What My Blood Work Taught Me About Insulin, Stress, and Metabolic Health

Over the last few episodes, we’ve talked a lot about sugar, fasting, insulin, and metabolic flexibility. And at some point, the question naturally comes up: 

"Okay… but what is my body actually doing?"

In this episode, I’m sharing what I learned from my own blood work, and more importantly, how to look at labs from a place of understanding instead of anxiety.

This isn’t about chasing perfect numbers or obsessing over test results. It’s about learning how to read your labs as information, not a label. Because “normal” doesn’t always mean optimal, and context matters more than any single number.

We’ll talk through:

• The labs that actually matter for metabolic health
• Why insulin often tells a deeper story than glucose or A1C alone
• How stress, inflammation, and iron can quietly shape how your body feels
• What it means when your labs look fine on paper, but something still feels off

Your labs are a snapshot, not a sentence. When you understand the story behind them, you can start working with your body instead of against it.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Mission

Krista 0:10

Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, Krista Guadenti, founder of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of biohacking, clean living, cutting-edge spa trends, and the hustle, grind, and grit of entrepreneurship. From my personal battles with weight management, infertility, and the 30-year journey to create and launch my dream business, to building a sanctuary for those who have been touched by cancer, I'm here to share real talk, inspire big dreams, and spark a passion for holistic living inside each and every one of you. So let's dive in. Welcome back to Serenity and Fire.

Labs Without Fear Or Obsession

Krista 0:49

Today we're going to talk about labs. Not from a place of fear and not from a place of obsession, but from a place of interpretation. Because here's the truth. So why is that? Well, over the last six to seven episodes, we talked a lot about sugar, insulin, fasting, ketos, and metabolic flexibility. And if you're anything like me, at some point you've probably thought, okay, but what does my body actually say about all of this? And that is where curiosity eventually leads to blood work. And this is where a lot of people either feel very validated or completely dismissed, frustrated, and quite frankly hopeless. So today I want to help you understand which labs actually matter for metabolic health, why normal doesn't always mean optimal, how to read your blood work is information, not a verdict, and what to do with it all once you know what your numbers are. That being said, keep in mind that this episode is about context, not diagnosis,

Why Glucose Alone Misleads

Krista 1:52

as well as awareness, not anxiety. So let's start with the core labs everyone should understand. The first metric I want to talk about is fasting glucose. The normal guidelines say that your labs for fasting glucose should be about 70 to 99 milligrams per deciliter or rounded up to under 100. Optimally, your metabolic and functional experts typically want to see it somewhere between 70 and 85. But note that results on the higher end of normal can still mask insulin resistance. So just tuck that away for a minute. The second lab metric that you should know is your hemoglobin A1C. This measures the average amount of blood sugar or glucose levels for the past two to three months. The normal guidelines say that this should be less than 5.7, but optimally the experts typically want to see it between 4.8 and 5.2. Remember, A1C is an average, so it can hide spikes and crashes in your insulin. So it doesn't really tell the whole story.

A1C Limits And Hidden Spikes

Krista 2:55

The third metric is going to be your fasting insulin. And this one is a critical metric. Normal guidelines say that this can be up to about 25, but optimally our functional and metabolic specialists like to see it around two to six. This metric is an early warning system. And many people are typically told your glucose is normal and your A1C is fine, but insulin often tells a much deeper story. As I've discussed in all of my sugar and fasting episodes, elevated fasting insulin means that the body's working harder than it should, that fat is harder to access, hunger hormones are louder, and fasting and ketosis feels harder. This is why two people can eat the same foods and have completely different outcomes. The terrain really matters. You can have normal glucose, normal A1C, but then elevated insulin. And that means metabolic strain. Some additional labs that are also worth discussing include something called HOMA-IR. You may have heard mention of this metric. I actually had never heard of this one, and to date, I've never had this measured. But typically, it's rarely explained if you have heard it. And what it stands for is homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance. It sounds super complicated, but here's what it really is. It's a calculated score that tells us how hard your body has

