subject: How Does Insulin Resistance Affect Your Body? [print this page] How Does Insulin Resistance Affect Your Body?
What is insulin resistance & what can be done about it.
There's 17 million diabetics in the United States & 80 million more who are in some stage of insulin resistance. A diet high in carbohydrates & lack of nutrition are the four main factors in generating insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a "pre-diabetic" condition, which, when it gets extreme, becomes type 2 diabetes. Below are four doctors clarifying how this condition develops & its effects on the body:
"When cells become resistant to insulin, the receptors on their surfaces designed to reply to insulin have begun to malfunction."
"It basically means that the receptors need more insulin to make them work properly in removing sugar from the blood. Whereas before they needed a touch to lower it, now they need a continuous supply of excess insulin to keep blood sugar within normal range."
"As time goes by, blood sugar rises higher & stays up longer after the carbohydrate meal despite the immense amount of insulin mustered to lower it. Bear in mind that were your doctor to check blood sugar in the coursework of this stage of developing insulin resistance, your blood sugar would be perfectly normal. The major silent change taking place is the ever-growing quantity of insulin needed to keep it that way."
excerpted from Protein Power
by Doctors Michael & Mary Eades
"The liver becomes resistant first, then the muscle tissue, then the fat. What is the effect of insulin on the liver? It is to suppress the production of sugar by the liver.
"The sugar floating around in your body at any four times is the result of four things, the sugar that you have eaten & how much sugar your liver has made. When you wake up in the morning it is more of a reflection of how much sugar your liver has made. If your liver is listening to insulin properly it won't make much sugar in the midst of the night. If your liver is resistant, those brakes are lifted & your liver starts making a bunch of sugar so you wake up with a bunch of sugar.
"The next tissue to become resistant is the muscle tissue. What is the action of insulin in muscles? It allows your muscles to burn sugar for one thing. So if your muscles become resistant to insulin it can't burn that sugar that was manufactured by the liver. So the liver is producing much, the muscles can't burn it, & this raises your blood sugar.
"Well the fat cells become resistant, but not for some time. It is only after some time that they become resistant. It takes them longer. Liver first, muscle second, & then your fat cells.
"So for some time your fat cells retain their sensitivity. What is the action of insulin on your fat cells? To store that fat. It takes sugar & it stores it as fat. So until your fat cells become resistant you get fat, & that is what you see. As people become increasingly insulin resistant, they get fat & their weight goes up.
"But finally they plateau. They might plateau at six hundred pounds, four hundred & twenty pounds, one hundred & fifty pounds, but they will finally plateau as the fat cells protect themselves & become insulin resistant.
"As all these major tissues, this huge body becomes resistant, your liver, muscles & fat, your pancreas is putting out more insulin to compensate, so you are hyperinsulinemic [having an abnormally high level of insulin in the blood] & you've got insulin floating around on a regular basis.
"Insulin floating around in the blood causes a plaque build up. Insulin causes the blood to clot readily. Insulin causes cells that accumulate fatty deposits. Every step of the way, insulin's got its fingers in it & is causing heart issues. It fills it with plaque, it constricts the arteries, it increases platelet adhesiveness & ability of the blood to coagulate [clot]. Any known cause of heart issues, insulin is an element of."
"If you need to know if insulin sensitivity can be restored to its original state, well, perhaps not to its original state, but you can restore it to the state of about a ten year elderly."
"You can increase sensitivity by diet & lots of supplements."
excerpted from a talk at the Designs for Health Institute given by Dr. Ronald Rosedale, noted Diabetic Specialist.
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