Common Pattern in Clinic

It’s funny how we seem to see similar patterns cycle through in clinical practice.

A really common patient presentation I’ve been seeing lately is early-stage post-menopausal women who are struggling with weight gain, battling food cravings & are exhausted all the time.

And when we dig a bit deeper by looking at some basic blood work, we’ve found a few more things they’ve got in common:

• Normal fasting glucose & HbA1c

• High fasting insulin

• Sub-optimal (& in some cases even clinically) low thyroid function

So what do these results tell us?

Firstly, even though the fasting glucose & HbA1c test results appear normal - these women are insulin resistant!

Our fasting insulin usually starts going up well before our fasting glucose or HbA1c & is one of the earliest signs of developing insulin resistance.

In Australia it’s not common practice for GPs to test fasting insulin, so this early stage development can be missed until it progresses to more concerning conditions such as type 2 diabetes.

And when we bring the sub-optimal (or clinically) low thyroid function into the picture - it’s a double hit on your metabolism!

We need to address both of these issues to increase the success of treatment strategies, because if we only work on one, the other players in the game will be constantly undermining all the hard work we’re doing.

The great news is, there’s plenty of ways nutritional therapy can support both of these issues - and the earlier we start, the easier it is to get results.

Spoiler alert - effective treatment strategies work on permanent changes to your diet & lifestyle habits. And consistency is key.

After all, if you’re looking for a different outcome, it stands to reason that you need do things differently!

If you’d like to dig a bit deeper into your own health situation, let’s organise a free 15min call to find out about working clinically with me.

(15min call bookings via the Telehealth booking section on my bookings page.)