Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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myboyluvsdinos
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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mike wrote:Your fasting insulin was 106? What units? That is out of range for when I took it...
Oops! Sorry I meant to type 1.6.

Range is 1.9-23.0 uIU/mL
mike
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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myboyluvsdinos wrote:
mike wrote:Your fasting insulin was 106? What units? That is out of range for when I took it...
Oops! Sorry I meant to type 1.6.

Range is 1.9-23.0 uIU/mL
sorry, should've read your first post more carefully in the first place.. Your low insulin could explain your low glucose after ingesting more fat - your body likely flipped to using ketones. Question is, why is your insulin so low? Mine is also low, but still in normal range at 3. And I'm aggressively trying to drive it down with a low carb diet. I'm guessing your brain fog means you are not getting proper nutrition to the brain for some reason. You could be losing neurons. I would try to get a volumetric MRI (NeuroQuant) to get a look and a base line. I'm wondering if your going low is causing not enough glucose to be available to cross the blood brain barrier to supply your brain...? It also seems that even though your average glucose is good, you are having more swings with higher peaks and lower valleys. I'm assuming this would not be great for your vascular system.. Do you by any chance test your blood sugar when you are experiencing brain fog? It could be that a modest amount of fat causes a too large drop in blood sugar without any significant ketones to supplement the glucose in the brain. How do you feel when your blood sugar is low?
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myboyluvsdinos
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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mike wrote:
myboyluvsdinos wrote:
mike wrote:Your fasting insulin was 106? What units? That is out of range for when I took it...
Oops! Sorry I meant to type 1.6.

Range is 1.9-23.0 uIU/mL
sorry, should've read your first post more carefully in the first place.. Your low insulin could explain your low glucose after ingesting more fat - your body likely flipped to using ketones. Question is, why is your insulin so low? Mine is also low, but still in normal range at 3. And I'm aggressively trying to drive it down with a low carb diet. I'm guessing your brain fog means you are not getting proper nutrition to the brain for some reason. You could be losing neurons. I would try to get a volumetric MRI (NeuroQuant) to get a look and a base line. I'm wondering if your going low is causing not enough glucose to be available to cross the blood brain barrier to supply your brain...? It also seems that even though your average glucose is good, you are having more swings with higher peaks and lower valleys. I'm assuming this would not be great for your vascular system.. Do you by any chance test your blood sugar when you are experiencing brain fog? It could be that a modest amount of fat causes a too large drop in blood sugar without any significant ketones to supplement the glucose in the brain. How do you feel when your blood sugar is low?
Yes I do feel like my BS is up or down and not very steady. In early March one day my FBS was 67. I then consumed a cup of green tea, 1 avocado with olive oil and lemon juice, and 3 pieces of bacon. One hour later my BS was 63 and 2 hours later it was 59. I then measured my ketones and they were 1.8. I felt hot, shaky, very tired, poor concentration, not good. That's the only time so far that I've tracked both my blood sugar and ketones. I then ate 1 banana and 1 oz of dark chocolate. After one hour my BS was 122 and my ketones were 1.9. Having said all of that, I should add that the day before, I walked for 90 min in the afternoon (normally walk about 50 min) and then had a very small dinner at 4 p.m. of about 1/2 C pork meat and 1/2 C sauteed peppers.

Today I did not take my FBS. I had the exact same breakfast as the scenario above and then went on a 75 min moderately strenuous hike. Fours hours after breakfast my BS was 82 and my ketones were 1.4. I felt pretty good.

I am not educated on the ketones so have very little idea of what that all means! Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! :)
mike
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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You are going low with your Glucose levels when you have fat. Your body is making ketones it seems, but that is not helping your low BS for some reason. That lousy feeling you get sounds like what I used to get when I was on BS lowering meds and I went low. What is strange is that normally with ketones like that, you should be able to go lower BS without a problem. Folks doing long term fasting often get to those BSs for extended periods - weeks. Can you tell me more about your diet? When you describe brain fog, is that different from the low BS feeling?
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mike
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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myboyluvsdinos wrote:I then ate 1 banana and 1 oz of dark chocolate. After one hour my BS was 122 and my ketones were 1.9.
This is also strange; your ketones are remaining in your blood... Not being utilized? I would be very careful with large amounts of fats and exogenous ketones until you get this figured out...
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myboyluvsdinos
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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mike wrote:You are going low with your Glucose levels when you have fat. Your body is making ketones it seems, but that is not helping your low BS for some reason. That lousy feeling you get sounds like what I used to get when I was on BS lowering meds and I went low. What is strange is that normally with ketones like that, you should be able to go lower BS without a problem. Folks doing long term fasting often get to those BSs for extended periods - weeks. Can you tell me more about your diet? When you describe brain fog, is that different from the low BS feeling?
For the past couple of years I've been semi-low carb -- probably 75ish g per day is my guess. But I also had a bad ice cream habit (due to having my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks after my sleep apnea surgery) and would eat a pint of ice cream once or twice a week. :o

In the past few months I've cut out the ice cream and would eat meat with every meal, along with some produce. And about 1 oz of dark chocolate a day. And 4 glasses of wine a month.

