The Wired To Eat panel is designed to help you navigate the program detailed in the New York Times bestselling book, Wired To Eat. The panel helps you to understand if you are insulin sensitive (or resistant) as well as understanding your metabolic health and what this can mean for your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Here is what the Wired To Eat panel includes and why these tests are important:

A1C

The hemoglobin A1C test (abbreviated A1c) is a measure of one’s average blood glucose levels over time and is concerned with the development of Advanced Glycation Endproducts on the surface of red blood cells. The higher the score the higher the average blood glucose. This is a powerful tool for assessing metabolic health, but it is not infallible. Some people who eat a lower carb diet may appear to have a relatively high A1C. This is why SpecialtyHealth uses more than one blood marker to better understand each individual situation.

Fructosamine

Fructosamine is somewhat similar to A1c in that it is a measure of Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGE’s). Fructosamine however is a measure of AGE’s which accumulate on blood proteins other than red blood cells. We use fructosamine as a way to better understand the average blood glucose levels over time.

Complete Metabolic Panel (CMP)

The CMP is made of of several biomarkers which you are likely familiar with:

Cholesterol, which is a combination of LDL and HDL cholesterol. These numbers can be important for a variety of reasons but all too often most screening starts and stops at this point. We have found that only looking at cholesterol can miss some people who have serious problems, while unduly worrying people who appear to have “high cholesterol.”

Triglycerides

Triglycerides (TRIG’s) are a measure of circulating blood fat and can provide insight into one’s relative metabolic health and insulin sensitivity. For example, an insulin sensitive, healthy individual will generally have low TRIG’s and a good TRIG/HDL ratio, however there are exceptions, which is why we rely on other tests to better understand this story.

Fasting glucose

The fasting glucose test is what the name implies: A measure of one’s blood glucose level after an overnight fast. Although valuable, we do not exclusively rely on this test to assess metabolic health and potential risk for conditions such as type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Factors such as poor sleep or stress can adversely affect fasting glucose levels, so again, this measure is used to build an overall picture.

LDL-P (NMR) W/IR SCORE

One of the most important markers we use in our assessment is the LDL-P test which is a direct measure of LDL particles. There has been much confusion surrounding cholesterol testing, however the LDL-P score helps to make sense of this complex process. In most cases LDL-P and LDL-C (cholesterol) track together (if one is high/low, both are high/low) however there are cases of “discordance” in which one may have what appears to be “normal” LDL-cholesterol, but upon advanced testing the LDL-Particle count is quite high. These individuals are often missed in general screening and appear to be at exceptionally high risk for heart disease and other metabolic complications. As part of the LDL-P test we also receive an IR (insulin resistance) score. Studies suggest this is a much more accurate and consistent method for assessing relative metabolic health and disease risk.

Taken in total, the WTE panel allows us to gain highly informed insights into the relative metabolic health and disease risk for a given individual, all with comparatively few tests. We strongly believe one should test what matters, not more, not less.