David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

This Number Could Predict Your Future Health

18 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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1:19

In this brief presentation, Dr. David Perlmutter introduces the triglyceride-to-glucose (TG/Glc) ratio as a quick, yet powerful, indicator of metabolic health. He explains that the ratio reflects systemic inflammation, insulin function, and risk for conditions such as fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s. The calculation is straightforward: multiply fasting triglyceride level by fasting glucose, divide by two, then take the natural logarithm of the result. Perlmutter advises that a logged value below 8 is desirable; values above this threshold are associated with increased insulin resistance and related health risks. He emphasizes the metric’s utility for monitoring how well the body utilizes insulin and urges viewers to track it regularly.

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Do you know your triglyceride-to-glucose ratio? You should. This is a very simple but powerful metric. It gives you great information in terms of your body's inflammation, your level of insulin functionality, your risk for fatty liver disease, cardiovascular risk, even neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's, all predicted by this simple metric. First, how do you get the number? And it's pretty simple. You take your triglycerides, You multiply it by your fasting glucose, you divide by 2, and then you have to take that number and look up the natural log of that number. It's gonna be a large number, whatever it is, 8,000 divided by 2, and then look up on ChatGPT or wherever you want, ask for the natural log of that number. And where do you want that number to be? You want that number to be less than 8. Anything higher really does start to correlate with risk of insulin resistance. And as you know, we've been speaking about this for years, This is a very fundamental mechanism that makes a good body go bad. It's bad for your heart, it's bad for your brain, so we want to do everything we can to follow how well our bodies are utilizing insulin, and this turns out to be a very important metric. Again, it's called the triglyceride to glucose ratio. You can calculate it based on the formula that I just gave you.