Metabolic Health Evaluation
A complete look at how your body handles energy, beyond the blood sugar number alone.
Key Takeaways
- HbA1c tells you the result, not the mechanism driving it.
- Insulin resistance often precedes diabetes by a decade or more.
- Fatty liver, high triglycerides and central obesity travel together as one problem.
- Understanding the mechanism determines whether remission is realistic for you.
What Does the Evaluation Cover?
- Fasting glucose, HbA1c and post meal readings
- Fasting insulin and calculated insulin resistance
- Complete lipid profile including triglycerides
- Liver function and fatty liver assessment
- Kidney function and urine protein
- Body composition, separating fat mass from muscle mass
- Waist measurement and visceral fat estimation
- Blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors
Why Is Insulin Testing Important?
Insulin resistance: a state where cells respond poorly to insulin, so the pancreas produces more to achieve the same effect.
Two patients can share an HbA1c of 7.5 while being metabolically opposite. One produces plenty of insulin that works poorly, and responds well to weight loss and dietary change. The other produces very little insulin, and needs a different approach entirely. Measuring insulin distinguishes them.
How Does This Change Treatment?
Substantially. High insulin resistance with preserved insulin production means remission is genuinely achievable through weight reduction and dietary change. Low insulin production means the focus shifts to protecting remaining function and preventing complications.
For foot patients, the link is direct, since insulin resistance drives inflammation and slows wound healing. Results feed straight into our remission programmes.
What Does It Cost and How Long Does It Take?
The evaluation combines blood work with body composition analysis and a detailed consultation, priced as a package. Blood samples take minutes, body composition analysis around fifteen, and the consultation reviewing everything usually takes half an hour.
How Should You Prepare?
Fast for eight to twelve hours before your appointment, with water permitted throughout. Continue your prescribed medication unless specifically advised otherwise, and bring your current prescription list along with any reports from the past year.
A morning appointment usually works best, since fasting is easier overnight and body composition readings are more consistent early in the day. Wear light clothing, because the composition analysis is affected by heavy garments.
What Happens at the Review?
Results are explained in person rather than handed over as a printout. You will see which numbers are driving your diabetes, which are consequences rather than causes, and what the realistic target is for each over the next three months.