Insulin levels — anyone have experience?

SandraNC_45 said:

Quarterly for the first year is convention rather than evidence, and it is defensible for a simple reason: it is roughly the interval over which HbA1c…

PSA: get baseline labs BEFORE starting baseline bloodwork therapy. You need a "before" picture to measure progress. My recommended pre-treatment panel:

1. CMP + A1C + fasting insulin
2. Complete lipid panel with particle count if possible
3. hsCRP, ferritin, B12, vitamin D
4. Thyroid panel (TSH + free T4)
5. CBC with differential
6. Liver panel (ALT, AST, GGT)
7. DEXA scan or body composition

Total cost at Quest without insurance: ~$200. Worth every penny for the data.

A narrower follow-up, since the general answer is now clear:

What actually belongs on a baseline panel, as opposed to the enormous list that gets pasted around here?

BiostatsBrad said:

PSA: get baseline labs BEFORE starting baseline bloodwork therapy.

Blood work came back perfect. baseline bloodwork + this community = winning. 🏆

OP back with an update, since a thread like this is useless without one.

Took the whole panel in rather than the one flagged line, and the conversation lasted two minutes instead of generating three more tests.

LipidDoc_ATL said:

baseline bloodwork + this community = winning.

That is correct as far as it goes, and here is where it stops going. One addition: if the lab changes analytical platform between your draws, the comparison breaks and nobody tells you. It is worth asking when a value moves inexplicably.