Fasting Insulin As Early Signal

Krista 4:15

to work to keep blood sugar normal. It's calculated using just two numbers, your fasting glucose and your fasting insulin. So it doesn't require extra testing, just better interpretation. It matters more than glucose alone because you can have a normal fasting glucose and a normal A1C and then still be insulin resistant, like I talked about. HOMA IR helps us see that earlier than glucose alone. Generally speaking, a HOMA IR level under one is considered metabolically optimal. Between one and two suggest early insulin resistance, and above two indicates more significant insulin resistance. This matters in real life because a higher HOMA IR often explains why fasting feels harder, why fat loss feels blocked, and why hunger feels louder than it should. So I'll be getting this one measured at my next lab assessment with my functional physician. Okay, the other lab you want to take into consideration is triglycerides. Optimally, these should be less than 100, ideally less than 80. When we're looking at this number, first I want to explain triglycerides a little bit more. Triglycerides reflect how much excess energy is circulating in our blood. It often rises with high sugar intake, refined carbs, insulin resistance, and liver fat

HOMA‑IR For Deeper Insight

Krista 5:28

accumulation. And then there's HDL or our good cholesterol. And this reflects metabolic health and lipid transport efficiency. It often improves with insulin sensitivity, fat oxidation, and physical activity. On their own, triglycerides and HDL are useful, but together they tell a much deeper story because this ratio reflects insulin sensitivity, liver health, carbohydrate tolerance, and cardiovascular risk. This ratio also correlates strongly with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes risk, often earlier than what we can see in glucose or A1C tests. And most labs, unfortunately, don't flag this ratio at all, but metabolically, it's incredibly informative. General guidance typically used in functional and metabolic medicine is that the levels where they want to see them optimally is under 1.0. Acceptable levels are one to two, concerning levels are above two, and strongly associated with insulin resistance levels are going to be above three. Think of triglycerides as how much fuel is floating around unused in your body, and HDL as how efficiently your body can move and clear that fuel. A high triglyceride to HDL ratio means fuel is piling up faster than your body can handle it, which usually points back to insulin

Triglycerides, HDL, And The Ratio

Krista 6:46

resistance. When triglycerides are high and HDL is low, it's a strong signal that insulin isn't doing its job effectively, even if glucose and A1C still look normal in your lab work. My triglyceride to HDL ratio is 1.2, so it's not bad, but it's also not optimal. And much like our A1C and glucose story, you can have normal cholesterol numbers, but still have a high triglyceride to HDL ratio, which is why some people are told that everything looks fine while their metabolism is actually clearly struggling. Okay, another marker that you might want to look into is something called CRP or C reactive protein. This is a marker of inflammation in the body. It doesn't tell us where inflammation is coming from, but it tells us that inflammation is present. CRP matters for metabolic health because chronic low-grade inflammation makes insulin work worse. More specifically, inflammation interferes with insulin signaling, and elevated CRP is strongly associated with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. So CRP helps explain why glucose and insulin may be off even when diet seems good. And then there's HS CRP or high sensitivity CRP. And this is the one you want to look at when we're talking about metabolic health. This version detects low-grade chronic inflammation, not acute infection. Most labs consider CRP normal if it's under 3.0 milligrams per liter. But metabolically, many experts prefer to see HSCRP under one and ideally closer to 0.5. My

CRP And Quiet Inflammation

Krista 8:23

HSCRP in July was 1.5. And an elevated CRP doesn't mean something's wrong necessarily. It just means the body is under inflammatory stress. And things that can raise your CRP levels include chronic sugar intake, insulin resistance, poor sleep, high stress, excess visceral fat, overtraining, and unresolved gut issues. So there could be a lot of things that are causing that level to look a little higher for me, but it could also be part of this bigger metabolic story. So again, remember CRP is an inflammatory marker. It doesn't tell us the cause, it just kind of tells us the terrain. And that chronic low-grade inflammation makes insulin less effective, increases metabolic strain, and often travels alongside insulin resistance. So when we're assessing metabolic health, CRP helps us understand whether the body is fighting an inflammatory load in the background, even if glucose and A1C look

