What You Need to Know About Insulin Resistance —

Insulin resistance is a condition in which your cells are not able to respond to the hormone insulin, which is necessary to help glucose (sugar) move from the blood into cells. Blood sugar is a critical factor in the regulation of many body functions, including the one that allows us to maintain a healthy weight. For those of us who are insulin resistant, the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin and the only way to gain access to the cells is by making even more insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that helps your body use sugars for energy. In the body, insulin is activated by nutrients that are broken down into sugar, such as carbohydrates. When insulin is activated, it makes new cells grow and helps your body process the sugar from carbohydrates. When insulin levels go up, you will gain weight. This is what happens in diabetes. But that doesn’t mean you have to be insulin resistant.

Insulin resistance is the body’s inability to properly use insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar, fat storage, and muscle growth. It means that your body either doesn’t properly use or doesn’t respond to insulin. The symptoms of insulin resistance can vary depending on the person, but can include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol.

Updated 17. June 2021, based on a medical opinion from

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Insulin is a vital hormone without which humans would perish. But what if our tissues aren’t responsive? Insulin resistance is the term for this condition.

Insulin resistance is a prevalent disorder that is often linked to obesity, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic illnesses including hypertension and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Do you know whether you’re insulin resistant? You’re not the only one who feels this way.

The prevalence of insulin resistance syndrome (also known as metabolic syndrome) in the United States is 35 percent, according to NHANES data from 2011 to 2016. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome has risen statistically substantially among young people, Hispanics, and Asians since the publication of NHANES data in 2003-2006, despite overall rates being relatively constant.

The statistics are much worse when it comes to obese individuals. Insulin resistance affects 44 percent of obese teenagers and 70% of obese women. Insulin resistance is prevalent in more than 80% of people with type 2 diabetes.

Many individuals who have this illness are completely unaware of it.

Is this the case? Insulin resistance has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, mental illnesses, and other chronic diseases.

So, what causes insulin resistance? How can you tell if you’re infected? And what are you going to do about it?

This thorough book discusses the science underlying insulin resistance, explains why it develops, and recommends the best method to detect insulin resistance before it leads to severe diseases like type 2 diabetes.

We provide specific methods in the second book, How to Reverse Insulin Resistance, to make your body insulin sensitive again and avoid the development of metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes, in the future.

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What is insulin resistance and how does it affect you?

Insulin resistance develops when the body’s cells fail to react to the hormone insulin as it circulates through the body. To maintain blood sugar levels constant, the pancreas releases even more of this essential hormone.

Insulin serves a variety of purposes. Its primary job is to maintain blood glucose homeostasis, or keeping blood glucose levels within a limited range. Because blood sugar levels that are too high or too low are hazardous and damaging to the body. More insulin is released when the blood glucose level increases. Insulin production reduces when glucose levels fall. Because high insulin levels are linked to a variety of chronic illnesses, maintaining insulin levels within a physiological range is preferable for long-term health.

Insulin also directs cells to utilize glucose as a source of energy or to store it as glycogen in muscle and liver cells. Low insulin levels signal to the liver when it’s time to make more glucose (gluconeogenesis), whereas high insulin levels signal to the liver when it’s time to stop.

Insulin also plays an important function in fat deposition control. Insulin encourages fat cells to take up glucose and convert it to fat when levels are high (lipogenesis). When insulin levels are low, the body may pull fat from storage and utilize it as a source of energy.

This process works smoothly in a healthy individual and supplies the body with a steady supply of fuel. When we are metabolically unwell, which according to some experts is the situation for 88 percent of Americans, the issue emerges.

Hyperinsulinemia, a disease that often coexists with insulin resistance, is another essential factor to consider. Hyperinsulinemia occurs when our bodies are continuously exposed to glucose and insulin is constantly produced and stays chronically elevated.

Hyperinsulinemia is likely both a cause and a result of insulin resistance, as we’ll explore in the following section.

Why is insulin resistance so common?

