Marker · Ranges for learning, not a diagnosis
Fasting insulin
Also called HOMA-IR context.
Insulin in the morning before food. Together with fasting blood sugar, it helps estimate how hard your body has to work to control blood sugar (insulin resistance). It is not a test everyone needs.
Read this first
- Coach, not doctor. Aaron Cuha is a coach, not a doctor. No medical credential is claimed for him, or for these pages. A number on a blood test is something to talk over with a doctor, not something to diagnose yourself with. Nothing here is a prescription, a plan to follow, or a reason to start or stop a medicine. Educational use only. This database summarizes published research and is not medical advice. Where a dose appears it is a record of what a trial or clinic ran, or what people describe doing, with its source attached. Nothing here is a recommendation for personal use.
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Why a longevity audience asks
The owner's own record shows his fasting insulin dropped. It is a useful number for talking about insulin resistance. It is not a license to build a stack.
How a coach reads it
Labs disagree on normal ranges. Many doctors see single digits or the low teens in uIU/mL as responding well to insulin, and the higher teens and above as more resistant, always read next to blood sugar. Those are ranges to discuss. HOMA-IR is a math formula from the two numbers, not a diagnosis that means you need a bottle.
Units on this page: uIU/mL, pmol/L
When it is low
Low insulin with high blood sugar is a different and more urgent problem for a doctor than high insulin with high blood sugar.
When it is high
Often means the pancreas is working hard to keep blood sugar in range. Training and diet come first. Berberine is optional, and later.
Easy ways to misread it
- Lab test methods differ. Compare your own numbers from the same lab.
- Insulin after eating is a different test.
What to ask your doctor
Ask for fasting insulin on the same morning as fasting blood sugar. Ask whether HOMA-IR is worth working out from those two numbers.
Related supplements
Related when-playbooks
The ranges on this page are labeled as a doctor's ranges or the owner's. They are not a trial result made up for the page. The related compound pages show the trials.