 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Another question on Insulin ResistanceFrom: Belle (anonymous@obgyn.net)Mon, 3 Jun 2002 16:46:10 -0500 (CDT)
You can be very thin and still have IR (insulin resistance). You can be very young and have insulin resistance. My very thin 15 year old tested insulin resistant at age 13 and about 115 pounds. She still needs to watch her carb intake (since she is still a teen, she does a modified carb reduction). She is also on Glucophage. It has totally regulated her periods. You should monitor your carbs because since you have PCOS, it is very likely that you are putting undue stress on your body. You can do this by cutting back on white bread, white potatoes, white rice and pasta. You can make small changes that will not hurt but will be of great benefit to you. While we could all tell you when we began to gain weight, it may not be benficial to you since PCOS is different for everyone. My first symptom was hairloss, I did not gain weight until about 2 years after my children were born. My mother (many of the same genes obviously) had her first symptom as two week long periods. My daughter (still same genetic pool) had her first symptom as missing periods! Half of the women with PCOS are thin. Some women with PCOS were heavy as children. PCOS is so hard to predict. The best thing for us is to become as informed as we possibly can and work from there to maintain the best health that we can. Insulin resistance can make a fasting glucose show up as low when tested. This is because our cells do not readily accept the insulin that we produce. Insulin is necessary in getting glucose into the cells, it is the "key" to the cell "door". Glucose attaches to insulin and the insulin gets the glucose into the cell to be used as fuel. If your cells do not accept the insulin immediately, your body senses that you still have too much glucose in your bloodstream and releases more insulin. You eventually get enough insulin in your system to "bully" its way into the cell. All of this excess insulin will clear your blood stream of even more glucose - resulting in a lower glucose level. If you glucose level is high, you may already have crossed the line into diabetes. If you have PCOS and your doctor is familiar with the mountain of research that has come out in the last few years, you will have your insulin tested or you will be put on Glucophage (metformin) as a treatment without the test. The reason for this is because the original research on women with PCOS and Glucophage did not require women to be insulin resistant. The test for insulin resistance is very expensive and only done in research settings. The test that we use instead is a glucose tolereance test with insulin levels taken at the same time (IGTT). This is a test where you enter in a fasting state (not food, drink, smoking or exercise for 8 hours before the test or since midnight the night before) with fasting levels of glucose and insulin taken (two tubes - red top and grey top). You then drink a sugar soda (like cola or orange soda) and wait for a while. Blood test are then taken at 30 minutes (sometimes), one hour and two hours. The test can be 2, 3, or 5 hours long but the two hour test is sufficient for us. The 5 hour test tends to put too much stress on the body for a lot of people. The fasting levels alone are not very informative for most people because we need to see the body reacts to the stress of glucose (food). We then need to look at the ratio between the two numbers (from insulin and from glucose levels).
At Wed, 22 May 2002, Jess wrote:
>
-- Hope this helps,
|
|
Return to ![[ PCOS Discussion Forums ]](../../images/pcos_at_obgyn.gif)
Technical Problems: webmaster@obgyn.net
Last Updated: Mon May 19 17:06:12 2008
Women's Insurance Checklist from Auto Insurance Quote
home | medical professionals | women | industry | forums | international