Are You Insulin Resistant?
One in three American adults, or some 70 million people, may be insulin resistant. Yet making the diagnosis is challenging because there's no standard way to measure the level of insulin in the body at any given time. "One thing we really don't have is a good test for insulin resistance," says Ronald Kahn, director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard.
For that reason, physicians say that it's much easier to look for the consequences of having too much insulin, rather than insulin itself. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists suggests a diagnosis of resistance if a patient and doctor can put a checkmark next to at least two of these four measures:
Triglycerides: greater than 150 mg/dL
HDL cholesterol: less than 40 mg/dL in men or 50 mg/dL in women
Blood pressure: greater than 130/85 mm Hg
Blood glucose: 110-125 mg/dL after fasting and 140-200 mg/dL two hours after a glucose challenge
The endocrinology association says these tests are part of a regular physical, so anyone over 40 should be screened, as should those with a family history of diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease. Non-Caucasians, non-exercisers, and people who are overweight are also at increased risk of the condition.
This story appears in the September 5, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.