Impact of insulin: are you resistant or sensitive?
Click on the TV and you’ll hear some commercials tout that if you use their product you’ll curb insulin resistance. But what does that mean? What is insulin resistance? How does it affect our bodies? What are some tools and tips you can use to keep insulin resistance at bay?
Figuring out how our bodies work is really half the battle. And while scientists haven’t figured everything out in our bodies and how everything functions, it’s still important to know as much as we can so we can make informed decisions about our health and lifestyle choices. So, today, we’re going to talk about insulin, insulin resistance, and insulin sensitivity.
what is insulin
Insulin is a hormone that is produced by your pancreas, which is located tucked away beneath your stomach in your abdomen. The 6- to 10-inch long organ has duel tasks: exocrine that helps with digestion, and the endocrine that regulates blood sugar. We’ll be discussing the endocrine function in today’s blog. Within this function, the pancreas secretes two important hormones insulin and glucagon. Insulin brings down blood sugar, while glucagon raises your blood sugar. Why is blood sugar important? Blood sugar regulation is critical for proper organ function, especially in the cases of the liver, brain, and your kidneys.
resistance vs. sensitivity
Insulin resistance is a complex process, so I’ll try to simplify it a bit here. Each of our cells needs energy. Energy for our bodies typically comes in the form of glucose. Our cells want to accept the glucose into them so they can produce the necessary energy for us to function. Insulin is the hormone that helps to get the glucose into the cell. However, in the case of insulin resistance, the cells do not accept the glucose and the glucose stays in the blood stream.
It’s kind of like a traffic jam. The cells halt glucose from getting inside them, which means your glucose in your blood stream rises. When your pancreas senses the high levels, it dispatches its “police” to clear out the traffic jam: bring down the glucose levels in your blood and get it into your cells. But if your cells don’t want the glucose, the insulin can’t break through the jam, and your blood sugar remains high. As you can imagine, your pancreas doesn’t like that because it’s working to bring down your levels, so it excretes more and more insulin to bring it down. If your pancreas does this on a regular basis, it will become overworked and not be able to produce the vital insulin to bring down those levels. Once the pancreas does that, well then there is chaos in your blood stream of too much glucose.
So, what is insulin sensitivity? In short, insulin sensitivity means that your cells are sensitive to insulin and allow the glucose inside them to provide the proper energy production for you to function. With insulin sensitivity traffic moves at a calm pace and there aren’t any problems or issues.
what causes insulin resistance
Scientists aren’t exactly sure what is the main cause of insulin resistance. There can be several factors though that lead to insulin resistance such as:
Obesity (for men a waistline > 40 inches; for women a waistline > 35 inches)
Physical Inactivity
Diet
Hormone disorders
History of heart disease or stroke
Smoking
Sleeping Disorders
Genetic Condition
Being over 45 or older
Medication.
how do you test for insulin resistance
Doctors can perform a few different tests to determine insulin resistance. Below are a few that you can ask your doctor to perform if you think you may be on the road to insulin resistance:
Hgba1c: Commonly known as A1C, this tests the volume of glycosylation in your red blood cells for the past 3 months. A level of 5.7 or below is a normal range; 5.7 to 6.4 is prediabetes, and anything above 6.5 is diabetes.
Fasting Insulin: This tests your blood after you do an overnight fast to indicate where your insulin levels are. The higher your insulin level the more insulin resistant you are. “Normal fasting insulin reference ranges are quite broad, 2.6-24.9 mcIU/ml, but research has correlated fasting insulin levels over 7 as being associated with a significant increase in future risk of metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.”
Homa-IR Score: The Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance Score is based on your fasting plasma glucose and fasting plasma insulin. A score of <1 typically shows insulin sensitivity.
Oral Glucose Tolerance: “The test consists of a fasting glucose blood test followed by consumption of a 75mg glucose drink and then subsequent blood draws for glucose levels at 30, 60, and 120 minutes.” If your level is higher than 140 after the text, it is considered insulin resistant.
tips on what you can do to keep insulin resistance at bay
Okay, so you have all of the things that can possibly lead you down the road to insulin resistance. What are some practical things that you can do to keep your body insulin sensitive? Below are a few tips on what you can do to help your pancreas and body working like a champ:
Eat a Healthy Diet
Suggested diets include: Ketogenic, Paleo, Time-restricted Eating, AIP or Autoimmune Protocol Diet
If you’re overweight or obese, lose about 5-7% of your body fat. Scientists determine losing that amount of body fat (roughly around 10-15 pounds) can help you on your way to insulin sensitivity.
Physical Activity and Exercise
Don’t Smoke or Quit Smoking
Lower or eliminate refined sugar intake
Ditch the processed foods
Eat Healthy Fats and avoid seed oils
Get Restful Sleep 7-8 hours a night
Manage Stress