I often feel tired, sort of woozy, not sharp. Many times a day I have a lapse in memory, where I either go into a room for something and can't remember what I needed, or forget how to pronounce or spell a word, or lose my train of thought in a conversation.

Thanks for your input!
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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myboyluvsdinos wrote:In the past few months I've cut out the ice cream and would eat meat with every meal, along with some produce. And about 1 oz of dark chocolate a day. And 4 glasses of wine a month.

I often feel tired, sort of woozy, not sharp. Many times a day I have a lapse in memory, where I either go into a room for something and can't remember what I needed, or forget how to pronounce or spell a word, or lose my train of thought in a conversation.

Thanks for your input!
Do you feel better without the carb binges? can you tell me your macros - carbs, protein and fat? Are you able to correlate the Brain fog to any type of food or time a day? It could be that your brain fog is the result of your BS raising rapidly...
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myboyluvsdinos
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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mike wrote:
myboyluvsdinos wrote:In the past few months I've cut out the ice cream and would eat meat with every meal, along with some produce. And about 1 oz of dark chocolate a day. And 4 glasses of wine a month.

I often feel tired, sort of woozy, not sharp. Many times a day I have a lapse in memory, where I either go into a room for something and can't remember what I needed, or forget how to pronounce or spell a word, or lose my train of thought in a conversation.

Thanks for your input!
Do you feel better without the carb binges? can you tell me your macros - carbs, protein and fat? Are you able to correlate the Brain fog to any type of food or time a day? It could be that your brain fog is the result of your BS raising rapidly...
I’m not super sure on my macros but I know I feel better with more fat. If I eat an apple by itself I feel pretty bad. I would GUESS fat - 40% protein 30% carbs 30%. In the past 6 weeks I’ve pretty much cut out all dairy and grains and high carb veggies and rarely eat fruit. In the past 3 days I’ve been trying to do a light keto and I swear I do feel sharper and less fatigued. I generally feel better as the day goes on mornings are my worst time of day. Also I always feel dehydrated no matter how much water I drink and I add electrolyte drops. Bad dry eyes for 30 years.
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

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This morning my FBS was 85 and Fasting Ketones were .7

I had some sausage and an avocado for breakfast. An hour later I was feeling really tired with an elevated heart rate. Decided to take both again: BS - 66 and Ketones - 0.8.

Any thoughts?
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Re: Low fasting insulin and high HS-CRP

Post by mike »

myboyluvsdinos wrote:This morning my FBS was 85 and Fasting Ketones were .7

I had some sausage and an avocado for breakfast. An hour later I was feeling really tired with an elevated heart rate. Decided to take both again: BS - 66 and Ketones - 0.8.

Any thoughts?
Yes, your body does not like ketones for some reason. It is causing your BS to go low. Normally, this should be fine if you have ketones as a secondary fuel source. I'm betting that you took some carbs after, and then you started to feel the "brain fog" as your BS quickly rose... It is likely your brain is not getting enough glucose when you are low, but this may not be killing your neurons, since you are then giving it plenty later. Your body wants to keep BS constant. If a bunch of sugar comes in, it clears it out by raising insulin, which causes the glucose to be stored in muscle and fat and as glycogen. One sugars get low, glycogen is then converted back to glucose. The brain BS in the short term is always a given percentage of body BS. If body BS drops in half, then so does brain BS. Your body is not doing a good job of maintaining BS. You said in your prior post that you feel good eating fat, yet in this one, you clearly don't. If I were you, I would reduce your fat, or at least do not take as much at one time. To keep your BS more stable, I would replace as much of your carb consumption with protein - it changes BS much more slowly than carbs. The basic idea is to let your diet help your insulin maintain your BS. I would get Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution book. It is a bit old, but is the best out there for this kind of BS control. While you don't have diabetes (yet), something is clearly wrong - maybe you are not storing insulin for the normal phase 1 response...
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