In this post, we’re going to explore the metabolic patterns in your blood work. Now, we all go get our blood work run and we usually just rely on the doctor to just give us a vague or a general consensus on how we’re doing. At Brain and Body Health Center, we take a much deeper look at our patient’s blood work to look for indicators of core health problems that many in the medical profession overlook.
Let’s explore some early patterns of your blood work so you have a better grasp on what your results actually mean.
One one side of the spectrum, we have insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome and then on the other side, we have full blown diabetes.
Insulin Resistance & Elevated Results
We’re exploring this topic based on functional levels. So, that is something to understand. Early insulin resistance, generally speaking, will show the following results. Glucose is going to be elevated above a hundred and Triglycerides are going to be elevated. That’s an indicator of early insulin resistance.
Now, with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, the glucose again is going to be elevated, above a hundred. Your triglycerides are going to be elevated. Your cholesterol is going to be elevated as well as your uric acid.
HDLs and LDLs
HDL stands for high density liver proteins and likewise, LDL stands for low density liver proteins.
High density liver proteins take cholesterol out of your arteries and take it to the liver. LDLs do the exact opposite. It takes cholesterol to your arteries.
For your body to function properly without illness, HDLs and LDLs they need to work in balance. LDL is obviously known as the bad cholesterol. HDL is the good cholesterol from the standpoint of what it’s doing with cholesterol in the first place.
Your high density liver proteins are going to be depressed and HDLs are going to be elevated. Now, your hemoglobin A1C, glycocelated hemoglobin is going to be between 5.6 and 6.4.
Obviously you don’t want to be above six. You want to be below 5.6. So, when you’re in insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome, 5.6 to 6.4 that’s typically where you’re going to trend.
Diabetes
Glucose is going to be obviously elevated. It’s going to be greater than 126. In addition, Triglycerides are elevated, Cholesterol is, elevated. Uric acid, elevated. HDLs are going to be decreased and LDLs are going to be increased.
Your hemoglobin A1C is going to be greater than 6.4. These are trends. So you can open up your blood work. You can take a look at it. Based upon functional levels you can start to identify trends in your blood work.
Additional Blood Markers
Three other blood markers I want to talk about real quickly. C-Peptide, hemoglobin A1C, and C reactive protein otherwise known as CRP. So let’s start at the top.
C-peptide
C-peptide is made in the pancreas. It’s going to help us to distinguish how well your pancreas is working. Your pancreas is vital because it also produces insulin. C-peptide is something else that is being produced. Now, C-peptides differentiate between having type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Typically patients that are Type 1, which is auto-immune, will have a decrease in their C-peptides. If you are Type 2 diabetic or adult onset diabetes, this is usually normal or a little bit on the high side.
Hemoglobin A1C
Glycaded hemoglobin is where your body tries to do something with all of this glucose that’s floating around in your blood system. It pairs your glucose up with either a lipid or a protein. That is a process called glycation. This produces serious free radicals in your body and free radicals are not good.
Free radicals are cancer causing agents that destroy tissue. This is measuring how much of your hemoglobin is glycated. How much of that is stocked to your red blood cells? You don’t want this number to get high. So, remember to be diagnosed with diabetes this has to be over 6.4. You want to keep this marker below 5.6.
C-Reactive Protein
C-reactive protein is going to show us how much inflammation is in your liver. Your liver detoxifies your body. Not only that, but cholesterol gets processed in the liver and glucose can get processed in the liver.
When you have a lot of stress in the liver we can start to see inflammatory side effects. We don’t want this number to be high.
Empowering through Knowledge
This article contains a lot of information. We also have a video series that might make the topic easier to understand. We believe that the more our patients understand about their health, the more empowered they are in finding lasting relief.
If you’d like to work through your blood work in person and explore the numbers in depth, please reach out to us below and let’s start understanding your road to health together.
