icon-nav-help
Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

icon-nav-current-questions
Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

icon-conf-speakers-at-a-glance
Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

icon-nav-archives
CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

CWD_Answers_Icon
June 26, 2009

Diagnosis and Symptoms

advertisement
Question from Spokane, Washington, USA:

I am a 50 year old female with no history of diabetes. My fasting glucose levels were 95 mg/dl [5.3 mmol/L] and 99 mg/dl [5.5 mmol/L], and my insulin level was 4. My practitioner wanted to follow up on these levels, so I did a postprandial test. The results are as follows: fasting – C-Peptide 1.4; glucose 89 mg/dl [4.9 mmol/L]; A1c 5.6; estimated average blood glucose 114 mg/dl [6.3 mmol/L]; two hours after sugar – C-Peptide 8.1; glucose 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L]; insulin 37. Do these levels indicate I am heading in the direction of any of the categories of diabetes? If so, what can I do to improve my situation, if anything? Before the test, my practitioner had wondered if I had the beginnings of LADA, but I have not yet spoken to her and this isn’t her specialty per se.

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

Although it is important to try to predict diabetes or pre-diabetes and make appropriate recommendations in follow-up, the values you have listed are considered normal. You do not have diabetes and your insulin and C-Peptide levels are not markedly elevated. I would suggest you concentrate on a healthy lifestyle and not worry about the test results. There are no pure cutoffs with regard to the diagnosis of diabetes when you look at insulin and C-Peptide values. Diabetes is only defined by glucose levels. Fasting glucose values greater than or equal to 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L] are considered the usual test for follow-up. Fasting glucose levels greater than 100 mg/dl [5.6 mmol/L] but less than 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L] are considered pre-diabetes. In some, the insulin and C-Peptide values may be high and indicate insulin resistance but diabetes is not diagnosed with C-Peptide or insulin levels.

JTL