the 2015 Euroaspire study, across 24 countries in Europe Identified diabetes as a trigger for Coronary heart disease.
29% of the sample were identified as known to have diabetes type 2 - which is known to be a massive driver of coronary heart disease, So they decided to dig a bit deeper.
Nearly 26% were discovered to have undiagnosed full blown Diabetes.
Nearly 21% were discovered to have potential undiagnosed diabetes, with elevated insulin levels managing to keep the spiralling sugar under control until the insulin levels can no longer contain it.
The remaining 24% had normal blood glucose levels so unfortunately no further tests were made on insulin levels..
The message from this survey is that the measurement of Insulin levels is vital and that sugar level tests are of limited value without an insulin level test as well.
So how much does an Insulin level cost?
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Ianc2
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Since diabetes is the D of the CHADSvasc score does this mean many more people should be on anticoalgulants than first thought? Just another reason why many of us think AF should mean anticoags regardless.
Having been just told I am pre-diabetic 😨 this is interesting. Not sure about insulin tests, but the one they are now giving at my surgery is a 3 month test called HbAC1. According to Diabetes Uk website:
"HbA1c is what’s known as glycated haemoglobin. This is something that’s made when the glucose (sugar) in your body sticks to your red blood cells. Your body can’t use the sugar properly, so more of it sticks to your blood cells and builds up in your blood. Red blood cells are active for around 2-3 months, which is why the reading is taken quarterly."
Obviously better than a fasting blood sugar level test because my results for that one have always been ok.
But worryingly I now discover the drugs I've been taking for blood pressure, heart and cholesterol are known to raise blood sugar levels, ie statins, diuretics and beta blockers. See this:
It leads me to wonder whether this could be a chicken and egg question. Which comes first? Did the patients develop diabetes because of their treatment? Or did they develop heart disease because of the diabetes?
Either way you're right. Better testing for diabetes is important.
My husband has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes based on the same test. I have noticed he seems to crave sweet things since taking statins, could be I notice more because I'm more concerned about his health, but interesting to read your comment. As far as we know he has no heart trouble.
Good news he doesn't have heart problems. That's reassuring. When I raised this with my GP, the view was the benefits of the medications outweigh the risks. (Debatable I know). I guess it means we who choose to continue taking these drugs have to work a bit harder to fight the cravings, cut carbs and lose weight worse luck! My husband serms to be able to eat any amount of sweet things with no problems. Grrr.
That's what I thought but it has caught up with him now - prediabetes 😖 He just came back from his first visit to the nurse, when she mentioned diet tonic he told her the word diet was a dirty word to him, likewise low fat and lite 😂 Also he doesn't read labels, his (fussy) wife does that! But he has promised to try.
This article seems to suggest that the value of fasting insulin levels, as a predictor of the rate of progression to type 2 diabetes, is uncertain. I would have thought the cost of an assay (a lot less than the £39 for a private test I imagine) is very small when set against the financial implications of a delayed diagnosis of diabetes. My impression is that glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) remains the best easily available screening tool used in the NHS.
Are there really 85 million Americans with prediabetes as the article suggests?
I guess you were talking about Euroaspire V. Do you have a link to the latest results? One of the problems highlighted appears to be a failure to achieve agreed targets in a large minority of enrolled patients.
Euroaspire 4 2015. I will see if I can find results for 5. Another study showed that the majority of adult Americans are prediabetic or actually diabetic. but I can't find it.
To me the main cause of diabetes and the associated spiralling levels of insulin levels is the ever increasing eating of sugar rich complex carbohydrates.
Another study by G.M.Reaven in 2001, surveyed over 6 years, on 208 apparently healthy people, all with bmi of 30 or less. The next step was to split them into 3 groups of people, identified by their Insulation Resistance levels.
The results showed that during the trial the low insulin resistance group had no Deaths or serious Disease.
The high insulin resistance group had 4 deaths and 24 serious Illness events:
type 2 diabetes(5), heart disease(7), cancer(9), hypertension (12) and stroke(4)
Hiya Lanc2,
Interesting one this. My father had type 2 diabetes and all was well until he hit around 70 when he seemed to become a little forgetful in taking his medication. In fairness though, he'd spent the previous 15 years caring for my mother who had Alzheimers. So the poor old boy was probably fairly stuffed anyway, emotionally, physically and mentally.
So, three years ago I went for my regular eyesight check up, part of my DVLA requirements for retaining my PCV licence and the Optometrist found the iris of the eye indicating a raised level of sugar. (The eye is a sound health map to ones state of health). He referred me to my GP for an Hb1ac blood test. End result ..... almost into the realm of Pre - diabetic. I have been a consumer of sugar all my life.
I then stopped all ADDED SUGAR in my diet immediately. The results were remarkable ... mainly a further drop in blood pressure, over and beyond what my BP medication was doing anyway, and my revised Hb1ac bloods down to around 32, where it now holds steady.
All of this put the fear of hell into me and I have stayed off ADDED SUGAR ever since. I still have. However, i have experimented with it and gone back on it and off it several times a year and I find my BP will rise and fall correspondingly. As I said, to retain my PCV entitlement on my driving licence I have to have an eyesight test each year and these tests are continuing to show 'a clean bill of health'.
