How to Test for Insulin Resistance
Jake Newby
| 4 min read
Key Takeaways
- Insulin resistance can affect anyone, but individuals carrying excess weight or those who are physically inactive are at a higher risk of becoming insulin resistant.
- Annual health exams and routine blood work can help your provider identify signs of insulin resistance and prediabetes.
- Glucose tests, A1c tests and lipid panels are common options to test for insulin resistance.
- Lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and getting plenty of quality sleep can help your body become less insulin resistant.
When your body is exposed to too much blood sugar over an extended period, it may become resistant to insulin. Even if you don’t have diabetes, insulin resistance can cause your blood sugar can rise into the diabetic range, putting you at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Anyone struggling with this issue may need to learn how to check for insulin resistance, something that can usually be accomplished through a series of tests with your primary care provider.
What is insulin resistance?
Normally, our body converts the food we eat into dietary sugars. Insulin – a hormone released by the pancreas – tells the cells in our body to open up for that sugar and convert it into energy. But when the body is insulin resistant, cells don’t react to the hormone’s signal, resulting in excessive sugar in the bloodstream.
The pancreas will respond by producing more and more insulin to try and regulate the blood sugar until it tires and can no longer produce any more. This leads to elevated blood sugar levels, which could rise until have prediabetes, according to WebMD.
Who is at risk of becoming insulin resistant?
Insulin resistance can affect anyone, but individuals carrying excess weight or those who are physically inactive are at a higher risk of becoming insulin resistant.
Having a family history of insulin resistance – including family members with prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes and/or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) – can also contribute to insulin resistance, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
What are symptoms of insulin resistance?
People with insulin resistance usually don’t have any symptoms. Those who do experience symptoms may experience:
- Increased thirst and hunger
- Frequent urination
- Fatigue
- Blurred vision and vision changes
- Slow wound healing of minor cuts and sores
It’s crucial to stay on top of annual health exams and routine blood work to detect conditions like these, which can creep up unknowingly. Your primary care provider (PCP) may look for these signs of insulin resistance/prediabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic:
- A waistline over 40 inches in men and 35 inches in women
- Skin tags or patches of dark velvety skin, known as acanthosis nigricans
- A blood pressure reading of 130/80 or higher
- A fasting glucose level equal or above 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or a blood sugar level equal or above 140 mg/dL two hours after a glucose load test
- An A1C between 5.7% and 6.3%
- A fasting triglycerides level over 150 mg/dL
- An HDL cholesterol level under 40 mg/dL in men, and an HDL cholesterol level under 50 mg/dL in women
How to test for insulin resistance
There is no single insulin resistance test, but rather a combination of tests your PCP may recommend after identifying some of the clinical indicators listed above.
Typically, they may order a variety of blood tests. Here are the three most common options, according to the Cleveland Clinic:
- Glucose test: A fasting plasma glucose (FPG) or a blood glucose test screens for prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes.
- An A1c test: Done to gauge your average blood glucose levels over the past three months.
- Lipid panel: This group of tests measures specific lipids in your blood.
Preventing insulin resistance
Depending on the severity of your blood tests, your PCP may recommend medication to help manage blood sugar levels. Otherwise, they will likely suggest lifestyle changes to incorporate. Preventing insulin resistance and reversing prediabetes is possible. Here are four foundational areas of good health that you can make improvements to today:
- Eat a healthy diet: Incorporate more fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, lean proteins and healthy fats into your daily meals, while reducing your consumption of processed foods and limiting sugar and alcohol intake. Avoid smoking, as well.
- Get regular physical activity: the American Heart Association recommends getting et at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both. But being more active doesn’t always have to be conventional exercise at the gym, either; consider setting five or 10 minutes aside to add movement to your workday. Maybe that means going for a short walk after you eat lunch, parking farther away from work or the store to increase your steps or taking the stairs when possible. There are plenty of ways to add movement to your day without it feeling like a chore.
- Get consistent, quality sleep: Focus on improving your sleep hygiene by going to bed and waking up at the same times each day, keeping your bedroom dark and cool when you go to sleep and aiming for seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
- Make time for stress management: Combat daily stress by trying yoga or meditation, making time for self-care and seeking additional support as you see fit, such as seeking help from a licensed mental health professional.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
