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Many in LC community dismiss this as "physiological insulin resistance"....but high blood sugars are bad regardless of how they get that way, no?
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Jeff, I could write volumes trying to answer that question, but net down, I still dont know what to do about my higher BG readings! I am a classic case of this long term reaction to VLC, have read every article written on this phenonema, including Peter's long explanations at Hyperlipid, but currently feel more uneasy about this than previously.
My FBG has climbed from 80s pre-LC, to 100s at 2 years, to 120s at 4 years. When my first lab test went over 100, I was assured it wasn't problematic and HbA1c was a better indicator for those in nutritional ketosis.
Well now at 4+ years LC, that test is also in the pre-diabetic range. I am reading so much new info on gut microbiome and need for prebiotics, that I am testing the addition of fiberous vegetable and fermented foods. I will have my A1c repeated in Feb, but GPs don't buy the "it's a complicated relationship" when in "nutritional ketosis" theory that the LC doctors use as the explanation. I don't think my below normal fasting insulin, and mine has been UNDER normal, around 1.6, balances out a three month indication of high BG. So since Sept, I have been upping my carbs, and with some recent holiday meals, not in a good way.
Currently reading Bulletproof Diet only since the library ordered it, not a big fan of Asprey. But he drops in comments about this problem a few times at random (need to go back and find them again). His suggestions are to eat more carbs at dinner, and to have some version of a "carb re-feed" once a week. Not go crazy with it, but states without much background provided, as many others have recently, that continuous very low carb causes higher blood sugars. Dr. Davis has added to his program about feeding the gut micro biome with real food starches. Dr. Sarah Ballentyne's recent interview with Jimmy Moore brought up this issue around the 1 hour mark. The entire podcast was good "food for thought", but her comments about
VLC exchanging one metabolic inflexibility for another, was spot-on for me.
And here's a completely anedoctal observation from knowing other long term low carbers, it seems to me that people who had high blood sugars, or were diagnosed diabetic before LC, continue to have fantastic BG control after years on LC. Those like myself who did not have problems previously (or at least it never showed up in a FBG test, so never had an HBA1c) do see this physiological insulin resistence more often. Maybe a result of these genetic markers in the Ketopia article you posted? Whatever, high blood sugars are bad for me, so now trying to find a way to un-do them.