Uric Acid Beyond Gout

Krista 9:19

normal. Okay, the next metric I want to talk about is uric acid. Most people think of uric acid only in the context of gout, but metabolically, it's much more than that. Uric acid is a byproduct of purine metabolism. And just a quick little sidebar on that purines are natural building blocks found in your DNA and RNA, in your cells, and in many foods, especially animal proteins and some plants. Your body is constantly making purines and breaking purines down. That breakdown process is called purine metabolism. When purines are broken down, the end product is uric acid. So uric acid isn't something your body makes by accident. It's the normal end product of purine metabolism. And purine metabolism matters metabolically because insulin affects how the kidneys handle uric acid. When insulin is high, the kidneys hold on to uric acid instead of excreting it, so uric acid rises alongside insulin resistance. This is why elevated uric acid is often an early metabolic signal, not just a gout issue. Also, it's important to clarify that high uric acid is not usually caused by eating too much protein and metabolically unhealthy people. More often, it's driven by insulin resistance, fructose metabolism, and mitochondrial stress. So elevated uric acid is often less about protein intake and more about how the body is handling insulin and energy. It is also an indicator of increased cardiovascular risk. And when we look at optimal versus normal, lab ranges often consider anything up to 7.0 normal. But metabolically, many experts prefer to see uric acid closer to three to five milligrams per deciliter. And why this matters practically is because elevated uric acid can contribute to inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and impaired insulin signaling. Again, this isn't about fear, it's about pattern recognition. Okay, a couple of other metrics that we can look at are first of all, blood ketones.

Iron, Ferritin, And Metabolism

Krista 11:12

And these are something that can show fat oxidation. And it's important because higher ketones during fasting can mean insulin suppression. So it is something to take a look at, but they don't necessarily measure metabolic health. I just wanted to mention them here in case you hear people talking about them. But the next metric is gonna be iron. And according to experts like Dr. Libby, approximately 55% of all women are iron deficient. There's a lot to understand about iron in the body. So I promise this is a lab that we're gonna talk about in another episode. But for time's sake today, just know that iron is one of those labs that can swing metabolically in both directions. Too little iron creates metabolic stress, and too much iron increases insulin resistance. So when we look at normal lab ranges, often 15 to 232 nanograms per milliliter is where the guidelines say your iron should be. But this tells you almost nothing about optimal function. When we look at functional and metabolic medicine, the ranges that they typically advise are really based on the stage of life that we're in. So if you're a pre-menopausal woman, your optimal levels, according to those experts, are gonna be around 50 to 100. Some feel that it's best if it's closer to 75 to 125. And if it's below about 40, then that's definitely signs of iron deficiency. And when we look at perimenopausal and menopausal women, optimal ranges are typically gonna be between 50 and 80, according to the experts. And that they also say that iron needs to change as menstruation slows. And then when we look at men and postmenopausal women, the experts say the optimal ranges are between 30 to 80. If they're above 100 to 150, this can worsen insulin resistance if inflammation is

Krista’s July Lab Results

Krista 12:59

present. So I typically get my blood work done a few times a year, sometimes more, depending on what we're looking at. So I wanted to share my most recent labs with you for these particular indicators. And the last time I had all of these tested, or almost all of them, was in July of 2025. I did this while fasting, and here's what my values were. So my glucose was 97. And remember, the guidelines say that 100 or lower is good, but ideally the experts want to see it around 85. So, according to the guidelines, my glucose is normal, but it's definitely on the high end of normal and suggests that glucose control requires effort for me. When we look at my A1C, that level was at 5.5%. The guidelines say that they want it to be less than 5.7, which mine is, but the experts like to see it ideally around 4.8 to 5.2. So mine's still normal according to the guidelines, but it's definitely on the higher end of optimal. And it's indicating that I have a higher average glucose than ideal. Then when we look at fasting insulin, this is where I was a little bit shocked and kind of not shocked at the same time because I keep telling you that there's something going on with me metabolically. And I think this is definitely the answer to the story. So for me, when I did my lab work in July, that level was at 9.3. The guidelines say that it can be up to 25. And ideally, though, the experts want to see it around four to six. So according to normal guidelines, I'm within those ranges, but I'm actually above optimal according to the experts. So this is definitely indicating insulin resistance, even though my glucose was normal. Then when we look at my triglyceride to HDL ratio, I mentioned earlier that it was 1.21. Optimally, we'd like to see it less than one. So there's some indicators going on there too. And then when we look at my high sensitivity CRP, mine was at 1.5 milligrams per liter. It's normal according to the guidelines, but elevated according to most experts. And then lastly, when we look at ferritin or iron, mine was at 37. Um, I didn't go into the lab ranges for iron, but this is um on the low end of normal. So possibly suboptimal for energy and metabolic resilience for me.

