Incretin effect in healthy vs T2DM — need advice

RetaRick_CA said:

Complete metabolic panel trending on glycaemic control — sharing because comprehensive data helps everyone: Test Baseline Month 3 Month 6 Month 12…

Fasting insulin is the lab my functional medicine doctor cares about most for glycaemic control: it's a much earlier marker of metabolic dysfunction than glucose or A1C.

My fasting insulin: 30 → 14 → 6 uIU/mL over 9 months. Target is <7. By the time your fasting glucose is elevated, your insulin has been elevated for YEARS trying to compensate.

Ask your doctor to include fasting insulin in your bloodwork panel. It's cheap (~$20) and incredibly informative.

alex_tucson said:

A1C went from 7.4 to 5.6 over nine months and my prescriber was more interested in the fasting insulin, which I did not expect.

Glycemic variability as the key metric for glycaemic control success: my coefficient of variation (CV) on CGM dropped from 39% to 19%. Target is <36%, with <30% being ideal.

Why this matters more than average glucose: large glucose swings cause oxidative stress, endothelial damage, and promote advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). A flat glucose line at 95 mg/dL is metabolically healthier than oscillating between 60 and 160, even if the average is the same.

Dr.PeteFamMed said:

Fasting insulin is the lab my functional medicine doctor cares about most for glycaemic control: it's a much earlier marker of metabolic dysfunction…

Patient selection optimization for glycaemic control: emerging predictive biomarkers for GLP-1 agonist response include:

The 4-week early responder criterion is the most clinically actionable: if you haven't lost ≥3% by week 4 at a therapeutic dose, discuss optimization strategies with your provider.

One thing that is still open after CarlaRPh_TPA’s answer:

Did your prescriber agree with that reading, and if not what was their objection?

sean_dublin said:

Patient selection optimization for glycaemic control: emerging predictive biomarkers for GLP-1 agonist response include: Biomarker Association…

My labs after 9 months on glycaemic control: A1C 5.2%, fasting glucose 77 mg/dL, fasting insulin 6 uIU/mL. My endo says these are "textbook perfect."

For context, my baseline A1C was 6.9% and fasting glucose was 112 mg/dL. The improvement has been dramatic and consistent.