BUT boys and gals, one more thing on this issue. Several months after I was diagnosed with AF I had to have my annual eyesight test .... during this process the Optometrist asked me if I had BP issues, and also threw at me a number of other cardiac issues that she could detect from the eye examination. I then advised her that I had recently been diagnosed with AF. She seemed satisfied, BUT still insisted I discuss this matter with my GP and wrote to him accordingly. Given the treatment for AF he chose, with my agreement to not pursue the matter. However, had the AF not hit me he said he would have carried out further cardiac related investigations, but, he felt that thus far all bases had been covered. By the way, I have been ADDED SALT free for some 30 years and now ADDED SUGAR free for the last 3 years. In effect the only salt and sugar in my diet now is that which is included in the product, either during manufacture or during the growing process ---- i.e. sugar naturally found in fruit and veg, ( and I do try and minimise the impact of this by cutting out certain stuff) and so this is now part of my diet treatment for controlling AF, in addition to being gluten, wheat and oats free.
I have my own diabetes finger prick testing device (Accu-Chek) and once or twice a year I self test at different times of day and the movement in my blood sugar readings is within the normal range for these times of day.
Should I have the insulin test I wonder ??????? I turn 75 in Sept 2019 and my BMI is 30.
'Nearly half of California adults, including one out of every three young adults, have either prediabetes — a precursor to type 2 diabetes — or undiagnosed diabetes, according to a UCLA study released today. The research provides the first analysis and breakdown of California prediabetes rates by county, age and ethnicity, and offers alarming insights into the future of the nation’s diabetes epidemic.
Conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and commissioned by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the study analyzed hemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey together with California Health Interview Survey data from over 40,000 respondents.
The study estimates that some 13 million adults in California, or 46 percent, have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes, while another 2.5 million adults, or 9 percent, have already been diagnosed with diabetes. Combined, the two groups represent 15.5 million people — 55 percent of the state’s population. Because diabetes is more common among older adults, the study’s finding that 33 percent of young adults aged 18 to 39 have prediabetes is of particular concern.
“This is the clearest indication to date that the diabetes epidemic is out of control and getting worse,” says Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the health advocacy center. “With limited availability of healthy food in low-income communities, a preponderance of soda and junk food marketing, and urban neighborhoods lacking safe places to play, we have created a world where diabetes is rampant'.
Ever body goes on about chloresterol. Ae we barking up the wrong tree?
Apparently increasing numbers of cardiologists (mine included) believe chololesterol levels are irrelevant except as an indicator that statin dose is sufficient to have an adequate anti-inflammatory effect.
I think if your post meal 1hr and 2hr tests are ok you have little to fear. I read on an American diabetes website that if your 1 hr level is helow 140 ( sorry but this is the sysrem of measurement used in USA and here in France so you would need to convert it for UK ) and the 2 hr under 120 then that was ok. This is actually a very tight target - much tighter than in the booklet I got at my pharmacy for recording glucose levels. I do the same as you . Twice a year I have an intensive testing "spree" and test fasting, pre and post meals. End up with sore fingers but peace of mind . Although my fasting glucose is sometimes between 100 and 110 which is supposed to be pre diabetic according to some, our measurments here in France class prediabetic between 110 and 126 and full diabetes as >126.
The diet doctor dr Jason Fung does a good article on the importance of knowing insulin level. As the treatment for diabetes is often insulin.
Then you end up in a loop of needing more insulin because the body gets used to the insulin meaning you have to keep increasing in medication.
The basic first go to tablet is metformin which doesn’t lower blood sugars directly but makes the body less resistant to the insulin naturally produced in the pancreas.
As a side issue they think my AF was bought on by my diabetes.
The food industry pours vast amounts of cold hard cash into promoting sugary drinks, Iced donuts. sweets, cakes, pies and biscuits. As you consume more and more sugar , your insulin levels rise until they can rise no further and insulin resistance sets in; Your body has to do something with this avalanche of food so it dumps it all as fat and your normal fat burning process is abandoned.
medication is prescribed to try and control this process -which might or might not work
There is another way and it is a hard way. Declare a personal war on sugar - you will be amazed at what it is in, e.g. tin of baked beans has 12% sugar. If you look at the british heart foundation site they have plenty of suggested diets, Some people say go on a low carb diet, some people say only eat 800 calories a day - throw out most of your cookbooks and start to eat in a completely different way. I have seen this done and it works.
Essentially you have to haul down your body sugar levels and only you can do that. After about 6-8 weeks you will start to see your fat start to go. You can win .
Agreed. Palaeo, Primal and possibly Atkin's diets seem logically to be good choices for weight loss (and managing prediabetes possibly?). Best to check with GP first, especially if you have other health issues.
I think you have to find the method that works for you and whatever system you can stick to. I am not heavily overweight so I just cut down on carbs and sugar and have smaller portions.
It worked for me and my hb1ac (3 month blood sugar level) was 104 on diagnosis now 38.
I’ve had Type 1 diabetes for 43yrs with several daily injections of insulin and I’m 58yrs old. Which is a genetic causation of the problem; whereas, Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle problem: McDonalds, fish & chips, fizzy drinks, sweets, cakes, cereals, pastries, etc... etc... the majority of foods that are eaten by the British, it's those foods are the causes of type 2 diabetes but not Type 1.
However, I have never heard of an insulin level meter/test only a blood sugar meter that I use.
Yes, yes, yes. Cardiovascular disease leading to heart attack or stroke is by far the leading cause of death in both men and women with diabetes. -American Heart Association. Have your blood sugar or A1C tested regularly. I have lost many relatives because of unmanaged type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Yes, my sister had type 1 diabetes and passed away 18yrs ago with cardiomyopathy and brittle diabetes. A slow death I remember a radio 2 doctor said 25yrs ago I remember hearing him say.
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