The most important blood test you’ve probably never had

One blood test, when added to the standard metabolic panel, could go a long way toward gauging your overall metabolic health.

It's more important than most of the blood tests you routinely have done, and yet it's likely you've never had it.

Not even once.

It's not particularly expensive.

It's just not part of standard medical practice.

It's your fasting insulin level.

The standard metabolic panel, which you usually have done while fasting at least 12 hours, includes a fasting glucose level.

If you have a glucose reading of >100 mg/dL, that's considered abnormally high, and it may lead your doctor to order a Hemoglobin A1c test to estimate your average glucose levels over 2-3 months.

The problem is if your glucose is 98 or 99 mg/dL, you may be well on the way to developing insulin resistance and not know it.

Metabolic syndrome is also known as insulin resistance syndrome.

You see, your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream to enable your cells to take in sugar and to lower your blood glucose levels.

If your blood glucose is less than 100, it may just mean that your pancreas is working really hard and producing lots of insulin and is just barely able to keep glucose levels "normal."

Your body may be building up insulin resistance, requiring more and more insulin from your pancreas to do this work.

Eventually your pancreas can't keep up, and then blood sugar stays at abnormally high levels, at which point you would be diagnosed with diabetes.

But the problem had been building for years, or even decades.

By getting your fasting insulin tested at the same time as your fasting glucose, you can see how hard your pancreas is having to work to maintain a given blood glucose level.

The Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) calculates a score based on simultaneous glucose and insulin levels.

An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is a more precise way of determining insulin resistance or diagnosing diabetes. It involves drinking a solution with 75g of glucose and then measuring your blood sugar every 30 or 60 minutes for two or three hours to evaluate how your body responds to the glucose surge.

But that isn't usually done unless diabetes is already diagnosed or strongly suspected.

After lots of the damage has already been done.

Adding an insulin test to a fasting metabolic panel is an effective way of spotting a metabolic monster that may have been lurking under the surface for decades.

At least 60 of the most commonly needed blood tests (including this one!) are included in your HELPcare Clinic membership at no extra cost to you.

To learn more, see Dr. Strobel's video on Blood Glucose and Insulin Resistance in the Metabolic Syndrome 201 course.

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Lee Aase

Lee Aase is the founder of HELPcare LLC, which provides comprehensive membership, marketing and management services for provider-owned HELPcare Clinics, as well as metabolic health education and coaching for people interested in restoring health and reversing disease through lifestyle changes. Lee and his wife Lisa live in Austin, MN and have six married children and 18 grandchildren.