count, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, and Lipid Panel, but an important one is missing. Fasting Insulin is a marker that can be beneficial for your preventative care.

Fasting Insulin

Fasting Insulin shows early signs of insulin resistance before Fasting Glucose increases. Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas in response to food consumption.

It is needed to help escort glucose into our cells where it is used for fuel. In a fasted state, insulin levels should be no higher than 5mIU/L.

If your Fasting Insulin is higher, your body may be experiencing some cellular distress. This is when your cells are not receiving optimal insulin signaling, which forces your pancreas to overproduce insulin.

Elevated fasting insulin can cause feelings of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which causes you to get hangry, shaky, or brain foggy between meals.

Mental Health

Metabolic imbalances, like what is experienced with elevating fasting insulin and erratic blood sugar can contribute to mental health challenges. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia have roots in metabolic imbalance.

Psychiatrist Dr Georgia Ede writes, “The higher your blood insulin, the lower your brain insulin.” She explains the result in her book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind, that “if you have insulin resistance and you eat in an unhealthy way, your brain glucose levels will be unstable, your brain insulin activity level will be low, and your brain will struggle to produce energy.” As this imbalance continues, it can contribute to cognitive decline.

The next time you get your labs done, ask to add Fasting Insulin. If your doctor isn’t willing to do so, reach out to me. I can help you order labs and review them with a functional medicine perspective to optimize your health.

Adjust Lifestyle Choices

If your fasting insulin is creeping up, or you already know you have insulin resistance, there’s good news. Shifting your lifestyle choices can help reverse the process:

Alter your taste buds’ sweet preference. Wean off your refined carbs and sugar. Sweet tea? Begin to reduce the sugar or order half-n-half tea. Stay away from artificial sweeteners as they spike your anticipatory insulin response. A better alternative would be to use glycine powder as you wean off.

Choose a smaller eating window. Everyone’s digestive system can benefit from a 12- to 16-hour rest. Start by stopping any food consumption after your dinner and going at least 12 hours until you eat again. You can then begin to stretch the time before you break your fast later into the morning.

Eat balanced meals strategically. When you are eating in a smaller window of time, I recommend focusing on eating protein and produce (veggies and fruit) with each meal. Eat these before any carbs or flour-based foods. The produce will provide fiber that reduces glucose and related increases in insulin.

Employ stress management practices. High stress puts your body in “fight or flight” mode and increases your blood sugar and insulin. Your body will not have optimal blood sugar levels if you are always pushing high stress levels. You can’t heal without shifting to the parasympathetic “rest, digests and heal” regularly. A simple way to do this is to take a few minutes to practice breathing patterns.

You Can Take Control

You can make healthy choices! You don’t have to choose your food based on commercials or even the patterns from your childhood. If your health is waning, the best time to make changes is now. Your body will respond with each change you make.

Not sure where to start? Sometimes it helps to have the perspective of someone not in the middle of the situation. I invite you to request a free 30-minute chat and we can talk about your options.