Insulin resistance has been linked to a combination of genetic, environmental, and behavioral risk factors.

Although some individuals are genetically predisposed to insulin resistance, changes in our diets over the last several decades may have had the greatest effect. The growing availability of low-cost, high-energy foods and beverages may have prompted whole communities to embrace an unhealthy lifestyle characterized by excessive sugar and other refined carbohydrate intake. Because these simple carbs are converted to huge quantities of glucose that we don’t need for energy, the majority of this glucose is deposited in cells or stored as fat.

Many processes and pathways that contribute to the development of insulin resistance have been identified by scientists. Surprisingly, when we think about insulin resistance, we usually think of the impact of insulin on glucose metabolism, although altered fatty acid metabolism is one of the major reasons.

Fatty acids build abnormally in the muscles and liver, impairing cells’ capacity to react to insulin and absorb glucose, according to scientific data. So, one of the major issues is how extra fatty acids get into muscle and liver cells.

One of the processes is excessive sugar consumption, particularly fructose consumption, as well as an excessive calorie intake. It is thought to induce excessive fat synthesis in the liver through a variety of mechanisms that are outside the scope of this article, leading to increased insulin resistance.

If there is a calorie surplus, the same is likely to be true with a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. According to several research, saturated fats, rather than PUFAs and PUFAs, are the cause of IR.

It’s worth noting, however, that none of these studies looked at saturated fats as part of a low-carbohydrate diet. In field trials, low-carbohydrate diets with no restrictions on saturated fat consumption improved or even normalized insulin resistance indicators. This indicates that the issue isn’t so much saturated fat as it is a mix of saturated fat and a high carbohydrate diet.

Also, as we learned in our scientific guide to saturated fat, calling saturated fat “anything” is incorrect. Saturated fats present in cakes, cookies, and other baked goods may have a completely different impact on the body than saturated fats found naturally in meat and dairy products.

Finally, it’s critical to recognize that elevated insulin levels may aggravate insulin resistance. This sets in motion a vicious cycle of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, which may be worsened by calorie excess and weight gain.

Insulin resistance symptoms

Insulin resistance is an illness with no obvious signs.

Increased belly fat is one of the first symptoms of diabetes in many individuals, even before they are diagnosed with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, but not everyone is aware of it.

The prevailing theory about the exacerbation of insulin resistance is that we all have a maximum amount of fat that can be stored in our fat cells, and once this limit is reached, our bodies begin to deposit fat in less desirable locations, such as around the liver and pancreas in the abdomen, and in the abdominal cavity. This is known as visceral fat, and it is a clear indication of insulin resistance when it starts to grow.

Dark, dry patches on the skin of the groin, armpits, or neck, known as acanthosis nigricans, are another inconspicuous indication of insulin resistance in certain individuals. Skin acorns, which are tiny, fleshy growths often seen in the neck or beneath the armpits, are believed to be an indication of insulin resistance in certain individuals since insulin stimulates cell growth.

Apart from these signs and symptoms, most individuals who are developing insulin resistance seem to be normal. Other symptoms of high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes, such as B, do not emerge until blood sugar levels increase. Urination on a regular basis, increased thirst, tiredness, and an insatiable appetite.

There are more than a few treatments for Type 2 diabetes, but one of the most effective is diet. This kind of plan places priority on choosing foods with a low glycemic index (GI), which is a measure of how quickly a food breaks down into blood sugar. Studies have shown that people who follow a low GI diet have lower blood sugar levels and lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke than those who follow a high GI diet.. Read more about insulin resistance diet and let us know what you think.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main cause of insulin resistance?

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body does not respond to insulin, which is a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels. The main cause of insulin resistance is obesity.

What happens when you are insulin resistant?

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body does not respond to insulin, or it responds but cannot use the insulin effectively. This can lead to high blood sugar levels and diabetes.

How do you reverse insulin resistance?

The most common way to reverse insulin resistance is through weight loss.