Insane In The Membrane: Anything And Everything's Fair Game

So I got really bored (or inspired ) yesterday and decided to chart out my blood glucose response before and after my PWO shake, which consisted of 60g dextrose and 60g whey. Besides, it's a healthy thing to do considering I am taking hGH ( 5 ius) and wanted to make sure that insulin resistance was not becoming a problem for me. Of course, I don't consume any carbohydrates at least 60 minutes before and after my hGH shots. The first shot is in the AM upon waking up (2.5 ius) and the second one (2.5 ius) is around 6:00 pm. My workout is between 7-8:00 pm and my PWO shake at 8:15 pm. I used a blood glucose monitor to measure my blood sugar level right before my PWO shake and then at set time intervals after. Here's how it went down (Check the attachment to see the graph):

Immediately before PWO Shake : 75 mg/dl
10 mins after PWO Shake : 85 mg/dl
20 mins after PWO Shake : 115 mg/dl
35 mins after PWO Shake : 125 mg/dl
55 mins after PWO Shake : 85 mg/dl
75 mins after PWO Shake : 78 mg/dl

Basically, all the nutrients were shuttled into my muscles within an hour of consumption, judging from the above values. I was quite pleased with the outcome as it showed that my hGH timing was optimal and did not cause any insulin resistance. Furthermore, according to medical experiments, courtesy of http://www.rajeun.net/gtt.html , a typical (normal) blood glucose response to the consumption of 100g of dextrose would look something like this:

Normal Minimum curve according to Seale Harris

Time [hours] 0 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6
bGmin [mg/dl] 80 90 105 90 80 80 80 80

As you can see, it would typically take one hour for blood levels to peak and three hours to normalize. My readings, on the other hand, peaked at 35 minutes and normalized by 60, although my peak for 60g of dextrose was higher (125 mg/dl) than a typical person consuming 100g of dextrose (105 mg/dl). This "discrepancy" left me with a few questions:

1. How come my blood glucose clearance was notably faster than a typical individual?
2. Why was my peak higher at a lower dextrose quantity?
3. Did the whey protein have any effect on my results?

The answer to the first question was perhaps the easiest to resolve. It made sense that the test subjects in the aforementioned experiment were probably sedentary individuals where as I was doing my blood tests immediately after I weight trained. This would have drained the muscle glycogen stores, making them "hungry", and would certainly speed up the enzymatic pathways in the digestive system to immediately assimilate the glucose into the muscles. On that same token, the answer to the second question also became apparent. If a drained out post-workout physiological system was working on overdrive to shuttle glucose into the muscles, it would make sense that blood glucose levels would spike much faster and higher, a bottle neck situation as it were, before the insulin finally picked up the cue, rushed in, and carted the sugar away to its destination. As for the third question, according to various studies (one can be found at http://www.nutritionexpress.com/show...?articleid=362) , whey protein helps even out blood glucose response levels. So maybe my peak levels could have spiked higher but capped at 125 mg/dl (still in the "normal" range for non-diabetics) because of this added benefit. My glucose readings also reinforced the idea of consuming a PPWO meal one hour after the PWO shake. It is precisely because the PWO shake takes roughly an hour to clear the system, that the next meal (lower GI of course) would be ideal at this time.

All in all, I'm glad I did all this, because even the fruits of my boredom yielded knowledge regarding the workings of my own body. As bodybuilders, we can all agree that nothing is more important that knowing how to listen to our own bodies and to understand how it works, since no two human beings are physiologically alike. It is only by such constant vigilance and self observation that we are endowed with the tools to discern advice suitable to us from the oceans of conflicting information that is swimming around out there.

Cheers,
Insane