My doctor asked me to get some tests to ascertain whether I have frank diabetes or not. These are GAD antibodies, C-Peptide, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Are these right tests? How will these help because these are expensive tests? Also, could you tell me if there are any new and better hypoglycemia and insulin sensitizer medications?

The most helpful is the anti-GAD antibody. This tends to be positive (elevated) when you have autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Unlike other autoantibodies, anti-GAD goes up and stays up. The others may rise but then fall again after a finite time. The C-Peptide is measured with glucose, usually two hours after a meal. The C-Peptide is an indicator of how much insulin is secreted in response to the meal. Total insulin levels will measure your own insulin plus any injected insulin. The vitamin B-12 is not a clear indicator of the type of diabetes you have, although it is low when you have type 1 diabetes in some conditions. Finally, vitamin D levels have been found to be low commonly. More than half of Americans have low vitamin D levels. It is thought that low vitamin D levels may have a role in insulin resistance.

JTL