Reading Patterns Over Labels

Krista 15:18

So the moral of this entire story is that pattern is the key insight. And when I look at labs like glucose, insulin, ferritin, uric acid, and CRP together, and eventually I'll add in that home IR metric, I'm not looking for a diagnosis. I'm looking for patterns because patterns tell us how hard the body's working to maintain balance. Insulin resistance shows up long before glucose goes out of range. And what I see in my blood work is that while my labs look normal on paper, they're actually suboptimal in context. My body is keeping glucose in range, but needing more insulin to do it while also potentially operating with low iron reserves. And that explains why when I did my multi-day fast, it felt harder on that third and fourth day, and why I am generally starving by the end of my 18-hour intermittent fast. It also explains why ketosis wasn't and typically isn't instant for me, why metabolic switching takes effort, and why stress management matters so much for me. And this shows that I'm probably showing signs of early insulin resistance and that I have a body working harder than it should, with lower levels of iron adding metabolic stress. So as we wrap up today's episode, I want to share that when I look at my patterns in my labs, what I see isn't disease. I see a body working harder than it should to stay in optimal range. And I see a much deeper and telling story than what standard lab guidelines suggest these levels should be at. It's frustrating, I know, but what I want to leave you with is this. Your labs are not a label, they're a snapshot. And a snapshot only makes sense when you understand the story behind it. Numbers don't tell you who you are, they tell you how your body is responding to signals. Sugar is a signal, fasting is a signal, stress is a signal, sleep is

Next Steps And Getting Support

Krista 17:03

a signal. When you change the signals, the numbers change too. And the way you feel also changes. I'm getting blood work done again in a few weeks, so I'm really excited to see where my levels are now that I've been paying more attention to my own personal insulin glucose metabolic story. And now that I've been incorporating that weekly 24-hour fast and extending my intermittent fast days to 18 hours. So it'll be interesting to see how everything looks now. So if your labs are normal but you still don't feel well, trust that curiosity. I really recommend that you try to find a naturopath or a functional physician who's willing to look into the deepest details of your story and help you figure out what is going on. That's what I did. And while it's been a journey, the destination will be so worth it. I'm very confident of that. So if your labs show room for improvement, just know that it's not a death sentence. It's an opportunity. Metabolic health is all about learning how to work with your body instead of against it. And that's exactly what we do on the show and everything we do at Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Here, we're all about helping you feel your best. So if you have more questions or you don't understand something I've talked about, message me into the show and I'll do my best to get you the answers you're looking for. And the next time you have blood work, please let me know what you've learned about yourself. That said, remember that everything shared on Serenity and Fire is meant for general information and inspiration purposes only. The topics we discuss are not intended to diagnose, treat, or replace personalized medical care. So please always consult with your healthcare provider before trying anything we talk about on the show. Your health is unique and your care should be too. Okay, so that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to Serenity and Fire. And

Closing Notes And Offer

Krista 18:42

if today's episode inspired you, the best way to support the show is to follow, leave a review, and share these episodes with those you love most. And don't forget to follow us on social too at Serenity and Fire. Until next time, keep balancing Serenity with Fire. I'm Krista Gwejeni, and I'll talk with you more in our next episode. At Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique, we don't just offer traditional spa treatments. We create rituals that relax your mind, restore your health, and rejuvenate your spirit. From biohacking technologies to advanced oncology trained care, everything we do is designed to help you heal on the deepest level with clean, holistic therapies, products, and amenities that are second to none. And right now you can experience two of my favorites our whole body LED lightbed or hyperbaric oxygen therapies. And as a thank you for listening, you'll get 10% off your first session when you use the code Serenity10 at booking. What is your panacea? Let us help you find it because true wellness isn't a quick fix, it's a ritual.