TRIGLYERIDE-GLUCOSE INDEX by Jeff Cyr

Blog image created with Canva

 

TRIGLYERIDE-GLUCOSE INDEX

Most of you are aware of the triglyceride to HDL ratio as a great marker as to ones metabolic health. The triglyceride to glucose index is also a very powerful tool, a very powerful indicator as to ones level of insulin resistance. It's also a very powerful tool in the diagnoses of non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease (NAFLD). An ultrasound is usually the first test used to diagnose NAFLD, it has its limitations though. The abnormal accumulation of fat (Steatosis) in the liver cells will have to be present in approximately 30% of the liver cells for the ultrasound to detect a fatty liver. Also in the very obese, it has a problem in reading the fat in the liver cells. The triglyceride-glucose index has the ability to detect a fatty liver with just two numbers, fasting triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose. It's also a very good indicator of insulin resistance.

✅"Because the insulin test is expensive and is not available in most laboratories in the cities of undeveloped countries, we tested whether the product of fasting triglycerides and glucose levels (TyG) is a surrogate for estimating insulin resistance compared with the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index. The TyG index could be useful as surrogate to identify insulin resistance in apparently healthy subjects."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19067533/ .

✅ "In the present study, we observed a strong and positive association between Triglyceride-glucose index(TyG) and risk of NAFLD, after adjustment for potential confounders. We also demonstrated that TyG could detect NAFLD accurately with a AUC of 0.782 (0.773–0.790) and the optimal cut-off point of TyG for diagnosing NAFLD was 8.5, with a sensitivity of 72.2% and specificity of 70.5% in Chinese. The TyG index was much superior to ALT for identifying NAFLD in the population. Furthermore, adding TyG to ALT had an even better performance to detect subjects at risk for NAFLD. Thus, TyG could be an effective noninvasive method for the identification of NAFLD."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5248473/ .

✅ "Our data suggested that TyG performed better than ALT to discriminate NAFLD as indicated by the present study that the TyG had a stronger association with risk of NAFLD and a larger AUC for diagnosing NAFLD, as compared with ALT. This observation is not surprising since the TyG index, derived from TG and FPG, takes into consideration the two crucial metabolic variables altered in fatty liver, and highly correlates with insulin resistance [6], the key pathogenesis of NAFLD. Recently, there is growing interest in the TyG index. Several studies have reported that the TyG index was associated with the development of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5248473/ .

✅ "The triglyceride and glucose index (TyG), defined as the product of triglycerides (TG) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG), is reported as a surrogate index for insulin resistance. Although a cross-sectional study revealed the association between the TyG-index and the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), few studies have investigated the association between the TyG-index and incident NAFLD. Here we investigated whether the TyG-index can be used to predict incident NAFLD. Our findings demonstrate that the TyG-index is significantly associated with incident NAFLD."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6800935/ .

✅ "The triglyceride and glucose index (TyG) has been proposed as a marker of insulin resistance. We aimed to investigate the ability of TyG, through comparing with the predictive value of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), to identify individuals at risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). TyG is effective to identify individuals at risk for NAFLD. A TyG threshold of 8.5 was highly sensitive for detecting NAFLD subjects and may be suitable as a diagnostic criterion for NAFLD."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28103934/ .

✅ "The prevalence of NAFLD was significantly increased along with the increasing levels of TyG. The prevalence in individuals of the highest TyG quartile was 72.8%, which showed a 6.3-fold increase as compared with that of the ones in the lowest quartile (Fig. 1a). We also observed a significant trend of increasing odds ratio for NAFLD with increasing levels of TyG in Table 2."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5248473/
There are many other papers on this topic. I will list one here on the Triglyceride glucose index for predicting cardiovascular outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease.

✅ "Triglyceride glucose (TyG) index is a novel marker, which has been demonstrated to have a high sensitivity and specificity in identifying metabolic syndrome (14). Previous studies have shown that TyG index is associated with carotid atherosclerosis, coronary artery calcification and high risk of CVD. Unfortunately, no data is currently available with regard to the effects of TyG index on clinical outcomes in patients with stable CAD (15-17). Therefore, the primary objective of the study was to investigate the prognostic role of TyG index in a large Chinese cohort with stable CAD."
https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/25083/html .
Here is a link to the calculator for the triglyceride-glucose index.
✅https://www.mdapp.co/tyg-index-calculator-359/
Here is a link to Dr. Naiman website to the calculator of the triglyceride-glucose index
✅https://www.burnfatnotsugar.com/TyGIndexCalculator.html .

In closing I would like to say that Doctors have very powerful information from your lipid panel and your metabolic comprehensive panel. Some doctors focus on your LDL number, some look at the fasting triglycerides, fasting triglyceride to HDL ratio, the importance of this ratio as to ones metabolic health. We also have very powerful information from the triglyceride-glucose index as to ones metabolic health.

T2 diabetes and fatty liver have become the scourge of the earth, worldwide pandemics. Your primary care doctor has the information with your numbers from your lipid panel(liver enzymes too) to find out if you are in danger of developing T2 diabetes and NAFLD.

Written by Jeff Cyr
Published: October 8th, 2022

Recommended books