my bg has only ever gotten to prediabetic levels like 5.9. i want to know whether my problem is producing less insulin than normal or more insulin that normal. how could i test this myself? i have always assumed my problem was producing less insulin than normal based on the fact that my triglycerides are low, i never get hypoglycemic, i didn’t lose any weight on 1000mg metformin, etc. i have been eating less that 100 g of carbs a day since 2009, so i was told i would need to boost my carbs to over 100 g a day (lowering fat at the same time) to get out of ketoadaptation and truly see what my bg would do. any suggestions?
I don’t this is something for which there are at-home testing options. You could either measure insulin levels directly or you could measure C-peptide levels (this is a by-product of insulin production in the pancreas). Whichever you do, these tests would need to be carried out in a lab and would have to be arranged by your doctor. Why not ask him/her?
There really aren’t any home tests for insulin levels. In the US it is legal to order your own diagnostic tests although you have to pay cash. There are on-line companies that do this. The only things that you can test at home is really glucose and A1c. You can perform a basic oral glucose tolerance test and that will tell you whether you have impaired glucose tolerance or an impaired fasting. It can also tell you whether you have an impaired phase 1 insulin response. But it won’t tell you what your insulin levels are and being insulin resistant you could still have “normal” insulin levels but still have diabetes. And “normal” is relative. Normal for “you.” Insulin levels and c-peptide levels in absolute terms have ended up being useless for screen and diagnosing diabetes since the levels vary so much over the population. For the most part endos track your c-peptide to see if you are losing insulin production but they can’t tell much of anything from the absolute number.